Managing Internal Dissent and Adversarial Employee Activism: A New Corporate Governance Function

Sara Conti, GuangLun Hsiang (Ph.D. student), Chun-Ju Flora Hung-Baesecke, Silvia Ravazzani, and Yan Jin. “Managing Internal Dissent and Adversarial Employee Activism: A New Corporate Governance Function.” Accepted for presentation at BledCom (The 33rd International Public Relations Research Symposium), June 26-27, 2026, Bled, Slovenia. Abstract: This conceptual paper proposes an integrated framework that adopts a risk management perspective, focusing on the internal dynamics through which dissent emerges and can be constructively addressed before it escalates externally. The framework links employee activism to two distinct sources of organizational dissent: workplace-driven dissent, which arise from internal problems mainly related to wellbeing issues or toxic micro- and macro-organizational causes; and values-driven dissent, which stems from misalignment between employees and their organization on sociopolitical issues. Central to the framework is a two-level prevention mechanism that includes governance and organizational responsiveness, identifying the structural conditions for responsiveness and discussing how leadership implements and activates them.