ArticleHarvard Business School Institute for Business in Global Society (BiGS)

Workplace Civics: Can Companies Safely Get Involved in the 2026 Elections?

Bill Ainsworth, 2026

https://www.hbs.edu/bigs/can-companies-safely-participate-in-2026-midterm-elections

What It Is: An HBS Institute for Business in Global Society article profiling how companies like Levi Strauss, Salesforce, and Patagonia are supporting non-partisan voter participation while managing the risks of political backlash.

Why It Matters: The perceived legitimacy of these programs is broad: 82% of U.S. adults say companies should give employees time off to vote, and 69% say firms should actively encourage voting. That external legitimacy translates to measurable company-level impact — working at a Time to Vote member company increases an employee's likelihood of voting by 2.1 percentage points, based on a study of 30 million workers at 377,000 companies.

How to Use It: Consider your company's existing commitments to civic participation and which level of engagement fits — paid time off to vote, poll-worker support, or voter registration partnerships. Then consider how to articulate your rationale in a way that respects broad public opinion on the issue. Use the Levi Strauss, Salesforce, and Patagonia examples as models.

Back to showcase

More Resources

Articles (122)

Books (17)

Reports (121)

Tools (25)

Videos (117)

Presentations (2)

Websites (25)

Items per page

161 – 180 of 430 results showing

ArticleCivic Alliance

Politics and Polarization in the Workplace: An Employer Guide to Bridge Building

2024

This guide provides concrete ways that companies can integrate civic activities into its talent management and other processes.

ReportInstitute for Economics & Peace

Positive Peace Report 2024

2024

This report demonstrates that countries investing in stable, healthy systems and norms—such as resilient institutions, inclusive economies, and social trust—are more likely to flourish, while those that don’t face increased risk of future violent conflict.

BookHarper Business

Possible: How We Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict

William Ury, 2024

A far-reaching account of how intractable conflicts can be transformed, and the mindset that enables breakthroughs. Outlines specific approaches from conflict resolutin and peace-building, including how to leverage a "third side."

ArticlePerkins Coie LLP

Public Company Handbook Chapter 2: Corporate Governance: Best Practices in the Boardroom

Perkins Coie LLP, 2024

This handbook chapter from Perkins Coie LLP outlines governance best practices for public company boards, covering fiduciary duties, oversight structures, committee responsibilities, compliance systems, and disclosure obligations. It emphasizes risk oversight, transparency, and evolving regulatory expectations affecting board accountability in complex operating environments.

Why this resource matters
It provides operational grounding for CPR governance by clarifying how boards oversee risk, disclosure, and fiduciary responsibilities in politically and socially complex systems. In particular, it provides the legal and conceptual basis for the governance of public affairs.

ReportBusiness for Social Responsibility (BSR)

Redesigning Sustainable Business Amid Global Realignment

David Korngold, Aron Cramer, 2024

This report explores how geopolitical fragmentation, shifting alliances, and economic realignment are reshaping corporate sustainability strategies. It argues that companies must redesign governance structures, partnerships, and operating models to remain resilient while balancing sustainability commitments with rising political, regulatory, and market uncertainty across regions and sectors.

ReportRhodium Group

Rhodium Climate Outlook 2024: Probabilistic Global Emissions and Energy Projections

Kate Larsen et al., 2024

The Rhodium Climate Outlook 2024 provides a probabilistic assessment of global emissions and energy trajectories through 2100, integrating uncertainty across economic, policy, and technology variables. It projects likely warming of 2.2–3.2°C under current policies but shows that if countries fulfill mid-century and expanded net-zero commitments, the probability of staying below 2°C rises to 96%. The report highlights innovation, equity, and policy acceleration as essential for achieving 2035 NDCs.

Shape

ReportOxfam

Right-Sizing Corporate Voice: A Briefing for Business on Responsible Political Engagement

Andrew Slight, 2024

This article outlines a new approach to corporate political engagement that builds on human rights frameworks to help combat corporate short-termism and enable companies to align their political engagement with longer-term priorities. The article outlines specific action steps that companies can use to align their political engagement with longer-term environmental, institutional stability, and human rights considerations.

ReportSociety for Human Resource Management

SHRM Political Conversations Playbook

Allen Smith, J.D., 2024

This playbook offers HR professionals guidance on managing political discussions at work, providing strategies to ensure civil dialogue, resolve conflicts, and maintain a respectful, productive environment. It includes practical tips and real-world examples for handling political topics in diverse workplaces.

