International perspectives on positive action measures - European ...

<strong>International</strong> <strong>perspectives</strong> on positive action measures
or positive action. An educator stated
that, previously, African Americans
had been excluded from schools and
higher education.
Leadership also emerged in Canada
as a key driver, as evident in the quote
from a workshop participant: ‘People
will say that it’s one of the most diverse
teams they’ve ever worked on.
The two top leaders [interviewee and
her supervisor] both come from a
place of advocacy and a professional
knowledge and experience, background
in this work, so a very different,
deliberate and conscious effort to
enhance diversity. There is a difference
between having mandates and goals.
The only thing that works is if the
leadership is walking the talk’. Besides
legislation as the key driver in South
Africa, a number of moral/ethical
considerations were identified as essential
drivers. These included justice,
fairness, inclusiveness, emancipation
and grassroots agitations as the impetus
for affirmative action.
In terms of the drivers for positive action
among survey respondents, not
surprisingly legislation ranked the
highest. This is quite similar to the responses
in the workshop where legislation
was the greatest driver predominantly
across countries. However, a
closer look at the survey data suggest
that factors such as ‘internal consultation’,
‘good exemplar’ and ‘work with
stakeholders’ ranked equally highly.
Business benefit ranked quite low in
the survey responses. On the other
hand, the workshop responses included
business case as a high lever for
positive action programmes, in addition
to a core of other drivers such as
organisational mission/vision, ethical/
moral dimension and corporate social
responsibility. Whilst the findings in
the survey and workshop might have
yielded different and sometimes overlapping
results, we need to emphasise
that methodological nuances potentially
influenced the responses. In the
48
survey, a finite list of options was given
and respondents had to align their responses
with the choice given. As will
become apparent in the analyses below,
this is a recurrent dynamic, again
mainly resulting from sample size.
5.3. Support for positive
action
Findings from the survey responses
and workshop yielded divergent and
sometimes overlapping results. The
following factors were ranked in the
order of priority as providing support
for positive action activities amongst
survey respondents: strong individual
commitment from participants; leadership
and senior management support;
positive feedback from services
users/customers; broad support from
employees; and support from line
managers. For the workshop participants,
support for positive action
included all the survey responses as
well as legislative support, corporate
responsibility and financial resources,
amongst others. In Canada, the United
States and South Africa, support
ranged from legislation, leadership,
demographic imperative, corporate
social responsibility, statutory agency
and mission of organisations. Whilst
the findings in the survey and workshop
might yield different and sometimes
overlapping results, we need to
emphasise that methodological nuances
potentially influenced the responses
(similar to the above question
on drivers for positive action). For instance,
with this particular question,
the survey respondents were given a
list of finite options to choose from;
by contrast, the workshop participants
had to identify support without being
limited as to the choice of responses
to tick.
5.4.
Outcomes and impacts
Many participants believed affirmative
action to be effective in providing
opportunities for groups who have
previously been discriminated against
or treated unfairly. However, there
were problems associated with implementation
of affirmative action. In the
United States, the problems ranged
from unintended consequences of the
affirmative measures, negative attitudes
towards affirmative action, hostile
political climate and misinformation
to media manipulation. In South
Africa meanwhile, implementation
had been fraught with negative stereotypes,
stigmatisation, lack of proper
oversight and malpractice. A poignant
reminder of the problems associated
with affirmative action was captured
by a participant who compared the
consequences of affirmative action
with the apartheid system. In both
cases, casualties were left behind as a
consequence.
In Canada, some participants recommended
that in order for affirmative
action to be effective it needed to be
done alongside broader normative
change and supported by institutions;
affirmative action required buy-in
from leaders (senior management)
within organisations and in some
cases compensatory incentives for it
to be successful. Affirmative action
also needed to be part of the organisation’s
larger corporate strategy in
order to work. In cases where positive
action had been a success, one participant
said, ‘It means commitment from
the top. Unless the CEO and top executives
get it as their project it won’t
happen. If you don’t have that, it’s very
difficult to go further.’
Findings in the survey suggest a surprisingly
different dynamic in terms
of the outcome and impact of positive
action. While the measures used
in the workshop to evaluate outcomes
are mostly qualitative, the measures
used in the survey are quantitative
and measured by the number of respondents.
However, findings from
the workshop can be quantified from
the consensus statements arrived at