Addressing societal challenges in a polarized world
Scholars interested in societal challenges have long argued that business cannot be separated from morality, but they have often adopted an overly optimistic view of morality, believing that society would be a better place if managers and stakeholders were more often driven by moral considerations. Our current reality, as well as research on polarization, calls this optimistic view into question: in a world where people disagree about what is right, appealing to morality and taking a stance on a social issue can bring unexpected harm to firms’ reputations and can undermine the trust and cooperation among stakeholders needed to address societal challenges. This occurs because groups of stakeholders holding opposing moral convictions on a social issue can come to strongly dislike one another and seek to avoid interactions. For example, in May 2023, Target faced an onslaught of negative stakeholder reactions, which led to a drop in sales. After online criticism, threats, and violent confrontations from angry right-wing customers, Target decided to remove several items from its Pride Month merchandise line. This removal generated further outrage from left-wing stakeholders who felt that Target had wrongly caved to right-wing pressures. Despite their deleterious effects on firms’ reputations, stock prices, and sales, such backlashes often seem to surprise managers. These backlashes also contribute to societal polarization by making opposing attitudes highly visible.
For management scholars, it is urgent to study how managers can navigate this minefield of diverging views about what is right for society. Some firms face stakeholders who disagree both on which social issues to prioritize and on which moral principles should be applied to address them. I will offer food for thought by reviewing what we know about polarization in and around organizations and by outlining what we can learn from the rapidly expanding literature on polarization in social psychology and political science.
Bio:
Flore Bridoux is Professor of Stakeholder Management at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. She studies how to organize cooperation within and across organizational boundaries and stakeholders’ reactions to the social (ir)responsibility of organizations. Her current work focuses on stakeholder governance and how to manage stakeholders in a polarized world.