The Empirical Research Of Job Characteristics’ Impact On Employee Silence

As an important source of information in modern companies, communication plays a key role in the process of improving organizational performance. However, as a common phenomenon in companies, silence can hinder the information flow in the companies, influence the business decision, and even jeopardize the long-term development of companies. Consequently, the intensive study on employee silence is significant for companies to take measures to reduce the silence phenomenon and improve the organization efficiency.In terms of job characteristics model by Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham, the article analyzes different dimensions’ impacts on employee silence, proposes five hypotheses and establishes a preliminary model. In pretest, we use SPSS20.0software to analyze98effective samples in the way of item analysis, reliability analysis and factor analysis. In the formal experiment, we use SPSS20.0and AMOS20.0software to analyze185effective samples in the way of description statistic analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, structural equation model test, regression analysis and the influence of moderators.The main conclusions are as follows:(1) The five dimensions of job characteristics each have a significant negative correlation with acquiescent silence, and skill variety together with task identity and task significance has more immediate impact on acquiescent silence;(2) The five dimensions of job characteristics each are in a significant negative correlation with defensive silence, and autonomy influences defensive silence more directly;(3) Pro-social silence is in a significant negative correlation with the five dimensions of job characteristics, and it is more directly influenced by task significance and feedback;(4) The degree of job characteristics’ impact on acquiescent silence is much greater than their impact on defensive silence and pro-social silence;(5) The job characteristics has a canonical correlation with employee silence;(6) The demographic variables are moderators in the regression equation of job characteristics’impact on employee silence. The article conducts a survey on Chinese employees and studies job characteristics’ impact on employee silence through empirical research, which is advantageous for the business manager to take measures to build effective communication channel and reduce employee silence. And the research is also useful for the HR to strengthen work design, enhance employees’job satisfaction and therefore improve the organization efficiency.