Abstract

This study examined organizational trust and burnout as predictors of organizational silence among HIV Attendant Nurses in Owerri. Two hypotheses were stated and tested. Data for this study were collected from three hundred (300) participants drawn randomly within hospitals in Imo State. The age range was from 20-60 years. The research questionnaires included a 13-item perceived organizational trust scale developed by Polat (2007), Maslach Burnout inventory (MBI) (1980) and validated by Omoluabi (2001) for Nigeria use and the third scale is the prosocial silence scale developed by Dynetal (2003). Cross-sectional survey design and a multiple regression analysis were used to analyse data collected. The first hypothesis was supported, as organizational trust significantly predicted organizational silence among HIV Attendant Nurses in Imo State (β = .395, p<.05, t = 6.04). However, the second hypothesis was rejected, as burnout did not significantly predict organizational silence scores among HIV Attendant Nurses in Imo State (β = .015, p>.05, t = .217). These findings suggest that building organizational trust may increase the likelihood of employees engaging in organizational silence, while burnout may not be a significant factor in determining employees' level of organizational silence. Organizations must ensure that they provide opportunities where employees can express themselves and not bottle-up issues or suggestions that may likely improve the fortunes of the organization.