Making Waves at Work

Abstract

The way in which an employee communicates organizational dissent is partially responsible for the outcomes of that dissent conversation. Previous research has examined such outcomes in limited ways, but employees’ perceptions of the general effectiveness and appropriateness of their dissent expressions have been neglected. The current study fills that gap, finding that participants recalled solution presentation, circumvention, and repetition as effective whereas coalition-building messages were ineffective. Participants also report that solution presentation and direct factual appeals were appropriate whereas pressure tactics and humor messages were inappropriate. These results make important contributions and extend previous research by demonstrating connections between dissent messages and conversational outcomes and offering a practical understanding for dissenters about what types of dissent messages may be perceived as more effective and appropriate than others.