Reflections on achieving anti‐racism in organisations: The role of human resource management scholars and practitioners

Abstract

In this article, I reflect on the role of human resource management (HRM [I acknowledge that HRM scholarship encompasses a wide range of researchers employing varying analytical and methodological lenses and that publish in an eclectic mix of journals within and outside the human resource management domain. However, although I draw from other journals and academies for illustrative purposes, this article focuses on the two journals that are most widely respected in the field (Human Resource Management Journal and Human Resource Management)] in the treatment of race and racism in organisations. I argue that the combined negative impacts of the brutal murder of George Floyd before a social media watching world and the strong evidence of negative racially disproportionate impacts of the coronavirus pandemic contributed to a collective moral outrage and provided an unprecedented catalyst and opportunity to tackle institutional racism. I provide a review of research interests to argue that HRM scholars and the business practitioners they commonly inform have not grasped this opportunity fully, in that the treatment of race remains inadequate and informed by an erroneous view of race as neutral and irrelevant in influencing organisational outcomes. I contend that this presents a danger that racism will continue to thrive. I argue that grasping this opportunity fully requires a rethinking of the approaches commonly adopted by HRM scholars and practitioners to acknowledge and embrace fully the significance of race (and anti‐racism) in influencing organisational outcomes. I call for a reconsideration of key constructs, especially those that are implicated in racism (such as organisational culture and culture change) so that anti‐racism is at the centre of HRM conceptualisations and organisational processes.