Making workplaces equitable and inclusive: one micro-practice at a time

By Professor Martyna Śliwa, August 2023

We all want workplaces to be inclusive and equitable, not least because inclusive organisations are the building blocks of an inclusive society. While there are obvious ethical reasons for treating everybody in an equitable and respectful way, be it at work or in other social spheres, researchers have been demonstrating that diversity makes business sense for a long time now. Having diverse teams allows organisations to better understand their customers, come up with more creative and innovative ideas, and – as a result – generate greater turnover and profit. But for us to leverage these advantages of diversity, it’s necessary to create a working environment where everybody feels included, staff feel they’re valued, and all are given the opportunity to progress regardless of ethnicity, gender or any other diversity characteristics. 

Leaders and human resource management (HRM) practitioners are well familiar with the above reasoning, and in favour of inclusivity. In many countries, anti-discrimination legislation provides a general framework that underpins HR policies aimed at eliminating workplace discrimination and putting in place conditions which bring the values of equality/equity, diversity, inclusivity and respect (EDIR) to life. And yet, despite years of social struggle for an equal society and organisational efforts to accomplish equity and inclusivity, we’re still a long way from societal and organisational inclusion. There are complex reasons and many possible explanations for the so far limited success of EDIR initiatives. One is that perhaps even when (almost) everybody tries to act in a fair, non-discriminatory way, and no one consciously excludes others, there are still ‘tiny things’ that can happen on a daily basis. These ‘tiny things’ can lead to persistent, well-documented workplace disadvantages experienced by members of minoritised groups, while privileges are granted to members of dominant groups. 

The British Academy of Management funded research which I conducted together with colleagues from the universities of Dundee (Dr Lisi Gordon), Lancaster (Professor Katy Mason) and Middlesex (Professor Nic Beech) to understand what those often unnoticed ‘tiny things’ might be. We called them ‘the micro-practices of disadvantage and privilege’ and set out to investigate how inequalities and exclusions are reproduced in organisations, with the view to find ways to change those ‘tiny things’ and create genuinely more inclusive and equitable workplaces. 

Knowing that the issues we were researching are complex and sensitive, we opted for an in-depth qualitative study. We chose UK schools of business and management as our empirical setting, both because they’re highly diverse organisations that’ve found the achievement of inclusivity challenging, and because of their mission to educate future leaders and to further develop the knowledge and competences of current ones. We believe that to succeed in preparing leaders for promoting and contributing to equality/equity and inclusion, business schools must embed these values themselves.  

Our sample of participants consisted of a diverse group – in terms of gender, ethnicity, nationality and type of institution – of business school leaders (e.g. Deans, Associate Deans, Heads of research institutes) and university leaders (i.e. Vice-Chancellors) who’d previously served as business school Deans. We first conducted in-depth individual interviews with them on their professional life histories and their prior experiences related to EDIR in the workplace. We then asked each participant to record a series of audio-diary entries describing their EDIR-related observations and experiences from the week preceding the recording. Finally, we conducted in-depth ‘exit’ interviews, where the participants were encouraged to share reflections on the previous few months, including whether their thoughts and perceptions of EDIR matters had changed as a result of participating in the research. 

Our findings demonstrated that there were differences in how the leaders’ careers had developed, and that these differences had a gendered and racialised dimension. The detailed descriptions of the leaders’ experiences uncovered three types of ‘tiny things’, or micro-practices, that happen in workplaces on a daily basis and cumulatively result in persisting structures of inequality that privilege members of some groups and disadvantage others. In particular, these micro-practices related to three aspects of career development: 1) promotion, 2) receiving support (networking, mentoring, sponsoring), and 3) supporting others through challenging exclusion and discrimination. The specific situations described by different participants were unique to them. However, our findings reveal, on the one hand, a high level of diversity of experiences shared by women and members of ethnic minorities, and on the other, a set of similarities within the experiences discussed by white British men.  

For example, white British men typically spoke about encountering favourable and unproblematic practices when applying for promotion, exemplified by clarity of the promotion process, experience of being ‘tapped on the shoulder’ by senior colleagues to apply, and success in internal applications. Women and members of ethnic minorities, by contrast, tended to report obstacles: for example, changing goalposts and uncertain expectations, discouragement within the organisation from applying, and the need to move to a different workplace to secure promotion. In a similar vein, white British men tended to share experiences they had throughout their careers of being invited to join professional networks and benefitting from hands-on support by mentors who made them aware of attractive professional opportunities and helped them take advantage of them. By contrast, a sense of loneliness, experience of very hard work, and at best, ‘light touch’ support in the form of helpful advice, were commonly discussed as part of women and ethnic minority leaders’  experiences – a stark difference compared to the ‘sponsoring’ and ‘pushing forward’ mentoring approach white British men reported. Another insightful finding is that women and members of ethnic minorities were more likely than white British men to take a proactive role within the micro-practices of supporting others through challenging racism, sexism and other forms of inequality and discrimination in their workplaces. Representatives of the latter group, on the other hand, spoke of how, in their experience, they often found such micro-practices difficult or even impossible for themselves to initiate or be active within.  

There’s a lot of richness in our findings, even more so in these frequent workplace ‘tiny things’ that constitute the ‘molecules’ from which current organisational systems, with their structures of inequality, are built. In workplaces across the world, millions of people are constantly involved in millions of micro-practices which privilege some and disadvantage others. We can be certain that at any given time, there’ll be people trying to navigate the promotion process with little guidance and support, while others will be receiving plenty of help, resulting in a successful promotion. We can also be certain that there’ll be a gendered and racialised dimension to the kind of experiences one person has versus someone else.  

Our study, which advances an understanding of sexism and racism in the workplace, has a range of organisational implications, not only for business schools but for all types of workplaces. One is the need for training, to develop knowledge, empathy, skills and confidence – in particular in members of the dominant group – so that they understand how and why to intervene and feel the need to do so. We advocate, in particular, intensive, experiential workshops in which participants share their stories, learn about possible ways of intervening within exclusionary and/or discriminatory micro-practices, and reflect on their own biases and privileges. Above all, we call leaders and organisations to commit to a cultural shift, where certain micro-practices of privilege and unfair advantage lose their legitimacy and acceptability. How will we realise that this much-needed shift is happening? Look out for the good signs. When you notice, for example, that members of the traditionally privileged group decline offers to be promoted outside formal processes; that managers and staff consider their workplace to be a safe space where gendered and racialised privilege and disadvantage are openly and routinely discussed; and that situation- and context-specific solutions to the micro-practices of disadvantage and exclusion are sought and implemented, you’ll know that inclusion is happening. 

More information on Professor Martyna Śliwa's research interests.