Published on: July 24, 2026 at 9:44 am
By Nick Keppler
Even in the midst of the current Trump-era blowback against sustainability, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and corporate social responsibility, CEOs and other senior leaders may feel pressure to comment on current events or issues that cause distress among their rank-and-file employees, customers, or other stakeholders. But a weak response or useless platitude can be worse than saying nothing, said Academy of Management Scholar Andre Havrylyshyn of Binghamton University.
Havrylyshyn is in the middle of a project surveying more than 50 people who are part of the Ukrainian diaspora about their experiences throughout the Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent ongoing war. When leaders of their organization made statements about the war, people of Ukrainian descent often found them “disgustingly safe,” Havrylyshyn said.
“It was just these vague platitudes about violence always being wrong,” he added.
Many expressed concern for the Ukrainian people or heaped on praise on them for their strength and resiliency but did not condemn Russia’s actions, using phrasing that seemed borrowed from a human-resources statement on a natural disaster. People with connections to Ukraine often found this disappointing, insulting, or enraging.
Anyone in a community distressed by a tragedy or ongoing violent conflict would probably react similarly to a bland statement, Havrylyshyn said, but in the case of Ukraine, calling out Russia is low stakes in the U.S. Aside from several comments by President Trump and other politicians that many have interpreted as pro-Russian, very few Americans support President Vladimir Putin or his actions. For the most part, the issue is not divisive in North America—which made the lack of moral clarity feel more harmful, Havrylyshyn said.
“What our participants were saying is, ‘In America, how hard is that? How unpopular are you going to be if you say, ‘Putin’s a bad guy,’ right? That’s not hugely controversial, and you didn’t even say that, so what was the point of publicly stating a milquetoast platitude that doesn’t please anyone?’”
