Organizational dissent

It has been suggested that this article should be split into articles titled Dissent and Insubordination. (discuss) (January 2020)

Organizational dissent is the "expression of disagreement or contradictory opinions about organizational practices and

.

Types of dissent

There are three types of dissent: articulated, latent, and displaced (Kassing, 1998).

Articulated

Involves expressing dissent openly and clearly in a constructive fashion to members of an organization that can effectively influence organization adjustment. This may include

.

Latent

Employees resort to expressing dissent to either their coworkers or other ineffectual

but lack sufficient avenues to effectively express themselves.

Displaced

Involves expressing dissent to external audiences, such as

sources sought out by whistle-blowers.

Factors influencing dissent expression

Kassing (1997) states there are three factors that influence which dissent

will decide to use:

1. Individual
2. Relational
3. Organizational

Individual influences

Individual influences concern qualities that employees bring to the organization, expectations they have acquired, and

they enact within organizations.

Preference to avoid conflict

Roberto (2005) claims that employees may have a preference for avoiding conflict. Therefore, they find confrontation in a public setting uncomfortable. Individual's sense of powerlessness and senses of right and wrong are contributing factors (Kassing & Avtgis, 1999).

Verbal aggressiveness and argumentativeness

Kassing and Avtgis (1999) demonstrated that an individual's verbal

issues.

Individuals will choose their strategy for expressing dissent based on the strength of their

. Kassing and Avtgis (1999) found an individual who is more argumentative and less verbally aggressive is prone to use articulated dissent. On the other hand, an individual who lacks argumentative skills will resort to using a less direct and more aggressive strategy, latent dissent.

Work locus of control

Work locus of control can also be a contributing influence. An individual with an internal locus of control orientation believes that they have control over their destiny. They feel the only way to bring about a desired outcome is to act. Individuals who see their lives as being controlled by outside forces demonstrate an external locus of control (Robbins, 2005). Kassing's (2001) study demonstrated that employees with an internal locus of control used articulated dissent whereas an employee with an external locus of control preferred to use latent dissent.

Relational influences

Relational influences include the types and qualities of relationships people maintain within their organization.

Employee relationships
Employees develop and maintain various relationships within organizations. These relationships can influence the choices employees make about expressing dissent. Employees may feel uncomfortable voicing their dissenting

(Roberto, 2005).

Superior–subordinate relationship
The

over the outcome of organizational decisions. Conversely, employees that perceive their relationship with their supervisor as low-quality will resort to latent dissent. They feel that there is no room to voice their opinions (Kassing, 2000).

Management which models the use of articulated dissent contributes to the use of articulated dissent among its employees (Kassing & Avtgis, 1999). Subordinates who witness their supervisors successfully articulating dissent may be more likely and more willing to adopt similar strategies. However, a supervisor must keep in mind that expressing dissent can be very difficult and uncomfortable for lower-level managers and employees. Therefore, supervisors should not only take actions to encourage dissent, they must be willing to seek out individuals willing to say no to them (Roberto, 2005).

Organizational influences

Organizational influences concern how organizations relate to their employees.

Organizational norms

Once an employee joins an organization, it is through

to inform their own decisions about when and how to use dissent (Kassing, 2001). Furthermore, some corporate assumptions are accepted without questioning. For example, employees will defer to the expert's opinion (Roberto, 2005).

Organizational identification

Organizational identification and workplace

values

. If the organization demonstrates it values dissent and promotes workplace freedom of speech, the highly identified employee will demonstrate articulate dissent.

Openness

An organization that limits the opportunities for employees to voice their opinions, demonstrates contradictory expectations, and gives the perception that openness is not favored, will lead employees to select latent dissent strategies (Kassing & Avtgis, 1999).

Perceptions of organizational dissenters

The

and the consequences of their actions and will use this information to refine their "sense of organizational tolerance for dissent, to determine what issues merit dissent, and to inform their future dissent strategy choices" (Kassing, 2001).

Kassing (2001) found that articulated and latent dissenters were perceived differently. People perceived articulated dissenters to be more satisfied, more committed, possess higher quality relationships with their supervisors, and seen as employees who believed they have influence within their organizations than latent dissenters. Furthermore, articulated dissenters, compared to latent dissenters, were perceived to be less verbally aggressive.

Triggering events

Organizational dissent begins with a triggering event. This triggering event is what propels individuals to speak out and share their

, and preventing harm (Kassing, 2002).

In addition to the dissent-triggering event, the focus of the issues can be relevant to how one expresses dissent. Kassing (2002) believed individuals may focus on improving matters within the organization that affect themselves (self-focused), they may focus on the welfare of the organization of the whole (other-focused) or they may focus on issues concerning their co-workers (neutral).

Articulated dissent

An individual will use upward articulate dissent in response to functional and other-focused dissent-triggering events.

.

Latent dissent

Individuals may also express latent dissent in response to functional and other-focused dissent-triggering. They determine to use latent instead of articulate when they believe that management is not receptive to employee dissent. This indicates that individuals would use articulate dissent if they feel those channels are not available and accessible. Latent dissent is also used in protective dissent–triggering events.

Displaced dissent

Individuals will readily use displaced dissent regardless of the focus or triggering event. External audiences provide individuals with a low-risk alternative to express dissent. The downfall for organizations, however, is the loss of employee feedback. If an employee expresses their dissent to outsiders, the organization will not hear about it and will assume that less dissent exists within the organization. When an organization fails to address potential issues, employees may then view the organization as discouraging dissent and will resort to using either latent or displaced dissent in the future.

Benefits of upward dissent

In 2002, Kassing's research found upward dissent can be beneficial to both the organization and the individuals involved.

Organizational benefits

Upward dissent serves as an important monitoring force and allows the organization to identify problems and issues before they become damaging.

