When she wanted to do “the news” she convinced a local public radio station to hire her even though they had never covered news and she was still in high school.Īlways a creative thinker and a natural storyteller, Mahin decided to become a journalist in high school, and went full-steam ahead despite serious bumps in the road. Growing up in the small town of Rantoul, Illinois, she was unafraid to make her own opportunities. Mahin’s career has never been predictable. I’m not willing to just hand them the answer. “I want to ask hard questions to get them to think. “I always tell my students on the first day that this is not your typical business course, and if that’s what you want, you may want to reconsider,” says Mahin. They’re not easy discussions, but they’re always compelling. When McDonald’s tweets “They were one of us” days after Floyd’s murder and lists the names of Black men and women who were killed by police, what does that mean to the company, its employees, its investors and its consumers? How will such a public statement impact Disney employees day to day? What language was used and why? How will investors respond? When Disney spoke out against Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, it became a discussion in Mahin’s Corporate Social Advocacy and Activism course. Now one social media post might mean Mahin throws out her lesson plan for the day. They’re stepping into territory that they and some of their stakeholder groups have never been interested in getting involved with.” “From a scholarly perspective, it’s been fascinating to watch corporations try to navigate this space. “I have been amazed at how much society has shifted its focus and opinions on essentially requiring corporations to take stances on social and political issues,” says Mahin.
Stakeholders, employees and consumers, especially those in Generation Z like many of Mahin’s students, expect corporations to walk the walk, from pledging millions of dollars to various social justice efforts to launching initiatives aimed at more diverse and representative workplaces. Many consumers now have the same demands.
Employees increasingly expect the businesses they work for to be clear about their stance on heated issues such as systemic racism, homophobia and gender inequality. Since joining the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School faculty in 2018, the former journalist and public relations practitioner has focused on the ways organizations use social media to engage with a range of stakeholders - for better or for worse.įollowing the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, Mahin’s courses and research have an extra layer of evolving complexity that reflects corporate social advocacy shifting to activism. One of the most compelling stories of Professor Stephanie Mahin’s career is unfolding day by day, tweet by tweet.
0 kommentar(er)
