Organizational Dissent Research Articles

The perceptions of the administrators working in primary and secondary schools related to the organizational dissent

The research was conducted to find out the perceptions of the administrators working in primary and secondary schools related to the organizational dissent. The research contributes to the teachers in respect to their level of job satisfaction and development of positive attitude towards the school as well as the embracement of democratic units in the schools. The research is a case study from the qualitative research patterns. Working group consists of 15 school administrators (principals and deputy principals) working in primary and secondary schools in Mardın in the academic year of 2012-2013. Criterion sample method was used in determination of school administrators in working group. The research data was collected by interview method and analyzed by using descriptive and content analysis method. According to the results derived from the analysis, teachers mostly dissent in case of the assignments given to them and they prefer lateral dissent strategy. In accordance with the findings, organizing impressive communication seminars for school administrators, arranging face-to-face meetings, whose subject is apart from school affairs, between administrators and teachers periodically, and making legal regulations in respect to organizational dissent which harms educational institutions are proposed.

Dynastic Cycle: A Resource Allocation Theme for Addressing Dissent in Universities

This paper utilizes the dynastic cycle framework proposed in (K. Saeed & Pavlov, 2008) to explain the role of dissent in universities. By combining the dissent expression framework (Kassing, 2011) and the dynastic cycle structure, we construct a generic model for dissent in organizations. The work is rooted in the literature of organizational communication, research and development, and higher education management. Using system dynamics methodology, we illustrate the dynamic interaction of composition, climate, and performance to simulate and explain how organizations evolve with regard to dissent. This model provides a platform for experimentation with different policy scenarios focusing on growth and productivity. The research suggests that as universities attempt to improve their performance through growth, despite initial short-term performance improvements, they are likely to devolve into low performance institutions with degraded management responsiveness and organizational productivity. Regardless of having high dissent tolerance, they could become dominated by high control and silence climates. When organizations invest in cultivating a dissent aware climate, and strive to improve their dissent processing capability, we suggest that the university and its members will be more productive and engaged.

Communicating Consumer Complaints: Message Content and its Perceived Effectiveness

Consumers sometimes experience discontent when they interact with companies and may complain to communicate their dissatisfaction. To date, most researchers have focused on what organizations do to remedy consumer dissatisfaction without examining the content of the complaint messages. This is regrettable considering the degree to which organizations comply with complaints may be a function of what consumers say. Using Garner's (2009) typology of organizational influence and dissent as a theoretical guide, we created a measure of consumer complaining to determine what people say when they complain to companies and what messages they perceive to be effective in gaining compliance.

A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Organizational Dissent and Workplace Freedom in Five European Economies

Individuals in five European countries—Finland, France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom (n = 1184)—completed a survey exploring the relationship between organizational dissent and workplace freedom of speech. Results revealed workplace freedom of speech is positively correlated with dissent among the entire sample in France and in Germany. Results in Spain were nonsignificant. In the United Kingdom, there was a negative relationship between workplace freedom of speech and dissent. There was a negative relationship between workplace freedom of speech and articulated dissent and a positive relationship with latent dissent in Finland. Moreover, MANCOVA testing showed nationality to have a significant effect on organizational dissent and workplace freedom of speech. Germans scored the highest on dissent and workplace freedom with Spain scoring the lowest.

E-Mail and Face-to-Face Organizational Dissent as a Function of Leader-Member Exchange Status

The purpose of this study was to examine whether leader-member exchange status (in-group vs. out-group) of employees explains differences in organizational dissent (i.e., articulated, latent, displaced) via e-mail as opposed to face-to-face. Participants were 166 full-time employees working in a variety of organizations. Results indicated that out-group employees were more likely to express articulated dissent through e-mail, whereas in-group employees were more likely to express articulated dissent in person. The results of this study suggest that the quality of the supervisor-subordinate relationship is important in determining how contradictory opinions are communicated in an upward manner via e-mail. Communicating these subordinate opinions in person to a supervisor, instead of sending an e-mail, may be indicative of a better working relationship. Furthermore, e-mail may be a positive venue for out-group employees, previously unwilling to question management, to dissent.

