The National Football League "Take a Knee" Movement: Examining the Multilevel Antecedents of Organization-as-Platform Activism
Open Access
- Author:
- Rheinhardt, Alexandra
- Graduate Program:
- Business Administration
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 24, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Aparna Anand Joshi, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Aparna Anand Joshi, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Glen Kreiner, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Forrest Scott Briscoe, Committee Member
Margaret Grace Meloy, Outside Member
Vilmos Fosnocht Misangyi, Program Head/Chair
Glen Kreiner, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- social movement
employee activism
community embeddedness - Abstract:
- This dissertation introduces and builds upon the concept of employee “platform activism” – employee activism that uses organizations as “platforms” to spread awareness of societal issues and effect social change. I use data from the National Football League (NFL) “Take a Knee” movement to develop and test a theory of this type of activism. Through an extended empirical study and supplemental analysis, I examine the multilevel influences of employee platform activism. In doing so, I draw upon the organizational opportunity structure framework to examine the structural and individual-level factors that serve to enable and constrain such activism. Importantly, I suggest that individuals contemplating engaging in platform activism face heightened opportunities and risks as compared to more traditional organization-targeting activism. This expanded opportunity and risk set necessitates an examination of activism antecedents that lie both beyond the confines of the organization as well as within the individual employee activist. Thus, I first theorize about the influence of multilevel factors that help to mitigate the risks of employee platform activism, including community grievance salience, recent organizational performance, and employee (player) status within their organization. I then examine the influence of organizations’ (teams’) community embeddedness on employee platform activism. Finally, within a supplemental analysis, I theorize about the influence of individuals’ formative (i.e., high school and college) community-based experiences on their future propensity to protest. Through this dissertation I build upon and hope to contribute to the literatures on social movements and employee activism, employee voice, and communities.