www.peopleandmanagement.com
Researchers and practitioners have
suggested a number of ways to reduce
the effect of unconscious biasness or
not to allow unconscious biasness affect
our decisions. The fi rst and the foremost
thing is to be aware of our stereotypes
and make conscious efforts to not colour
our decisions.
statements or take biased decisions. Bias is defi ned as
prejudice in favour of or against a person or a group
or a thing or a situation where comparisons are made
with one another which are generally considered
as unfair. Biases may be held by an individual or a
group or an institution and may have both positive
and negative consequences, though viewed as having
negative output in the majority of the cases.
Biases are generally classifi ed into two categories:
conscious or explicit and unconscious or implicit. We
are all aware of our conscious or explicit biases, but
unconscious biases are the ones which are hidden,
and we do not have any clue of them.
Research suggests that unconscious biases are
more prevalent as compared to conscious biases as we
take all precautions to not to allow conscious biases
to shadow our decisions. But since we are not aware
of unconscious biases, we instinctively categorize or
classify people, events or situations based on easily
observed criteria such as physical appearance, age,
weight, skin colour, gender, accent, language, job
title, social status, material things possessed by an
individual, etc.
Now, the question arises how does it happen?
Research indicates that our brains are programmed
to make unconscious decisions. This implies that our
actions and behaviours are guided by unconscious
thinking which is instinctive as well as based on
rational thought processes. Information collected by
our brain is assigned different patterns, thus helping
us to take quick decisions in not so familiar situations.
Since we all have unconscious biases, we carry
the same to our workplaces also. These unconscious
biases have a deep impact on everything from the
dress we wear on a particular day to the employee
we select or the one we don’t. These hidden biases
get surfaced in different situations at the workplace
but the major functional areas where they might
have a great impact include recruitment and
selection; appraisal; promotion; compensation, etc.
Discrimination against people or wrong decisions
in these areas might have damaging consequences
on both the people and the organization as a whole.
The unintentional discrimination might lead to
dissatisfaction, mistrust, decreased morale or an
increase in the likelihood of people leaving their
jobs which will ultimately affect the organization. So,
how to remove or mitigate the effects of unconscious
biasness?
Researchers and practitioners have suggested a
number of ways to reduce the effect of unconscious
biasness or not to allow unconscious biasness affect
our decisions. The fi rst and the foremost thing is
to be aware of our stereotypes and make conscious
efforts to not colour our decisions. Special training
programmes can be provided to employees to make
them aware of their unconscious biases and how they
can refl ect on their implicit attitude. Practitioners
advocate that the presence of positive images in the
offi ce space against the negative stereotypes might
help to mitigate their negative effect. Also, visualizing
the positive images of the people or group for whom
we have stereotypical thoughts might help us come
closer to them. Deliberate and conscious efforts to be
friendlier to those whom we perceive as different can
also help to control our biased behaviour.
Easier said than done; in spite of ef forts
by employees and having awareness training
programmes in the organizations, it is very diffi cult to
overcome unconscious biases. But, with the advent of
new technology in the form of artifi cial intelligence
and machine learning, these biases can be taken care
of as both bring objectivity to some of the processes
and hence outperform human beings. P & M
Vol. 10 Issue 2 • FEBRUARY 2019, Delhi NCR |
35