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International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Abstract

Dissent is the choice to disagree and challenge the majority view of those holding positional power (Gordon 2008, 20; Martin 2008, 22). In some organizations, dissenting banter may be part of the process of healthy decision making and innovation. Dissenting conversations may initiate perturbations through the complex interactions of organizational life. With these unexpected interactions, the potential exists for discovering innovative notions that may benefit the organization (Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky 2009, 145). Within other organizations, dissenting conversation may expose individual organizational members to the risk of being labeled as "out of step," "not a team player," or, worse, "a heretic" (Martin 2008, 25-26). If the organizational climate causes these conversations to be difficult, the dissenting message will be expressed somewhere else (Kassing 1997, 137). To better manage dissent messages, organizational leaders may choose to foster values and relationships that better allow for the communication of dissent. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relationship of servant-leadership values to the effective leadership of organizational dissent. Servant-leadership may provide a values framework that could be helpful in the development of the authentic relationships required for the effective use of organizational dissent.

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