The Director and one of her senior managers discovered they shared an interest in horses. He revealed his recent holiday had been to the Appleby Horse Fair where he had stayed with Travellers “so much better that way”. She later confided to a friend that she wondered whether he was a traveller but kept quiet about it for fear of prejudice amongst his colleagues. She was aware that her new organisation lacked any managers from an ethnic minority background and that on taking up her post had encountered a very traditional male culture. It was a shock coming from a much larger national organisation where the senior management team was mostly made up of women.
It is very easy on taking up a new post as a senior manager in the current austere climate to assume the main task will be keeping the organisation on a sound financial footing and making the right choices about future direction. The reality is that you inherit people issues which involve challenging attitudes, whether that be to women as colleagues or minority groups as service users. How some managers related to their staff, how some staff talked to each other and how some staff treated service users that’s what needed to change.
Some initial re organisation of management responsibilities had prompted some mangers departure. The result of this was an impending Industrial Tribunal for constructive dismissal, totally unfounded but never the less time consuming and energy sapping. This would be the way of things for the next couple of years challenging unthinking attitudes and entrenched views, moving people on or out, taking a close interest in the recruitment of new managers and spending more time at the outlying offices. The toughest battles were not going to be about the budget!
www.blairmcpherson.co.uk is author of books on equality and management development including People management in a harsh financial climate, Equipping managers for an uncertain future and An Elephant in the room –an equality and diversity training manual all both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk