Leading Equality, Diversity & Inclusion at Transport Scotland

Organizational Issues Facing Transport Scotland

Transport Scotland faces several significant organizational issues. The first and most immediate is the impact of Covid-19. Since the pandemic has affected the entire United Kingdom — and indeed the world — Transport Scotland was required to shift to a work-from-home (WFH) model to protect employees' health and safety. Alongside this, IT facilities struggled to provide seamless services to keep employees connected and ensure that workflows remained uninterrupted. Scotland's challenging weather conditions — which can include severe storms — add a further layer of complexity, particularly when monitoring road and transport infrastructure remotely.

The company's financial situation also presents a serious challenge. The economic disruption caused by Covid-19 severely impacted operational processes, and re-energizing the Scottish economy requires sustained government funding. A second structural challenge relates to political turnover. Many organizational staff members come from political backgrounds or are subject to political influence. Whenever there is a change in political personnel — such as newly elected local councillors joining the organization — they must be briefed and brought up to speed on company policies, operational procedures, and working practices. Because re-elections occur roughly every four to five years, this creates a recurring, time-consuming training burden on the organization.

Proposed Solutions to Organizational Challenges

To address the communication difficulties created by remote working, Transport Scotland should adopt Barnlund's transactional model of communication. This model enables senders and receivers of information to obtain communication messages simultaneously, ensuring that employees at every hierarchical level feel included (Bragg et al., 2021). Instant feedback facilitated by this model would support rapid improvements, while two-way communication and nonverbal cues — such as facial expressions during Zoom meetings — would enrich conversations and allow the organization to capture input from a diverse workforce.

Crisis communication frameworks offer a valuable approach to addressing IT challenges. The protocols and technologies used to respond during a crisis like Covid-19 must be managed strategically, as they are central to Transport Scotland's sustainability (Macnamara, 2021). The traditional response strategy involves stages of denial, diminishment, rebuilding, and bolstering. IT teams could begin at the diminishment stage, minimizing potential damage while rebuilding their commitment to providing unhindered services. The bolstering stage would then communicate this restored value consistently to all stakeholders.

For managing Scotland's extreme weather conditions, Transport Scotland should adopt a cross-departmental approach. Cross-functional teams drawn from across the organization can engage in cooperative learning, in which controlled supervision and knowledge-sharing help mitigate the effects of severe weather on transport infrastructure (Gillies, 2016). Cooperative learning supports both individual knowledge acquisition and intrinsic motivation — the natural drive to excel in a group setting — which produces positive outcomes for weather monitoring and response. Cross-functional collaboration also removes professional and social barriers, bringing together the diverse skills and perspectives needed for effective weather management (Pimenta et al., 2014).

The financial challenges facing the Scottish government and Transport Scotland could be partially addressed through Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). MMT holds that a sovereign state can issue currency in the quantities needed to maintain low inflation (Lockert, 2022). Given the financial pressures generated by Covid-19, intervention by the Scottish central bank to fund the organization represents a viable policy option.

The recurring challenge of briefing new political colleagues could be efficiently handled through artificial intelligence (AI) tools. The transformation of working practices — particularly the rise of remote working — has made personalized, technology-driven training increasingly effective (Chen, 2022). AI-powered virtual training tools could systematize the onboarding of new political staff every four to five years, disseminating institutional expertise in a consistent and time-efficient manner.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy

The importance of equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) cannot be overstated. Diverse employees at all levels of Transport Scotland bring variation to problem-solving, strengthening the organization's responsiveness during difficult periods (Ashikali et al., 2020). Diversity generates more favorable team outcomes because multiple perspectives allow ideas to flow more freely, improving both decision-making and overall performance.

According to Mor Barak's inclusion-exclusion model, an employee's sense of inclusion depends on the degree to which they feel part of the organization's decision-making processes (Shore et al., 2011). Organizational culture is the primary determinant of the conditions that promote diversity, and it directly and positively affects job satisfaction, employee commitment, motivation, wellbeing, and task and team performance. At Transport Scotland, leaders actively seek employees' viewpoints — not only for problem-solving, but also as an expression of the organization's commitment to embracing diverse personalities. Employees at every level are invited to share their views. A monthly informal get-together gives all staff the opportunity to discuss how improvements could be made and how they feel about the company. During Covid-19, directors and frontline employees held virtual "breakfast get-togethers" to maintain a high degree of inclusion, with everyone encouraged to speak openly.

In terms of formal strategy, Transport Scotland's EDI approach is built on three pillars: (1) leadership that acknowledges and actively works to overcome biases and differences (Colella-Graham, 2018); (2) the involvement of diverse employees in higher management positions (Cox & Lancefield, 2021); and (3) equal employment opportunities for people from all ethnic backgrounds, with an equitable hiring ratio maintained across every department (Cox & Lancefield, 2021).

Leadership style is central to the effectiveness of any EDI strategy. While social identity theory suggests that pronounced diversity differences can produce heterogeneity in teams and undermine inclusivity, inclusive leadership provides the counterforce needed to prevent this outcome (Ashikali et al., 2020). Transport Scotland's approach is founded on the principle of "taking people along and embracing them" — recognizing that a failure to do so will eventually produce resistance rather than engagement.

Leading and Developing People: Survey Findings

In keeping with the diversity and inclusion strategy outlined above, Transport Scotland's inclusive leadership agenda must respond directly to three key survey findings:

The fact that 54% of staff are considering alternative employment could be reversed if Transport Scotland demonstrates a genuine commitment to hearing its employees. Communication must become a two-way process in which management is prepared to share both good and difficult news openly. Managers should be ready to explain the reasoning behind decisions, as employees who feel their input is genuinely heard are more likely to remain engaged. This requires translating employee views into tangible changes that meet their subjective needs and expectations (Kriz et al., 2021).

Feeling valued and respected by senior managers is one of the most fundamental needs of any employee. Those who do not feel respected are unlikely to perform to their full potential and will show fewer signs of wellbeing and job satisfaction, contributing to higher turnover. While fair compensation is one form of recognition, Transport Scotland should place equal emphasis on social cues and on building a work environment that actively validates employees' worth (Rogers & Ashforth, 2014). Key enablers of felt value include civility, trust, status — understood as admiration from peers — and both generalized and particularized forms of respect (Rogers & Ashforth, 2014).

Increased workload is likely a significant driver of the 90% of employees who report experiencing stress at work. Both individual and organizational interventions can help address this. Workplace adjustments and conflict management approaches are relevant tools (Bhui et al., 2016), as are initiatives promoting work-life balance and peer-support groups, which can reduce absenteeism — an early indicator of workload stress and declining employee health. Workload management is most effective when the gap between perceived workload and employees' actual capacity to manage it is minimized (Inegbedion et al., 2020). How employees perceive the workload distribution among colleagues, and whether they believe their roles are appropriately aligned with their skills, are critical factors in job satisfaction and workload tolerance (Inegbedion et al., 2020).

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