SIM Research Seminar by Abhinav Gupta
The Origins and Evolution of Red, Blue, and Purple Employee Populations: A Theory of How Organizations Become Ideologically Skewed
Info about event
Time
Location
2628-303
Organizer
The SIM Section invites you to the SIM Research Seminar, where Abhinav Gupta from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business will visit our department. Abhinav is hosted by Tünde Cserpes and will present the following research project:
The Origins and Evolution of Red, Blue, and Purple Employee Populations: A Theory of How Organizations Become Ideologically Skewed
Abstract
Research has shown that employee populations of some firms exhibit distinct ideological hues, consisting overwhelmingly of either left-leaning or right-leaning individuals, and that the implications of such skews are substantial. But little is known about how ideologically skewed employee populations come to be. We present a theory that predicts the degree to which a firm’s employee population will be ideologically skewed, rather than normally distributed, at a given point in the firm’s lifespan. Our theory unfolds in three stages. First, we argue that founding conditions - societal polarization, ideological skewness of relevant labor markets, and founder ideology - determine whether a firm’s initial workforce will be ideologically skewed. Second, we propose that if an ideological skew initially emerges, attraction-selection-attrition (A-S-A) processes reinforce the skew, causing it to increase over time. Third, we highlight that A-S-A-driven outcomes are not deterministic; instead, emergent post-founding contingencies - such as shifts in salience of ideologies, pressures for firm neutrality, and reversal mandates - can either exacerbate or dampen ideological skew. By identifying these contingencies, our theory explains why some firms become bright “red” or “blue” while others are “purple,” and it offers a foundation for understanding the interplay between societal polarization and ideological leanings of employee populations.
Bio
Abhinav Gupta is a strategic management scholar and Professor at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. His research examines how leaders’ political ideologies and personal values shape strategic decisions, organizational change, and firms’ engagement with societal issues, and how cultural and institutional contexts influence corporate strategy and responses to social challenges. In this talk, he presents a coauthored theory-only paper that is currently under revision for Academy of Management Review.
Everyone is welcome!