Speaking Out: How Americans Feel About CEO Activism

• Published in: The public relations strategist Vol. 23; no. 3; p. 16
• Main Author: Essner, Dean
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Public Relations Society of America, Incorporated 01.10.2017
• Subjects: Chief executive officers; Politics; Work environment; Work ethic; United States > US
• ISSN: 1082-9113

If you search politics and business on Google, then you'll find a bevy of articles telling you how the workplace is a poor setting for expressing partisan loyalties, especially if you're a CEO. Corporate leaders aren't given their power, prestige, responsibility and nine-figure pay packages to use the corner office as their personal soapbox, wrote New York Times columnist James B. Stewart in a recent essay. However, because of today's divisive political climate, Americans--and more specifically millennials--are becoming increasingly interested in hearing from CEOs on hot-button issues. Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist at Weber Shandwick, views these results as a product of our evolving times. Business and politics aren't separated anymore, and corporate leaders need to act accordingly. Business and policy today are colliding and clashing, and it is becoming increasingly hard to stay neutral all the time," she says. If a company's values and purpose are challenged, business leaders will be forced to decide how to respond.