An Analysis of Teachers' Perception of Organizational Silence in Terms of Various Demographic Variables

This research aims to explore teachers' perception of organizational silence in terms of various demographic variables. The research has been conducted with teachers, who work at state schools located within the central districts of Kahramanmaraş (Dulkadiroğlu and Onikişubat). The research sample holds 392 teachers in total. Having a quantitative research model, this research holds a survey model. The research data has deployed “Organizational Justice Scale” including 18 items. Frequency, percentage, t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis have been used during data analysis. Research results have revealed that teachers experience a medium level of organizational silence. Besides, teachers' perception of organizational silence does not significantly differ across demographic variables. The research has also suggested that demographic variables are not a significant predictor of organizational silence perception of teachers.


Introduction
Organizations whose remarkable component consists of humans are the structures that have been set up to achieve different purposes. Keeping this in mind, schools established to accomplish educational and instructional purposes can be considered as educational organizations. Analyzing the education organization of Turkish education system, education is classified as non-formal education and formal education. Non-formal education includes education given beside the formal education and/or out of this education; formal education refers to the organization in the form of preschool education, primary education, secondary education and higher education levels. These teaching levels strive to achieve the general objectives of the Turkish education system, as well as their specific objectives. The teaching levels are carried out by means of schools in order to achieve the general and specific objectives. Namely, schools can be stated to be indispensable institutions in terms of education. They try to achieve these general and specific objectives through people. Humans working in schools are considered as the key element. In this regard, man, who is of great importance for other organizations, is regarded as a much more important element in schools which are educational organizations. Because; the effect of positive or negative consequences on human relations is experienced more in schools, and the noteworthiness of sharing information in schools and the harmony among people is increasing day by day [1]. Besides, cooperation and efficiency increase in the organization when human relations are positive; moreover, individuals' sociological, economic and psychological needs are met in this way [2].
There may be situations in which it is difficult to achieve organizational goals in such schools that cannot provide the required flow of information and harmony among people, there may be situations in which it is difficult to achieve organizational goals. Although the school administrations are knowledgeable about being more at peace with all the employees in the schools in order to be successful, they can sometimes trigger their silence consciously or unconsciously. Even if this silent behavior of employees was previously perceived as an indicator of harmony, it is known as a reaction and withdrawal today [3].
Organizational silence is defined as preventing deliberately speaking when feeling that a dangerous situation will arise [4]. Individuals evaluate the results of speech or silence for themselves and determine their following behaviors in the event of satisfaction or pleasure. In fact, individuals learn to speak or hold silent behaviorally and mentally no matter their knowledge and skills levels [5]. Employees prefer to keep silent either only working to fulfill the requirements of their work or changing their jobs if they are self-confident and educated [6]. In this regard, it is a managerial necessity for the administrators to be aware of the fact that the silence of the employees will lead to individual and organizational negative consequences. Frustration in sharing the problems in schools constitutes an important obstacle to the school's development, openness to innovation as well as functioning. Moreover, teachers and administrators who cannot express their problems fail in having a high-level performance, and therefore the school objectives may not be realized at an adequate level [1,7]. Hence, administrators are required to identify and evaluate the reasons for the silence of the employees flawlessly in order to enable employees to express their opinions and to present their innovative ideas for the benefit of the organization [8].
Organizational silence, defined as the situation in which employees consciously conceal their views, thoughts and knowledge regarding technical and behavioral issues related to work or office, and they do not share their knowledge and experience with administrators and other employees (Çakıcı [1] cited in Pinder and Harlos [9]) becomes a common reaction by all employees [10]. In this respect, organizations and administrators must be alert to the spreading potential of the organizational silence.
It is organizationally remarkable that organizational silence includes a number of messages since silence possesses a deep and implicit meaning and contains more uncertainty compared to speech. Although the first studies have shown that silence generally refers to "acceptance", silence does not always mean appreciation, loyalty and contentment. However, it may originate from various reasons such as avoiding being a problem maker and afraid of being excluded. Another reason that is discussed to be the source of organizational silence is related to whether organizational silence emerges as a result of the positive or negative management practices with regard to the organization [5]. The reasons for electing to be silent include the lack of the employees' trust in their administrators, the risky consideration of the speech, the fear of exclusion and the fear of the breakdown of the employees' relations [6]. Some organizational forces believe there is no need for employees and their criticism of decisions on administrative privileges and common policies; they do not welcome the explicit expression of organizational problems; besides, they often create climates of silence, where there is widespread withholding of input by employees who collectively perceive speaking up as dangerous or futile [4]. The decisions of the organization employees to remain silent may also be considered as another reason of organizational silence (Pinder and Harlos [9] cited in Morrison and Millikan [4]).
