Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
Workplace conversations with leaders about politics underwent a pendulum swing between 2020 and 2025. In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, many corporate leaders engaged in conversations with employees on topics ranging from diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to LGBTQ rights to access to abortion. Polls such as the Edelman Trust Barometer showed at the time that employees expected their leaders to address political issues. It didn't take long for an "anti-woke" backlash to emerge in which attorneys general in red states began targeting executives who spoke out on these and other issues. Corporations also took a stronger line with employees. Google, for instance, cracked down on political workplace conversations in response to employee objections to military contracting with the US Department of Defense and fired employees who objected to the company's work with the government of Israel. Despite this backlash, some effective practices have emerged for leaders who wish to hold productive political conversations. These include developing listening skills that differ from those needed to make executive decisions, being clear about what the organization will and won't do in response to employee political pressure, and harmonizing external statements about political and social issues with internal practices so that employees do not experience a disconnect between what the company says publicly and how it operates behind closed doors.
Date
11-7-2026
Subject
Industrial and organizational psychology
Document Type
presentations
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Included in
Talking politics in the workplace: effective practices for leaders
Workplace conversations with leaders about politics underwent a pendulum swing between 2020 and 2025. In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, many corporate leaders engaged in conversations with employees on topics ranging from diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to LGBTQ rights to access to abortion. Polls such as the Edelman Trust Barometer showed at the time that employees expected their leaders to address political issues. It didn't take long for an "anti-woke" backlash to emerge in which attorneys general in red states began targeting executives who spoke out on these and other issues. Corporations also took a stronger line with employees. Google, for instance, cracked down on political workplace conversations in response to employee objections to military contracting with the US Department of Defense and fired employees who objected to the company's work with the government of Israel. Despite this backlash, some effective practices have emerged for leaders who wish to hold productive political conversations. These include developing listening skills that differ from those needed to make executive decisions, being clear about what the organization will and won't do in response to employee political pressure, and harmonizing external statements about political and social issues with internal practices so that employees do not experience a disconnect between what the company says publicly and how it operates behind closed doors.
Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology