How can people inside and outside corporations team up to push for their cause? A study co-authored by NEOMA researcher Élise Lobbedez focuses on LGBT workplace rights to show that change relies on a collaborative division of labour between activist groups operating inside and outside the targeted organisation. This finding challenges common assumptions about the roles and tactics played by each group.
Practice shifts in corporate and government settings rarely result from megaphone diplomacy or internal memos. Change emerges from an accumulation of subtle actions and public signals: discussions in meetings, circulated emails, voices speaking up and external opinions that join the conversation. In France, LGBT workplace rights are an interesting arena for observing this phenomenon given the evolution of rights in recent decades and the growing adoption of inclusive policies in companies.
However, rather than analysing isolated initiatives, Elise Lobbedez and her colleague studied how change takes shape when various fronts converge. In particular, they looked at the interactions between insider activists, considered to be engaged in dialogue and negotiation, and outsider activists, perceived as exerting pressure on organizations.
Inside the making of an alliance
Change can emerge through these interactions. Employees, who know the inner workings of their companies, and external groups, which observe and challenge, answer each other and eventually reshape the landscape. This is the process that the researchers highlight in their study of collaborative divisions of labour. Activist groups, rather than operating in isolation, take on distinct roles and coordinate their efforts in pursuit of a common goal.
Who exactly are these actors? A distinctive feature of insider activism in France is that certain groups can establish themselves as non-profit organisations within companies or public sector bodies under the Association Loi de 1901. As well as having legal standing, these associations benefit from internal visibility and formalised channels, giving them potentially greater firepower than individuals acting in isolation. By contrast, outsiders include NGOs, umbrella bodies and watchdog organisations operating independently of any single employer, with the ability to publicise issues, aggregate cases and offer training. It is the interplay between these two positions that transforms activist demands into management decisions or institutional shifts.
Four different strategies
The coordinated action of these groups draws on four levers, which insiders and outsiders activate depending on their role and expertise. The first involves amplifying the actions of others, lending mutual legitimacy, relaying information and building on collective initiatives. The second aims to compel organisations to respond: insiders leverage their position to act as whistleblowers and to ensure that organisations follow through on their commitments; outsiders play a monitoring role and expose inaction.
The third lever is to focus on an organisation’s reputation when circumstances require it. This strategy may involve publicly comparing companies, promoting positive initiatives for LGBT+ rights or, conversely, calling out the inaction of certain organisations. The fourth and final lever is datactivism. By producing and disseminating data, such as benchmarks or case studies, activists provide material that can be used to inform debate and intensify pressure.
Shifting postures with intermediate effects
The study shatters an assumption: insiders are not necessarily the most “persuasive”, any more than outsiders are the most “disruptive”. Posture shift depending on the landscape: insiders may threaten a company’s reputation, while outsiders may attempt persuasion by offering support or advice.
This process generates intermediate outcomes – creating new avenues of communication, eliciting responses from organisations, aligning words with actions and legitimising actors and instruments – all of which pave the way for broader change. These effects stem largely from multidirectional cooperation between insiders and outsiders, sometimes unilateral, sometimes complementary, mutual or indirect. This interplay prevents efforts from being neutralised and channels diverse initiatives into a common path.
Find out more
Lisa Buchter and Élise Lobbedez. How Activists Collaboratively Divide the Labor of Making Change: The Case of LGBT Rights. Administrative Science Quarterly, September 2025. https://doi.org/10.1177/00018392251371000