Open Doors and Iron Cages

Organizational dissent and employee voice have been linked to benefits for companies and employees, but part of realizing those benefits is how a supervisor responds to subordinates’ communication. Two studies presented here explored supervisors’ responses to dissent. Results from Study One indicated a continuum of responses to dissent from instrumental support to rejection. However, managers in all points along that continuum claimed to be “open” to employees. In contrast to previous research, supervisors were apt to choose not to act on dissent rather than sanctioning the dissenter. Results also specified conditions that increased the likelihood of employee dissent being successful. Study Two further explored those conditions by comparing supervisors’ recollections of dissent to their perceptions of the effectiveness and appropriateness of that dissent. Both studies draw attention to multiple perspectives of employee dissent and to the importance of supervisors’ perceptions in their responses and in the dissent process.

Examining the Relationship Between Trust in Supervisor–Employee Relationships and Workplace Dissent Expression

Organizational dissent can be a valuable, constructive form of communication in organizations and is influenced by a variety of communication factors. This study explores how employees' trust in their supervisors relates to dissent expression. Data collected from 179 full-time employees were analyzed using correlational analysis. Results indicated trust in supervisors was significantly related to employees' use of articulated dissent. Additionally, there was a significant, negative relationship between trust in supervisors and latent and displaced dissent. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Raised to Dissent: Family-of-Origin Family Communication Patterns as Predictors of Organizational Dissent

This article extends Kassing's (1997, 1998) model of organizational dissent by evaluating the extent to which family-of-origin communication predicts upward (i.e., to superior) and lateral (i.e., to peer) dissent. Specifically, building from Koerner and Fitzpatrick's theory of family communication schemas, we predicted that family communication patterns (i.e., conversation and conformity orientations) would serve as an individual factor that meaningfully predicts employee dissent. Significant findings emerged for upward dissent but not lateral dissent, with both a main effect for conformity orientation and interaction between conversation and conformity orientations. Decomposition of the interaction effect indicated that, as hypothesized, employees from pluralistic (high conversation, low conformity) families were more likely to express upward dissent than employees from consensual (high conversation, high conformity) families. This pattern of results informs both organizational practice and the theoretical intersection between family and organizational communication.

Academic Locus of Control as an Individual Factor Influencing Student Dissent

Recently, instructional scholars have identified instructional dissent as a student’s expression of disagreement with a classroom policy or procedure (Goodboy, 2011a, 20011b; Horan, Chory, & Goodboy, 2010). To that end, this project uses Kassing's (1997, 1998) model of organizational dissent to explore the relationship between academic locus of control (i.e., an individual factor) and instructional dissent. Participants included 380 undergraduate students. Results indicated that students who perceive a greater locus of control over their learning environment (i.e., high academic locus of control) are somewhat more likely to express vengeful dissent (i.e., seek revenge or retaliation on their teacher). Further research investigating relational and organizational factors is needed.

Dissenters, Managers, and Coworkers

Previous research on organizational dissent has explored a number of issues, but that research has been overly focused on the dissenter while neglecting the active role of others in co-constructing dissent. That line of scholarship has also tended to examine dissent expressions in isolation rather than exploring how previous experiences shape present expectations. This essay redefines dissent to situate interaction centrally and to focus on dissent interactions over time as a process rather than a one-time event. The success or failure of dissent is conceptualized as part of that process. Such a perspective reveals nuances by including the stories and discourses that are told as part of and in addition to an initial dissent conversation. A case study demonstrates how this reconceptualization of dissent recognizes the primary importance of interaction in constituting organizations and advances process theory by explicating the value such a perspective adds to this context.

Expressions of Dissent in Email: Qualitative Insights Into Uses and Meanings of Organizational Dissent

This study explores the role of email in organizational dissent expression and employees’ perceptions of the rules for using this medium. Twenty-one interviews were conducted with employees who commonly used email in their job to learn about some of the ways email was seen as playing a role in organizational dissent by those who commonly use the technology. Thematic analysis of data produced two rules employees cited for email usage: be careful what is committed to writing (because of loss of message control and fear of being monitored) and maintain an appropriate, professional communication style (free of emotion, sent only to the appropriate people, and used for topics not needing face-to-face interaction). Three additional strategic roles of email in organizational dissent include emails as a means of promoting strategic self-presentation; email as a means of inviting dissent; and email as a means of documenting/archiving potentially problematic interactions. The implications of this study for existing and future studies of dissent are explored.

