ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to shed light on why employees do or do not speak up when their organization faces a negative issue or crisis. This study focuses on a recent case of racial discrimination brought against Facebook, filed by the organization's current employees, by applying the public segmentation approach synthesizing the concepts of employee resilience and situational perceptions in the situation theory of problem solving. A national survey of 871 full-time employees was conducted. The findings revealed that a high resilient active public (HRAP) was more likely than other segmented groups—high resilient inactive public (HRIP), low resilient active public (LRAP), and low resilient inactive public (LRIP)—to engage in employee voice (speaking-up) behaviors. However, HRAP and LRAP were likely to remain silent (withhold communication) as a response to their organization's alleged racial discrimination. This study suggests internal communication managers should consider situational perceptions and resilience to strategically manage employee voice and silence regarding their leadership's decision-making processes in a crisis.
