How do marginalised groups experience subtle discrimination in contemporary workplaces?

This post is written by Dr Shainaz Firfiray, Senior Lecturer, University of Aberdeen

• **The problem: ** Research on workplace incivility shows that while most employees will encounter uncivil behaviour at some point, women, racial minorities, and other marginalized groups face it more often.
• Why it matters: This type of insidious behaviour is difficult to identify and address using human resource policies, making it a chronic source of stress for marginalized employees.
• The solution: Managers should develop an awareness on how such incivility manifests in workplaces and acknowledge the cultural, societal, and historical intricacies underlying the marginalization of certain groups.

Workplace diversity is not simply about achieving certain numbers or ratios of people belonging to disadvantaged groups within the workforce. Rather, it is about creating an environment where everyone regardless of gender, race, or national origin feels they have equal opportunities to progress in their careers. However, many workplaces fail to provide such an environment.

While overt bigotry comprising of endorsement of offensive stereotypes, and support for blatant discrimination against women and racial minorities may have seen a decline, research has identified many forms of discrimination based on gender, race, and other characteristics in contemporary organisations. This challenges the myth that sexism and racism are no longer a problem in this country and reveals that many organisations have in fact failed spectacularly to live up to the principle of equality for all.

The problem of selective incivility

A significant majority of people in the UK are in denial about the reality of structural sexism and racism. Indeed, many of them feel that women and minorities are making unreasonable demands or using unfair means to advance their privilege and power.

Such people may visibly support the values of equality and justice even though they covertly harbor negative attitudes towards women and racial minorities. While they identify as non-prejudiced, they discriminate against women or minorities in a discreet or seemingly justifiable fashion. In other words, they will discriminate when the biased nature of their behaviour is not conspicuous and when the negative treatment can be attributed to something other than gender or race. The cumulative impact of such attitudes in the workplace eventually results in higher rates of incivility reported by women and racial minorities. This has been referred to as “selective incivility”.

While selective incivility inflicts significant harm on targets, it is also hugely detrimental to organisations. Prior research has shown a link between workforce diversity and a range of positive organisational outcomes including better levels of employee retention and profitability.

However, the subtle forms of discrimination arising from selective incivility work insidiously and create an environment that is hostile for women and minorities. Not only do such behaviours significantly damage the well-being and career prospects of targets, they can also severely impede the retention of a diverse workforce.

A neverending issue

The incessant nature of workplace micro-aggressions exhausts the cognitive resources of targets, negatively impacts their performance, limits opportunities for progression, deepens inequalities, and reinforces the privileges of majority groups.

The reason subtle discrimination thrives in work settings is that most organisations rely extensively on superficial methods of diversity training - such as unconscious bias training - to address such issues. Evidence suggests that people do not modify their attitudes in response to such training and that it does not facilitate any meaningful change.

To develop a nuanced view of the issues faced by marginalised groups, training should offer opportunities for employees to have uncomfortable conversations and ask difficult questions about inequalities in the workplace.

The representation of marginalised groups in leadership roles also needs to improve significantly to address the issue of selective incivility and dismantle existing workplace pecking orders. Organisations should also provide voice opportunities to marginalised workers who have long been ignored or silenced to explore their lived experiences of selective incivility.

Check your biases

Diversity research has also emphasised the importance of leadership. However, the benefits of diversity can be undermined when leaders show clear biases in the relationships they form with those they lead.

Leaders with an inclusive approach are able to inspire their teams, eliminate everyday micro-aggressions, encourage the people they lead to engage with their teams harmoniously, and create a work environment where people of all demographic backgrounds can thrive.

To achieve this, leaders should emphasise that unacceptable discrimination includes not just obvious expressions of bias, but also more elusive forms of disrespect. This type of a combined approach will serve as a more effective means of mitigating such insidious forms of discrimination.

Challenging subtle discrimination

Given the corrosive impact of subtle discrimination, it is important for organisations to confront the injustices currently present and embed equality into their work values. Creating a culture where targets of subtle discrimination can productively discuss their concerns is a crucial first step in this direction.

Moreover, leaders who are confronted with the problem of selective incivility in their workplaces should learn from targets of incivility instead of exerting their authority to discredit them and maintain the status quo.

Refusing to see the target’s perspective does little to dismantle discriminatory power structures or improve the lives of people belonging to marginalised groups.

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