Black Lives Matter - a statement from The British Academy of Management

Recent events in the USA, in particular following the tragic death of George Floyd, and in the UK have surfaced important and deeply troubling issues around inequality and racism within our societies. The British Academy of Management seeks at all times and in all its activities to be an inclusive and diverse association, providing a welcoming, supportive and pluralistic community of scholarship in the full field of management. We strive to play a leadership role in helping our communities improve equality, diversity and inclusivity. We have previously commissioned research to look at issues of ethnicity and diversity in the management pipeline (Delivering Diversity, 2017) and are now following up that work with a new, commissioned project to look at ‘Equality, Inclusion, Diversity and Respect in Business and Management Higher Education Institutions’, as well as the creation of a new role of Vice Chair for EDI to examine all our activities and embed these values within them.

We would like to share with you a reflection on the role of leadership in combating racism written by BAM member and participant in our EDIR research project, Professor Palie Smart, who is Head of the University of Bristol School of Management, calling on leaders everywhere to “build on your success and be relentless in your renewed efforts to promote openness, global citizenship and combat racism” https://management.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/2020/06/08/response-to-the-tragic-death-of-george-floyd/#more-112.