Corporate leadership has long been vocal on the issue of gun control – in 2019 and again this past summer nearly 150 major companies – including Lululemon, Lyft, Bain Capital, Bloomberg LP, Permanente Medical Group and Unilever – called gun violence a “public health crisis” and demanded that the US Senate pass legislation to address it.
That’s why corporate America’s silence in the wake of the latest mass shooting at a school in Nashville is so jarring. The United States has come to rely on the increasing power of large corporations as political advocates.
But Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a vocal advocate of corporate social responsibility who has a direct line to major CEOs around the globe, said that top executives are forlorn. Their previous efforts haven’t done much to push the needle on gun control legislation and without more backing, they don’t know what else they can do at the moment, he said. …
Before the Bell: CEOs have been quiet about gun reform since the latest mass school shooting in Nashville, have you heard anything about plans to speak out?
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld: Where is everybody else? Where is all of civil society? CEOs are just one group of people and it’s like we’re turning to them to be our saviors on every topic. They’ve joined causes with valor and nobility but they can’t just be taking cause after cause as if there’s nobody else in society. The social change that happened in the 1960s wasn’t being led primarily by CEOs. Social changes really happened when we saw the interfaith activity of clergy locking arms and canvassing legislators. We saw campuses alive and aroused. Where’s all the student activism?
The CEOs are still the most active even if they’re less active than they were six months ago. They’re not there as hired hands of shareholders to fill the role of politicians and civic leaders. They’re there to join that chorus, but they don’t want to be the only one singing. …
So what do you think has led to this complacency amongst Americans and the growing reliance on CEOs to advocate on our behalf?
They’ve taken a very strong stance and they’ve gone out further than the general public. They are where the general public is on surveys, but they’re not where the general public is on action in the streets. So we’re ready for others to now do something. Enough already on saying ‘what are the CEOs doing?’ Social capital is as valuable as financial capital. CEOs understand that in their soul, they want there to be social capital. They want there to be public trust, but they need the rest of civil society to join them. And that’s their frustration.
It sounds like CEOs are frustrated?
Yeah, they’re frustrated.
— in Ceos Are Tired of Being Held Responsible for Gun Regulation
