This public opinion concept refers to the way in which ‘the commonwealth is held together by prevailing views, habits and prescribed behavior;’ from which none can deviate ‘without running the risk of being ostracized’. (Noelle-Neumann, 1989, p. 6). The fear of isolation is the centrifugal force that accelerates the spiral of silence.(Griffin, E.M.,2009). It is believed that most of the reason of the following suit behavior is that people like to be respected and do not want to be isolated. But, this theory still has some limitations. The critics of this theory most often claim that individuals have different influences that affect whether they speak out or not. Research indicates that people fear isolation in their small social circles more than they do in the population at large. When they are at work, they are in their small social circles, this fear of isolation is stronger than the fear of being isolated from the entire public. Also, personal characteristics will have an influence on whether a person will willingly speak out. Naturally, if one has a positive self-concept and lacks a sense of shame, that person will speak out regardless of how she or he perceives the climate of public opinion. (Ross, C., 2007).Another important element for people not to speaking out is culture. What culture a person lives in affect their minds directly. Not every culture holds freedom of speech in as high regard as the United States, and in some cultures, open expression of ideas is forbidden.(Ross, C., 2007) Scheufele & Moy, further assert that certain conflict styles and cultural indicators should be used to understand these differences.
Application of the spiral of silence theory
Although the spiral of silence theory caused a lot of controversy, it still has a practical significance. Internal communication plays a key role in all organisations, particularly regarding employee engagement. Nowadays, all companies are experiencing rapid growth. P. Sanchez(1999) asserts that doing business and managing change makes effective internal communication a critical success factor. When internal corporate communication becomes smooth, managers could collect useful advice and wisdom, understand different point of view and evaluate different levels of suggestions, providing more reference for their decision-making. Maybe a little suggestion from one subordinate can have a greatly influence on the interests of the company. Furthermore, through the communication, employees feel comfortable and are respected, it will establish their loyalty and make them care about the development of not only themselves but the whole company. In fact, their engagements directly affect the company’s performance.
The theory provides a unique perspective that the final consequence of the discussion in company is not the rational opinions and may be the convergence of the strong opinions. Sometimes, the strong opinions are not accurate and result in the wrong choice of managers. Because of the spiral of silence, some people hold their opinions in mind and do not speak it out, they will lose their enthusiasms of their work and make no contribution to the company. Usually, those people’s opinions are known as adverse opinion, which are opposite to the leadership or the mainstream. It may be correct, also may be wrong. So we cannot just treat it as wrong opinion. Only if the administrators make it clear, the employees would disclose their true own opinion. It is not normal that there is not a voice against the majority opinions, this actually means managers do not play a good role in creating a free, democratic environment for employees. As time passes, the staff are too lazy to put forward their opinions. If so, the managers of company will lose so many value aspects of the different voice. Amounts of adverse opinions may stimulate some other new, fresh ideas, sometimes these ideas are even better than the original advantageous opinions .For minorities to stimulate the thinking of the other group members, the minorities have to share their opinions. Factors that might encourage people to express minority opinions would include having personal qualities that can offset the risk ( ); getting support for their position ( ; ); and having a positive and accepting social atmosphere in the group ( ). In fact, creating a nonjudgmental atmosphere is the cornerstone of group discussion techniques designed to maximize participant contributions (e.g., ; ).There is no doubt that the existence of the spiral of silence in company is the last thing managers want to see. If it exists, minority will not comment about many things, they bend to the public opinion. Several different opinions precisely are the indispensable condition of making correct decisions.
Critically, that doesn’t mean managers should adopt the minority opinions all the time. When discussing adverse opinions, managers should not reject them flatly, but let employees fully expound them views and reason, and then analysis their opinions seriously. The reasonable part should be accepted and the unreasonable part should be abandoned. Since some few people’s insights are profound, decision-makers need to determine whether the strategy should be changed. Managers must be able to recognize those wrong opinions, and according to their different properties, adopt appropriate methods. In order to maintain the enthusiasm of staff, it is important for managers to treat all opinions of the staff equally, no matter they are right or wrong, positive or negative and valuable or not valuable. For those right and valuable opinions, managers should not only verbally accept them, but give the presenters praise and reward. For those abandoned opinions, it is important to encourage the presenters to continue to point their opinions out.
