It’s increasingly appreciated that employees today want to work in a way that delivers a positive impact on the world, and they also want their employer to have values that match their own. A recent study from the University of Bath highlights how both employees and even job seekers increasingly want their leaders to not only exhibit the right actions, but speak up on the political themes that matter to them.
Indeed, job seekers are around 20% more likely to want to work for a company whose CEO takes a humanistic stance on various political issues, especially if the issue is unrelated to their core business. What’s more, this was true regardless of the political orientation, age, education level or gender of the job seeker. Indeed, they didn’t even need to agree with the CEO’s view for the boost to occur.
“We had expected people to be attracted to principled, politically active business leaders but we were surprised to find that graduates did not necessarily need to share their opinions to find them appealing,” the researchers explain. “If we take an issue like gun control, people are much more likely to want to work for a company when the CEO stands up for greater gun control, regardless of whether the jobseekers themselves are pro- or anti-gun control. We see exactly the same effect for other issues like same-sex marriage and immigration. Employees want their CEOs to take the more liberal, humanistic stand whatever their own position might be. It seems CEO principles are counting for more and more in today’s jobs market.”
Speaking up
For many years the stance of Michael Jordan, who famously remarked that even Republicans buy sneakers, was adopted by the C-suite, as concerns mounted that taking a political stance would alienate potential customers and employees. The research suggests this may be slowly changing.
Whilst the study suggests that a greater degree of political engagement can encourage new recruits, it is still not without a large degree of risk, as principles in and of themselves are not enough. They have to be the right principles.
“Interestingly, our findings show that the positive effect of CEO activism disappears if the CEO becomes politically active to oppose humanistic values, such as when leaders speak up against same-sex marriage,” the authors explain. “People are more likely to want to work for a company with a CEO that takes no stand whatsoever than one where he or she comes out against such issues. It seems that when CEOs speak up, they should speak up for humanistic values if they want to have a positive spill-over effect for their company.”
What’s more, the boost from taking this humanistic stance was even larger when it was undertaken by a female CEO. The authors suggest that this is largely because of gender stereotypes that associate female managers with attributes such as care and concern for others.
“Our research suggests people perceive such activism as more congruent with the role of a chief executive officer when the CEO is a woman. There is an assumption that potential employees will implicitly expect women leaders to be more likely to speak up for humanistic values,” they say.
Regardless of gender however, if a CEO can take a humanistic stance in the outside world, then it does seem to have a positive impact on both the perceptions and expectations jobseekers have of the company.
With jobseekers increasingly wanting their employer, and indeed their leaders, to fulfil their social as well as corporate responsibilities, this willingness to walk the walk as well as talk the talk is key.
“If the stand is just talk without action, then employees will see through this and it could easily breed discontent. Taking a genuine political stand that leads to tangible action is critical,” the authors conclude.
