Transcript Challenging the status quo- how important is equality in

Challenging the status quo.
How important is equality in business
and management education?
Dr. Nicolina Kamenou-Aigbekaen, Heriot- Watt University
Dr. Adelina Broadbridge, University of Stirling
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Ethos for equality
• Need to push the agenda from the position of
realising and releasing talent so that all staff
and students have the opportunity to utilise
and contribute their talents to the best
advantage of themselves and the organisation
Background : the facts
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Women staff = 60%
Women academic staff = 49%
Women professors = 24%
Women senior managers = 26%
Women on Academic Court = 25%
Pay gap = 23%
Universities and new public management is
based on male cultural norms
Background : the issues for women
academic staff
• Balance of activities?
– Research
– Teaching
– Administrative roles
– Pastoral care
– Representation on committees
• Women themselves?
• Lack of mentoring and role models?
Business and management is male
dominated
• Management theories are based on male norms
and values
• Seminal works carried out by men on men
• Many are accepted and don’t come under the
criticism they deserve
• Male=the ‘norm’; female=the ‘other’ (Bendl)
• Academics and students need to challenge
existing norms
• Lack of focus on gender as a research field
Structural issues
• Various gender discrimination practices have been
neutralised or eliminated
• Yet, gender discrimination remains in more subtle
forms
• Women & minorities face more constraints in the
workplace because of organisational factors
• the ‘glass’ metaphor is still alive
• Men (white, middle class) have the power and
authority to define what constitutes occupational
success
• Many women can feel marginalised and their
confidence eroded thus restricting their careers
Gender mainstreaming
• ensuring that the concerns and experiences of
women and men are an integral dimension of
the design, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation of policies and programmes in all
spheres so that women and men benefit
equally
Current students represent our future
business leaders
• If the curriculum properly raises and addresses
equality and diversity issues it will hopefully
result in organizational cultures that embrace
and recognize gender and diversity issues far
better than is currently the case
Experiences from staff engaging with
equality in management/ business schools
• Equality is no longer seen as an issue with many
students
• They believe organisations no longer discriminate – a
thing of the past
Reflecting on student written evaluation:
• ‘The tutor [woman] was quite pretty’
• ‘[Woman lecturer’s name] has to be one of the ugliest
people I’ve seen’
• ‘Speak up bitch’
Equality and Diversity in the business
management curriculum
• Most research and writings on management learning and
diversity have American origins
• Neutrality in management theories in relation to gender,
race, religion, disability, age, sexual orientation..
• Debates that not actually neutral but consciously
discriminatory in ‘masculine, white… etc’ nature of
theories (Brewis). Implicit assumption of white, male,
heterosexual norm.
• Debates on whether equality and diversity should be
mandatory within the business and management
curriculum .
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Should diversity education be mandatory?
• Bell, Connerley and Cocchiara (2009): need for mandatory
diversity education for management students.
• Diversity has been well researched in management literature
BUT with limited practical effects (Ibid.)
• This is partly due to the fact that this research has not been
disseminated to the public, including students in
management/business schools.
• Most of the debates on this area have taken place in America.
The (American) Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of
Business includes specific statements in relation to
equality/diversity in management education BUT has not
mandated the need for a course on equality/diversity to
business/management school students (Ibid).
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• Moral, ethical and business rationale for embedding
diversity teaching in the business management curriculum.
• Bell et al. (2009) argue that the limited diversity in
academic and administrative staff contributes to the lack of
mandatory diversity education for management students.
• “As management scholars and educators, we share the
responsibility for helping to change [discriminatory]
attitudes, particularly since susceptibility to attitude change
is greater during early adulthood than during middle
adulthood” (Visser and Krosnick, 1998, in Bell et al (Ibid.))
Bell, M., Connerley, M. L., Cocchiara, F.K. (2009) ‘The case for mandatory diversity
education, Academy of Management Learning and Education, Vol. 8 (4): 597-609
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Experiences of students and staff in
relation to equality/diversity courses
• Critical management curriculum addresses discrimination
in the workplace, but typically as an ‘add on’.
• Some management/business schools now offer
‘dedicated ‘Equality in the workplace/diversity
management courses at UG and PG levels. Typically
optional courses
• Mandatory diversity courses within
business/management schools very limited (if at all
present)
• Positive bias? Students who are open to diversity issues
more likely to enrol, if courses are optional
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Experiences from students registered on
Diversity Management courses
• School of Management and Languages, Heriot-Watt
University
• Diversity Management (UG)/ Managing Diversity in
Business (PG) courses
• Cover key strands of equality, critique of neutrality of
management theories, key factors having an effect on
different social groups’ career experiences, stereotyping,
segregation etc.
• Self-reflection exercise at end of course. “Reflective
learning is not what happens to a student, it is what the
student does with what has happened” (Bourner, 2003:
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296).
Reflective summaries from students consistently
indicate:
• heightened sensitivity to equality issues in
the workplace and society
• Increased understanding of discriminatory
cultures and structures, but also..
• Understanding of their agency and their
role/negotiated power within these cultures
and structures.
• More confidence in challenging discrimination
in the workplace
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“Before taking this course, I would shy away from
challenging discriminatory comments, when I came
across them.. Now, I feel much more equipped to do
so” (male white student)
“I didn’t always realise that my comments may be
hurtful to some groups.. I thought it was just funny..
Now I know that I need to be more sensitive to how
people from other groups may feel..” (male white
student)
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“I have a new understanding of the experiences of
professional women […] After [taking] this course, I
realise the difficulties and challenges they face..
[especially] when it comes to work-life balance” (male
Chinese student)
“Before, I never recognise[d] the existence of stereotypes
and discrimination in my life. But now, I realise that I
should protect my own rights and fight against
discrimination in the future” (female Chinese student)
“In fitting in to new culture, we should not lose our
identity” (female Chinese student)
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Time for discussion…
• Experiences of staff in engaging with equality
in the business management curriculum
(through for e.g. teaching, promoting equality
in school/university etc). Reflections? Ways
forward?
• Views on whether equality/diversity should be
mandatory in business/management schools.
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