Employee silence, managerial attributions of employee silence, and the moderating role of leader-member exchange: integrating stages of institutionalised socialisation

In this article, we develop a theoretical model describing employee silence in the stages institutionalised socialisation and the moderating role of leader-member exchange (LMX). By integrating relevant literature, we propose that an employee exhibits high, low, and high levels of silence behaviour during the entry, socialisation, and change and acquisition stage of institutionalised socialisation, respectively. Moreover, we contend that managers make external attributions to employees' silence behaviour exhibited in the entry stage of institutionalised socialisation, make internal attributions to employees' silence behaviour exhibited in the socialisation stage of institutionalised socialisation, and make external attributions to employees' silence behaviour exhibited in the change and acquisition stage of institutionalised socialisation. Furthermore, we suggest that managers' attributions of employees' silence behaviour exhibited in each of these stages of institutionalised socialisation are moderated by the quality of LMX. We conclude this article by highlighting theoretical contributions and managerial implications.