Executives Find They’re Ill-Equipped to Stem Worker Polarization
The challenges are “both internal and external, and then there’s a feedback loop,” according to NYU research scientist.
Employees in a conference room at a JLL office in Dallas, Texas.
Photographer: Dylan Hollingsworth/BloombergIncreased political polarization in the workplace has blindsided corporate executives, leaving them “rudderless” and ill-equipped to manage these challenges.
Senior managers have little guidance on how to navigate both rising employee activism and public pressure on issues, including reproductive rights, gender and racial equity, and gun control, according to Alison Taylor, an executive director at New York University Stern School of Business’s Ethical Systems group. She interviewed about 20 executives from blue-chip corporations as well as smaller companies for a project examining societal divisions in corporate America. Taylor plans to publish her findings in a forthcoming report.