Supervisor-Subordinate Communication Hierarchical Mum Effect Meets Organizational Learning

• Published in: The Journal of business communication (1973) Vol. 49; no. 2; pp. 128 - 147
• Main Authors: Bisel, Ryan S., Messersmith, Amber S., Kelley, Katherine M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.04.2012; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Business communications; Communication; Employee management relations; Organizational learning; Studies; Supervisors; organizational communication; supervisor-subordinate communication; facework; organizational learning; organizational development
• ISSN: 0021-9436; 2329-4884; 1552-4582; 2329-4892
• DOI: 10.1177/0021943612436972

The authors provide nine propositions regarding the function and effects of supervisor-subordinate communication to encourage business communication researchers to go beyond a unidimensional view of this workplace relationship. Taken together, these propositions represent an argument that connects and clarifies the associations between micro-level supervisor-subordinate communication behaviors and macro-level organizational learning. We explain how command structures produce relational contexts that create consequences for communication behaviors between subordinates and their supervisors. Specifically, we explain how subordinates’ reluctance to disagree with supervisors results in silence or equivocation—what the authors label the hierarchical mum effect. In turn, we describe how this organizational suppression of dissent produces a barrier to organizational learning and adaptation.