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How do CEOs respond to disruptive tactics of employee activism such as walkouts in big tech companies :a multi-case study based on media analysis
Marinescu, Eva Iustina (2025) How do CEOs respond to disruptive tactics of employee activism such as walkouts in big tech companies :a multi-case study based on media analysis.
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| Abstract: | In recent years there has been a growing wave of employee activism in the big tech industry, with workers being increasingly focused not just on higher wages or more holiday hours per year, but also on social justice issues, calling for greater corporate social responsibility and opposing their company’s actions (Briscoe & Gupta, 2021). Wu and Liu (2023) state that scholars researching the area of executive responses to social activism have found that firms respond to social activists’ demands with a wide range of behaviours, from neglecting activism efforts and resisting change to yielding to activists’ demands and collaborating with activists. Although this area has been previously addressed, the phenomenon of how CEOs respond to walkouts in big tech companies has not been explored before from a media perspective. The case studies at Netflix and Facebook show situations where employees revolted against their company’s decision to allow certain content to be published on the online platforms. They used walkouts as disruptive tactics of employee activism to express their disappointment and try to raise awareness and make a change in their organization. The findings of the media analysis revealed different types of responses from the CEOs of the companies involved in the study. While the Netflix case revealed reticence of the CEO, as employees’ demands were not satisfied by leadership, the Facebook case demonstrated a partial agreement, as the CEO partially gave in to activists’ demands. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 85 business administration, organizational science |
| Programme: | International Business Administration BSc (50952) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/106892 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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