When Bullying Silences Ethics: How Distrust Blocks Employee Voice—and What Restores It

What is it about?

This article investigates how workplace bullying reduces employees’ willingness to speak up about ethical issues—ethical voice—and how trust, resilience, and innovation can alter this pattern. Using Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, the study predicts that bullying depletes emotional and psychological resources, increasing distrust and disengagement. Repeated mistreatment lowers confidence in top management, making employees less likely to raise ethical concerns or challenge wrongdoing, even when they recognize it. Based on data collected from employees in Canada’s technology sector, the study shows that distrust in top management fully mediates the negative relationship between bullying and ethical voice. Bullying reduces employees’ willingness to speak up by eroding trust in leaders’ fairness and integrity. The study also finds that resilience—the ability to recover from setbacks—and innovation propensity—the tendency to solve problems creatively—buffer the harmful effects of bullying, helping employees maintain trust and moral courage in challenging work environments. By combining ethical behavior, leadership trust, and employee strengths into one integrated framework, the paper provides a more complete understanding of why some employees remain ethically outspoken despite adversity. It emphasizes that cultivating trust, building resilience, and rewarding innovation are essential to keeping ethical dialogue alive in organizations.

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Photo by Icons8 Team on Unsplash

Photo by Icons8 Team on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study is unique because it integrates workplace bullying, ethical voice, and distrust in leadership within a unified Conservation of Resources (COR) framework. It goes beyond fear-based explanations by showing that erosion of trust is why bullied employees withhold ethical concerns. Sustaining moral courage depends not only on intent but also on resources like resilience and innovation propensity. The research deepens understanding of how moral behavior persists or fades under interpersonal mistreatment and depleted emotional resources. The work is timely as organizations increasingly value ethical leadership, psychological safety, and transparency to sustain performance and trust. As workplaces grow complex and employees face higher moral and emotional strain, understanding how resilience and innovation-oriented coping shield them from moral disengagement is critical. The study encourages leaders to rebuild trust and create climates that empower ethical voice, showing it can survive in strained conditions when supported by trust and personal strength.