The Interdisciplinary Committee for Organizational Studies (ICOS) at the University of Michigan hosted a discussion on Corporate Activism and Organizational Authenticity on Friday, March 25. The meeting, aimed at doctoral students and faculty members, was open to the public in person and virtually. This event is part of a series seminars organized by ICOS on Fridays throughout the winter semester 2022.

Sarah Soule, professor of organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, moderated the event. Soule discussed how organizational studies connect to social phenomena. She said she believes this research is important for understanding the future of corporate engagement in social movements.

“The biggest conclusion for me, because this is a very tentative conclusion, is probably that there could be a shift in the way CEOs (and) business leaders respond and engage in the sociopolitical,” Soule said.

Corporate activism is when a company takes a public position on a social or political issue. The event reviewed the responses of various companies to the Black Lives Matter movement and other protests against police brutality and racial injustice that occurred in the summer of 2020. The event focused on three studies examining public corporate responses – letters and social media posts – to the Black Lives Matter movement and the public response to corporate activism.

Rackham student Kyle McCullers introduced Soule, saying he was interested in his lecture in light of notable examples of activism in recent years.

“I’m really curious to see what kind of research is being done in light of BLM and everything that’s happened over the past five years,” McCullers said. “I really look at Professor Soule’s work and her story at the intersection of social movements and organizations.”

The first presentation was about a survey that asked individuals to review companies’ statements about BLM. The survey asked whether participants supported corporate activism and whether they supported CEOs entering the sociopolitical realm, two research questions Soule wanted to investigate. The survey results suggested a positive public response to corporate activism, Soule said.

“There’s a lot of support for this kind of (corporate statements), and the interviews not only suggested support, but also suggested that this is expected behavior now,” Soule said. “We think we have at least preliminary evidence from this national survey that some of that (support) depends on the type and moral authenticity of the company.”

The second study was an experiment centered on how people react when organizations do not act in accordance with their advertised socio-political values. For example, participants in the experiment saw a statement from a company expressing support for BLM alongside a news article about the same company selling “all lives matter” products.

Looking at the results of the experiment, Soule said benefit companies – a for-profit entity that also aims to promote the public good – tend to be less vulnerable to criticism than other companies.

“When these organizations engage in a hypocritical act, there’s something about for-profit corporations…that tends to shield themselves from criticism,” Soule said.

The third study focused on the content of corporate social activism statements and their impact on public support and donations to BLM. Soule said the study showed customers gave more money and wrote longer letters of support to BLM when hypocritical companies publicly admitted their hypocrisy.

“When we look at the level of support for statements, we see that compared to no confession, … subjects like statements with confession more,” Soule said. “We’re starting to dig into…similar types of statements to see if these confessions are anything new.”

One of the next steps in these studies is to see if these corporate statements — such as those made in the summer of 2020 about BLM — are effective over the long term, Soule said.

“One of the things we do with this research project is to follow (with) these organizations every year to see what happens with these statements, (and if) they (have followed) their promises,” Soule said. . “Are those who have delivered on their promises less successful than those who have just issued a statement and made no promise? Or worse, (they) made a promise, and we find no evidence that they didn’t spend the money or give the resources they wanted? »

ICOS co-director Jim Westphal said he hopes these seminars will help bring together a community of interested scholars.

“The goal is really to bring together the largest community of researchers at the University of Michigan who are interested in organization studies to hear and discuss the latest research,” Westphal said. “(The seminars) underscore the University’s position as a leader in interdisciplinary research on organizations.

Daily staff reporter Meghan Kunkle can be reached at [email protected]