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Management Communication Quarterly
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Going Around the Boss

Exploring the Consequences of Circumvention

Jeffrey W. Kassing, PhD

Arizona State University West, jkassing{at}asu.edu

This study explores outcomes associated with circumvention (i.e., dissenting by going around or above one's supervisor). Employees completed a survey instrument in which they provided a dissent account detailing a time when they practiced circumvention. Several themes regarding relational and organizational outcomes emerged from an interpretive analysis of the data. Circumvention resulted predominantly in relational deterioration with one's supervisor, but in many cases it led to neutrality, compromise, relationship development, and understanding. Although organizational-level outcomes most often produce results that are favorable for dissenters, they also include triggering agent sanctions, organizational improvement, absence of corrective action, and disadvantageous outcomes for the dissenter.

Key Words: employee dissent • employee voice • upward dissent • upward influence • superior—subordinate communication

Management Communication Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 1, 55-74 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0893318907302020
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 Management Communication QuarterlyHome page
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