In an increasingly polarized world, with trust in politicians and the media on the continual decline, people are increasingly looking to business leaders to mend our frayed social fabric.
It’s a responsibility that comes with great opportunities and plentiful pitfalls—and the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer offers some advice to executives navigating the treacherous terrain.
The 23rd annual survey of consumer confidence and attitudes toward institutions, released this week by the global PR firm, found ample evidence to suggest that business leaders can take a starring role in healing societal divides while avoiding perceptions of excessive politicization. Edelman officials based their conclusions on 32,000-plus surveys conducted in 28 industrialized countries.
“I can’t say this is ever going to be easy or never without controversy, and I can certainly say being a CEO today requires a good amount of courage and a strong backbone and ability to take some heat,” said Tonia Ries, executive director of thought leadership for the Edelman Trust Institute. “You have to be able to be willing to stand up and explain both what you’re doing and why in order to be trusted.”
This year’s survey honed in on rising concerns about polarization across the globe, largely tracing back to declining trust in government and a lack of shared identity. Respondents in 15 out of 26 nations said their country is more divided now than in the past, including large majorities in the U.S., Brazil, Germany, France, and the U.K. (The other 11 countries generally boast authoritarian governments or disproportionately homogenous populations, while data was not collected in China and Taiwan.)
The survey also revealed a continuing trend of improving attitudes toward business, including a major jump in perceptions of ethical behavior by industry leaders over the past three years. In turn, it further dove into the public’s appetite for business executives acting on polarizing issues and its preferred methods for contributing to the cause.
Here are some key takeaways for business officials trying to contribute to the cause and stay above the political fray.
The world wants business to tackle hot-button issues—and that includes many Republicans in the U.S.
Perhaps the most stunning finding from the Edelman survey is the public’s desire for industry to exert influence on the defining issues of the day. Roughly half of respondents said they want businesses to do more to address climate change, economic inequality, energy shortages, and health care access. By contrast, only about 8% of respondents said businesses are overstepping their role.
Several of the world’s largest investment firms have taken a particularly active role in championing urgent issues, framing their advocacy as a net benefit for investors and society.
“We think climate is good for business, and we also think ethics is good for business,” Nicolai Tangen, CEO of the $1 trillion-plus Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, told Fortune Impact and Connect executive editor Peter Vanham this week.
Those attitudes weren’t just limited to liberal-minded countries. In the U.S., roughly 25% to 35% of self-identified Republican respondents said they wanted business to act more aggressively on various pressing issues, while 10% to 30% said too many industry leaders were acting out of turn. The results cut against a common narrative that Republicans widely consider too many business leaders excessively “woke” and prone to harmful activism.
“This anti-woke thing is actually a minority of a minority group,” said David Bersoff, the Edelman Trust Institute’s head of research. “It’s a small part of the Republican Party. They’re very loud, and they have some positions of power in certain parts of the government, but that is not reflective of the general population sentiment.”
Employees trust those closest to them—including their bosses.
While all politics feels national these days, workplace relationships represent some of the tightest bonds in our lives. When asked whether they trust each person or group of people to do what’s right, 73% voted affirmatively for their co-workers and 64% voiced faith in their company’s CEO. By contrast, only 41% said the same about government leaders and 48% put trust in CEOs generally.
“I do think there’s been a real shift over the last decade or so of trust that used to be placed in authority figures and institutions, now being more about peer-level relationships,” Ries said. “That level of trust in employers is very unique and resilient, to the point that even in the most low-trust environments and societies that are highly polarized, people have lost trust in everything else, but (they) still trust (their) employer.”
Ries noted that the sharp increase in perceptions of ethical behavior by businesses coincided with the onset of the pandemic, during which companies showed “a level of concern for employees, for the most part, that was appropriate and appreciated.”
Engaging on political topics is risky—but some approaches are better than others.
About half of survey respondents were skeptical that business leaders can speak out on touchy subjects while also avoiding perceptions of partisanship. However, those who were optimistic that a balance can be successfully struck offered some ideas for evading partisan labels. Chief among them: disseminating trustworthy information, basing actions on science, and holding true to a consistent set of values.
Ries said business leaders can use regular communications, such as internal newsletters or company-wide meetings, to provide information about hot-button issues and explain the reasoning behind corporate positions on polarizing topics.
“One of the things we’ve seen companies focus on is, how do we take these employee communications and information I’m putting out, and think about that a little more broadly,” Ries said. “We’re seeing some companies actually step in and fill a little bit of a void left by local news, providing community information. And we see example after example of companies becoming spurts of data, information, and facts about their area of expertise.”
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade abortion precedent exemplified the value of strong communication by employers. As Fortune’s Paige McGlauflin reported in October, citing a survey by women’s nonprofit Catalyst, 44% of workers called on their employer to do more to secure abortion access, but 59% wanted more information about their employer’s reproductive health care policies.
Trust in government might be low, but public-private partnerships are still preferred.
While attitudes toward business and government diverge, there’s decent support for the two working in tandem.
When asked which of four approaches to addressing societal issues is most likely to result in constructive action, 41% of respondents said government and business working together would move the needle the most. Only 21% chose “both working independently,” while 16% selected “government working only alone” and 10% backed “business only working alone.”
In the U.S., for example, voters recently voiced strong support for federal legislation that provided billions of dollars in subsidies and other support to semiconductor companies expanding their manufacturing footprint on American soil. The bill, which President Joe Biden signed into law in August, followed months of negotiations and lobbying by chipmakers who favored the package.
Jacob Carpenter
