Contentious Practices and Reputational Threat

Abstract

Contentious practices lack legitimacy and consequently present a threat to the reputations of individual and organizations. In this dissertation, I examine in the cases of flexible work policies, organizational misconduct, and corporate political activity. I use in-depth field research at a single firm, as well as longitudinal analysis of S&P1500 firms (2000-2017), to explore this phenomenon across units of analysis. In three essays, I examine individual and organizational engagement in contentious practices, with an emphasis on the role of reputational threat.