7

There's some current dialogue about some big tech companies (google, twitter, facebook) displaying some bias in their actions. Whether that's true or not, it certainly seems that the composition of those companies' workforce leans heavily left.

There are other industries or companies that also seem to slant heavily left or right; for example, journalists lean heavily to the left while industries from the farming, fossil fuel and construction sectors lean right, according to donations to parties in USA (see this link for more details - the IT sector leans somewhat left). Are there any good studies that explain why this happens? It seems odd that certain jobs would appeal to people based on their political preferences, but perhaps that happens. Perhaps one's profession influences one's political beliefs? Or perhaps there's a founder effect, and that as industries grow, people join (and remain with) companies that have a compatible belief structure?

To sum up: I'm asking if there's any good research pointing to why so many organizations' workforces tend toward one extreme or the other, instead of representing a statistical mean of the population. I'm especially interested in organizations that aren't innately political in and of themselves, but where the shift happens more organically.

|improve this question|||||
  • 2
    Welcome to Politics, if you want to limit your question to the US, please add the United-States tag. It would also help if you could add a source supporting that some industries seem to lean left or right as this seems to be a premise in your question. – JJ for Transparency and Monica Aug 30 '18 at 0:08
  • 5
    This question is full of assumptions and misconceptions. The big one is the assumption that companies "political voices" are based on the political makeup of their employees. That's sometimes true. But more often than not, not true at all. But the big misconception is that workforces lean to one extreme or the other. That's rarely the case (aside from perhaps a few small businesses focused on very niche products and services). – user1530 Aug 30 '18 at 0:20
  • 4
    What makes you think Finance is right-leaning? In 2008, they supported the Democrats over the Republicans. Except in 2012, they have generally been rather balanced. The sectors with the most support for Republicans tend to be traditional Energy (as opposed to Green Energy), Transportation, and Agribusiness in recent presidential elections. For Democrats, Labor, Lawyers & Lobbyists, and Communications/Electronics. – Brythan Aug 30 '18 at 0:37
  • 4
    I found these two articles about the political tendencies of every profession: businessinsider.com/… and verdantlabs.com/politics_of_professions Both state that IT workers lean left, but finance leans only slightly to the right. They could help you to justify your premises. – Brian Hellekin Aug 30 '18 at 0:42
  • 3
    Not a complete answer so not posting as such, but the rural/urban divide jumps out as the biggest factor. Large news organizations and tech companies are generally found in cities, which are generally more blue, while mines and farms are found in rural areas, generally more red. Not the only factor by any means, but given the political makeup of people by region it follows that the businesses in a given region would be populated by people who reflect that region. – Gramatik Aug 30 '18 at 18:05
1

There are some differences in the areas you mentioned. For example in media, when you take a look at this article from the Economist Google rewards reputable reporting, not left-wing politics which is analyzing left/middle/right allegation of different media providers with the extent of their recommendation to readers by Google algorithm, you find that most recommended are in fact the newspapers with the highest reputation and which are mostly alleged to the middle of political reporting. And also that you have differences between different media providers, where it's understandable right or left-leaning newspapers would have employees of similar views.

Now about the workforce and it's employee's political views, I would recommend looking at what does most of the employees have in common, mostly education. You mentioned big tech companies, where most of the employees have university degrees. If you were to make some assumptions, you could analyze whether there is some sort of political leaning among universities in the United States and whether this affects students. There is a great amount of disagreement about this topic. You can read about some research done about this exact topic for example here The Economist: Are left-wing American professors indoctrinating their students? and here Times: Are universities hotbeds of left-wing bias? Research in these particular examples shows there is almost no evidence to claim that education has any effect on political views.

Like this, you could continue on and on with analyzing what factors could affect employees and companies in their political view, from are of business they are in, their business model, corporate environment...

|improve this answer|||||

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .