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Dissent is a form of feedback.
If teachers are complaining to one another or to people outside the school, encourage them to give that feedback to you.
Learn how to turn dissent into valuable information and build a positive school culture.
Understanding the importance of school culture to organizational success is essential to facilitating improvement efforts that positively influence student achievement. It is natural for individuals or groups within organizations to resist change, and schools are no exception. Fear, loss of power and autonomy, close-mindedness, traditions, values, ethics, and the desire for predictability are some of the reasons why school employees may resist change. Principals who understand the importance of building relationships and harnessing the potential of everyone in the school community are more successful at facilitating a school culture where change is not only accepted but also an expected and necessary component of the school improvement process.
Building relationships and facilitating change in schools can be enhanced with a fundamental understanding of organizational dissent as a legitimate means for teachers and other employees to express their reluctance toward and resistance to change. As administrators in two rural Virginia school districts, Gloucester and Northumberland, we welcome constructive feedback from teachers and staff members and have implemented communication structures that acknowledge and encourage articulated dissent regarding organizational actions and administrative decisions.
What Is Organizational Dissent?
Organizational dissent can be defined as expressions of disagreement or contradictory opinions regarding contextual phenomena (Kassing, 1997] and is a form of communication that provides organizations with an appropriate conduit for feedback regarding employees' frustrations and discontent with organizational actions or administrative decisions. Education researchers have focused on similar behaviors when they talk about voice, job satisfaction, trust, and negative norms, but the construct of organizational dissent has not been sufficiently studied in the school context. Sensitivity to and acceptance of dissent in schools have the potential to improve principal-teacher interactions and provide insights into behavioral triggers, manifestations, motivations, consequences, and implications.
Conversely, a failure to recognize organizational dissent may cause leaders to mistakenly label forms of dissent as negativity or negative norms. Such misunderstanding can result in diminished teacher moti- vation, increased disengagement, and other unwanted dispositions that deter efforts to accomplish school goals and objectives that are...