The Business Implication of Politics at Work

The consequences of belief-driven conflict in the workplace go well beyond hurt feelings and tension among colleagues.

Such clashes—whether overt or unspoken—can have destructive effect on team cohesion, collaboration, trust, productivity, and eventually the bottom line. In fact, some senior executives believe that the current state of politics in the U.S. can affect an entire organization’s ability to perform.

Over a quarter (29%) of the C-level executives surveyed last week by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) said that they view the impact of the outcome of the U.S. Presidential election as a potential threat to their organizations’ ability to execute on strategy in 2025.

The annual global survey of the members of i4cp’s executive boards—exclusive peer groups of senior executives who meet regularly to collaborate—explores the priorities of their respective organizations in 2025 as well as predictions for what’s ahead.  

Among the survey's preliminary findings: in addition to the outcome of the 2024 U.S. elections, global political instability was also listed as a chief concern in terms of external threats that have capacity to derail objectives in the coming 12 months.  

Rules of engagement

While the impulse to implement a ban on discussion of politics in the workplace is understandable, it’s not realistic—such policies are nearly impossible to enforce, the existence of them can breed mistrust of leadership—and besides, it’s a bigger issue than politics alone.

Conversations can very easily touch on or drift into politics and other hot button topics as a simple matter of course. This is mostly because:

• we exist in a hyperconnected world,
• we seem to be in constant dialogue with one another across various channels,
• and the demarcation lines between work and the rest of our lives have blurred irretrievably and in ways that would’ve seemed unthinkable even five years ago.

As we noted in a comprehensive brief published last week exclusively for i4cp members, “Navigating Politics in the Workplace,” new generations in the workforce have evolving expectations of the organizations that employ them. The professional has increasingly become personal and vice versa. Many employees want to be able to express their social identities and personal values at work—to include things that were once unquestionably taboo in the corporate world.

And dramatic events no one could’ve anticipated have driven substantial change in terms of corporate culture and decorum at work in the past few years:

• Difficult discussions escalated as COVID-19 response and policies became politically charged.
• The murder of George Floyd drove intense workplace discussions about race and social justice.

And now in addition to escalating war in the Middle East, and an intense U.S. election season, we are reeling from one natural calamity to another, further complicated by politicalized misinformation about disaster response spread via social media.

Leading with principles

What can leaders do to navigate all of this? How can tension—sparked by political dialogue or any other sensitive topic—among co-workers be diffused before it begins?

Start by making the rules of engagement in your organization crystal clear—and those must be grounded in your organization’s guiding principles. If you aren’t familiar with your organization’s stated mission and values, make sure that you become so.

• What are your company's core values or beliefs defining its purpose and direction?
• How do those core values provide a roadmap, complete with boundaries, for the culture?
• What is the expected tone for all interactions with customers, employees, and other stakeholders?
• What is expected of leaders? What do those behaviors look like?

If there are disconnects between an organization’s core values and how leaders conduct themselves in their everyday behaviors, interactions, and decision making, the environment is ripe for discord. And while the behavior of leaders is of great significance to the health of company culture, so too is that of the influencers—as i4cp’s research has found, leaders are those who have influence in their organizations, regardless of title.

By consistently following the standards laid out by their organization’s principles and core values, leaders can guide their companies through the current crisis and whatever comes next.  

i4cp’s report, 2025 Priorities and Predictions: C-Suite Perspectives from i4cp’s Boards will be released to the public December 03, 2024.