Cost of Silence: Exploring the Impact of Organisational Silence on Employee Engagement

In most organisations, silence speaks louder than words. When employees choose to withhold ideas, feedback, or concerns, organisational silence can quietly undermine the foundations of employee engagement, eroding trust, collaboration, and performance. Although this relationship has been studied internationally, its dynamics within the Malaysian private information technology (IT) sector remain underexplored, where the nature of work may intensify silence. This study aims to investigate the impact of three types of organisational silence—acquiescent, defensive, and prosocial—on employee engagement. Established frameworks on silence and employee engagement will guide the study. A quantitative approach will be employed, using a structured online questionnaire distributed to purposively selected IT private sector employees within Klang Valley. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analyses will be utilised to identify patterns, relationships, and the type of silence that contributes most to employee engagement. The study is expected to provide both theoretical and practical contributions by offering culturally relevant insights for Malaysian organisations. Findings are anticipated to guide leaders and human resource professionals in mitigating the adverse effects of silence.