Organizations' members (e.g., employees and managers) as well as stakeholders (e.g., prospective and existing customers) typically care about issues of social justice, such as the fairness with which employees (representing different genders, races, and work-locations such as working onsite versus remotely) are treated. To ensure and/or maintain social justice for diverse employee-groups in organizations typically requires advocating for this-- and doing this persuasively. Should a man (or a woman) advocate for greater social justice for women? Should a White person (or Black person) advocate for greater social justice for people of color? Should onsite employees (or those working remotely) advocate for greater inclusivity for employees working from home? Existing literature lacks a clear answer to these questions. Via three studies (two experiment-based and one critical incident-based) we test when and why a social justice appeal garners more support when delivered by a disadvantaged group advocate (DGA) versus by an ally-- that is, by someone who does versus does not belong to the marginalized group named in the appeal, respectively. As hypothesized, significantly more support was shown for a social justice appeal by a DGA (rather than ally) when receivers identified strongly with the disadvantaged group; and this pattern reversed when this identification was weak. Also as predicted, this interaction-effect was mediated by receivers' perceptions of their similarity with the advocate, the appeal's credibility, and by their feelings of empathy. Our findings point to the need: (1) to broaden theorizing beyond demographic influences on the persuasiveness of a DGA versus an ally; and, relatedly, (2) to consider appeal-receivers' identification when choosing an advocate.
Deshani B. Ganegoda (associate professor at the Melbourne Business School at the University of Melbourne); Jigyashu Shukla (assistant professor at the Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics at North Carolina A&T State University); and Debra L. Shapiro (Dean's Chair in Organizational Behavior and Clarice Smith Professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at University of Maryland)