ARTICLE DIVERSITY How to Promote Racial Equity in the Workplace - NSBE

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ARTICLE DIVERSITY

How to Promote Racial Equity in the Workplace

A five-step plan by Robert Livingston

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AUTHOR

Robert Livingston

Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School

DIVERSITY

How to

Promote

Racial A

Equity

fivestep

in the plan

Workplace

I L LU ST R ATO R DIANA EJAITA

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COPYRIGHT ? 2020 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

IDEA IN BRIEF

THE PROBLEM Racial discrimination-- defined as differential evaluation or treatment based solely on race, regardless of intent-- remains prevalent in organizations and occurs far more frequently than most White people suspect.

THE OPPORTUNITY Intractable as it seems, racism in the workplace can be effectively addressed. Because organizations are auton omous entities that afford leaders a high level of control over norms and policies, they are ideal places to promote racial equity.

THE WAY FORWARD Effective interventions move through stages, from understanding the underlying condition, to developing genuine concern, to focusing on correction.

Intractable as it seems, the problem of racism in the workplace can be effectively addressed with the right information, incentives, and investment. Corporate leaders may not be able to change the world, but they can certainly change their world.

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If your employees don't believe that racism exists in the company, then diversity initiatives will be perceived as the problem, not the solution.

DIVERSITY

Organizations are relatively small, autonomous entities that afford leaders a high level of control over cultural norms and procedural rules, making them ideal places to develop policies and practices that promote racial equity. In this article, I'll offer a practical road map for making profound and sustainable progress toward that goal.

I've devoted much of my academic career to the study of diversity, leadership, and social justice, and over the years I've consulted on these topics with scores of Fortune 500 companies, federal agencies, nonprofits, and municipalities. Often, these organizations have called me in because they are in crisis and suffering--they just want a quick fix to stop the pain. But that's akin to asking a physician to write a prescription without first understanding the patient's underlying health condition. Enduring, long-term solutions usually require more than just a pill. Organizations and societies alike must resist the impulse to seek immediate relief for the symptoms, and instead focus on the disease. Otherwise they run the risk of a recurring ailment.

To effectively address racism in your organization, it's important to first build consensus around whether there is a problem (most likely, there is) and, if so, what it is and where it comes from. If many of your employees do not believe that racism against people of color exists in the organization, or if feedback is rising through various communication channels showing that Whites feel that they are the real victims of discrimination, then diversity initiatives will be perceived as the problem, not the solution. This is one of the reasons such initiatives are frequently met with resentment and resistance, often by mid-level managers. Beliefs, not reality, are what determine how employees respond to efforts taken to increase equity. So, the first step is getting everyone on the same page as to what the reality is and why it is a problem for the organization.

But there's much more to the job than just raising awareness. Effective interventions involve many stages, which I've incorporated into a model I call PRESS. The stages, which organizations must move through sequentially, are: (1) Problem awareness, (2) Root-cause analysis, (3) Empathy, or level of concern about the problem and the people it afflicts, (4) Strategies for addressing the problem, and (5) Sacrifice, or willingness to invest the time, energy, and resources necessary for strategy implementation. Organizations going through

these stages move from understanding the underlying condition, to developing genuine concern, to focusing on correction.

Let's now have a closer look at these stages and examine how each informs, at a practical level, the process of working toward racial equity.

Problem Awareness

To a lot of people, it may seem obvious that racism continues to oppress people of color. Yet research consistently reveals that many Whites don't see it that way. For example, a 2011 study by Michael Norton and Sam Sommers found that on the whole, Whites in the United States believe that systemic anti-Black racism has steadily decreased over the past 50 years--and that systemic anti-White racism (an implausibility in the United States) has steadily increased over the same time frame. The result: As a group, Whites believe that there is more racism against them than against Blacks. Other recent surveys echo Sommers and Norton's findings, one revealing, for example, that 57% of all Whites and 66% of working-class Whites consider discrimination against Whites to be as big a problem as discrimination against Blacks and other people of color. These beliefs are important, because they can undermine an organization's efforts to address racism by weakening support for diversity policies. (Interestingly, surveys taken since the George Floyd murder indicate an increase in perceptions of systemic racism among Whites. But it's too soon to tell whether those surveys reflect a permanent shift or a temporary uptick in awareness.)

Even managers who recognize racism in society often fail to see it in their own organizations. For example, one senior executive told me, "We don't have any discriminatory policies in our company." However, it is important to recognize that even seemingly "race neutral" policies can enable discrimination. Other executives point to their organizations' commitment to diversity as evidence for the absence of racial discrimination. "Our firm really values diversity and making this a welcoming and inclusive place for everybody to work," another leader remarked.

Despite these beliefs, many studies in the 21st century have documented that racial discrimination is prevalent in the workplace, and that organizations with strong

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