ArticleThe Erb Institute CPR Taskforce

South Africa: A Case Example of Corporate Political Responsibility in Polarized Times

Patricia McLagan, 2024

Patricia McLagan is an author, consultant, and business owner with fifty years’ experience supporting large scale change processes in business and governments globally. From 1983 through 2004, Pat consulted with major South African businesses, government entities, universities, and parastatals, and chaired the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation after returning to the US. This article draws on her personal experience with South African businesses and government entities from 1983 into the 2010s, focusing on what some white South African business leaders did in a time of polarization and potential civil war.

ArticleMilken Institute Review

Taking Net Zero Seriously

Tim Brennan, 2024

This article examines two methods for pricing carbon – the first based on estimating the “social cost of carbon” for current and future generations, and the second based on mandating limits and using a permit system to meet them. Argues for a fixed limit based on tipping points, and points to the challenges of political coordination required to adopt it, and the potential for technology to make that easier.

VideoCorporate Political Responsibility Taskforce

The Business Case for CPR

Angeli Patel with the Berkeley Center for Law and Business, 2024

ReportThe Erb Institute CPR Taskforce

The Erb Principles for CPR: What People are Saying

2024

Comments from business leaders, academics, civil society organizations and others commenting how the Erb Principles for Corporate Political Responsibility can help with managing risk, sustaining market economies, strengthening civic institutions and enabling long-term value for business and society.

Report Cambridge University Press

The Fading Light of Democratic Capitalism

Malcolm S. Salter, 2024

This work examines how global capitalism’s democratic foundations are eroding, as inequality, institutional decay, policy capture and corporate dominance erode democratic legitimacy. It argues that corporate-state relations and market structures shape democratic outcomes and that without attention to power, voice and influence, business risks operating in unstable systems of diminishing legitimacy.

VideoCorporate Political Responsibility Taskforce

The Future of Trade Associations & Sustainability Policy

Renee Henze of IFF and Nathan Sell of the ACI, 2024

ReportBoston College Law Review

The New Corporate Political Governance

Tom C. W. Lin, 2024

This paper examines how the intersection of corporate governance and political engagement is reshaping business strategies and societal impact. It explores how factors like ESG investing, corporate activism, and political changes are pushing businesses into social issues, complicating the roles of shareholders vs. stakeholders, and blurring the lines between private and public power. The author offers new models for businesses and policymakers to navigate these evolving dynamics.

ArticleIMD

The Nonmarket Sustainability Advantage

Michael Yaziji & David Bach, 2024

What It Is: An article laying out a structured "nonmarket strategy" framework — analysis, strategy formulation, capacity building, feasibility checks, and implementation — for how companies should engage with regulators, activists, and public opinion alongside their core market strategy.

Why It Matters: The authors provide detailed cases that show the risks and best practices, that impact a company's social license to operate — arguing that nonmarket engagement isn't a side activity but a core determinant of whether a company's social license to operate holds.

How to Use It: Use the five-stage framework (analysis, strategy, capacity, feasibility, implementation) as a working checklist when developing or auditing your organization's own nonmarket/public affairs strategy, while also considering safeguards, such as those in our Principled Influence: A Guide to Strengthening Public Affairs Practices in Polarized Environments.

ReportPotential Energy Coalition

The Return on Responsibility: Re-framing Corporate Climate Messaging

2024

This guide offers companies a research-backed climate communication strategy that emphasizes materiality over morality—framing climate action as a business necessity, not just ethical responsibility. Drawing on extensive surveys and focus groups from the US and abroad, it outlines how to connect with skeptical audiences by stressing the concrete, economic benefits of climate initiatives.

VideoCorporate Political Responsibility Taskforce

The ROI of Values: How Quantification Strengthens the Case for Action (and CPR)

Daniel Aronson of Valutus, 2024

ArticleHarvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance

The short-termism trap: Catering to informed investors with limited horizons

Francesco Sangiorgi, James Dow, Jungsuk Han, 2024

This article argues that companies often over-react to short-term investor pressures—even when investors are well informed—leading firms to underinvest in innovation, resilience, and long-term value creation. It shows how structural incentives and capital-market dynamics can distort strategy and weaken corporate governance, reducing firms’ capacity to act responsibly in broader economic and civic systems.

ToolUN Global Compact

Transformational Governance Corporate Toolkit

2024

This toolkit helps companies adopt practical transformational governance steps aligned with SDG 16 principles of peace, justice, and strong institutions. It includes a self-assessment tool to identify governance gaps, offers actionable recommendations, and focuses on board leadership, responsible lobbying, and sustainable investment strategies, enabling companies to improve transparency, reduce risks, and drive long-term societal impact.

Share.

Do you have a resource to recommend for The CPR Hub? Please reach out and we will review it for future updates!

Contact Us

Receive Updates from The CPR Hub

Learn about new tools, insights and events to help you consider how CPR can help your company, clients or members.

Stay in the loop.