I'm unsure how to correctly use the word dissonance in relation to myself - do I feel dissonance, do I experience it, or something else?
The sentence I have is:
I have been open regarding the dissonance I experience with the values, culture and decisions of the department.
Is it ok to use the word dissonance in this way?
Yes, it is fine. True, the commenters are correct in saying that dissonance is nowadays most often used in the phrase cognitive dissonance, and even when it isn't, it tends to refer to internal conflict. However, the word does get used the way you want to use it, too.
The second definition of dissonance in the OED is
Want of concord or harmony (between things); disagreement, incongruity;
Examples given are
1826 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. (1828) IV. xlvii. 381
This puzzling variation and dissonance between the different tribes.
1871 J. Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (1879) I. iii. 83 The molecules..are in dissonance with the luminous rays.
Here are some more contemporary examples:
Part of the dissonance we experienced with the linemen, and with other areas too, is what I like to call "constructive tension." (source)
The very dissonance they experienced with parents may partly reflect the differences between adolescence and adulthood. (source)
In the case of my dissonance with the world of white evangelicalism, … (source)
I had assumed my dissonance with the show came from the casual way I had approached its viewing. (source)
Feel works, too:
It is early and the quiet of the vanishing night lingers except for the swooshing sound of my footsteps, exaggerating the dissonance I feel with the vast landscape. (source)
