Management Practice Insights
DOI: 10.59571/mpi.v4i1.11
Year: 2026, Volume: 4, Issue: 1, Pages: 68-73
Original Article
Bikramjit Ray Chaudhurii*
iS.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
Received Date:28 July 2025, Accepted Date:02 March 2026, Published Date:31 March 2026
Commenting on a social issue which is peripheral to core business activities is always a risk for any organisation or a business leader. The communication, or the lack of it, may result in a group of offended stakeholders, which, in turn, may affect the core business. Many leaders prefer to remain silent unless a social issue directly affects their core business. However, an organisation’s silence on a prominent social issue can also be a risky (non)action, especially when it is highly visible, e.g., when competitors are expressing their views. Recent research by Marco Shaojun Qin, Xueming Luo, Todd Schifeling and Yang Wang shows how the stakeholders, irrespective of their ideological position, may assume an organisation’s silence indicates support for the other side.1 This can have a negative impact on the organisation. So, how can top management and CEOs navigate the two-edged sword of communication on salient social issues? The research suggests that leaders should clearly state their positions on prominent social issues rather than remain silent
1 Marco Shaojun Qin, Xueming Luo, Todd Schifeling, Yang Wang, ‘When Corporate Silence Is Costly: Negative Consumer Responses to Corporate Silence on Social Issues’, Strategic Management Journal, ahead of print, 2 December 2024, https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3683.
2 Al Jazeera, ‘What Is the Arab Spring, and How Did It Start?’, Al Jazeera, 17 December 2020, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/17/what-is-the-arab-spring-and-how-did-it-start.
3 Vodafone Egypt and the Arab Spring: When Government and Business Collide | Harvard Business Impact Education (27 February 2015), https://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/product/W94C17-PDFENG.
4 USC Center for Public Relations, How Should Corporations Respond to Social Issues? | Institute for Public Relations, 2024, https://instituteforpr.org/how-should-corporations-respond-to-social-issues/.
5 Adina Campbell, What Is Black Lives Matter and What Are the Aims?, BBC, 12 June 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-53337780.
6 Participedia, Blue Lives Matter, 1 January 2014, https://participedia.net/case/blue-lives-matter.
7 Katharine Mieszkowski, ‘It’s Lyft vs. Uber in Fallout from Trump’s Refugee Crackdown’, Reveal, 29 January 2017, https://revealnews.org/blog/its-lyft-v-uber-in-the-fallout-from-trumps-refugee-crackdown/.
8 Tara Azimi, et al., Employers’ Role in COVID-19 Vaccination, McKinsey, 9 April 2021,
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9 Abhishek Bajpai, Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ Campaign: A Marketing Case Study, 17 October 2013, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/doves-real-beauty-campaign-marketing-case-study-abhishek-bajpai-8iwyc.
10 Paul A. Argenti, ‘When Should Your Company Speak Up About a Social Issue?’, HBR, 16 October 2020, https://hbr.org/2020/10/when-should-your-company-speakup-about-a-social-issue.
11 Matthew Caiola, ‘Silence Isn’t Strategy: Why Your Brand’s Voice in a Crisis Matters More Than Ever’, Medium, 5 June 2025, https://matthewcaiola-1.medium.com/silence-isnt-strategywhy-your-brand-s-voice-in-a-crisis-matters-more-than-ever-901fd1bfdd5f.
12 Matthew Lynley, Uber Apologizes for ‘Confusion’ at JFK during Immigration Protest, TechCrunch, 29 January 2017, https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/29/uber-apologizes-forconfusion-at-jfk-during-immigration-protest/.
13 David Smith, ‘Disney Faces Backlash over LGBTQ Controversy: “It’s Just Pure Nonsense”’, Film, The Guardian, 21 March 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/mar/21/disneyfaces-backlash-lgbtq-controversy-dont-say-gay-bill-florida.
© 2026 Published by SPJIMR. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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