Dealing With Race At Work - Why Diversity Initiatives Need To Go Further
Black History Month 2020 provided even more attention to events and discussions focusing on creating cultures where sensitive conversations are aligned with practical ways to move forward. This year the immediate impact of Black Lives Matter demonstrates a more transparent commitment to navigate the sensitivities around race discussion, but what happens when the best intentions and overarching policies are established to nurture an inclusive culture, but the behavioral change doesn't filter through?
A recent legal case identified the impact of religious biases and stereotypes that go unchecked, leading to a talented engineer whistle-blowing discriminatory behavior from a colleague. In this particular case, Zeinab Alipourbabie was recruited to join Dyson as a system engineering expert. Alipourbabie, sponsored by Dyson, moved from Italy to the UK to take on the role. Her role with Dyson began in 2014, and during this time, Alipourbabie worked across different projects. During her time, Alipourbabie worked on various projects with a range of colleagues. In a conversation with Alipourbabie, she shared her experiences of being targeted by a colleague having ascertained her religious identity. The protagonist, a senior technical project manager, Kamaljit Chana, who also holds the position of a Conservative councilor in Harrow, northwest London. The court found Chana made religious-aggravated statements towards Alipourbabie. The comments were made in one-to-one meetings without witnesses. Chana further aggravated behavior towards Alipourbabie by excluding her from relevant meetings and communications. As this escalated, Alipourbabie's line manager championed her for a promotion, but she was and found herself passed over for a promotion despite being championed by her line manager. Taking the decisions to call out the behavior had ramifications for Alipourbabie, "Despite having the right principles and doing this for good reasons, but you feel your reputation is tainted. But this is about my dignity as a human being; this is about my career, why I should I give it up?"
Despite repeated complaints and acknowledgments that Alipourbabie was on the receiving end of discriminatory behavior, the lack of action emphasizes the disconnect between the company's aspirations in proactively promoting a culture of diversity and inclusion. Calling out microaggressions requires line managers to address the situation by handling difficult conversations and building accountability. In a recent article for Harvard Business Review, Ella Washington and her co-authors, Alison Hall Birch and Laura Morgan Roberts, discuss microaggressions and recognize and respond to them. Microaggressions are identified as behavior or verbal communication that convey hostility, negative slights, or insults to the target person based on gender, race, or as in this case, religion. The statements may be made accidentally or purposely, creating an offensive statement. At times, the comments may seem innocent, but in reality, are damaging. Microaggressions cause you to question your reactions and create uncertainty about how to respond to these experiences. Confusion leads to further questioning about the legitimacy of reactions and what response is appropriate. As the easiest option is to do nothing, most microaggression cases are not called out and go unreported.
In this particular case, Chana, the instigator, was not a direct line manager, but his span of influence meant he had shared his views with senior leaders. Zeinab found that while her line manager was sympathetic, there was no explicit recourse to addressing the problem. The risk in her situation was losing her job meant losing her sponsorship and visa. Without a clear framework to address these concerns, Zeinab could not avoid dealing with Chana, even with her line manager's approval to refuse one-to-one meetings. Further internal investigations indicated harassment, but the formal follow-up procedures changed very little.
The current emphasis on diversity focuses on race and discrimination emerging from racial differences. Religion and belief discrimination is illegal in the United Kingdom and is identified as a protected characteristic in the 2010 Equality Act. While the focus has been on the minefield of racial discrimination, this Dyson case highlights religious discrimination sensitivities, mainly when the protagonist and the injured party are both from ethnic minority backgrounds. Calling out behavior, whether microaggressions or offensive conduct, is not easy and the current climate of job uncertainty puts even greater pressure to avoid confrontation or handling difficult situations. Creating channels to report concerns and experiences needs to happen alongside formal HR procedures and the increased awareness around different racial experiences. Creating awareness does not automatically transfer to action or stop the attitudes.
Furthermore, it's unrealistic to lay the responsibility for reporting in the hands of the individual experience the aggression. Allies are essential to call out behavior or provide a sounding board and offering support to colleagues. Having clear channels to call out the action is crucial, and this may even incorporate anonymous whistle-blowing. While encouraging staff to speak out, appropriate mechanisms need to be implemented to ensure the complaints are handled thoughtfully and sensitively.
The area of handling race in the workplace has become even more complicated with Trump's executive order in the United States of America. The order prohibits federal agencies from engaging in paid activity addressing racist attitudes in organizations that have enormous repercussions for organizations handling cases described above. Creating workplace cultures robust to handle sensitive conversations and proactively address microaggressions requires clear routes of accountability. Trust becomes the cornerstone of success for individuals to feel comfortable to call out inappropriate behavior and conversations. Global companies will struggle with building a consistent approach to diversity that becomes embedded in the organization's culture. President-elect Biden's administration may well overturn the lasting impact of this action. Still, it does highlight the challenges organizations face when dealing with racial issues in the workplace. Line managers need clear guidance; otherwise, paralysis becomes the status quo as individuals fear calling out the behavior.
Without clarity and transparent reporting lines, ambiguity will continue to allow racism and religious intolerance to fester. Doing so undermines the value of work attempting to build stronger pluralistic cultures.