Letters: Descent of dissent

Shyamal Majumdar's column "Say no to yes-men" (Human Factor, December 20) is a neat compilation of anecdotal evidence of how or why the culture of zero dissent prevents organisational leaders from accessing effective feedback for superior decision-making. A manager needs to be seen as an attentive listener of different ideas with an open mind and to accept and act on them even if they are in conflict with his own. However, early or successive achievements tend to make a manager over-confident and less receptive to critical feedback.

Promoting a culture of dissent is not achieved easily. It requires employees to trust the manager, have faith in his objective judgment, be sure that negative information will not meet with punitive retribution, that they are appreciated even for their rejected ideas and are provided with appropriate learning opportunities to enhance their creative and problem-solving skills.

Firms utilise innovative methods to sustain an internal environment of constructive discord. Hewlett Packard rewards go-against-the-grain kind of dissenters. IBM allows employees to question their bosses and provides for the disagreement to be referred to a third-party for advice. Anheuser-Busch inducts a "devil's advocate" into the decision process for complex policy issues. However, not every dissenting opinion is positive in effect. For instance, personality-based or emotion-rather-than logic directed differences may not turn out to be fruitful. And contrary to the title of the article, there is no dearth of yes-women also.

Y G Chouksey Pune

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