Managing Workplace Tensions After Brexit

The business case for diverse and inclusive work settings is well established. Diverse workforces that embrace and celebrate differences are best placed to understand the needs and concerns of diverse customers globally, attract and engage the best global talent, and integrate diverse perspective and ideas to drive innovation. The tacit rejection of diversity and inclusion implied by Brexit is a business risk. As global business leaders seek to understand the financial, legal, operational and logistical implications of Brexit, they should not overlook the potential for Brexit to fuel political, cultural, religious, racial and ethnic tensions at work.

Brexit and Racism

Financial inequality, a housing crisis, and a strained medical system may have driven Leave voters to protest against Britain’s membership of the EU—but a fear of immigrants cannot be overlooked as a significant motivating factor. One-third (33%) of leave voters said the main reason they voted leave was that leaving “offered the best chance for the UK to regain control over immigration and its own borders.” 

Although a greater percentage, nearly half (49%) of leave voters said the biggest single reason for wanting to leave the EU was “the principle that decisions about the UK should be taken in the UK”, we know from decades of research that individuals are more likely to discriminate against members of non-minority groups when they can legitimately mask their prejudiced attitudes. Racism is not always expressed verbally because of strong normative and legal restrictions but studies repeatedly show that racist beliefs and attitudes manifest in discriminatory decisions about and treatment of outsiders when allegations of prejudice can be dismissed by claiming discriminatory responses were based on non-racist criteria.

Expressed racism is heavily influenced by social norms. The success of the Leave campaign—with its persistent anti-immigration theme—tacitly implies social acceptance of anti-foreigner sentiment and normalises racism. In the aftermath of Brexit, racial abuse has surged in the UK. Police say that they had 331 reports of hate crimes in the week after the EU vote when they normally have around 63—an increase of 542%. Across the Western world, there is a risk that Brexit will embolden xenophobic attitudes and anti-immigration sentiment in communities and workplaces. In Australia this week, Pauline Hanson, founder of the far-right One Nation party, marked her return to political office by warning Muslim immigration risks “bringing terrorism” onto the street.

Brexit and Incivility

Britain is no longer a united kingdom. A crippling cultural schism between young, educated liberals and older, working class conservatives has played out in the most spectacular fashion. By large majorities, voters who saw multiculturalism, feminism, the Green movement, globalisation and immigration as forces for good voted to remain in the EU; those who saw them as a force for ill voted by even larger majorities to leave.

The future is uncertain, but one thing is clear. Cultural divides in Britain are significant and real. Cultural ideals are intimately tied to our self-concept. Imposing one set of cultural ideals over another triggers emotional resistance or backlash. Asking individuals on opposite sides of the leave or remain debate to embrace each other’s viewpoint will, as we are witnessing across media outlets and social media platforms, be met with anger.

Brexit at Work

As evident from the market turmoil since Brexit, isolationism is a business risk that cannot be understated. In the short-term, cultural and racial tensions in the workplace pose an immediate risk to work settings. Now is the time for global business leaders to strengthen workplace cultures that decrease the divisions between different cultural and social groups and promote intercultural understanding and civility. What approaches can business leaders take to promote cultural safety at work? 

Normative Approaches

Because prejudice is socially constructed, normative approaches can be simple yet effective interventions in the workplace and can be approached from multiple angles including: 

• Organisational culture and policies—promoting diversity and inclusion, sanctioning discrimination and prejudice, safe and responsive grievance channels
• Corporate communications—using company websites, newsletters, emails, briefings, and team meetings to highlight examples of positive relations between members of different social groups
• Leadership—a culturally diverse leadership team that models civility and intercultural respect sends a powerful message to lower-level staff 
• Diversity champions—modeling appropriate responses to incivility, conflict, bias and prejudice, positive intergroup interactions, and diverse friendships

Positive Intergroup Contact

Studies indicate that the formation of intergroup friendships can help to dismantle negative stereotypes and decrease prejudiced attitudes. Organisations should seek to increase opportunities for individuals from different social and ethnic groups to develop friendships. Relational activities might involve social get-togethers and recreational activities, ensuring there is adequate time for interpersonal dialogue on top of work responsibilities, formal team-building initiatives, and mentoring. Activities that encourage diverse individuals to share information about their unique backgrounds, experiences and skills promotes individuation of outgroup members such that they come to be considered as individuals rather than as a member of a broader social category. Under this approach, the focus moves from “one of them” to “you and me”. Fear of strangers disappears when strangers become friends.

Cultural Intelligence with Civility Training

Cultural intelligence training transfers the willingness and skills to work effectively with members of different cultural and social groups and should be a key focus of workplace initiatives to strengthen intergroup relations and manage cultural, ethnic or racial tensions. Well-designed cultural intelligence training incorporates civility training to transfer the skills needed to manage anger, conflict and tension on the job.

Felicity Menzies is Principal at Culture Plus Consulting, a Singapore-based diversity and inclusion consultancy with expertise in cultural intelligence, unconscious bias, empowering women and global diversity management. Learn more about managing diversity globally at www.cultureplusconsulting.com.

Felicity's business book A World of Difference: Leading in Global Markets with Cultural Intelligence will be available from July. Click here to learn more about the book or to pre-order your copy.