Research Summary
Businesses play a critical role in building a sustainable future, but it's often passionate individuals within these organizations who lead the change. Known by many names — gentle radicals, social entrepreneurs, advocates, reformers, supporters, activists — these internal social change agents are the driving force behind efforts to address social and environmental issues. A new integrative review published in the latest issue of the Academy of Management Annals brings together knowledge about these internal social change agents to advance research and practice.
Insider social change agents are individuals within a company who go beyond their job duties or regular job responsibilities to drive their organization to address social and environmental challenges and contribute to positive social change. This review distills insights from over 400 articles into five questions: 1) Who are insider social change agents? 2) What are the key characteristics of the problems they address? 3) How do circumstances facilitate or limit their efforts? 4) What activities do they undertake? 5) What are the consequences of their actions?
Key Recommendations
This review provides an integrative model that allows us to identify specific internal social change efforts within a broader context, compare different efforts, and assess the concurrency of multiple efforts across dimensions such as people, places, activities, outcomes, and issues.
The authors conclude that research to date has focused primarily on internal social change activities, resulting in important but isolated small victories. A key insight for future research is to shift the focus to exploring how the efforts of internal social change agents accumulate and translate into driving substantive positive social change. Three recommendations emerge from this review:
- The focus is on understanding factors that impede or thwart internal social change agents’ efforts towards transformative outcomes. Despite their sophisticated tactics, insiders often face opposition from individuals and groups with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. To what extent are the activities of disruptors similar to or different from those of insider social change agents?
- Adopt an ecosystem view that goes beyond the focal organization. What happens when change agents join forces and collaborate across organisations and sectors? Can they rally around broader change, or do they compete for limited corporate resources, legitimacy and attention?
- Taking a multidisciplinary approach. Social and environmental challenges are complex and interconnected: how can issue-specific insights from other disciplines (such as the circular economy or the natural sciences of planetary limits) inform internal social change agencies?
Business Impact
Internal social change agents are a vital driver of business transformation towards a sustainable future. Employees are increasingly aligning their personal values with their work, yet companies are failing to harness this potential (Deloitte Insights, 2023). This integrated review uncovers six key insights for companies and their internal stakeholders to drive positive social change.
#1. Internal social change agents can appear anywhere within an organization. Organizations can support this by embedding sustainability and social change into all functions. Internal stakeholders can leverage external pressures to initiate social change efforts and existing corporate commitments to social and environmental issues.
#2. A focus on collaboration rather than heroism is central to effective social change efforts. Organizations can facilitate this by encouraging insiders to act as facilitators and active members within their networks. Insiders can contribute by building connections, encouraging “network contagion,” and considering diverse perspectives in problem-solving and creating solutions.
#3. Finding and sharing resources within your community is essential for internal social change agents to access the support they need. Organizations can facilitate this by connecting internal stakeholders to communities of practice and platforms where they can leverage these resources to share strategies, learn from failures, and inspire each other in their efforts to drive positive social change within their organizations.
#4. Any internal social change effort needs to make sense within the business, but change requires a new approach to the business case. Organizations can support this by encouraging internal stakeholders to carefully align with the business case while still maintaining a bold approach. Internal stakeholders can also leverage their business acumen to explore opportunities to redefine the business case to make positive social change economically feasible, while also seeking higher-level champions to align the organization's incentive structures and systems.
#5. Staying true to your values is crucial for your internal social change agents to remain effective. Organizations can support this by fostering an environment where insiders can defend their values without relying on morality. Insiders can navigate ethical dilemmas by seeking motivation and support from like-minded peers while considering the potential risks associated with overlooking unethical behavior.
#6. Focusing on small wins can be a valuable strategy for incrementally tackling complex challenges, but by chaining together small victories, you can create more widespread change. Organisations can support this by developing a clear strategic roadmap outlining how small wins contribute to larger social and environmental goals. By sharing experiences and effectively utilising assessment tools, internal stakeholders can leverage small wins to maintain momentum, stay engaged and grow their influence within their broader industry networks.
About the Author
Elisa Alt Her research focuses on individual and organisational approaches to social intrapreneurship, with a focus on how individuals can become entrepreneurial change agents for positive social change. She is Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Entrepreneurship at King's College London.
Katrin Heucher’s research is at the intersection of sustainability management and organizational studies. She is Assistant Professor in Change Management and Sustainability at the University of Groningen.
Sarah Soderstrom She studies how individuals within organizations mobilize others, form coalitions, and access key decision makers when implementing sustainability initiatives. She is an associate professor in the Organizational Studies and Environmental Programs at the University of Michigan.
Maureen Scully She studies how mild-mannered radicals working inside traditional corporations and workplaces can mobilize change efforts in pursuit of social justice. She is Professor of Management and Shelley H. Penny Professor of Leadership at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Ante Gravas I am an associate professor at the University of Vermont and my research focuses on the microfoundations of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Additional resources
Examples of insiders and their projects driving social change (From the Aspen Institute First Movers Fellowship Program)
Practical resources to get you started change
Project InsideOut Toolkit
Embedded Projects
The vital role of employee sustainability communities and how to build them
Climate action at work: A guide for employee advocates
Insider stories of driving social change (From the Intrapreneurs Association)
Philips Saskia (Digital Transformation of Healthcare)
Stephan from Covestro (Circular Supply Chain)
Farmrio Tachi (Fair Trade)