A Game of Telephone: Mid-Managers' Experiences Transitioning from Dissent Audience to Dissenter

Mid-managers are a commonly sought dissent audiences for subordinates expressing dissent about an organizational policy, practice, or procedure (Garner, 2016; Kassing, 2011). Resolving the subordinate’s dissent, however, might be out of the mid-manager’s power causing them to pass along the subordinate’s dissent to upper management or another organizational member. This research study sought to understand mid-manager’s dissent experiences of being dissented to by a subordinate, lacked the ability to act upon the dissent, and transitioned to a dissenter passing the subordinate’s dissent to another organizational member. Drawing on 20 interviews of mid-managers, this study found that mid-managers experienced a tension between emotions and rational thought when dissented to by the subordinate, went through a stage of preparation including information seeking and advice seeking to manage the uncertainty of what to do with the subordinate’s dissent, went outside of the traditional hierarchical chain of command to another organizational member (e.g., human resources) to express dissent, and conveyed the outcome of dissent with the subordinate through sensegiving. Theoretical implications for the field of organizational dissent and practical implications for mid-managers will be discussed.