Decentering Whiteness in the Workplace
Decentering Whiteness in the Workplace
How does whiteness shape our understanding of the workplace?
Dr. Janice Asare’s new groundbreaking book Decentering Whiteness in the Workplace helps us consider how workplaces prioritize the comfort of white-identified employees.
Dr. Asare describes white centering as “actions and behaviors that prioritize, uplift, amplify, and venerate white people and the dominant white culture above other cultures and communities.”
White-centering impacts how we hire, recruit, evaluate, and engage with employees in the workplace.
For example, within hiring, many organizations fail to recruit from networks that engage employees from diverse backgrounds. And, often times in hiring there is a desire to hire for “culture fit” meaning how well employees fit the current culture. This becomes problematic when the workplace culture is comprised of majority white employees.
How might BIPOC employees be assessed as a poor culture fit simply because they think differently than current employees? How can we shift from “culture fit” to “culture add” to ensure that candidates are being more fairly evaluated?
As Dr. Asare highlights in her book, whiteness also impacts performance evaluations.
Research indicates that BIPOC employees are more likely to be assessed negatively. This is especially true for customer-facing roles where customers’ feedback impacts how employees are evaluated. Organizations need to consider how customers’ biases may shape how they describe their experiences with BIPOC employees.
Recent reaserch from Harvard and MIT suggests that Black women on all white teams experience lower performance evluartions and higher rates of attrition. How we perceive employee effectiveness and skill is often correlated negatively with marginalized identity.
Creating Solutions
The first step to rooting out bias is awareness.
By learning how whiteness is protected and prioritized in the workplace, organizations can create more inclusive and equitable practices.
The second step is employee voice.
Create space through town halls, surveys, and 1-1 conversations to learn more about how marginalized employees are experiencing the workplace.
The third step is systems change.
Take time to review your systems and policies. Train managers on how bias impacts performance evaluations, review your policies for inclusion gaps, and consider creating better promotional and career development pathways.
Thanks for reading! Here’s what I am up to this month:
Running the Black Church Equality Fellowship, an inclusive fellowship for Black pastors who are championing LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Black church.
Conducting a DEI 101 training for Ground Floor Public Affairs.
Conducting employee focus groups for a local hospital.
Creating a religious inclusion guide for Chicago Public Schools.