by Regina Kim
Dissent is an important feedback mechanism that can lead to greater employee satisfaction and commitment as well as creativity and innovation.  Organizational dissent is defined as the verbal expression of contradictory opinions and disagreements (Hegstrom, 1990).  Upward dissent entails the expression of disagreement to supervisors, superiors, or management and it has been found to be an indicator of work engagement. In an attempt to examine factors that lead to constructive, prosocial upward dissent tactics, Redmond and colleagues (2016) surveyed 242 full-time employees from three organizations.  They found that integrating conflict management style (e.g. behaviors that promote mutual understanding and collaborative problem-solving) was positively associated with prosocial upward dissent tactics, such as providing evidence and factual information in support of the dissenter’s claim and/or offering a solution to a problem.  Contrary to the researchers’ prediction, superior-subordinate relationship quality did not directly increase prosocial dissent tactics. Rather, it was only when the positive relationship coincided with an integrative conflict management style of the subordinate that there were more constructive, prosocial upward dissent tactics present.
Because expressing upward dissent in organizations is a productive behavior that can promote open communication and lead to positive outcomes if done constructively, it may be useful for organizations to train employees in specific communication strategies for inviting and responding to dissent.  For example, encouraging the usage of integrating conflict management style would invite employees to engage in collaborative problem solving.  These positive communication experiences should create an open environment in which employees learn that they can voice their concerns to supervisors.
  References:
Redmond, V., Jameson, J. K., & Binder, A. R. (2016). How superior-subordinate relationship quality and conflict management styles influence an employee’s use of upward dissent tactics.  Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 9, 158-176.
Hegstrom, T. G. (1990).  Mimetic and dissent conditions in organizational rhetoric.  Journal of Applied Communication Research, 18, 141-152. Creative Commons License Rally by Ryan O'Hara is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.