Regarded as the first researchers on organizational silence, Pinder and Harlos [9], proposed that silence serves five dualistic functions: (1) silence both brings people together and pushes them apart; (2) it can both harm and heal people' relations; (3) it both provides and hides information; (4) it is a sign of deep thought or no thought; and (5) it can convey both assent and dissent (Cited in Çakıcı [1]).
Organizational silence can be examined under three dimensions as accepted silence, defensive silence and silence for the benefit of the organization (protectionist) [11]. In the accepted silence, the persons are willing to agree on any subject and do not say their thoughts since they have no purpose of changing anything within the organization. Those who choose this kind of silence demonstrate passive behavior within the organization.
Researchers have indicated that this kind of silence is also known as avoiding putting across any information and idea on any subject within the organization voluntarily, and that people consciously abstain from communicating with their environment [12]. In the case of defensive silence, individuals carry out risk analysis by taking into consideration the alternatives and, as a result, they hide the idea or information to themselves for fear of creating a personal risky result [13]. Protectionist silence refers to keeping ideas, information or opinions that may create work-related unfavorable situations for the benefit the organization on the basis of altruism or cooperation motives [14]. The studies conducted on silence have presented four silence theories such as the theory of expectation, cost-benefit analysis, silence spiral and self-adaptation theory. Expectation theory is the theory through which individuals evaluate speech as less important if they believe that speaking frankly will not produce positive results and therefore they can become more and more silent [15,1]. According to the theory of cost-benefit analysis, employees make a cost-benefit analysis for their own interests while making a decision on keeping silence or talking. They consider damages that may directly affect them (such as loss of promotion, business, time and energy) and indirect damages (such as loss of image, reputation, the possibility of retaliation against the opinion of those, who are against the opinion, the risks and conflicts that may arise from the growing opposition relations and psychological disorders that may occur when their opinions are ignored or not taken into account) [1,[3][4][5][6][7].
According to the theory of silence spiral, people think that society can ostracize them if they do not comply with the idea of the majority, and they prefer silence for fear of isolation, and accept the dominant idea [16]. In order to solve this spiral within the organization, managers can encourage their employees to talk so that each employee can compel himself to speak out by fighting against retreat. Employees' efforts in this direction allow the organization to welcome different opinions, which may make great contribution to both the employee and the organization [17]. According to the theory of self-adaptation, individuals change their sensitivity to harmonize their behavior depending on the circumstances. Individuals with high self-adaptation level are those who have the ability to change their social behaviors deliberately and use environmental cues in the public for good image. On the other, those with low self-adaptation tend to reflect their feelings, thoughts and judgments. These individuals speak more frankly than individuals with high self-adaptation levels since they reflect their thoughts, ideas and feelings as they are by attaching great importance to the consistency between how they behave and who they are [1].
As a result, despite being a new concept, the presence of numerous studies regarding the definitions and types of silence, the underlying causes and theories show that organizational silence is a significant and up-to-date issue for organizations. This paves the way for the fact that organizational silence needs to be sought and analyzed in a more detail way with micro and macro approaches in organizations [5]. Thus, this research aims to explore teachers' perception levels of organizational silence and its relationship with various demographic characteristics. With this in mind, this research is expected to contribute to both the relevant field and the practitioners. In service of this goal, answers to the following questions have been sought: 1. What is the level of teachers' perception of organizational silence? 2. Does teachers' perception of organizational silence differ significantly in terms of various demographic characteristics (gender, marital status, educational status, branch, seniority, and type of school, the number of teachers in the school and the location of the school)? 3. Do the demographic variables of teachers significantly predict organizational silence?

