Michael KnollMartin GoetzElisa AdriasolaAmer Ali Al-AtwiAlicia ArenasKokou A. AtitsogbeStephen BarrettAnindo BhattacharjeeNorman D. BlancoSabina BogilovicGregoire BollmannJanine BosakCagri BulutMadeline CarterMatej CerneSusanna L. M. ChuiDonatella Di MarcoGesa S. DudenVicki ElseyMakoto FujimuraPaola GattiChiara GhislieriSteffen R. GiessnerKenta HinoJoeri HofmansThomas S. JonssonPazambadi KazimnaKevin B. LoweJuliana MalagonHassan MohebbiAnthony MontgomeryLucas MonzaniAnne Nederveen PieterseMuhammed NgomaEmir OzerenDeirdre O'SheaChristina Lundsgaard OttsenJennifer PickettAnna A. RangkutiSylwiusz RetowskiFarzad Sattari ArdabiliRazia ShaukatSilvia A. SilvaAna SimunicNiklas K. SteffensFaniya SultanovaDaria SzuecsSusana M. TavaresArun TipandjanRolf van DickDimitri VasiljevicSut I. WongHannes ZacherKnoll, MichaelZacher, HannesGötz, MartinAl-Atwi, Amer AliGoetz, MartinAdriasola, ElisaAtitsogbe, Kokou A.Arenas, Alicia2025-10-0620210894-37961099-137910.1002/job.25122-s2.0-85104311133http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.2512https://gcris.yasar.edu.tr/handle/123456789/7940https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2512Employee silence the withholding of work-related ideas questions or concerns from someone who could effect change has been proposed to hamper individual and collective learning as well as the detection of errors and unethical behaviors in many areas of the world. To facilitate cross-cultural research we validated an instrument measuring four employee silence motives (i.e. silence based on fear resignation prosocial and selfish motives) in 21 languages. Across 33 countries (N = 8222) representing diverse cultural clusters the instrument shows good psychometric properties (i.e. internal reliabilities factor structure and measurement invariance). Results further revealed similarities and differences in the prevalence of silence motives between countries but did not necessarily support cultural stereotypes. To explore the role of culture for silence we examined relationships of silence motives with the societal practices cultural dimensions from the GLOBE Program. We found relationships between silence motives and power distance institutional collectivism and uncertainty avoidance. Overall the findings suggest that relationships between silence and cultural dimensions are more complex than commonly assumed. We discuss the explanatory power of nations as (cultural) units of analysis our social scientific approach the predictive value of cultural dimensions and opportunities to extend silence research geographically methodologically and conceptually.Englishinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesscontext, cross‐ cultural research, culture, employee silence, voicePOWER DISTANCE ORIENTATION, INDIVIDUALISM-COLLECTIVISM, MEASUREMENT INVARIANCE, NATIONAL CULTURE, ORGANIZATIONAL-BEHAVIOR, VOICE, CONTEXT, VALUES, METAANALYSIS, MULTILEVELVOICEContextCross‐ Cultural ResearchCross-Cultural ResearchCultureEmployee SilenceArticle