This is one of the first papers to consider the strategic implications of the burgeoning phenomenon of corporate activism on a critical internal stakeholder—the employee. Its findings contribute to the emerging scholarship on the strategic implications of CEOs and corporations taking stands on social- political issues outside the realm of their core businesses.
Key findings
This study discovered a demotivating effect of taking a stance on a social-political issue with which employees disagree, and no statistically significant motivating effect of taking a stance on a social-political issue with which employees agree.
From a practical perspective, these findings suggest that managers should be aware of their employees’ stances on a given political or social issue prior to taking a public political stance on that issue and should think twice about taking a stance that is incongruent with that of their employees.
Key excerpts
- I find strong evidence that communicating a social-political stance with which employees disagree has a demotivating effect. This effect manifests itself, substantively and significantly, in both the quality of required work completed and the quantity of extra work completed for the employer.
- I also find evidence that communicating a social-political stance with which employees agree has no (statistically significant) motivating effect. The lack of a motivating effect when the worker agrees with the employer’s stance is strongly apparent in the quality of required work completed, as the average quality of required work was both substantively and statistically equivalent to that of the control group.
