When Should Companies Weigh in on Contentious Issues?

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In a globally connected and highly politicized world, organizations are increasingly expected to comment on social, political, and environmental issues. But taking a stance doesn't always make business sense and can backfire when employees or consumers see a disconnect between leaders’ words and actions. Alison Taylor, associate professor at New York University, says there's a better way to make decisions on corporate speech, which includes involving workers in the process. Taylor is the author of the HBR book Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World and the HBR article “Corporate Advocacy in a Time of Social Outrage.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the HBO Ideacast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Allison Beard.
0:15.0	Over the past few years there seems to have been a big shift in the way
0:24.9	organizations are expected to respond to current events and
0:28.1	controversies.
0:29.1	Increasingly employees want and expect their organizations to speak out and take action on a
0:34.8	host of social, political and environmental issues. From Black Lives Matter to
0:39.0	transgender rights, abortion to immigration, climate change to the wars in Ukraine and Israel and Palestine.
0:45.3	These topics are in the headlines every day and many workers feel passionately
0:50.6	about one or more of them. But in an increasingly polarized world,
0:54.9	it's hard for organizations to take a stance on every issue. Today's guest has
1:00.3	ideas on how leaders can find a better balance, addressing contentious
1:04.1	topics without it backfiring or distracting people from the real work of the
1:07.9	business. Allison Taylor is a clinical associate professor at New York
1:11.7	University.
1:13.0	She wrote the HBR book Higher Ground,
1:15.0	How Business Can Do the Right Thing
1:16.5	in a Turbulent World,
1:17.9	and the HBR article, Corporate Advocacy
1:20.4	in a time of social outrage. Allison, welcome.
1:24.0	Thanks so much for having me.
1:27.0	So let's first dig into how we got here. People have been outraged about
1:36.2	sociopolitical issues in the past, you know we've seen civil rights, anti-war
	...

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