Materials and Methods
Having a quantitative research design, this research has employed general survey model. General survey models are survey arrangements conducted with the whole population or with a sample for the purpose of achieving a general judgment about the population consisting of a large number of elements [18]. This research has been carried out through the use of the general survey model in order to make a judgment about the organizational silence experienced by the teachers in the research population. The population of the research consists of 7926 teachers working at state schools affiliated to the Provincial Directorate of National Education and located within the central districts of Kahramanmaraş. The research sample holds 392 teachers in total. Table 1 displays the frequency and percentage values regarding the demographic characteristics of the research sample. This research has deployed "Organizational Silence Scale" developed by Kahveci and Demirtaş [7] in order to reveal teachers' perception of organizational silence. The tool comprises five factors, which are "School Environment"; "Emotion"; "Source of Silence"; "Administrator" and "Isolation". Being a Five-point likert type, the rating options have been determined as "1=Totally Disagree, 2= Disagree, 3=Partially Agree, 4=Agree, 5=Totally Agree". The score intervals obtained from the items have been graded as follows: "Totally Disagree" between 1.00-1.80; "Disagree" between 1.81-2.60; "Partially Agree" between 2.61-3.40; "Agree" between 3.41-4.20 and "Totally Agree" between 4.21-5.00.
The reliability analysis by Kahveci and Demirtaş [7] has suggested that the Cronbach alpha coefficient reliability is ".89". The internal consistency coefficient has been re-calculated in the present study and found to be ".88" for the overall scale.
As a result of the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) conducted by Kahveci and Demirtaş [7] with the aim of confirming the 5-factor structure of the Organizational Silence Scale, the model has been identified to have good fit indices. Within the scope of this study, CFA has been performed so as to verify the 5-factor structure of the scale and thus the fit indices of the scale have been determined to be acceptable (x²/sd=426,750/121=3,52; CFI= .89; RMSEA= .080; SRMR= .062). Figure 1 shows the model regarding CFA.
The research data has been analyzed through use of SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for Windows 21.0 package program. Arithmetic mean, standard deviation values, significance test of the difference between two means (t-test) and one-way variance analysis (F statistic) have been used during data analysis [19]. The regression analysis has been performed to determine whether teachers' demographic characteristics predict their perception of organizational silence.  Table 2 depicts the arithmetic mean and standard deviation values of the teachers' perceptions towards organizational silence. As is seen Table 2, the arithmetic mean of teachers' perception towards organizational silence is = 3,15, and the standard deviation is 0.57. Teachers' perception of organizational silence has been found to be at the level of "Partially Agree". In other words, teachers may be said to experience a "moderate level" of organizational silence.

Findings regarding whether Teachers' Perception of Organizational Silence Differ across Various Demographic Characteristics
Prior to the determination of the teachers' organizational silence perception depending on various demographic characteristics, the study confirmed whether the data distributed normally through skewness coefficient, graphical method and normality test [19]. The analysis results have shown that skewness value is "-.225", meaning that the data demonstrated normal distribution. Thus, the differences between the means have been calculated by parametric tests. The results of "Independent Group t-test" conducted to test whether the teachers' perceptions of organizational silence significantly differs across gender are illustrated in Table 3. According to Table 3, no significant difference has been identified across teachers' perceptions of organizational justice in terms of gender (t=-.232; p>.05).
The results of "Independent Group t-test" conducted to test whether the teachers' perceptions of organizational silence significantly differ across their marital status are shown in Table 4. As observed in Table 4, independent group t-test results have unveiled that teachers' perceptions of organizational justice do not significantly vary across their marital status (t=-.924; p>.05). Table 5 displays the results of "Independent Group t-test" conducted in order to determine whether the teachers' perceptions of organizational silence significantly differ across their educational status. Upon analyzing teachers' organizational silence perceptions, no significant difference has been noted across their educational status (t=-.987; p>.05). Table 6 suggests the results of "One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)" conducted in order to test whether the teachers' perceptions of organizational silence significantly differ across their branches. As can be seen in Table 6, teachers' perception towards organizational justice are not significantly affected by their branches (F=1,66; p>.05). Table 7 reveals the results of "One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)" conducted in order to test whether the teachers' perception of organizational silence significantly differ across their seniority. The results of "One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)" conducted in order to test whether the teachers' perception of organizational silence significantly differ across their type of school are presented in Table 8.  Table 8 depicts that teachers' organizational silence perception do not significantly differ across type of school they work (F=1,09; p>.05).
The results of "One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)" conducted in order to test whether the teachers' perception of organizational silence significantly vary across the number of teachers are suggested in Table 9.  Table 9 shows that teachers' organizational silence perception does not significantly vary across the number of teachers (F=.771; p>.05).
One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been performed to test whether teachers' perception of organizational silence differ in terms of the location of the school. The location variables have been determined as city center, town and village during data collection process. However, "town" variable has been recorded into "village" variable since the number of data obtained from teachers who work at towns is 8. The analysis results are presented in Table 10. As is seen in Table 10, teachers' perception of organizational justice does not significantly vary across the location of the school (F=1,08; p>.05).

