Dissent: An Intergroup perspective

Abstract

Dissent is an essential process in human groups and organizations, though one having received little attention in the social psychological and organizational literature. This paper proposes an intergroup perspective on dissent. Dissent is defined as the assertion by a lower power group that a higher power group has come to believe that its partial, bounded views of the world are complete and universal. It is a protest against the higher power group's isolation from the experience of the other groups in its organizational environment, groups on which it depends and who in turn depend upon it. Three case examples are presented to illustrate this perspective. The paper concludes with a set of principles for consulting to organization members on effectively expressing and working with dissent. © 2011 American Psychological Association.