Unconscious bias in Workplace
Unconscious bias in a workplace is where employees ideas, understandings, decisions are affected from attitudes of various individual in an organization in an unconscious way. In most of every society there are several social groups who are claimed to valued tent to gain all the benefits such as housing, education, and employment opportunities. And some social groups who have been claim to devalued stigmatization and marginalization have to overcome the access to get the same opportunities as the valued group (Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, & Malle, 1994). Even though these challenges are based on the society level they also affects individual personal level also. This extension of devaluation is referred to as bias, and it will affect in different ways such as individual and interpersonal levels (Hebl, Foster, Mannix, & Dovidio, 2002; Ruggs, Martinez, & Hebl, 2011).
Bias can also produce the meaning of mistreatment, discrimination, impoliteness to on another (Cortina, 2008). In a workplace environment the discrimination of any individual will cause systematic barriers that will affect the promotions for some positions and inequalities between employees who are valued and devalued. The discrimination in an individual level can affect the employee negatively which will lower the job satisfaction, lower the commitment and also it will increase turnover intensions (Cortina, Kabat-Farr, Leskinen, Huerta, & Magley, 2013; Lim, Cortina, & Magley, 2008). The unconscious bias can also lead people increase psychological distress which will lead various health problems (Chrobot- Mason, Ragins, & Linnehan, 2013; Kabat-Farr & Cortina, 2014; Pascoe & Smart Richman, 2009)
According to the Figure 1, bias can be referred to many categories as Culture, Age, Marital Status, Gender, Upbringing, Religion, Seniority, Income, Ethnicity, Physical ability, Mental ability and Education. Psychologist have highlighted three main types of bias in the workplace as (Lammers, 2012)),
• Affinity Bias (Where the negative traits of the people are ignored and focus on the faults of those we don’t),
• Social comparison Bias (where people will favor other that they think in their group)
• Confirmatory Bias (where the information that we gained will confirm the pre-existing perceptions).
Though bias in workplace is hard to eradicate, interfering to the bias is not that difficult.it is not as difficult to interrupt (Stephens, Rivera and Townsend, 2020). The Social dominance theory referred as SDO discusses SDO as an individual quality that will affect, explicit bias (Pratto et al., 1994). Individuals who are oriented as high valued tend to threat the devalued group believing that they will go above them. People who are high in SDO are eventually becoming the group of High status (vs Low status) group. These low status group which is known with the discrimination name “Weaker” are individual who belong to LGBT groups, racial minority groups and non-native citizens. in order to maintain. The group of High level SDO those who have a high SDO tend to endorse that woman working in an organization is uncertain that has roused the sexism discrimination in the workplace (Christopher & Wojda, 2008) (Parkins, Understanding bias in the workplace, Fishbein, & Ritchey, 2006). Unconscious biases in the workplace are mostly based information that has been mistaken, inaccurate, or incomplete. Thus, biases can make a great impact to the organization by limiting the recruitment process and promotions in a organization.
References
Christopher, A. N., & Wojda, M. R. (2008). Social dominance orientation, right- wing authoritarianism, sexism, and prejudice towards women in the workforce. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 32(1), 65 –73
Chrobot-Mason, D., Rose Ragins, B., & Linnehan, F. (2013). Second hand smoke: Ambient racial harassment at work. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 28(5), 470–491
Cortina, L. M., Kabat-Farr, D., Leskinen, E. A., Huerta, M., & Magley, V. J. (2013). Selective incivility as modern discrimination in organizations: Evidence and impact. Journal of Management, 39(6), 1579–1605
Hebl, M. R., Foster, J. B., Mannix, L. M., & Dovidio, J. F. (2002). Formal and interpersonal discrimination: A eld study of bias toward homosexual applicants. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(6), 815–825
Hebl, M. R., Ruggs, E. N., Martinez, L. R., Trump-Steele, R., & Nittrouer, C. (2015). Understanding and reducing interpersonal discrimination in the work- place. In T. Nelson (Ed.) Handbook of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination (2nd ed., pp. 387–407
Kabat-Farr, D., & Cortina, L. M. (2014). Sex-based harassment in employment: New insights into gender and context. Law and Human Behavior, 38(1), 58–72
Lammers, B., 2012. Unconscious Bias. djbZ, 15(2), pp.53-55.
Lim, S., Cortina, L. M., & Magley, V. J. (2008). Personal and workgroup incivility: Impact on work and health outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(1), 95–107
Parkins, I. S., Fishbein, H. D., & Ritchey, P. N. (2006). The inuence of personal- ity on workplace bullying and discrimination. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36(10), 2554–2577 Pascoe, E. A., & Smart Richman, L. (2009). Perceived discrimination and health: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 135(4), 531–554
Pratto, F., Sidanius, J., Stallworth, L. M., & Malle, B. F. (1994). Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(4), 741–763.
Stephens, N., Rivera, L. and Townsend, S., 2020. The cycle of workplace bias and how to interrupt it. Research in Organizational Behavior, 40, p.100137.