Individual benefits

Employees who express upward dissent seem more satisfied, to have better work relationships, and to identify with their organization.

Upward dissent strategies

Not all

.

Direct-factual appeal

When an employee uses factual information derived from

.

Repetition

time frame

does not allow the supervisor enough time to respond. However, if repetition is used over an extended time period it may be considered active–constructive since it may serve as a reminder to the supervisor.

Solution presentation strategy

The solution presentation strategy is deemed as active–constructive since an employee will provide solutions, with or without supporting evidence. This allows the supervisor to be receptive to the expressed dissent and indicates that effort has been put into solving the problem/issue.

Circumvention

If an employee feels their immediate supervisors are not responsive to dissent, they may employ the circumvention strategy. This entails the employee choosing to dissent to an audience higher in the organizational

unethical

practices it is considered active–constructive since the dissent is issue driven.

Threatening resignation

Threatening resignation can also be seen as both active–constructive and active–destructive. This strategy involves the employee threatening to resign as a "form of leverage for obtaining responsiveness and action from supervisors and management." When used to express your concerns about unsafe and intolerable

and unprincipled".

Encouraging dissent in the workplace

There are some "

skills

that are needed to foster constructive dissent.

Change decision-making focus

Leaders should focus on "How I should make the decision" instead of "What decision should I make". In the end, if they perform the following steps the decision the leader should make will be obvious.

Encourage constructive conflict

Leaders need to ensure that

decision process

.

Establish ground rules

Before the process begins, leaders can establish ground rules for how people should interact during the

and to challenge the main position, its benefit lies in the fact that it automatically builds conflict into the decision-making process.

Intervene when necessary

During deliberations, leaders can intervene when debates get heated. They might redirect people's attention and frame the debate in a different light, redescribe the ideas and data in novel ways so as to enhance understanding and spark new branches of

and one that increases the potential solutions available.

Reflect on the process

After a decision process ends, leaders should reflect on the process and try to derive lessons learned regarding how to manage conflict constructively. Since reflections can lead to new

trust

could be lost which could negatively affect the effort of the next collaboration. Additionally, leaders should celebrate constructive conflict management and help others to remember the success of the process (Roberto, 2005).

Establish a supportive climate

Bennis (2004) emphasizes that corporate leaders must promise their followers that they will never be

any employee who voiced an opposing view. Additionally, leaders should reward dissent and punish conflict avoiders. Anyone who clearly withholds a dissenting view only to obstruct the implementation later should be held responsible.

When leaders establish a climate of openness, they make constructive conflict a habit in the organization and develop behaviors which can be sustained over time. Kassing's (2000) research found that when leaders emphasize workplace freedom of speech, employees openly and clearly express dissent to audiences that are responsible for "organizational adjustment". However, for leaders to ensure this type of sustainability, they need to not only change the way they make decisions, but they must develop a pipeline of leaders who approach decision-making differently (Roberto, 2005).

Situations that may undermine a leader's efforts

Even if a leader takes all the steps indicated above they must be aware of four situations that can undermine their efforts (Roberto, 2005).

Crowding out response time

Leaders should avoid crowding out opportunities to respond or discuss policies. Overloading an agenda can decrease the amount of time that is available for an individual to express their view.

Appointing the same devil's advocate every time

Employing the same person as devil's advocate can cause the view that it is an "empty ritual". It is seen as being done for procedural reasons instead of seeking dissenting views.

Allowing too much time for subgroups

Leaders should not allow employee

and as a result they may not be open to other ideas.

Focusing on qualitative data

Leaders should avoid focusing on qualitative data. The employees may become more focused on the data than the real issue(s).

Whistle-blowing

avenues that have the power to take corrective action. Kassing (2000) believes that the whistle-blowing process begins at the superior–subordinate relationship. If a superior response to an employee's effort to dissent is negative this may cause the employee to seek other avenues of dissent. In fact, evidence indicates that only as a last resort do the dissendents finally go public with their tales (Bennis, 2004, Kassing, 2000).

Whistle-blowers are often high-performing employees who believe they are doing their job (Martin, 2005). They just want to bring people's attention to a problem that is potentially harmful or

the whistle-blowers (Martin, 2005).

Organizations need to realize that internal dissent is not itself a crisis, but rather priceless insurance against disaster. Until the ugly headlines appear and the consequences are unavoidable, companies too often forget that they will suffer far more for ignoring their principled dissendents than by giving them a hearing (Bennis, 2004).

See also

Notes

References

• Bennis, W. (Jan 23, 2004). Truth or consequences. Center for Public Leadership. Retrieved September 22, 2007 from John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Web site
• Deutsch, M. & Coleman, P.T. (Eds.) (2000). The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
• Eilerman, D. (February 2006). Conflict: Personal dynamics and choice. Retrieved September 17, 2007
• Kassing, J.W. (2001). "From the look of things: Assessing perceptions of organizational dissenters." Communication Research, 21, 553–574.
• Macy, G. & Neal, J.C. (1995). "The impact of conflict-generating techniques on student reactions and decision quality." Business Communication Quarterly, 58:4, 39–45.
• Martin, B. (2005). "Bucking the system: Andrew Wilkie and the difficult task of the whistleblower." Overland, 180, 45–48.
• Perlow, L.A. (May 26, 2003). When silence spells trouble at work. Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. Retrieved September 20, 2007 from the Harvard Business School Web site
• Redding, W.C. (1985). "Rocking boats, blowing whistles, and teaching speech communication." Communication Education, 34, 245–258.
• Roberto, M.A. (2005). Why great leaders don't take yes for an answer. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
• Robbins, S.P. (2005). Organizational Behavior. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

External links

• Conflict Management Articles – A Collection of Conflict Management Articles
• The Organization Development Network
• Society of Human Resources Management