The role of silence on employees' attitudes “the day after” a merger

Purpose This paper aims to explore the role of organizational silence and trust on employees' attitudes in a post‐merger stage. Design/methodology/approach The results of two independent studies are presented; participants completed measures of organizational trust, organizational silence and merger attitudes (organizational commitment and employee satisfaction) a few months following the announcement of the merger. Hierarchical regression analyzes were used to explore the hypotheses. Findings The results show that organizational trust is negatively related to organizational silence and positively to merger attitudes. Further, the significant role of organizational silence in a post‐merger state was also identified through the negative relationships with merger attitudes, but mainly through the significant mediating effect of silence between organizational trust and merger attitudes. Research limitations/implications The study used self‐report measures, but necessary actions were taken in order to reduce the effect of common method variance. Therefore, it should be cross‐validated with different research designs (e.g. longitudinal research) in other countries. Practical implications The findings provide further support on the significance of organizational silence in work settings, especially at major organizational turnarounds. Originality/value The most significant contribution of the study is that it explores for the first time the role of organizational silence in a post‐merger stage and its relationship to organizational trust.