Document Type
Report
Abstract
Companies today increasingly feel pressured to take public positions on potentially divisive sociopolitical topics. Whether they choose to stay silent on these issues or weigh in, they face significant risk. The 2023 HR@Moore Survey of CHROs explored how companies typically go about making decisions in this arena, before focusing on how they responded to a specific issue – the Supreme Court’s recent Dobbs v. Jackson decision overturning Roe v. Wade regarding abortion rights in the U.S. The report shows that most companies have developed either formal or informal criteria to evaluate whether or not to take a public position on some politically or culturally divisive issue. The most important criteria focus on the extent to which the issue is aligned with the business’s strategy, values, and reputation. CHROs also indicated that employees seem to be the stakeholder group exerting the greatest pressure for companies to engage around divisive sociopolitical issues. Finally, most companies reported that they expect to stay the same or reduce the frequency with which they seek to engage publicly around controversial topics. The Dobbs v. Jackson case provided a recent example of a concrete, high-profile issue that prompted many companies to engage, so we asked CHROs to report how they responded to the Supreme Court’s decision. Our results indicate that companies were far more likely to issue internal statements than external statements, and those statements often emphasized existing commitment to and resources for women’s health services. Companies that issued such responses most frequently did so within the first 3 days after the Supreme Court’s decision was announced, demonstrating a balance of commitment to this issue but with some caution. In contrast, external statements were either immediate, asserting these companies’ strong commitment to the issue, or delayed 4 or more days, perhaps signaling responses formulated in response to pressures placed on the company to say something. The 2023 HR@Moore Survey of CHROs sought to examine how CEOs, CHROs, and organizations are attempting to thread the needle between accommodating employees and other stakeholder groups who want companies to be publicly vocal around sociopolitical issues while avoiding potential blowback from others who may be more reluctant. We explored how they go about deciding whether or not to take a stand, who is involved in the decision, and how they see these decisions going forward. In addition, we asked whether the need for CEOs to walk this tightrope is impacting the kinds of competencies being evaluated among potential successors. Finally, we explored the specifics of how companies responded to a recent sociopolitical issue with the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Publication Date
2023
Disciplines
Business
Copyright
© 2023, University of South Carolina
Publication Info
2023.