Social Justice in Management
For my management degree elective, I took a class about social justice in management. If you know me, you know I’m pretty passionate about justice as a concept, so this class was an excellent fit. I wondered what I would learn, having come into the class a little primed about the topic. Caring about something is a great start, and now I am more educated and armed with helpful resources and examples about how I can bring about positive change. Let’s dig into some highlights and reflections on bringing social justice into business.
My baseline views of social justice centered around people having equitable access to opportunity as that facilitates personal freedom, and an egalitarian society free of systemic discrimination or limitations based on race, gender sexuality, religion, ability/disability, culture, country of origin, or socioeconomic status. My baseline definition of social injustice was the inverse and revolves around certain groups of people having more power, access to opportunity, concentration of wealth, and in turn freedom of choice than others. I think many people who are aware of justice as a concept approach it from that lens.
That’s a great starting point, but there’s more to the story. Social justice is about more than just freedom of choice, and can weave in the ideology of an ethical society. Someone may benefit from an advancement in socially just policy and still not have true freedom of choice, but their working conditions may have improved to be more ethical through practices such as fairer wages, safety regulations, or worker protections. It’s not about the end result, it’s about progress – and we shouldn’t give up on that just because we live in an intrinsically unfair world.
Should leaders identify and confront social justice in the workplace?
We grappled a lot with this topic in class. Many people think that business should be business and social justice is its own thing, better left to the legal system or their religious doctrine’s interpretation of justice. However, I think it’s important to challenge that notion and work to build a more just world wherever we spend our time. Leaders can (and absolutely do) perpetuate injustice, either intentionally or unintentionally, through things like bias or active discrimination. This can inhibit someone’s access to work, financial opportunity, and/or fair labor conditions. When we acknowledge this instead of just sweeping it under the rug, we can develop better strategies to address injustice more effectively.
One core ideology that I believe tolerates this unintentional or intentional perpetuation of social injustice is Friedman’s shareholder model, which focuses on profit and narrowly considers the relevant parties at play in a company’s existence (Alanis Business Academy, 2014, 0:04:57). When companies operate with dedicated focus on shareholders, they may be incentivized to use business practices that deliver higher profit margins at the expense of workers or the environment. This can lead to a spectrum of injustice ranging from low-but-compliant wages to more egregious offenses, including negative consequences on the physical health of people in the surrounding area and globally, as evidenced by air and water pollution worldwide.
Leaders should think more broadly than simply delivering shareholder value on a shorter-term basis (and for more than just justice – maybe a little longer-term thinking would minimize the layoffs that have become the new norm). The stakeholder framework supports how to accomplish this, by incorporating secondary stakeholders like the government and media who can provide a valuable neutral and external perspective. This longer-term decision making may mean sacrificing some profit margin (either permanently or temporarily) but also acknowledges both the intangible and/or quantifiable benefits that the organization can see as a result.
Should businesses address social justice in the workplace?
Beyond individual leaders, what about organizations? Businesses should absolutely address social justice in the workplace because businesses are ultimately groups of humans, and they work to support humans in some fashion, even if their operations revolve around simply providing products or services that people want or need. Using a model like Livingston’s PRESS model can make the process more feasible and improve the chances of meaningful change by giving a framework to follow.
Some companies do an excellent job of reporting how they advanced aspects of social justice. Microsoft’s Corporate Social Responsibility team does a stellar job with their reporting, centering around the social justice pillar of accessibility. Microsoft reports back on how their core products and services facilitated better technical and financial access to technology for people with disabilities, specialized support tailored to those using accessible features (Microsoft, n.d.). Microsoft also produced a video highlighting their disability inclusion efforts, highlighting autistic employees and the specific value they bring to the company (Microsoft, 2017, 0:00:27). This shows they hold themselves accountable. Microsoft leads by example, modeling to leaders at other organizations what is possible.
Benefits businesses derive from addressing social injustice in the workplace
Luckily for all of us, there are meaningful benefits to a business if its leaders address social justice (because otherwise they would not bother). Some include:
improved decision making by incorporating diverse perspectives for having facilitated access to opportunity
mitigating the risk of making offensive brand-damaging mistakes as a result of unchecked confirmation bias
winning over customers who care about supporting firms with more just operations
better worker retention and reduced recruiting costs a la Costco and Trader Joe’s (Ton, 2014)
In addition, some of the benefits to companies advancing social justice come about especially when social justice is integrated in the product or service the brand offers. One example is Truepic which used its image recognition technology to protect journalists who reported war crimes; its leaders carved out a niche by addressing social injustice with their startup technology, and this benefited the company in terms of revenue, improved recruiting of talent, helpful feedback from beta testing, media recognition which brought both positive brand awareness and investors on board (Schive, 2019).
Conclusion
Ultimately, the theme of the key takeaway I got from my social justice in management class was about how to take my existing passion for social justice and turn it into action. I have a much better perspective about how to feasibly incorporate better business and labor practices into my career – and make a case to win over people who don’t inherently care about justice but would value the benefits it brings.
References
[Alanis Business Academy]. (2014, January 6). Social Responsibility Perspectives: The
Shareholder and Stakeholder Approach [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD9XJKZmXEs
Livingston, R. (2020, September). How to Promote Racial Equity in the Workplace. Harvard
Business Review. Retrieved June 8, 2024, from
https://hbr.org/2020/09/how-to-promote-racial-equity-in-the-workplace
Microsoft (n.d.). Get support from the Disability Answer Desk. Microsoft Accessibility.
Retrieved May 25, 2024, from
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/disability-answer-desk?rtc=1&a
ctivetab=contact-pivot:primaryr8
[Microsoft]. (2017, October 2). Microsoft Autism Hiring Program: Audio Description [Video].
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm9rG03Ek74
Schive, M. (2019, September 17). This start-up made doing good a business priority – and
flourished. World Economic Forum. Retrieved June 17, 2024, from
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/09/how-one-start-up-made-social-impact
-a-business-priority-and-flourished/
Ton, Z. (2014, July 1). Why Companies That Pay Above the Minimum Wage Come Out Ahead.
Forbes. Retrieved June 22, 2024, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2014/07/01/why-companies
-that-pay-above-the-minimum-wage-come-out-ahead/