Survey on the Relationship between Organizational Silence and Management Styles from the Viewpoint of Employees of TUMS General Hospitals 2016

Background: Management style is one of the factors that could cause staff unwillingness for sharing information and ideas that ultimately leads to dominance silence culture in organizations. This study aimed at determining the relationship between management style and organizational silence in hospitals affiliated by Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This study was an analytical, descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in 2016. The study population included all employees of General Hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences with 4251 employees that 354 among this population were selected as samples with stratified random sampling method. Organizational silence questionnaire by Vakola and Bouradas was used for data collection. The reliability of the questionnaire was α = 0.83 assessed by Cronbach’s alpha method. Data were analyzed using a t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient and also post-test experience if necessary. SPSS19 software was used for analyzing the data. Results: The results showed that there was a positive and meaningful relationship between exploitative-authoritative and benevolent-authoritative styles and organizational silence (P<0.001). Furthermore, organizational silence in Baharloo and Shariati hospital compared to other hospitals were more common. Conclusion: Given that the type of management style on organizational silence is very important, managers should support free and open communication to reduce organizational silence.