Working While Liberal/Conservative: A Review of Political Ideology in Organizations

Abstract

Political polarization has increased significantly in society over the past decade, and whether intended or not, employees at all levels bring their political ideologies into organizations. We posit that political ideology is unique and warrants the attention of organizational scholars. We begin by integrating literature from political science and political psychology to review the various conceptualizations of political ideology as representing values, identity, and political affiliation. Next, we review the literature of political ideology in organizational sciences which has examined political ideology through a values-based lens,understanding it to be a source of motivated reasoning that influences strategic decisions. We then review a smaller subset of literature that has examined political ideology through an identity-based lens, exploring its influence on social dynamics including stereotyping, diversity in teams, and person-organization fit. Finally, we chart a course for future research on political ideology, focusing on (1) conceptual expansions, (2) contextual determinants, (3) diversity, (4) cross-level alignment, and (5) the acknowledgment of possible researcher bias.

A Many-Analysts Approach to the Relation Between Religiosity and Well-being

“…Fourth, the discussion on the potential health-benefits of religion has been muddied by concerns about researcher interests and biases. That is, it has been argued that scholars of religion might be biased by their own (religious) beliefs (Ladd & Messick, 2016;Swigart et al, 2020;Wulff, 1998) or by the fact that a substantial amount of research in the science of religion is funded by religiously-oriented organizations such as the John Templeton Foundation (Bains, 2011;Wiebe, 2009). 1 Inviting independent analysts from various backgrounds including but not restricted to religious studies attenuates this potential concern.…”

What Does Political Context Tell Us? Understanding the Persistence of Ideological Imprints in the Case of Turkish Humor Magazines

“…By referring to the contextual determinants of political ideology in organizations (Swigart et al, 2020), our work reveals the role that politically charged events, such as elections, play in making political ideology more salient within organizations and highlights the dynamic relationship between political ideology and organizational outcomes over time. Importantly, therefore, we draw attention to the interaction of a founder's political ideology with the societal political environment.…”

“…Our study responds to the call for research on developing and testing contextual conditions that make individuals' political views salient to organizations. We contribute to the literature by considering when and for whom political ideology tends to be activated-or dormant-to understand when it is more likely to impact organizational decisions (Swigart et al, 2020).…”

Silence has no place: a framing analysis of corporate statements about racial inequity, immigration policy and LGBTQ rights

“…Individual companies may engage in CSA because they see it as good for business, because stakeholders demand they say something or because the company's leaders personally think the issue is important (Nalick et al. , 2016; Edelman, 2017; Swigart et al. , 2020).…”

“…, 2020). Conversely, however, employees are often the ones to exert pressure on a company to engage in activism, especially as the employees themselves become aware of and involved in emerging or ongoing social movements (Georgallis, 2017; Swigart et al. , 2020).…”