Introduction
In the light of the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, employees start to speak up about structural inequalities that they face in their working environment. Bon Appetit, a reputable cooking entertainment company, has recently been accused of tokenism and racism by its employees. Inequality infiltrated all business departments via the pay gap, cultural incompetence, and marginalization since the establishment of the company in 1952. Two components of a business’s operation that lead to such inequalities are leadership and ethical climate. Management determines the overall attitude towards Black people throughout the company, while ethics can normalize it among employees. This research paper will analyze how leadership and ethical climate preserve racism in Bon Appetit company.
However, before examining how the two concepts lead to racist behavior, it is essential to address the definition of racism and tokenism. Racism is expressed through racial minorities facing unequal pay, overt bullying by other coworkers, and lower work positions (Singer, 2016). Tokenism, in its turn, can be defined as “the practice of making a symbolic effort to give the appearance of racial equality particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from under-represented groups” (Lafuente & Vaillant, 2019, p. 905). Thus, even companies that are racist in management and ethics can appear equal through tokens.
Purpose
This research aims to analyze how culturally incompetent ethical climate and inadequate leadership in the organization lead to racism and tokenism in the Bon Appetit company. In addition to the analysis, recommendations for future improvements will be provided. Measures for increasing cross-cultural representation and ethical treatment of employees will ensure that the company will become socially responsible and regain its customers with fair treatment of employees.
Analysis
Leadership
Firstly, it is essential to understand that leadership style can determine how people of color are treated. Leadership is defined as a set of actions and beliefs of a manager who directs and controls the followers to achieve a common goal (Walter et al., 2016). Attitudes towards employees and overall leadership philosophy differ from manager to manager, and these unique approaches create the organizational climate.
While some leadership styles nurture healthy relationships within the team, others create discriminatory and oppressive surroundings. Although leadership depends on each organizer, Lafuente and Vaillant (2019) defined two approaches to leadership as determinants of the company’s environment: transactional and transformational. The first approach focuses on the goal; a transactional leader treats his employees as assets rather than valuable members. Such leaders concentrate on mutually beneficial transactions with the followers without contributing to their growth (Walter et al., 2016). The authoritative style of White-dominant Bon Appetit can be an example of transactional leadership. On the other hand, transformational leaders reach a common goal and develop followers’ skills for future cooperation. An example of a transformational approach is servant leadership; such a manager seeks meaningful interpersonal connections with each member of the group, tries to represent everyone fairly, and facilitates the growth of each follower (Walter et al., 2016). Lafuente and Vaillant (2019) linked these two approaches with various organizational issues that a modern company can face. If a leader treats his team as a resource, little to no attention is given to the followers, which can lead to numerous human rights violations.
When examining the theoretical approach of transactional leadership in the context of Bon Appetit, structural racism and tokenism become more apparent. As seen from the conceptual framework described above, leaders can treat their employees as resources and exploit them (Walter et al., 2016). Bon Appetit’s leadership’s goal can be considered a public image of a racially diverse company. Volkan (2020) claims that such a reputation is a target of many businesses since it widens their target market. However, to achieve the image of a racially accepting company, an organization with transactional leadership utilizes the façade of equality rather than equality itself (Volkan, 2020). For instance, the overall image of Bon Appetit online and in the press is diverse and inclusive.
The person of color, Sohla El-Wally, was presented as one of the company’s main representatives alongside her White coworkers. However, El-Waylly was not compensated for her appearance in the videos, and other Black people have been denied by managing editors to be featured because a show already had a token of diversity. From this behavior, a transactional approach is seen: narcissistic leaders view diversity as a useful feature and treat Black employees as resources to achieve it (Volkan, 2020). Although it was productive as a marketing tool, without putting effort into creating a racially equal environment, a company cannot become inclusive.
Ethical Climate
The ethical stance of Bon Appetit is tightly related to the tokenism and racism issue. Ethics are beliefs, ideas, and moral principles that guide each employee of a company in their everyday work (Karsgaard, 2019). As a fundamental part of the code of conduct, the ethical stance can either contribute or eliminate racial inequalities. Moral climate perpetuates racism and tokenism via prioritizing image and reputation over the honesty of representation and creating the discrepancy between the mission statement and the actual code of conduct.
Firstly, the failure in an ethical environment that led to racism and tokenism was the company’s wrong moral stance. Brenkert (2018) noted that regardless of a mission statement, companies impose structural limitations that go against the social justice that they promote. An unethical company can create an illusion of inclusivity but fail to treat all employees equally. For instance, a business that claims to be against sexism never allows women to be in high management positions. As a company that positions itself as culturally diverse, Bon Appetit attempted to put up a media facade of diversity by using tokens. A single Black woman was one of the few people of color featured in the magazine. As recent claims from former employees reveal, they were exclusively featured to represent diversity in the company that was, in fact, nonexistent.