Findings Related to whether Demographic Characteristics Predict Teachers' Organizational Silence Perception
Multiple regression analysis has been carried out with the aim of determining whether teachers' demographic variables predict their perception of organizational silence. Hence, the study firstly examined whether there is a high correlation (> .80) between the independent variables, and the independent correlation between the independent variables has been found to be lower than .80. Besides, the research has confirmed whether the data distributes normally and scattering graph has been identified to define a linear relationship, and that the normal distribution curves show a normal distribution with histograms created for the predicted values. As a result of the multiple regression analysis conducted by means of Enter Method, the regression model has been noted to be insignificant (p> .05). Namely, the demographic variables, which are independent variables of regression analysis are not significant predictors of teachers' organizational silence. Upon examining the model, only "seniority" variable has a significant contribution to the regression model (p<.05). In other words, the seniority variable has been determined to significantly contribute to the model thanks to its interaction with other independent variables, yet the seniority variable does not have a predictive level to affect the significance of the model, and the other independent variables are not significant predictors of the teachers' organizational silence. The results of the multiple regression analysis are presented in Table 11.

Conclusions and Discussion
Research results have determined that teachers possess a medium level of perception towards organizational silence. Similar results have emerged in the studies conducted by Aydın, Y. [10]; Çakal [20]; Demirtaş, Özdemir and Küçük [8]; Dönmez [21]; Gökçe [16]; Kalay, Oğrak and Nışancı [22]; Karaman [17]; Kolay [23]; Konakcı Göven [24]; Özdemir [25]; Yangın [26]. There are also such studies showing that teachers have a high "Kahveci [6]" and low "Yüksel [27]" level of organizational silence perceptions. The differences in the results of the studies may be due to the variety of the sample and the characteristics of the institutions that teachers work in (socioeconomic environment, their style of management, characteristics of the employees in the institution, etc.).
The research results have also suggested that the teachers' perceptions of organizational silence do not significantly differ across their demographic variables.
This result is in line with those of other studies "Gökçe [16]; Konakcı Göven [24]; Öztürk Çiftçi, Meriç and Meriç [28]; Ruçlar [29]; Ünlü [30]; Yüksel [27]." Similar to the findings of the present study, Burulday [31] has identified no significant difference across teachers' organizational silence perception in terms of their branch, marital status and seniority. Dönmez [21] has concluded that teachers' organizational silence perception does not significantly vary across their seniority and year spent by teachers in the school. In addition, Ünlü, Hamedoğlu and Yaman [32] have noted that teachers' organizational justice perception does not significantly vary across their gender.
Unlike the results of this study revealing that teachers' organizational silence perception does not differ significantly in terms of demographic variables, there exists various studies showing that teachers' perceptions of organizational silence significantly differ in terms of demographic variables. In the studies carried out by Kahveci and Demirtaş [7] and Sevgin [33], female teachers have experienced more silence than males, and Turkish and English teachers have higher level of silence compared to those from other branches. Besides, various studies have revealed that organizational justice significantly varies across age, educational status and position [14]; age and seniority [34]; age, gender, seniority, working year with the administrator and school type [35]; age and seniority [7]; marital status [21]; moreover, it has been determined that relational silence increases as the education level increases [5]. Yanık [12] has found that the level of silence does not differ significantly in terms of gender; however, the silence behavior has been determined to decrease as the age group increases. In a study conducted by Dönmez [21], female teachers' organizational silence level is higher than males in terms of the isolation dimension of the organizational silence scale. Moreover, teachers with no administrative position have higher perception levels compared to those who have administrative position in terms of the overall scale and its dimensions of school environment, source of silence and administrator. The study has also shown that teachers who are not union members have higher perception levels than union member teachers in terms of the school environment dimension of the organizational silence.
