Organizational Dynamics of the Status Quo: Micro and Macro Implications for Social Change

Despite increasing societal attention to the need for social change along multiple dimensions, including well-being, diversity, pay equity, and corporate responsibility, organizations have struggled to make substantial progress. Workplaces continue to be dominated by constrictive “ideal worker” norms, leadership spaces remain predominantly White and male, the gender pay gap has barely budged since the 1990s, and shareholders remain the primary stakeholder for most organizations. Why is it so difficult for organizations to accomplish the social change called for by leaders, scholars, advocates, and the general public alike? Across arenas of mental health, diversity, pay equity, and corporate responsibility, the papers in this symposium investigate the risks that organizations associate with social change, the responses that they craft to mitigate these risks, and the detrimental consequences that these responses have for social change in organizations. By adopting an expansive, interdisciplinary perspective at the crossroads of psychology, sociology, and management, this symposium provides insights not only into how social change efforts are thwarted on a case-by-case basis, but also into the dynamics that systematically reinforce the status quo in organizations. Well but Unwanted: The Subtle Backlash Against Prioritizing Mental Wellbeing at Work Presenter: Andrea Freund; Stanford Graduate School of Business Presenter: Ashley E. Martin; Stanford Graduate School of Business Presenter: Margaret A. Neale; Stanford U. Framing Diversity as Instrumental to Performance Undermines Organizations’ Diversity Efforts Presenter: Oriane Georgeac; Yale School of Management Presenter: Aneeta Rattan; London Business School From the Job’s Worth to the Person’s Price: The Transformation of U.S. Pay-Setting Practices Presenter: Laura Adler; Harvard U. The Long Shadow of Depoliticized Organizational Theory Presenter: Andrew Paul Lynn; U. of Virginia