How Moral Identity Inhibits Employee Silence Behavior: The Roles of Felt Obligation and Corporate Social Responsibility Perception

Aimin Yan, Hao Guo, Zhiqing E. Zhou, Julan Xie, Hao Ma

Journal of Business Ethics · 2023 · Volume 187 · Issue 2

Abstract

As a common organizational phenomenon, employee silence behavior has various negative implications for organizations, making it critical to understand what factors can reduce employee silence. Drawing upon self-verification theory, this study explores the inhibiting effect of moral identity on silence via felt obligation towards organization. Meanwhile, we also examine the moderating effect of corporate social responsibility perception. We collected three waves of data with a two-month interval from 402 Chinese employees. Results indicated that moral identity positively predicted felt obligation towards organization, which in turn negatively predicted silence behavior. The negative indirect effect of moral identity on silence behavior via felt obligation towards organization was moderated by corporate social responsibility perception. Specifically, this indirect effect was stronger when employees perceived a higher level of corporate social responsibility. By integrating self-verification theory with silence behavior research, our findings provide important insights into the prevention of employee silence behavior in organizations.

Keywords

Moral identity, Silence behavior, Felt obligation towards organization, Corporate social responsibility perception, Self-verification theory

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