…text about Silence in organization continues - this
is part 3.
2. What
is silence - three perspectives on silence
This text as
a whole is about silence and in particular about silence in organizations.
However I feel that it is valuable to say something more general about silence
before we go deep into organizational sphere. My hope is that this general discussion
on its part helps us to see more about our specific topic ie., silence in the
organizational context.
At the same
time this discussion on its part relate to the general idea that it is
important to try to examine whole and real people in organizations. In addition the research should not neglect
anything what relates to being a human in organizations. This means because
real, complex and manifold emotions and experiences are part of being human and
these phenomena are also important research topics in business studies. This
kind of comment may sound odd, but perhaps the history of business disciplines
has focused rather heavily on technical and rational side of organizational
life. Sometimes it may have been difficult to find real people on the pages
business literature, or in consulting discussion and also style of discourse
within organizations themselves have been permeated with rather technical tone,
like let us make strategy and let us implement it and that's it.
So what is
silence how is it experienced? Clearly a vast topic and I will approach this subject
with a help a very specific and limited empirical material. However, I strongly
feel that there is something valuable here - at least the following will
confirm that silence appears to be a very strong, very important and deeply
emotional phenomenon to us.
The
empirical material used here are numerous pictures in internet. I have looked for
pictures which people have connected to silence. On that basis I have come to
interpretation that in general people seem to approach silence from a three
perspectives. Certainly my point here is not present this interpretation as a
anything fixed or permanent, it is here more a heuristic[1]
tool which helps us to deepen our study of silence. The perspectives are as
follows:
2.1 Impressive nature makes us silent
Quite often
people seemed to connect silence to magnificent and marvelous pictures about
lakes, mountains, trees or some other beautiful sights or to some awesome elements
of nature. Apparently the point was that often nature is so impressive that it
silences us. Apparently the silencing happens here in a very good and positive way
- we are silenced in front of beauty, tranquility or something else which is so
stupenduos and tremendous that it fills us with awe, enthrall and eventually
respectful silence.
It seems
that it is a far cry to try to connect this kind of approach to silence with
any discussion about silence in organizations. Clearly these are different
worlds, that world of nature and the world of organizations. Yet, it is
interesting to try to think that in organizational context can we think that
people would choose silence because they have encountered something so
fabulous. Perhaps, this can happen, it is thinkable that the organization
operates in a way which creates awe, also organization may have possessions
like buildings, factories or so on with create silence because they are so
overwhelming.
The other
thing is that when, for instance, customer service reaches extraordinary performance would organizations prefer that silence would
be the result? Probably not. For instance, in case an organization provides
astonishing service, the goal would not be silence, but a hope that a very
satisfied customer would tell to others. Also for instance the magnificent head
quarter buildings are built to create awe, but not silence. Apparently it is
hoped that people talk about those landmarks as much as possible and that
discussion is hoped to strengthen the brand.
2.2 Silence which relates to crimes and
wrong doings
These
pictures about silence are sometimes very tough to look. They certainly open a
touching
and poignant perspective to silence. These pictures tell that there is an array
of
wrong doings which have may have happened and which may continue to happen
at least
partly because of silence.[2]
Sometimes there seem to be wrong doings which are used in
order to create
silence.
Unfortunately
it is possible to see that this perspective on silence can relate also to
organization life in various forms. The special term in organizational context
is “whistle blowing”. It means that
that there is something wrong happening within some organization and perhaps
that thing is somehow silently accepted. And then someone, the whistle blower, breaks
the silence. We can anticipate how difficult those situations must be to everyone
involved. Certainly these phenomena around whistle blowing would deserve more
research in the future. For instance, it would be valuable to examine the scope
of whistle blowing. Should we use that concept only in relation to possible
crimes or could whistle blowing also refer to all or to some unsatisfactory
operation which is for some reason silently accepted.
2.3 Silence which relates to internal
wisdom
There may
not be that many actual pictures which relate to this perspective, but there
are numerous quotations which proclaim
this message in various forms.[3]
Wikipedia entry sums up succinctly how some major religions approach silence
from this perspective:
"Silence" in spirituality is often a metaphor for inner
stillness. A silent mind, freed from the onslaught of thoughts and thought
patterns, is both a goal and an important step in spiritual development. Such
"inner silence" is not about the absence of sound; instead, it is
understood to bring one in contact with the divine, the ultimate reality, or
one's own true self, one's divine nature. Many religious traditions imply the importance
of being quiet and still in mind and spirit for transformative and integral
spiritual growth to occur. In Christianity, there is the silence of contemplative prayer
such as centering prayer and Christian meditation;
in Islam, there are the wisdom writings of the Sufis who insist on the importance of finding silence
within. In Buddhism, the descriptions of silence and allowing
the mind to become silent are implied as a feature of spiritual enlightenment. In
Hinduism, including the teachings of Advaita Vedanta and the many paths of yoga, teachers
insist on the importance of silence, Mauna, for inner growth.
It may be difficult to connect this
perspective on silence to the organizational life. Yet, perhaps proponents of
self-leadership might suggest that:
“this is it”, meaning that the key element in leadership is self -knowledge
and what we are discussing here relates to the highest form of self-
understanding which is basis of true leadership.
Also some people
might suggest that when we examine on communication more deeply we become aware
that in order to hear (understand what the other tries to say) we need some
place (silence) in our own mind.
…to be continued
[1] It is simply beautiful how
Wikipedia entry defines heuristic, I have to add it here: Heuristic (pron.: /hjʉˈrɪstɨk/; or /hyoo-ris-tik/;
Greek: "Εὑρίσκω", "find" or "discover")
refers to experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and
discovery. Where the exhaustive search is impractical, heuristic methods are
used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution; mental
shortcuts to ease the cognitive load of making a decision. Examples of this
method include using a rule of thumb, an educated guess, an intuitive judgment,
or common sense.
[2] This quote is well known. “The
ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the
silence over that by the good people.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
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