Supervisor Authority and its Impacts on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Athletic Training.

Abstract

Context: The demographic landscape of the United States is changing daily and the demand for representation in todays workforce is both a moral and practical imperative for creating workplaces diverse in thought, expression, and people.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate workplace culture and the direct and indirect influence of supervisors on inclusion of minoritized communities, including those who have experienced marginalization for race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, marital status, ability, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, socioeconomic status, spirituality, political affiliation, literacy, or the intersectionality of multiple identities.

Design: Consensual qualitative research study.

Setting: Semi-structured interview.

Patients or other participants: Eighteen participants were recruited through direct contact via their public domain email addresses that are located on college/university websites.

Data collection and analysis: Demographic data was collected through a web-based recruitment survey which was also used to schedule a semi-structured interview. We used the multi-phased CQR tradition to identify domains and categories representative of the data.

Results: Three domains emerged. The environment domain spoke to the culture each supervisor created through relationship building and intention; intention was further characterized as active or passive behaviors whereby almost all pa rticipants described both. Only one-third of participants referenced DEIA policies and procedures within their organization. The resources domain represented the existence and awareness of organizational DEIA resources, or lack thereof. The perceptions domain characterized the beliefs of the supervisors relative to DEIA.

Conclusion: Structural efforts must include the creation and implementation of policies and procedures for employee inclusion, not just patient inclusion. The awareness and use of organizational resources is an important component to support supervisor efforts and should be leveraged from within the unit.