Middle Managers, Organizational Formalization, and the Diffuse Translation of Social Movement Goals

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Abstract

How do social movements induce organizational change from within? Prior research emphasizes top-down responses, such as organizational leaders revising official policies or practices, but movements may also diffuse through distributed behavioral shifts among middle managers. Drawing on theories of managerial discretion and formal structure, we argue that movements mobilize sympathetic middle managers to enact movement-aligned behaviors in their personnel decisions, while formal structures constrain these efforts. We test these ideas in the context of U.S. tech firms during the Stop Asian Hate movement, analyzing individual employment histories from 2019 to 2022 with a triple-difference design. Results show that firms with more Asian middle managers saw increased promotion prospects for Asian employees after the movement, while having a formal HR position within the organization mitigates the effect of movement-aligned managers. Our study identifies a distributed pathway through which movements reshape organizations and highlights the paradoxical role of formal structures in limiting managerial responsiveness to movement pressures.

Authors

• Ye Joon Lee, Northwestern University

• Forrest S. Briscoe, Penn State