Challenges of Employee Diversity

The things that make us different can also make it challenging for us to work well together. These challenges are not only based on actual or perceived differences embedded in our culture or personal perspectives but also on perceived threats to the established order. 

unconscious bias

Unconscious bias refers to the attitudes, beliefs, or stereotypes that people carry in their subconscious and influence their decisions and actions without them being aware of it.

We know perception is personal and subjective. However, what we are largely unaware of is that there can be a disconnect between our conscious thoughts and our unconscious beliefs or biases, primarily a product of our sociocultural environment. These biases can affect various aspects of the workplace, including hiring practices, promotions, team dynamics, and interactions among employees. Unless we actively counteract our automatic reactions, the unconscious influences our behavior.

Identifying Unconscious Bias

In 1998, scientists from Harvard, the University of Virginia, and the University of Washington launched Project Implicit, a series of implicit association or social cognition tests (IAT) designed to reveal participants’ unconscious (attitude and belief) biases based on demographic factors such as color, race, and sex. An IAT measures the strength of associations between concepts (for example, queer or straight people) and judgments (good or bad) or associations (for example, joyous or tragic).

The idea behind the Implicit Association Test is that we don’t always know our minds; that is, we are unaware of the divergence between our conscious attitudes and our unconscious beliefs. The divergence between the two is a blind spot and is as potentially dangerous as a blind spot when driving—on both individual and organizational levels. Thus, the goal is to raise awareness of hidden biases or blind spots so we can take action to counter our own biases.

For example, you may consciously believe that Black and White individuals should be treated equally. However, your responses (and those of many others) may show that you associate Black individuals with negative actions (e.g., violence and crime) more than you associate White individuals with the same actions. This association may contribute to individual decisions, a pattern of behavior, and a culture that reinforces these associations and significantly decreases the opportunities for Black individuals to participate in society from a starting place equal to that of White individuals.

The Social Attitudes category of the Implicit Association Test includes several tests such as the things you associate with a Man-Woman pairing, an Arab Muslim-Other People pairing, and a Disabled-Abled pairing.

If left unacknowledged and unchallenged, both unconscious and conscious biases can become embedded within the culture or sub-cultures of an organization, turning into cultural norms. This can dilute the benefits of diversity by reducing the importance of underrepresented individuals, a process known as marginalizing. Marginalizing occurs when these biases systematically diminish the visibility, contributions, and opportunities of certain groups, excluding them or making them feel undervalued or excluded. Such dynamics can lead to industry avoidance or an exodus of certain groups away from a field, as is being seen with women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) occupations.

The Effect of Bias

The critical problem with biases is that they undermine both an organization’s brand and its strategic intent. Whether actions are conscious or not, the gap between stated attitudes and operational realities undermines market credibility and effectiveness along a continuum from recruiting to new product development. Without awareness and appropriate intervention, bias can lead to dominant group (“person like me”) favoritism in selection, evaluation, project assignment, and promotion and preclude or silence the differences of opinion critical to innovation.