Associations between burnout, employee silence and voice: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective The intention to speak-up or withhold one’s voice is linked to employee well-being outcomes and is considered a proxy for the quality of organisational culture in the workplace. This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesised evidence on the relationship between burnout and employee silence/voice outcomes.

Methods An electronic database search up to May 2024 was conducted on eight databases combined with manual scoping of references and 84 studies met the inclusion criteria (N = 34,975).

Results The relationship between all employee voice/silence outcomes and burnout was statistically significant with greater silence and lower voice being associated with higher burnout (ρ = .36, 95% CI [.32, .40]). Examined separately, effects were moderate and positive for silence and burnout (ρ = .43, 95% CI [.37, .48]) and small and negative for voice and burnout (ρ = −0.28, 95% CI [–0.35, −0.21]). Subgroup analyses revealed larger effects in non-Western regions and studies using the Maslach-Burnout-Inventory.

Conclusions The evidence consistently showed a larger overlap between burnout and silence, compared to voice, suggesting that reducing silence is more beneficial for addressing burnout than increasing voice. The evidence is limited primarily to emotional exhaustion, and more research is needed to distinguish the emotional/cognitive components of silence/voice from behavioural outcomes.