A new leadership challenge: Navigating political polarization in organizational teams

Mansour Javidan, Rick Cotton, Anirban Kar, Medha Satish Kumar and Peter W. Dorfman

Business Horizons, 2023, vol. 66, issue 6, 729-740

Abstract: In this article, we highlight an increasingly important issue in the workplace: the dysfunctional divide between employees of different political affiliations that results in reduced trust and heightened conflict. We provide evidence that differences in political views are having an increasingly corrosive effect on trust, interpersonal relations, and the very ability of teams—at all levels and in many countries around the world—to achieve their missions and to reach their objectives. Drawing from data we collected from managers and professionals before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, we demonstrate the consequences of political polarization in the workplace and explain both how trust is built and how empathy has become an increasingly important factor in trust building among coworkers. Most importantly, we provide actionable strategies for team leaders as to how to effectively manage political polarization and increase trust among team members.

Keywords: Political polarization; Organizational diversity; Organizational empathy; Organizational trust; Contact theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681323000320
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:bushor:v:66:y:2023:i:6:p:729-740

DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2023.03.001

Access Statistics for this article

Business Horizons is currently edited by C. M. Dalton

More articles in Business Horizons from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().