Accuracy, Coherence, and Discrepancy in Self- and Other-Reports

The purpose of this study was twofold and involved examining the viability of using the Organizational Dissent Scale as an other-report instrument, and developing additional perceptual data related to dissent expression. A sample of 291 people completed survey questionnaire measures of organizational dissent. Equal-sized groups ( n = 97) completed either a self-report, a workplace colleague other-report, or an organizational outsider other-report. Results indicated the Organizational Dissent Scale performed reliably as an other-report, but it showed some tendency for social desirability. In addition, findings suggested that certain indicators of proximity to the dissenter reduced discrepancy between self- and other-reports for upward dissent, but not lateral dissent. By comparison, lateral dissent produced the most discrepant reports of dissent expression, while displaced dissent produced the most coherent reports.

Organizational Dissent and Servant-Leadership

Organizational Dissent and Servant-Leadership

Deviating From the Script: A Content Analysis of Organizational Dissent as Portrayed on Primetime Television

Scholars have argued that workers portrayed on television were often comfortable voicing disagreement to their supervisors but that disagreements rarely resulted in any change to the status quo. Organizational dissent, which by definition represents a challenge to the status quo, has been linked to a number of benefits for the dissenter and the organization. The researchers of the present study examined how dissent was portrayed on primetime television. Results indicated that dissenters often approached supervisors who had the power to address the frustrating circumstance that triggered the disagreement but that dissent was instrumentally ineffective and failed to elicit emotional support from the dissent audience.

Responses to Organizational Mandates: How Voice Attenuates Psychological Reactance and Dissent

Organizations sometimes create policies that restrict the decision freedom of their members. When doing so, they might create psychological reactance and dissent. This study examines whether providing voice into a decision can reduce the likelihood that those affected by the decision perceive it as imposing on their rights, can have negative emotional reactions to its adoption, and can want to engage in organizational dissent. Undergraduate students were randomly assigned to read scenarios in which a university committee decided to recommend that a university-wide, mandatory, comprehensive exit examination requirement be adopted after a student group either supported the requirement or opposed it. The results confirmed an indirect path between voice and dissent that flowed through perceived imposition on students’ rights and negative emotional reactions to the adoption of the requirement. The limitations of the study and implications of the results for theory and research are discussed.

Dissent in organizations

Dissent in organizations

Uncomfortable Communication: Leaders'and Members' Perceptions of Dissent Triggers in Churches

Some churches may experience tension where members value democratic ideals and participative decision making but leaders advocate independent authority based on divine instmction (i.e., "sheep" and "shepherd"). The present study used interviews and surveys to explore one particular expression of that tension: organizational dissent triggers as reported by church leaders and members. Leaders identified a number of triggers in the dissent that they heard including children's programs, the use of church facilities, worship style differences, and the role of women in leadership. Members listed eight categories of triggers including programmatic offerings, budget issues, behavior of other members, worship style, behavior of leaders, use of or lack of facilities, gender, and the need to include everyone. These data are discussed in terms of implications for research on dissent and research in church contexts. Additionally, practical suggestions for churches are explained in light of these results.

Making Waves at Work

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.

Dissent in organizations

Dissent in organizations

‘Paying the Butcher’s Bill’: Policing British Colonial Protest after 1918

This article reconsiders the forms and functions of colonial police actions in the repression of organized dissent. In part, it is a study of changing patterns of repressive behaviour in worsening economic conditions, an approach which explains the concentration on the inter-war period, cleaved as it was by the acute economic disruptions of the Depression years. In part, it is an investigation of the connections between perception and action. Focusing on Colonial Office instructions regarding protest policing, it examines the ways in which police and military security forces in the British Empire constructed enemies of colonial state ‘order’. This, it is argued, shaped the resultant strategies of repressive restriction, riot control, and labour containment adopted.