THE IMPACT OF DEFENSIVE SILENCE ON COLLABORATION AND CREATIVITY OF WORK TEAMS

This study examined the extent to which defensive silence affects the collaboration and creativity of employees within the banking sector. For the study, self determination theory was adopted as the theoretical framework. The study focused on staff with full employment in deposit money banks in the South-South states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, and Rivers. Focus would be on Rivers, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom. The choice of these three cities and states was informed by proximity to the researcher. Preliminary investigation shows that a total of one thousand, four hundred and forty-one (1441) management and subordinate staff are in the eighteen (18) selected deposit money banks. The determination of the sample size was done using the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table and the result was 302. Multiple regression was used to test the null hypotheses. Our findings revealed a significant relationship between defensive silence and both collaboration and creativity. The study further recommended that organizations need to ensure that both managers and employees have the necessary support to be creative and understand how to use it in their particular job situation.