TY - JOUR
T1 - #UsToo: implicit bias, meritocracy and the plight of black minority leaders in healthcare
AU - Busari, J.O.
N1 - Funding Information:
Firstly, most of the previous personnel changes in ANO ministries reflected the ministers’ personal scandals (ČTK 2011b), their incompetence or their own decisions to leave the post (Česká televize 2014b). However, the case of the replacement of Minister of Justice Helena Válková in March 2015 by ANO differs from this past practice. Válková was compelled to leave her post on short notice based on a party leadership decision; she was also instructed by the party to inform the public this was her own decision (ČTK 2015c). According to ANO’s leadership, Válková was an expert in her field, but did not have the necessary managerial skills to run her resort (Lidovky 2015; Trachtová 2015; IDNES.cz 2015; ČTK 2015c; Česká televize 2015). Válková’s case thus signalled that, although her replacement was highly controversial, nobody from the ANO leadership voiced any concerns over the fact that she was forced to step down; it also signalled that the support of the party leader is the most crucial asset when building a career within ANO and that everyone, even ministers, are faced with the necessity to obey instructions from the leadership. The alleged misuse of European Union funding by a party leader was the second test to date of ANO’s stability. This allegation of fraud became publicly known at the beginning of 2016 and centred on EU grant money used to fund ANO leader Andrej Babiš’s conference centre, Stork’s Nest Farm. Babiš was under investigation by both the Czech police and by The European Anti-Fraud Office for intentionally securing a grant intended for small and medium-sized firms (Neurope.eu 2016) for which his corporation was not eligible (Holub 2016) by applying under an anonymous stock shareholding. As hard as it is to believe, this serious accusation did not have any actual negative impact on ANO. Interestingly, at a special Czech parliament meeting in which Babiš was to provide a sufficient and full explanation, all ANO’s MPs applauded him once he finished his speech, demonstrating party unity and support (Novinky.cz 2016). This reaction is very different to that of VV and Dawn to the crises that occurred in their parliamentary parties. While in these two parties the scandals immediately transformed into splits and internal conflicts that endangered their organizational stability, in ANO this scandal did not lead to the creation of internal opposition or factions oriented against the party leader. Such loyalty within the party has been demonstrated in other circumstances, for instance during the party congress leader’s vote, when Babiš received one hundred percent of the votes (ALDE 2015) or when ANO’s MP club dressed in same clothes in order to support Babiš’s new crucial tax policy draft for electronic record of sales (ČTK 2015d; Novinky.cz 2015). The above examples clearly illustrate that unlike in VV and Dawn, in ANO, scandals have not so far endangered its stability.
Publisher Copyright:
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019.
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - In the fall of 2017, the #MeToo movement ushered in one of the most astonishing revolts against the perils of workplace-related harassment. Several unsuccessful campaigns geared towards ending the harassment and subjugation of women in corporate organisations finally got a thrust that resulted in significant and far-reaching changes in many organisations. While the #MeToo movement highlighted the pains and struggles of gender inequality over the years, an unintended consequence has been the shadow it has cast over the plight of other minority groups facing harassment in the workplace. In several academic and healthcare (learning) environments, people of colour, like women, face explicit and implicit forms of harassment on a regular, if not daily basis. Unlike gender harassment, however, racial harassment affects both sexes with relatively more predominance among men. The effect of racial harassments does not just impact performance and self-confidence but also influences the opportunities available to black professionals to advance their academic and professional careers. In the academic and healthcare industries, the issue of how to tackle implicit bias and unfair practices is not clear-cut. While the subjugated feel the impact of bias, the perpetrators of the actions either lack the ability (or are unwilling) to acknowledge these biases. Furthermore, the complexities inherent to the different contexts make it problematic if not impossible, to call out racist behaviours. In this paper, a real-life case scenario is used to provide a scholarly analysis of the dynamics of racial harassment, implicit bias and the impact on minority leader roles in healthcare delivery.
AB - In the fall of 2017, the #MeToo movement ushered in one of the most astonishing revolts against the perils of workplace-related harassment. Several unsuccessful campaigns geared towards ending the harassment and subjugation of women in corporate organisations finally got a thrust that resulted in significant and far-reaching changes in many organisations. While the #MeToo movement highlighted the pains and struggles of gender inequality over the years, an unintended consequence has been the shadow it has cast over the plight of other minority groups facing harassment in the workplace. In several academic and healthcare (learning) environments, people of colour, like women, face explicit and implicit forms of harassment on a regular, if not daily basis. Unlike gender harassment, however, racial harassment affects both sexes with relatively more predominance among men. The effect of racial harassments does not just impact performance and self-confidence but also influences the opportunities available to black professionals to advance their academic and professional careers. In the academic and healthcare industries, the issue of how to tackle implicit bias and unfair practices is not clear-cut. While the subjugated feel the impact of bias, the perpetrators of the actions either lack the ability (or are unwilling) to acknowledge these biases. Furthermore, the complexities inherent to the different contexts make it problematic if not impossible, to call out racist behaviours. In this paper, a real-life case scenario is used to provide a scholarly analysis of the dynamics of racial harassment, implicit bias and the impact on minority leader roles in healthcare delivery.
KW - behaviour
KW - empathy
KW - health system
KW - medical leadership
KW - DISCRIMINATION
KW - RACE
KW - GENDER
U2 - 10.1136/leader-2019-000157
DO - 10.1136/leader-2019-000157
M3 - Article
SN - 2398-631X
VL - 3
SP - 101
EP - 103
JO - BMJ Leader
JF - BMJ Leader
IS - 4
ER -