Management Stereotypes with a dose of Wilberforce

What? A busy intersection

"In general, to change culture, you have to change people's hearts and minds. Therefore, culture is arguably the hardest thing to change through policy" (Haveman & Beresford, p 126). That's not religion talking. Nor philosophy. Nor idealistic, passionate, change-the-world politics. No, this is academia talking - a seemingly odd place to find inspiration. However counter intuitive it may be, policy doesn't bring about the kind of change that affects culture. The reason being is that policy is a single arm, one reach, into a culture - which is altogether a complicated mosaic of thoughts, feelings, and actions. Policy stands no chance against at such a busy intersection.

So What? A Refreshing Study with Disturbing Results

In a refreshing study, Booysen & Nkomo took an intersectional look at the combined effect of gender and race as it relates to management stereotypes. According to an intersectional perspective, "categories of difference like race and gender converge and impact each other, and thus should not be separately analyzed" (p 286). Race and gender are more than static, independent categories. They are interlocking and interdependent systems and much like culture, the cumulative effect of combined categories is beautiful and complicated.

Booysen & Nkomo's disturbing results were that both black and white men "perceived men as more likely to possess the characteristics necessary for a successful manager compared to women" (p 293). Race and gender still shape how individuals think about managers and it will take more than affirmative action politics to change hearts and minds. As significant as race and gender are as distinguishing qualities, we must deal with bigger categories to bring about the progressive change we long for.

Now What? May History Repeat itself

One of my heroes, William Wilberforce understood this well and now seems like as good a time as any for history to repeat itself. Wilberforce was born to "aristocracy and entitled to privilege, enormously talented, and encircled by rich and famous friends" (Eberly, p 1).  He is known for almost single-handily, through unmatched conviction, abolishing the British slave trade in 1807, marking the beginning of the end of slavery. Here we have a wealthy white male fighting for seemingly poor and undoubtedly oppressed black men and women.  Wilberforce saw an inextricable link between individuals and inherent value. He knew that individuals were more than demographic or socioeconomic categories. Seeing all people through the lens of inherent value brings all other categories together and creates a bigger, all-encompassing category. Race, gender, social class, marital class, etc - all the things that make up culture - converge when our defining category is broad enough.

The ironic fact of Wilberforce's movement is that he fought to change hearts and minds in Parliament - the policy makers of Britain. Arguably, it was British hearts and minds that changed first, then the policies.

Life is intersectional. And culture is a complicated entity. However, much progress is to be made if we'll read a page from Wilberforce's historical efforts. We may want to change the way race, gender and management stereotypes intersect, but we'll have to start with hearts and minds first.