Relationships among power distance, collectivism, punishment, and acquiescent, defensive, or prosocial silence

We investigated the relationships among power distance, collectivism, punishment, and a multidimensional construct of silence. Participants were 628 full-time employees of 27 heavy-industry companies in South Korea. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were performed to test our hypothesized model. The results revealed that power distance induced acquiescent silence; however, power distance did not have any impact on defensive silence. Collectivism also generated acquiescent silence but did not influence prosocial silence; and punishment increased defensive silence.