Published on: March 2, 2026 at 5:27 pm
The era of performative social justice, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), when some companies were implementing CSR and DEI policies because others were and it was seen as a public-relations and marketing talking point, is fading fast. As the political landscape becomes more charged and President Donald Trump has issued anti-DEI executive orders, companies’ DEI policies are being stress-tested to reveal either authenticity or fair-weather support.
Academy of Management Scholar Christian Tröster of Kuehne Logistics University (KLU) said that the politically charged environment and DEI blowback in the U.S., Germany, and elsewhere will reveal which companies embraced DEI due to pressure because competitors were doing it and a desire for positive PR or because their leaders believed that it was the right thing to do.
“So in a sense, the politicization of DEI and the charged political environments provide a stress test for the company,” Tröster said. “It reveals who’s authentic and who was just mimicking.”
This distinction between insincere endorsement of a movement or set of DEI policies and core values matters according to Tröster, “because it helps employees and consumers to make informed choices.” It helps answer questions such as, “Which is the company that I want to work for? Which is the company whose products I want to buy from?”
As political winds shifted, so did DEI policies, and Tröster said that the companies that backed out and reneged on their commitments will find out that “it’s hard to rebuild your credibility once you lose it.”
“The next wave of DEI won’t be about checking boxes; rather, it will be about credibility,” Tröster said.
“When you implement DEI policies, are you still credible? Because you belong to the people who backed out of it when the political tide was changing, and now you’re back on it, because the political tide has changed again,” he said.
“If it’s just a company mimicking it and it isn’t in line with their endorsed values, something will feel out of place, and now is the time when it gets easier to pinpoint unauthentic DEI.”
