Breaking The Silence: How Group Cohesion And Proactive Personality Shape Voice Withholding Behavior

For years, research on employee silence has painted a familiar picture: dysfunctional relationships stifle voices, preventing employees from speaking up (Greenberg & Edwards, 2009; Morrison, 2014). While this remains true, our study challenges the simplicity of this assumption. We explore how group cohesion—a key indicator of interpersonal relationship quality—doesn’t follow a linear path when it comes to silence. Instead, the relationship bends and twists, forming a curvilinear pattern that depends on one crucial factor: proactive personality. Drawing from data collected in a health insurance firm, we reveal a striking dynamic. Silence thrives at both ends of the cohesion spectrum for those with a low proactive personality. Whether relationships are weak or intensely strong, these individuals withdraw, speaking up only at moderate levels of cohesion. But for those that score high in proactive personality, the story flips. These employees find their voices in both extremes, quieting only when relationships settle into a moderate, unremarkable state. These findings challenge the traditional belief that positive relationships always suppress silence while negative ones always fuel it. The paper reveals a more complex truth where the nuances of personality transform how individuals navigate the social fabric of their workplace, proving that silence is not merely a symptom of dysfunction but a reflection of deeper psychological currents.