Organizational silence, organizational commitment and creativity: The case of directors of Islamic Azad University of Khorasan Razavi

Introduction. - Today, one issue that arose in human resource discussions is the phenomenon of organizational silence (OS). Objective. - Since it has not been carried extensive research out on this phenomenon in Iran, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between OS and Organizational Commitment (OC) and Organizational Creativity (OCR) among managers of the Islamic Azad University of Khorasan Razavi. Methods. - We based the theoretical framework of this study on the OS scale of Morrison and Milliken (2003) and the Allen and Myers' (1990) Three-Component OC Scale and OCR questionnaire of Randsip (1979). The questionnaire's internal reliability by Cronbach's alpha for OS, OC, and OCR was 0.81, 0.89, and 0.84 respectively. Also, 200 executives, deputies, managerial and administrative directors were tested. The Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equations were used to analyze the data. Results. - The findings illustrate that in this organization, there is a significant and an inverse relationship between OS and OC and OCR. So, the more is the OS, the greater is the lack of OCR and OC. Conclusion. - The results show that OCR is moderate and downward. OCR can be because of different factors, but is more affected by the dimensions of OC. OCR and continuous commitment could explain 0.84 of the variance of dependent variables. Also, all the research hypotheses were approved and 0.89 of the total variance of the dependent variable was illustrated in terms of effective factors. (C) 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.