From the Looks of Things

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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine how people perceive employee dissenters. Respondents, who were full-time working adults from various organizations, received questionnaires that contained a scenario depicting a fictitious organizational character engaging in either articulated or latent dissent. Participants then provided their perceptions of the dissenter depicted in the scenario via a set of other-report indexes. Results indicated that respondents perceived articulated and latent dissenters differently. Respondents perceived articulated dissenters to be less verbally aggressive and less argumentative, more identified with their organizations, and more satisfied employees than latent dissenters. In addition, articulated dissenters, compared with latent dissenters, were seen as employees who have better relationships with their supervisors, as employees who see management as more open to employee input, and as employees who exercise more influence in their organizations.