The Bon Appetit audience saw the few Black people represented on screen, but they did not know about the structural inequalities behind the scenes. This contradiction in ethics can also be considered a “justice failure” – a phenomenon of a discrepancy between the code of conduct and a mission statement (Singer, 2016, p. 97). It results in many companies facing human rights violations claims, which results in profit and reputation losses and social equality deprivation (Singer, 2016). Bon Appetit currently experiences such repercussions as a result of paying Black workers less. Thus, this discrepancy between the on-screen representation and the actual state of equality presents a conflicting case for ethics, perpetuating racism and tokenism in Bon Appetit.
The contradictory approach to ethics that creates such an unwelcoming environment for diversity can also be linked to a set of values of the workforce. According to Karsgaard (2019), a value stance, in contrast to the mission statement that the public sees, is a set of behaviors that are universally adopted by the majority of employees within the company. Karsgaard (2019) argues that regardless of how liberal the company’s leadership is, without competencies in cultural awareness, respect, and visibility, racial and ethnic equality in corporate culture is virtually unachievable. A company has tolerated Blackface done by people in higher management, lower pay for Black ethical stance inside the organization. If employees position Black people as tokens for on-screen diversity, which is a case of Bon Appetit, they will be mistreated on multiple levels of management and between coworkers.
Disregarding other cultures in Bon Appetit happens continuously via mixing up the names of the employees of color and paying Black workers less. The value stance can explain seemingly unconnected instances of structural racism that the employees across departments have adopted from the company’s toxic ethical climate (Brenkert, 2018). It can be concluded that Bon Appetit does not fulfill the claim that they promote to be the selling point; as a result, the wrong value stance establishes tokenism and racism.
Recommendations
As evident from the issues discussed in the analysis, some changes need to be implemented to decrease racism within the company. Recommendations for improving leadership and executing necessary transitions, as well as decreasing cultural incompetency among the workforce, will be analyzed in this section. Eliminating racism and tokenism from day-to-day operations is the only way to regain customer support and business recognition of Bon Appetit.
Leadership
To minimize racism, Bon Appetit’s leadership has to transition from transactional to transformational. Transformational leaders focus on creating a healthy environment for followers to improve as opposed to the transactional approach. According to Lafuente and Vaillant (2019), “A key to transforming organizational behaviors is to understand the experience of marginalized individuals and to recognize the unconscious thoughts and actions that caused the marginalization” (p. 895). Thus, higher management of Bon Appetit has to start recognizing the experiences of Black people within an organization and make decisions that promote equality. More specifically, tokens of justice have to be joined by other Black people on the screen instead of being underrepresented. Additionally, allowing more diverse leaders to oversee decision-making in a White-dominant company can be a solution (Volkan, 2020). For instance, a Black person in a Bon Appetit’s Managing Editor position will ensure the correct representation of culture, names, and traditions due to their unique background and marginalization experience.
Ethics
For the ethical climate in a company to improve, the business has to implement a stricter code of conduct. As explored in the analysis, the discrepancy between the public marketing image and an actual ethical environment fuels human rights violations. To eliminate that, a zero-tolerance policy towards racist behavior should be implemented. More specifically, a case of Bon Appetit’s employees showcasing Blackface should result in repercussions like suspension. According to Brenkert (2018), fighting “binary oppositions between minority and majority interests, as well as between individual and collective concerns” should be at the core of socially responsible companies (p. 922). Consequently, training on cross-cultural learning and racial integration might be a key to minimizing cultural incompetence that is structurally imposed onto Black people.
Conclusion
In conclusion, racism and tokenism in the organizational context of Bon Appetit should be eliminated by changing the approach to leadership and ethical climate. Although institutional racism is challenging to spot, it needs to be addressed as it represses individuals and underrepresents ethnic minorities. Transactional leadership, along with inconsistent value stance, negatively affects the organization by creating an environment where racism is normalized and diversity is fictional. However, ethics and leadership need to be changed to represent race and equality justly and live up to the mission statement that a company promotes.
References
Brenkert, G. (2018). Mind the gap! The challenges and limits of (global) business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 155(4), 917-930.
Karsgaard, C. (2019). Boomerang ethics: How racism affects us all. Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry, 10(2), 199-201.
Lafuente, E., & Vaillant, Y. (2019). Balance rather than critical mass or tokenism. International Journal of Manpower, 40(5), 894-916.
Singer, A. (2016). Justice failure: Efficiency and equality in business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 149(1), 97-115.
Volkan, V. (2020). Large-Group Psychology; Racism, Who Are We Now? Societal Divisions and Narcissistic Leaders. Salt-Lake, UT: Phoenix Publishing House.
Walter, A., Ruiz, Y., Tourse, R., Kress, H., Morningstar, B., MacArthur, B., & Daniels, A. (2016). Leadership matters: How hidden biases perpetuate institutional racism in organizations. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 41(3), 213-221.