In another study conducted with teachers, no significant difference has been identified across their organizational silence behaviors in terms of gender, seniority, age and branch, while a statistically significant difference has been found across some dimensions of the organizational silence depending on school type and location of the school [17]. In a different study carried out by Yangın [26] with teachers, no significant difference has been determined across their perceptions regarding the dimensions of organizational silence in terms of gender, age, branch, seniority and seniority; whereas, teachers' perceptions significantly vary across the source of silence and administrator dimensions in terms of their marital status. In his study, Altınışık [36] has identified no significant difference across teachers' organizational silence in terms of gender, age, branch, working time in school and educational status; however, a statistically significant difference has been found in terms of economic status and There are also various studies conducted with the instructors and examine the differentiation status of organizational silence in terms of demographic variables. In a study conducted by Algın [37] on instructors, they have been determined to be silent in general; besides, a statistically significant difference has been found in terms of gender, position, administrative duty, working time and faculty. Likewise, Bayram [38] has concluded that instructors' organizational silence perceptions significantly differ across their position, working period, age and administrative duty. Durak [39] has put forward that the reasons for the silence of the instructors significantly differ across demographic and institutional factors (age, academic title, perceived management style and the ability to speak frankly with the administrators). As a result of the research conducted by Yaman and Ruçlar [40], the instructors' perceptions of organizational silence have been determined to vary across their age groups, the faculties they work, the management style perceived by the instructors, the frequency of face to face interviews with their administrators, talking frankly to their administrators. The variety of the studies examining as to whether teachers' organizational silence perceptions significantly differ across demographic characteristics may be due to the characteristics of the institutions (organizational climate and culture, school environment, personality traits).
This research has suggested that the teachers' perceptions of organizational silence do not significantly vary across demographic variables; however, considering the mean scores, teachers with postgraduate degree have higher than those with undergraduate level. Similar results have emerged for the teachers who have 6-10 years working experience, who work at high schools and who work in city centers. In addition, branch teachers' perceptions have been determined to be higher than preschool and classroom teachers. The fact that teachers who have postgraduate education, who work in city centers, who are in the first year of their profession and who work at higher education levels (high schools) have experienced more organizational silence can be regarded as significant results. There are different research results that are in parallel to this result of the research. In the study conducted by Aydın and Tükel [41], the perception of silence has been found to be higher among participants with 6-10 years of experience. In the study of Yaman and Ruçlar [40], the instructors with "1-5 years of experience" have the highest level of organizational silence in the "lack of experience" dimension, while the lowest silence perception belongs to those with '1-5 years' experience.
Another result of the present study has shown that demographic variables are not a significant predictor of the teachers' perceptions towards organizational silence. Considering the relevant literature, there has been no such study examining the predictive value of demographic variables on organizational silence. On the other hand, many studies have been conducted examining as to whether different variables predict organizational silence. On the other hand, numerous studies have been conducted on whether different variables predict organizational silence. Organizational commitment (Konakçı Göven [24]), the power types used by the school principals (Aydın, F. [42]; Karaman [17]), perception of interaction justice and trust (Yangın [26]), fear of isolation (Bayram [38]) and the perception of emotional exhaustion (Aktaş and Şimşek [5]) have been found to be significant predictors of organizational silence. Aydın, Y. [10] has noted that the dimensions of coordination and evaluation of nepotism significantly predict fear and perceived risk dimensions of organizational silence, and evaluation dimension of nepotism significantly predicts the contextual factors dimension of organizational silence. Durak [39] has determined that the reasons that have the least effect on the silence of the instructors are not to know with whom they need to talk about the subject, being a new and inexperienced person, believing that it is more beneficial to remain silent. As a result of the research carried out by Yanık [12], there has been found a decrease in the attitude of defensive silence in the organizations where the communication level increases and the teachers show more prosocial silence behaviors towards the outside when they trust in their administrators. In short, many different variables can be regarded as significant predictors of organizational silence.

Recommendations
1. The research results have revealed that the teachers' perception of organizational silence is at a medium level. Considering the personal and organizational negative situations that may arise from organizational silence, MoNE [Ministry of National Education] and Provincial/District national education directorates can conduct descriptive studies in order to determine the causes of organizational silence experienced by teachers. Trainings can be organized with the support of training management experts with a view to increasing the awareness of education administrators regarding organizational silence.
2. This research has suggested that teachers who have postgraduate education, who work in the city centers, who are in the first year of their profession (between 6-10 years) and who work at higher education levels (high schools) have much more organizational silence. These results, which are evaluated as significant, can be taken into account by the decision makers (MoNE, Provincial/ District National Education Directorates and School Directorates) in order to explore the reasons of organizational silence in these groups. In this way, situations causing organizational silence can be eliminated. Qualitative researches can be conducted by the field experts in education management in order to make in depth analysis related to the reasons of organizational silence.
3. The research results have also shown that the teachers' perception of organizational silence does not significantly differ across demographic variables and that the variables are not a significant predictor of the teachers' organizational silence perception. Various studies may be conducted with different samples in order to explore whether organizational silence perceptions vary across demographic characteristics and whether the variables predict organizational silence.