Ensuring equal treatment at universities
To ensure equal treatment at universities, it is necessary to develop the organisational culture, change the system for dealing with incidents, increase staff awareness, and develop the ability to spot unequal treatment and the courage to intervene, wrote Ester Oras and Kristi Kuningas in ERR.
Firstly, the area of equal treatment is extremely complex: it includes verbal, physical and sexual harassment, discrimination, workplace bullying, abuse of power, non-inclusive management style, disrespectful behaviour, victimisation. Often, all these breaches of rights are intertwined. For example, in the case of harassment, including sexual harassment, abuse of power and manipulation of the victim(s) by the person in power often come into play.
In an academic organisation, several generations (from 18- to 80-year-olds) work together, and they have very different perceptions and expectations of how equal treatment issues should be addressed.
Demeaning a person or a group of people or treating them unequally is part of a wider discrimination blindness – people may not even realise that they are treating someone differently because of their prejudices or hurting them with their words. What is funny to someone and what is not, or gender stereotypes developed over time that lead to estrangement in new situations, are just some examples of generational differences.
From the organisation’s point of view, a holistic approach to these problems is essential: rather than defining and solving a narrower problem, we should work on fostering a courteous communication style and an organisational culture that ensures equal treatment.
In this respect, we need to follow the example of the in-house departments set up in foreign universities and other organisations to promote diversity, equality and inclusion. Cultural change does not happen by itself or overnight, so it requires money and people.
Secondly, experience has shown that the “traditional” procedure, where any equal treatment issue must be first addressed to the immediate supervisor, can have a paralysing effect on the victim. The reason is simple: the wrongdoer is often someone in a higher position, who may be the supervisor’s friend, a close colleague in a research project, or even related to the supervisor in private life. It goes without saying that if the situation must be resolved by people who are related to each other, the resolution of the victim's complaint may not be objective. Tallinn University's experience shows that to avoid such a situation, it is essential to create a structurally separate position within the organisation – an impartial conciliator who is not associated with the complaint or the parties to the dispute by any conflict of interest or historical background.
Thirdly, to achieve change, continuous and active communication on several fronts is necessary. The most important thing here is to have both top-down and bottom-up communication. First of all, the support of managers is needed to even start implementing equal treatment policies. Changing, improving and developing the organisational culture must be a continuous effort. It is perhaps most at the middle management and subordinate levels where awareness of the issue needs to be raised most, using a variety of information channels and means of influence.
At the management level, the means could include mandatory training to raise awareness of equal treatment issues. These could be taken into account, for example, for promotion, evaluation, or when applying for or continuing in a managerial position. However, it is the staff who most need help and awareness-raising in identifying equal treatment, harassment and workplace bullying. Moreover, the organisation needs to make clear and easy-to-find guidelines on who and how to contact in such issues, while ensuring victim safety and confidentiality.
For example, it is necessary to ensure an anonymous reporting facility and to describe possible solutions for the victim, not to mention making basic information and contact details easy to find. It is important to raise awareness among all, as this will create the conditions for bystanders to report misbehaviour, and the problem and its resolution will not remain solely the victim's concern.
Finally, equal treatment is a question of values, and the basic principles of ensuring equal treatment should be a central theme of any institution that respects itself and its employees.
As a very complex issue, it also requires complex solutions – in addition to creating the position of an equal treatment officer (regardless of the exact job title), independent specialists should be involved where necessary, with expertise in areas such as law, psychology, communication and sometimes even medicine. It is therefore unrealistic to expect that everything related to equal treatment can be dealt with by a single (part-time) specialist, even less so by a person with many other work duties.
Rather, the aim could be to set up a separate unit involving various internal and external experts.
Principal decisions to ensure equal treatment must come from the management level, and the related values must also be publicly and consistently emphasised by the management. Undoubtedly, this must be accompanied by the necessary financial and human resources. It is the ongoing responsibility of the support units in the organisation to ensure that staff are aware of equal treatment issues and activities. Information in different channels must be easily accessible and understandable.
Only in this way can an organisational culture begin to emerge in which disrespectful and unequal treatment is not just a problem for the victim, but people around them must also take responsibility. This idea is perhaps best conveyed by the following words by Desmond Tutu (1931–2021), clergyman of the Republic of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize laureate: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
The commentary is based on the panel discussion “Does the University of Tartu need an equal treatment commissioner?” held at the University of Tartu to mark the Day of Women in Science. The discussion was moderated by TV and radio journalist Anu Välba. The panellists were Commissioner for Equal Treatment Monica Klaas-Kütt from Tallinn University, and, from the University of Tartu, Professor of Mathematical Statistics, member of the senate, Academician Krista Fischer, President of Student Body, student at the Faculty of Medicine Renar Kihho, Associate Professor in Analytical Chemistry, Associate Professor of Archaeology, equal treatment spokesperson Ester Oras and Vice Rector for Development, Professor of Human Genomics Tõnu Esko.
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