Only totally understand how the spiral of silence theory works in the enterprise and treat the disadvantageous opinions properly, administrators could create a smooth channel of internal corporate communication.
Avoid the spiral of silence
P. Sanchez (1999) argues that it is indispensable to having a two-way communication philosophy in effectively aligning employees with the business interests of the organizations. Furthermore, he states it is essential to listen to what co-workers say and to use this upward information in the decision making process. As a consequence, listening to the opinion of the minority instead of to those public opinions are becoming more and more important in enterprises. The ignorance of those opponents’ opinion will just lead to the unsmooth of the communication.
Avoiding individuals keep silent in their workplace is a challenging task. In order to encourage them to express their own opinion, managers should carry out the most effective communication channel. In particular subordinates may be reluctant to communicate negative feedback, or to share information that reflects negatively on them and their work, they assert. In addition, subordinates may not realize that they are expected to offer their opinions. So, managers need to build a bridge between themselves and subordinates, communicate their desire of the whole company’s opinion. Modern organisation is a combination of multiple cultures, there are all sorts of interests groups in it. Since individuals have different interests, various ideas and manifold perspective, to reach a consensus of all is almost impossible. So, when managers make decisions, it is should certainly be allowed to let someone who think their interests may be damaged express their dissatisfaction. First, managers should create a climate that the subordinates aren’t afraid to express the distinctive perspectives, in this corporate culture, people express their opinion boldly will be rewarded rather than be isolated.
Actually, most people are willing to express their opinions to the administrators, but are sensitive to express it in the public. In this situation, administrators must open more space, provide more platform for different interest groups where they can have a voice, including express their different views on the problem. A useful way to solve the employee’s fear of isolation is face-face communication. Face-to-face communication is potentially the most effective form of internal communications. By its very nature, it is two-way, inviting response, reaction and motivation to action, on both sides. Face-to-face communication is also the form of communication which most people prefer, both in order to hear from their manager or supervisor what is happening in the organization, and in order to make known to management their feelings and ideas. There is nothing like a well-managed meeting, one-to-one or a group, to generate enthusiasm and momentum for a project which simply did not exist before, or a meeting which, whatever the difficulties people have in expressing themselves or in coming to the point, succeeds in dispelling suspicion or misunderstandings. In a private meeting with managers, employees will not find out the pressure from other co-workers and are more likely to point out their suggestions, ideas and perspectives, even they are negative. It may reduce the situation of public expression of opinion and team members ’own opinions being not consistent.
No matter what channel the company use to make communication effective,
What should be noticed is that the necessities of avoiding the spiral of silence, making the minority express the opinions-their own opinions.
Conclusion
In conclusion, communication is the life blood of management, many enterprises management problems are caused due to the bad communication. Good communication can develop interpersonal harmony and let the employees successfully complete work task and achieve performance target. Bad communication can lead to the unsatisfactory of productivity, quality and services, eventually, the company’s performance are not ideal.
This essay demonstrated one of the theories of internal corporate communication, the spiral of silence theory. People are unwilling to express their opinion if they believe their opinions are in the minority. They will also be more vocal if they believe they are a part of the majority. Thus, in company, the more isolated employees feel, the less they speak and so the spiral formed.
The theory works because individuals fear social rejection and be marginalized by other people. Sometimes, the public opinion is just the opinion of the majority, because the minority keep their attitudes in mind without running the danger of being isolated. Therefore, especially in modern information-based company, it is necessary to build up a fair and reasonable public discussion mechanism and respect opponents’ voice. It helps to mitigate risk and improve team effectiveness by enabling effective measurement and control and promoting good communication.
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