Leveraging Tension for Social Change in the Workplace: An Intersectional Approach

In the current study, we explore how people leverage tension for social justice in the workplace, particularly examining how the identities and contexts of individuals involved impact the calculus of risk and reward associated with acknowledging and working with the energy of tension in order to facilitate change. Tension can be overwhelming and debilitating, causing people to shut down and shy away from conflict, but it can also plant seeds of doubt about the status quo, motivate people to address inequalities, and can be channeled as a constructive force for social justice.Through exploratory interviews, this study extends previous research on how “optimal tension” produces the conditions for constructive multicultural conflict processes. Drawing upon conversations with practitioners, we explore how identities and formal positions or roles authorize individuals (or not) to acknowledge tension and examine how identity and context intersect to position people to leverage tension in different ways.