The effects of employees' organizational democracy perceptions on organizational dissent behavior and level of work engagement: A field research

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of employees' perceptions of organizational democracy on organizational dissent behaviors and levels of work engagement. Quantitative research method was used to analyze the research problem. Questionnaire technique was used to collect data for the research. The questionnaire used consists of three scales, and also an another questionnaire for determining the demographic structure of the sample was used. The surveys that reached to 252 samples were conducted between April 2019 and June 2019. Organizational democracy scale consisting of participation-criticism, transparency, justice, equality and accountability and developed by Geçkil and Tikici was used in order to measure the perception of the participants regarding organizational democracy. For the measurement of the organizational dissent phenomenon, the organizational dissent scale that developed by Kassing consists of three dimensions, namely upward, latent and dispaced dissent, was used. A work engagement scale developed by Schaufeli and his friends was used to measure the levels of work engagement of employees. The results obtained from the validity and reliability analysis of all three scales are within acceptable limits. In the first part of the research, the concepts of democracy and organizational democracy are emphasized, in the second part, the concept of organizational dissent is discussed, in the third part, the concept of work engagement is explained, and in the fourth part, the results of the research carried out in a regional directorate of a national company are included. According to the results of the research, the highest average among the sub-dimensions of organizational democracy is transparency, and the lowest average is justice; however, all dimensions were found to have moderate averages. From this, it is understood that the elements that constitute democracy show a medium level of existence in the organization. The most preferred dissent strategy of the participants is upward dissent and the least preferred strategy is displaced dissent; however, it is obtained that the employees display a moderate dissent behavior. It has been observed that employees reflect their physical, mental and emotional energies to their jobs at a high level. According to the results obtained, it was observed that the dimension of work engagement with the highest average is dedication, and the one with the lowest average is absorbtion. Path analysis between variables reveals that organizational democracy does not affect organizational dissent, but positively affects the level of work engagement. According to the results of the structural equation model formed between the sub-dimensions, it was observed that the participation-criticism dimension negatively affected the three sub-dimensions of work engagement and the upward and latent dissent dimensions. It was observed that the transparency sub-dimension positively affects three sub-dimensions of work engagement, the upward and latent dissent dimensions negatively, the sub-dimension of justice negatively affects the three sub-dimensions of work engagement and upward and latent dissent, and the accountability dimension negatively affects vigor and dedication. According to these results, the increase in the democratic level of the organization proves that the employees will be more determined in their jobs, they will dedicate themselves to their jobs at a higher level and they will absorb it more by concentrating more on their jobs. Keyvords: Democracy, Organizational Democracy, Dissent, Organizational Dissent, Work Engagement