Why Employees With Working-Class Roots Are Better at Getting Their Ideas Heard
New research finds that upwardly mobile employees pitch ideas in a way that opens discussion, making them more persuasive to powerful managers.
Yasha Spriha and Subra TangiralaAugust 31, 2026Reading Time: 2 min
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Brief insights on emerging trends in management from the opening pages of MIT Sloan Management Review’s quarterly print magazine.
Summary:
A study of 218 employees and managers, plus experiments with more than 1,000 adults, found that employees from working-class backgrounds ...
Listen to “Why Employees With Working-Class Roots Are Better at Getting Their Ideas Heard” (02:41)
Getting manager buy-in for a good idea is harder than it should be. Our research points to a communication style that reliably breaks through this wall — and that is disproportionately exhibited by white-collar employees with working-class origins.
We studied how employees present ideas to their managers by conducting a field...
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