Our autopilot can obstruct inclusion

_{By Nanna Stærmose. The article is published on 16/06/2023.}

‍The fact that women are oftenunder-represented in management positions can, in part, be due to the workingsof unconscious bias. We are stuck in the idea that men are better at leadershipand women are better at being led. However, this is not an idea with any basisin reality, so why do our brains hold on to such gendered stereotypes?“

The humanbrain has to process so much input that it sometimes takes the easier way out,the one that doesn’t require as much of our brain. An example is the strongerassociation of assertiveness with men compared to women. If we also associateleadership with being assertive, it’s easier for the brain to conclude that menare better at leadership than women,” says Jannick Friis Christensen, Postdocat the Copenhagen Business School Department of Business Humanities and Law. 

JannickFriis Christensen’s research is centered on how biases can affect employeediversity, inclusion, and equitable outcomes in organisations, for example in arecruitment process. We cannot avoid biases, they are the price we pay forhaving a brain, according to Jannick Friis Christensen. However, he does findthat we can and should work to mitigate the effects of bias if wanting toprevent discrimination and create equal opportunities for underrepresentedgroups of people. “To a certain degree, our biases influence behaviour andactions. This means that we risk making decisions with little nuance and on animproper basis,” he says.  

Thoughtsshape processes

An examplecould be a job interview during which you sit across from a woman who wears ahijab which triggers a certain bias that may affect the course of theconversation. “You may form the hypothesis that a veiled Muslim woman has amore traditional way of life and will have many children, and in an effort toconfirm this hypothesis, the focus of the interview is this rather than hercompetences in relation to the job. This will create a distortion as othercandidates would not face the same bias,” says Jannick Friis Christensen.

Even thoughthe researcher says it is impossible to eliminate bias completely, he doessuggest that we can work on reducing the impact of bias. As a lecturer in humanresource management at Copenhagen Business School, Jannick Friis Christensenhas noticed that the younger generation is aware of bias and other issuesrelated to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This is positive, but not enough.

“To addressunconscious bias effectively, we have to approach it as we would a bad habit.It’s not enough to merely be aware of its existence. People don’t usually stopsmoking because they become aware that cigarettes are dangerous to theirhealth, and we won’t see more women on executive boards just because we’reaware that most seats are taken up by men,” he says.  Jannick FriisChristensen believes that to effectuate change, we have to work with biasstrategically and view them structurally as an organisational issue rather thanthe responsibility of individuals.  “The responsibility lies first andforemost with companies, not individuals and especially not individuals thatbelong to minority groups. Change must be enacted at an organisational level,”says Jannick Friis Christensen, and he continues: "If the leadership-idealwithin the context of a given company is male-connotated, then it doesn’t makesense to look at the derived bias as held individually. The gender bias isembedded in the way the organisation and its members understand leadership.Consequently, womens’ leadership potential might be left unacknowledged whilethat of men, generally speaking, may be overestimated.”

In the longterm, it's about making structural changes that challenge the biases in dailypractices, which require changing the processes and routines that sustain thesebiases as habitual behaviour. This also applies when recruiting people withdisabilities or with minority ethnic backgrounds. "It's not abouteliminating bias: that’s impossible. It’s about reducing the risk ofdiscrimination in the labour market. Everyone should have equal opportunitiesand equal access to jobs. Nobody should be ruled out in advance because ofrecruitment procedures that don’t take into account unconscious bias,” saysJannick Friis Christensen.

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