This summary is provided by the IPR Organizational Communication Research Center.

Dr. Yeunjae Lee and Dr. Weiting Tao examined the effects of CEO activism from the employee’s perspective.

A survey of 417 full-time U.S. employees at different levels of job positions working in small, medium, and large corporations whose CEOs had engaged in activism behaviors was conducted.

Key findings include:
  • Employees who expect ethical behaviors from CEOs tend to perceive CEO activism as moral behavior, regardless of the issues on which the CEOs choose to speak.
  • By contrast, employees who expect economic achievement from their CEOs such as increasing revenues, sales, or firm performance do not necessarily view CEO activism as moral behavior.
  • Organizational leaders who are willing to take a public stance on controversial sociopolitical issues should:
  • Emphasize the moral aspects of activism in messages to employees.
  • Make efforts to practice transformational leadership style to increase their likelihood of being supported by their employees when taking a public stance externally.
  • Identify employee expectations toward the CEO’s socially responsible actions.
This summary is provided by the IPR Digital Media Research Center

MIT Sloan and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) examined how the use of artificial intelligence (AI) affects workplace culture.
 
A global survey of 2,197 managers and interviews of 18 executives were conducted in the spring of 2021.
 
Key findings include:
  • 64% of respondents said that AI allowed them to discern key performance drivers that they themselves could not identify.
  • 58% of respondents saw improvements in both efficiency and decision quality since their teams implemented AI.
  • 17% of companies said they have seen either "no impact" or "a decrease" in efficiency and decision quality since their teams implemented AI.
  • Organizations that "feel prepared to defend against competitors" from adjacent industries primarily use AI to explore new ways of creating value (59%) and improve existing processes (24%).
EY examined recent mass resignations and steps senior executives can take in order to retain employees.

This research brief is based on secondary industry data.

Key findings include:
  • Nearly 20 million U.S. workers have quit their jobs since April 2021.
  • Leaders who understand the human factors around the Great Resignation and build a culture of belonging will be best positioned to attract and retain top talent.
  • In order to retain employees, senior executives should:
  • Remember that a culture of belonging is built one high-belonging team at a time.
  • Upskill executives and team leaders on how to coach and empower small teams to be high-belonging teams. 
  • Evolve executive compensation to hold team leaders accountable for achieving minimum KPIs related to creating and sustaining high-belonging teams.
PR Week and Cision explored the biggest challenges and opportunities currently facing communication professionals.

A survey of 560 senior-level professionals from July 7 to July 30 was conducted.

Key findings include:
  • 87% of respondents said that corporations have sought the counsel of communication more in 2020-2021 than previous years. 
  • 91% of communication leaders agree that communication professionals must also be strong data analysts.  
  • The top challenge for PR practitioners currently is “converting data into actionable insights."
  • 70% of Americans believe social media posts are the "most impactful content for consumer behavior and spending," compared to 45% in Canada and 31% in the UK.

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