Organizational Dissent Resources
Broadly conceptualized dissent can range from employee resistance (e.g., picketing, strikes, protests) to whistleblowing (i.e., reporting organizational wrongdoing to the media or regulatory bodies). Kassing's work however resides between these potential extremes by considering dissent expression in everyday workplace communication interactions. Accordingly, Kassing (1998) defines dissent as the verbal expression of disagreement or contradictory opinions about workplace policies and practices.
Dr. Kassing first wrote about organizational dissent in a piece called Articulating, Antagonizing, and Displacing: A Model of Employee Dissent. This article was part of a special issue focused on organizational democracy that appeared in Communication Studies (1997) in print form and online in The Electronic Journal of Communication (1998).
In this work he outlined a model of organizational dissent (shown here) that indicated how a combination of factors could lead employees to share dissent with managers and supervisors, coworkers, or friends and family members outside the organization.
Accordingly, a triggering agent (an event that is serious enough to surpass one's reservations about expressing dissent) moves an employee to feel that something must be said in order to address a particular concern.
In determining how best and with whom to share the concern, employees consider individual factors (communication preferences and personality traits), relational concerns (workplace relationships with supervisors and coworkers), and organizational influences (the climate and culture of an organization).
These considerations help employees determine if they will be viewed as constructive or adversarial when sharing their criticism of the organization and whether or not they will put themselves at risk when doing so.
In this work he outlined a model of organizational dissent (shown here) that indicated how a combination of factors could lead employees to share dissent with managers and supervisors, coworkers, or friends and family members outside the organization.
Accordingly, a triggering agent (an event that is serious enough to surpass one's reservations about expressing dissent) moves an employee to feel that something must be said in order to address a particular concern.
In determining how best and with whom to share the concern, employees consider individual factors (communication preferences and personality traits), relational concerns (workplace relationships with supervisors and coworkers), and organizational influences (the climate and culture of an organization).
These considerations help employees determine if they will be viewed as constructive or adversarial when sharing their criticism of the organization and whether or not they will put themselves at risk when doing so.
Consult the following resources to learn more about Dr. Kassing's organizational dissent research:
Additionally, you can access many of Dr. Kassing's publications on his Academia.edu page.
- A TEDx talk entitled Giving Voice to Dissent from Arizona State University (April 2, 2019)
- An entry in the International Encyclopedia of Communication (John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2017).
- A chapter from the undergraduate textbook Introduction to Communication Studies: Translating Scholarship into Meaningful Practice (Goodboy & Shultz, 2012) published by Kenall Hunt.
- A bibliography of Kassing and colleagues research on organizational dissent
- A podcast of Dr. Kassing discussing his organizational dissent research
Additionally, you can access many of Dr. Kassing's publications on his Academia.edu page.
Also on this page you can access The Ask the Workplace Doctor website. Initiated and curated for years by Dr. William (Bill) Gorden at Kent State University, the website served as an online resource for people seeking advice about workplace challenges. While the site is no longer active, you can access the archives of the Workplace Doctor website and explore the advice given to hundreds of employees about various workplace issues.
