Ally work, or actions to support those from less advantaged social groups, shows promise in advancing social welfare in workplaces. Although much of the literature has explained factors that predict ally work, in this paper, we shift the conversation to understand the positive spillover of managers’ ally work on observing employees. We focus specifically on self ally work. Drawing from the theory of political ideology-as-motivated cognition, we propose that employees perceive managers who enact self ally work as more liberal (rather than conservative).
Professor of Marketing, Edward M O’Herron Scholar and Associate Dean of MBA@UNC