Culture of Fear vs. Speak-up Culture: Why employees remain quiet
What are the characteristics of a speak-up culture? It’s a tough question, but looking at the opposite — a culture of fear — yields some insights. The most obvious difference is how interpersonal conflicts, misconduct and problems are handled internally.
Last year, the forsa institute published an eye-opening study in which employees from the public service sector reported their experiences with discrimination and bias in the workplace. The results draw attention to how companies deal with conflict or misconduct in their organization. In the worst cases, a lack of positive and encouraging measures (like the right communication) can create a damaging culture of fear.
Let us look at the example of sexual harassment in the workplace: Over 40 percent of participants in the study believe that sexual harassment and sexist behavior are widespread in the professional environment. One out of three has experienced sexism at work at least once — and yet, three out of four cases go unreported.
When employees remain silent about problems, conflicts or misconduct because they are afraid of their employer’s reaction, we speak of a culture of fear.
Why are so many cases kept secret? One-third of respondents state that the main reasons are insecurity and fear of negative consequences. This is not surprising, considering most affected persons or bystanders either confront the perpetrator directly or turn to a supervisor for support. The latter is seldom educated or qualified in the matter, and is often unable to deal with a report without bias. This shows in the numbers: Two out of three employees who speak up about sexual harassment or sexist behavior experience some form of rejection, trivialization or suffer partial blame for what happened.
So employees bear the extreme burden of distressing situations like sexual abuse, but shame, fear and insecurity keep them from speaking up about the issue to someone in the company. This, of course, strongly limits their access to help, and makes it impossible to solve the problem.
In contrast, in a speak-up culture, employees raise concerns and act free of fear. According to Google, this psychological safety is the most important factor for a successful team: employees aren’t afraid of negative reactions, so they express unusual ideas more often and cooperate with better results. Conflict is visible early-on, and employees seek help more quickly after a distressing experience.
When an organization encourages, values and protects employees who voice concerns and report misconduct, we speak of a speak-up culture.
If we look at the characteristics of a speak-up culture (employees often and openly take risks, admit mistakes, ask questions and address problems), we see that companies and their employees don’t just profit in the extreme case of “reporting misconduct”. All aspects of this culture have a positive effect on innovation and team productivity. In this way, companies can use their newly-created transparency of a speak-up culture to promote a cultural shift.
Creating a speak-up culture is never easy. Read more about the three steps of the APE model to find out what your employees really think here.
