Opinion: Civic wellness for employees, not political posturing for businesses

Starting in 1776, philosopher Adam Smith’s ideas revolutionized economic thought. Economic power shifted from being the sole prerogative of royalty to being unleashed by the choices of ordinary people. But in our modern understanding of these ideas, we have lost sight of the civic dimensions of Smith’s thinking. Economic success, Smith believed, requires complex chains of interdependence. While individuals pursue their own self-interest in the free market, a healthy civil society creates the environment to make those exchanges possible. As a result, businesses have a vested interest in promoting civic wellness.

Civic wellness, sometimes called civic health or civic well-being, is about how people engage with one another through shared life in the community and how public institutions respond to the needs of that community. An important part of that wellness involves our informed and civil participation in the process of choosing who will lead or represent us locally, in our state, and across the nation.

Business promotion of civic wellness is different from political posturing . Political posturing involves corporations wading into public debates over usually contentious social issues that rarely involve their product or service. When this happens, some customers and employees cheer a company’s position, while others react by hiding their opposing views or taking their business or seeking employment elsewhere.

Other political posturing includes decisions to hire controversial paid spokespeople. While corporations are free to speak on the issues, when companies take sides in culture-war debates, they can alienate customers and risk their bottom line. In short, political posturing leads to divisiveness among a customer base and problems for businesses.

Businesses thrive in a healthy civil society. Such societies generate social capital, where bridging and bonding occur. An example of bonding would be residents of a neighborhood all looking out for children playing on the street. Bridging could be several neighborhood groups coming together to ask businesses to sponsor a local youth soccer program. Social capital increases when citizens view and treat others with dignity . David E. Campbell, scholar of civics and political engagement, found that social capital produces economic prosperity . The civic dimensions of Adam Smith’s free market include creating communities with complex chains of social capital.

How can businesses use their influence to improve our civic wellness? Instead of political posturing, businesses might instead add civic wellness for employees to corporate citizenship initiatives. At a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation event , Janice Brunner, general counsel and head of civil engagement at Travelers, described her company’s approach to civic wellness. Travelers’ leadership thinks of their company as a corporation of citizens who can be empowered to engage civically. Travelers created an internal employee database to share the ways team members engaged civically in their local communities. One featured employee, Elizabeth , led an effort to inventory abandoned houses for Habitat for Humanity to revitalize her neighborhood after a shooting occurred. Another employee, Jim , volunteers as chairman of the Board of Police Commissioners. In that role, he received a humanitarian award from the Black Ministers Alliance of New Britain, who appreciated his effort to make the police department transparent in its operations. The Travelers corporation of citizens is bringing about much good.

In another example of the corporation-of-citizens approach, Patagonia closes offices and stores on Election Day. Employees can not only vote, but they also work at the polls or get out the vote for their chosen candidates. Several Utah-based businesses are taking a related approach by inviting employees to expand their civic understanding through workshops sponsored by the Center for Constitutional Studies at UVU . Through civics-related seminars, companies support and encourage a healthy civil society without entanglement from working out diverse opinions in the public square.

We are living in divisive times. But while cultural expectations of civility are losing their hold, the workplace still requires us to practice respect toward others. In many ways, employers are leaders who can mitigate threats to American civic wellness, since “workplaces are the one place where all races, religions, and ages congregate and need to get along,” as Allstate chairman and CEO Tom Wilson said in Harvard Business Review. Companies with healthy civic-minded cultures influence employees in their personal lives by encouraging a mindset of bridging divides and fostering understanding.

More and more, employees want businesses to expand priorities that include more than the bottom line. In a recent survey, Deloitte found that 84% of millennial employees believe businesses should make a positive impact on society beyond making a profit. Gen Z prioritizes social responsibility even higher, at 90%. Viewing the business as a corporation of citizens and making space for the civic wellness of employees meets the moment without engaging in the losing strategy of political posturing.

Eleesha Tucker is a constitutional literacy fellow in the Center for Constitutional Studies at Utah Valley University. She teaches American Heritage, which aims to inform undergraduate students of our foundational principles and inspire them to fulfill their civic responsibilities. She is also the executive director of the Utah 3Rs Project, promoting rights, responsibility and respect through the lens of the religion clauses of the First Amendment.