Employees Terrorize Their Bosses Into Going Woke

Lithuania does not have many big companies. 

"Why do big companies seem to be getting only more woke? It's a question I've been asked frequently since I started to maintain a list of woke businesses in April 2021. I was frustrated that much of corporate America was fecklessly endorsing Democratic fear-mongering about a newly passed election-integrity law in Georgia -- which, indeed, subsequent minority voter turnout proved to be a hysterical reaction. To my knowledge none of the organizations that joined the pressure campaign against Georgia have apologized. Most have become even more woke, inserting themselves into such issues as abortion and parental rights in education, causing my list to grow and grow.

A new paper by researchers from Baylor University and the Copenhagen Business School helps shed light on why.

Wokeness, the authors conclude, typically originates from power-seeking middle managers looking to carve out areas of responsibility that enhance their job security. Think of career fields that tend to attract more Democrats, like the human-resource bureaucrats who manage diversity-training programs or advertising teams that design social-justice marketing campaigns. Lower-status employees are somewhat expendable to a giant company, but rather less so if they specialize in wokeness. The diversity, equity and inclusion jargon alone makes such initiatives "difficult for outsiders, including top managers, to understand" and thus to "challenge," the study explains. The result is that middle-management bureaucrats play an "outsized" role in spreading this leftwing ideology to corporate culture.

Though there is "little evidence of systematic support for woke ideas among executives," they tend to rubber-stamp them anyway. Corporate leaders often fear their younger, more sensitive and progressive subordinates, as well as the advocacy groups that rate companies on woke metrics. Executives know that if they don't approve leftwing initiatives, they could face public backlash. We've seen woke employees protest corporate policies at Amazon, Hachette, Disney, Netflix and a host of other companies. As the researchers point out, in some cases executives approve woke initiatives to shift the focus away from hard performance measures like profitability toward softer, more easily manipulated ones like "contributions to diversity or social justice."

There's little sign of wide support for wokeness among the public, the study notes, yet companies seem blind to the risk of alienating customers by going too far left. I think that's partially explained by how social media distorts their view of public opinion. Because younger generations are more likely to take to Twitter or similar platforms to tarnish a brand that offends their sensibilities, businesses get the idea that their customers are more left-leaning than they really are. Even if they see through this, it seems to me that companies often seem more interested in building loyalty with the younger, woker demographic than fretting about older customers who don't like their branding.

One serious consequence of all this, the study explains, is that "the promotion of corporate wokeness limits viewpoint diversity." As leftwing ideology pervades a company, it becomes harder and harder to have an unorthodox opinion and still succeed there, the study concludes. That's "typically bad for creativity and innovation."

It also seems to lead to a disconnect between brands and their customers' values. While 63% of corporate executives agreed "unequivocally" that companies "should speak out on social issues" in a November 2021 Brunswick Insights poll, a mere 36% of voters -- and only 51% of Biden voters -- concurred. Edelman's 2022 Trust Barometer showed that Republican voters' trust in businesses dipped 12 points last year, falling for the first time ever to a point at which a majority distrusted corporations. This is no doubt in part due to increasing frustration with corporate wokeism.

What, then, are we to do when there isn't a single large corporation that markets itself as unwoke? My advice: Patronize small businesses. The owners may not share your politics, but without the problem of middle-management bureaucrats trying to protect and expand their turf, you're far less likely to encounter wokeness in the business itself. You can even find ads specifically for conservative small businesses on apps like Public Square, but it's satisfying to have ideology left at the door too.

I used to be addicted to Chipotle, but when their marketing became too woke for my taste, I gravitated to a local burrito chain called Casita Taqueria. Not only does its food taste better and cost less, I have no idea what the owners' politics are -- and I don't care. I'm just excited that when I want Mexican fast food, I don't have to swallow any distasteful politics with it.

---

Mr. Seminara is a former diplomat and author of "Mad Travelers: A Tale of Wanderlust, Greed & the Quest to Reach the Ends of the Earth."" [1]

1. Employees Terrorize Their Bosses Into Going Woke
Seminara, Dave.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 07 Mar 2023: A.15.