Speaking Up: Identifying Employees' Upward Dissent Strategies (original) (raw)
Related papers
Consider This: A Comparison of Factors Contributing to Employees' Expressions of Dissent
Communication Quarterly, 2008
In this study, full-time employees were surveyed to determine the degree to which different considerations factored into their decisions to express upward or lateral dissent. Employees rated considerations similarly when reportedly dissenting to either supervisors or coworkers, with organizational climate and organizational attachment considerations being comparatively stronger than concerns associated with being perceived as adversarial and experiencing retaliation. A comparison across types of dissent revealed that organizational climate, organizational attachment, and adversarial perception=retaliation were more important considerations when employees expressed upward versus lateral dissent. Additionally, results suggested no significant differences in the way management and non-management employees weighed considerations when expressing dissent.
Employees' Expressions of Upward Dissent as a Function of Current and Past Work Experiences
Communication Reports, 2006
This study considered the degree to which employees' current and past work experiences related to employees' expressions of upward dissent. A sample of full-time working adults completed a survey questionnaire that assessed workplace freedom of speech, current job tenure, employment history, and upward dissent. Findings indicated that perceptions of workplace freedom of speech and current job tenure related to upward dissent about other-focused issues, that employment history related to upward dissent about functional issues, and that perceptions of workplace freedom of speech and employment history related to upward dissent about protective issues.
Management Communication Quarterly, 2002
The purpose of this study was to examine how the nature of dissenttriggering events influenced to whom employees chose to express dissent. This was accomplished by asking respondents to report the frequency with which they expressed upward dissent to managers and supervisors, lateral dissent to coworkers, and displaced dissent to people external to their organizations (i.e., family and nonwork friends) in response to different dissent-triggering events. Structural equation models were employed. Results revealed that employees were more likely to express dissent to supervisors and coworkers about issues related to their coworkers and about organizational functions such as decision making and organizational change than they were to express dissent about ethical practices and preventing harm to employees. Employees did not appear to differentiate the amount of dissent they expressed to people outside of their organizations as a function of dissent-triggering events.
Speaking Up Competently: A Comparison of Perceived Competence in Upward Dissent Strategies
Communication Research Reports, 2005
Recent dissent research indicates that employees report using several different strategies for expressing their dissent to management and supervisors (i.e., upward dissent). The purpose of this study was to compare previously recognized upward dissent strategies in terms of perceived competence. Employees completed a survey instrument that asked them to assess the competence of different upward dissent strategies. Results indicate that employees perceived solution presentation to be the most competent upward dissent strategy, followed by direct-factual appeal, repetition, and circumvention. Threatening resignation was perceived as the least competent upward dissent strategy.
Examining the Relationship between Organizational Dissent and Aggressive Communication
Avtgis / ORGANIZATIONAL DISSENT The purpose of this study was to explore the degree to which individual differences, in general , and aggressive communication traits, in particular, influenced employees'dissent strategy selections. Employees completed self-report instruments describing their levels of verbal aggressiveness, argumentativeness, and how they chose to express dissent concerning organizational practices and policies. Results indicated that argumentativeness, verbal aggressiveness, and organizational position predicted articulated and latent dissent use. Results also indicated that individual differences did not predict the use of displaced dissent.
Predicting Employee Dissent Expression in Organizations
Management Communication Quarterly, 2016
Employee dissent is understood as resulting from unsatisfying organizational states. Dissatisfaction can be felt but not expressed; dissent is the actual performance of disagreement with immediate circumstances. Constructive expression of dissent can have positive consequences, and therefore, much scholarly attention has been drawn to the phenomenon. In this article, we theorize that argumentativeness and verbal aggressiveness influence employee dissent behavior. Our particular contribution is that we hypothesize that these effects are mediated by assessments of the costs and benefits of dissent. We test whether the previously reported direct effects of argumentativeness and verbal aggressiveness are mediated by this cost–benefit analysis. A survey was conducted with undergraduate students and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk participants ( N = 817). Structural equation modeling showed that the apparent direct effects of verbal aggressiveness and argumentativeness became insignificant after...
2021
In this study, along with organizational culture, organizational dissent which becomes more important in terms of national and international literature in recent years is discussed. This study aims to answer the question of how organizational dissent perception is shaped within the context of organizational culture. In this study, in which quantitative research methods were used, a questionnaire was applied to 211 white-collar private sector employees working in companies in the organized industrial zone in Duzce, Turkey. In the SPSS program, correlation analysis was carried out and the data were subjected to multiple regression in the AMOS program by path analysis. As a result of the path analysis, it was determined that the clan culture, which is one of the sub-dimensions of organizational culture, has a negative effect on the questioning and latent dissent from the sub-dimensions of the organizational dissent. While the culture of adhocracy has a positive effect on the constructive articulated dissent, the hierarchy culture has a negative effect on the constructive articulated dissent and positive effect on latent dissent. These results are expected to demonstrate the importance of organizational dissent in organizational culture for employees and businesses and contribute to the development of the literature.
Management Communication Quarterly, 2013
ABSTRACT 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.
Full-and Part-Time Dissent: Examining the Effect of Employment Status on Dissent Expression
This study examined whether employment status affected the amount and type of dissent employees expressed to management. To address this full-time and part-time employees in separate data collections completed the Upward Dissent Scale. A comparison of participant scores indicated that full-time employees used comparatively more prosocial (direct-factual appeals and solution presentation) and repetition upward dissent tactics compared to part-time employees. Contrastingly, part-time employees relied more heavily on upward dissent expressions that involved circumventing their bosses and threatening to quit their jobs. The findings indicate that employment status has a notable effect on the expression of upward dissent— with full-and part-time employees relying on differing tactics.
ONLINE FIRST. Employee dissent is understood as resulting from unsatisfying organizational states. Dissatisfaction can be felt but not expressed; dissent is the actual performance of disagreement with immediate circumstances. Constructive expression of dissent can have positive consequences, and therefore, much scholarly attention has been drawn to the phenomenon. In this article, we theorize that argumentativeness and verbal aggressiveness influence employee dissent behavior. Our particular contribution is that we hypothesize that these effects are mediated by assessments of the costs and benefits of dissent. We test whether the previously reported direct effects of argumentativeness and verbal aggressiveness are mediated by this cost–benefit analysis. A survey was conducted with undergraduate students and Amazon's Mechanical Turk participants (N = 817). Structural equation modeling showed that the apparent direct effects of verbal aggressiveness and argumentativeness became insignificant after the mediators were included in the model. We conclude that cost and benefit analysis mediates the main effects.