Advocating for Allyship: Understanding the Effects of Narrative Transportation, Freedom Threat, and More on Minority-Newcomer Retention Strategies

In an era of intense competition for talent, turnover among organizational newcomers—particularly from underrepresented groups—remains a persistent challenge. While organizational allyship programs are known to reduce turnover, their frequent association with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts has led to implementation resistance. This study addresses gaps in the research regarding allyship by testing communication-based strategies for promoting participation in allyship and examining factors contributing to freedom threat or participation willingness. Participants ( N = 312) were randomly exposed to one of four experimental conditions: a control message, a narrative advocacy message, a directive advocacy message, or a combination of both. Results showed that both the narrative message and the combined message positively influenced attitudes toward allyship through transportation. Additionally, a second-stage moderation analysis showed that participants’ political identification influenced the impact of narrative transportation on allyship attitudes, with stronger effects for more conservative participants. Greater levels of psychological safety were also linked to more positive relationships between narrative messages and attitudes toward allyship. Overall, the study provides insights into the potential use of narrative persuasion as a tool to support allyship advocacy as well as a range of other organizational initiatives that might need to overcome resistance due to perceptions of freedom threat.