Workplace Authoritarianism and the Suppression of Voice: Justification Language, Employee Silence, and the Limits of Harassment Prevention

This working paper offers a conceptual analysis of how authoritarian patterns of organizational authority suppress employee voice through everyday justification language, and how this suppression undermines the practical effectiveness of harassment prevention systems. The paper introduces the concept of voice-suppressing justification language—everyday organizational expressions that frame existing practices as normal, collective, benevolent, factual, or realistic, thereby shifting the burden of justification from those who hold authority to those who raise objections. Five categories are identified: normalization, majoritarian justification, paternalistic justification, objectivizing justification, and reality-framing justification. Building on research on employee voice, organizational silence, authoritarian leadership, and psychological safety, the paper develops a conceptual model linking workplace authoritarianism to justification language, employee silence, and the symbolic functioning of harassment prevention systems. This is a working paper. It has not been peer reviewed. During the preparation of this manuscript, the author used AI-assisted tools, including Claude (Anthropic) and Perplexity, for language refinement, structural organization, and translation support.