Bias can also produce the meaning of mistreatment, discrimination, impoliteness to on another (Cortina, 2008). In a workplace environment the discrimination of any individual will cause systematic barriers that will affect the promotions for some positions and inequalities between employees who are valued and devalued. The discrimination in an individual level can affect the employee negatively which will lower the job satisfaction, lower the commitment and also it will increase turnover intensions (Cortina, Kabat-Farr, Leskinen, Huerta, & Magley, 2013; Lim, Cortina, & Magley, 2008). The unconscious bias can also lead people increase psychological distress which will lead various health problems (Chrobot- Mason, Ragins, & Linnehan, 2013; Kabat-Farr & Cortina, 2014; Pascoe & Smart Richman, 2009)
Figure 1 - (Lammers, 2012)
According to the Figure 1, bias can be referred to many categories as Culture, Age, Marital Status, Gender, Upbringing, Religion, Seniority, Income, Ethnicity, Physical ability, Mental ability and Education. Psychologist have highlighted three main types of bias in the workplace as (Lammers, 2012)),
• Affinity Bias (Where the negative traits of the people are ignored and focus on the faults of those we don’t),
• Social comparison Bias (where people will favor other that they think in their group)
• Confirmatory Bias (where the information that we gained will confirm the pre-existing perceptions).
Though bias in workplace is hard to eradicate, interfering to the bias is not that difficult.it is not as difficult to interrupt (Stephens, Rivera and Townsend, 2020). The Social dominance theory referred as SDO discusses SDO as an individual quality that will affect, explicit bias (Pratto et al., 1994). Individuals who are oriented as high valued tend to threat the devalued group believing that they will go above them. People who are high in SDO are eventually becoming the group of High status (vs Low status) group. These low status group which is known with the discrimination name “Weaker” are individual who belong to LGBT groups, racial minority groups and non-native citizens. in order to maintain. The group of High level SDO those who have a high SDO tend to endorse that woman working in an organization is uncertain that has roused the sexism discrimination in the workplace (Christopher & Wojda, 2008) (Parkins, Understanding bias in the workplace, Fishbein, & Ritchey, 2006). Unconscious biases in the workplace are mostly based information that has been mistaken, inaccurate, or incomplete. Thus, biases can make a great impact to the organization by limiting the recruitment process and promotions in a organization.
References
Christopher, A. N., & Wojda, M. R. (2008). Social dominance orientation, right- wing authoritarianism, sexism, and prejudice towards women in the workforce. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 32(1), 65 –73
Chrobot-Mason, D., Rose Ragins, B., & Linnehan, F. (2013). Second hand smoke: Ambient racial harassment at work. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 28(5), 470–491
Cortina, L. M., Kabat-Farr, D., Leskinen, E. A., Huerta, M., & Magley, V. J. (2013). Selective incivility as modern discrimination in organizations: Evidence and impact. Journal of Management, 39(6), 1579–1605
Hebl, M. R., Foster, J. B., Mannix, L. M., & Dovidio, J. F. (2002). Formal and interpersonal discrimination: A eld study of bias toward homosexual applicants. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(6), 815–825
Hebl, M. R., Ruggs, E. N., Martinez, L. R., Trump-Steele, R., & Nittrouer, C. (2015). Understanding and reducing interpersonal discrimination in the work- place. In T. Nelson (Ed.) Handbook of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination (2nd ed., pp. 387–407
Kabat-Farr, D., & Cortina, L. M. (2014). Sex-based harassment in employment: New insights into gender and context. Law and Human Behavior, 38(1), 58–72
Lammers, B., 2012. Unconscious Bias. djbZ, 15(2), pp.53-55.
Lim, S., Cortina, L. M., & Magley, V. J. (2008). Personal and workgroup incivility: Impact on work and health outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(1), 95–107
Parkins, I. S., Fishbein, H. D., & Ritchey, P. N. (2006). The inuence of personal- ity on workplace bullying and discrimination. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36(10), 2554–2577 Pascoe, E. A., & Smart Richman, L. (2009). Perceived discrimination and health: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 135(4), 531–554
Pratto, F., Sidanius, J., Stallworth, L. M., & Malle, B. F. (1994). Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(4), 741–763.
Stephens, N., Rivera, L. and Townsend, S., 2020. The cycle of workplace bias and how to interrupt it. Research in Organizational Behavior, 40, p.100137.
Unconscious bias can affect our decisions in all areas of life, but especially in the workplace. We may try to be as objective as possible when making important decisions, especially when these relate to work. However, as human beings, we are all subject to unconscious bias (also known as implicit bias) in one way or another, but the more we are aware of this, the more we can mitigate it. unconscious bias can have a big impact on people-related decisions at work, especially when it comes to recruitment, promotion, performance management and idea generation. When bias is prevalent, your organization will struggle to hire diverse teams, and efforts to improve workplace inclusion will be of limited success.
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