Resources

A comprehensive compilation of research by the Kirwan Institute discussing how unconscious biases are activated and how they manifest across different contexts.  The report also provides research-based strategies for reducing bias.

Researchers distributed two identical resumes to employers but changed the names on some of the resumes.  Some resumes had an Anglo sounding name and other resumes had an African American sounding name.  Researchers found that resumes with an Anglo sounding name received 50% more callbacks than the resumes with an African American sounding name.

Researchers wanted to understand why there were so few female musicians in orchestra symphonies.  They conducted blind auditions by putting up a curtain so that the judges wouldn’t know the gender of who was auditioning.  Women were still not being selected for the orchestras.  When they took an additional step to conceal the gender of those auditioning – placing carpet on the floor – they found that more women musicians were selected.

The authors of this classic HBR article challenge the widely held belief that our decisions are based on objective criteria.  They assert that “even the most well-intentioned person unwittingly allows unconscious thoughts and feelings to influence apparently objective decisions.”  The article explores how biases – implicit prejudice, in-group favoritism and overclaiming credit – can derail our decisions and also outlines actions we can take to counteract these biases.

In Blindspot, Banaji and Greenwald present research on how we are all susceptible to hidden biases and offers individuals tools to overcome these hardwired biases.

Princeton Psychologist Daniel Kahneman discusses the dual systems the brain uses to process information – System I and System II.  He describes System I as fast, automatic and unconscious, while System II is slow, deliberate and rational.  Kahneman examines how System I thinking can lead to cognitive biases and provides suggestions on how we can better access System II thinking to avoid decision-making errors.

Yale psychologist, Victoria Brescoll found that senior male senators spoke more on the Senate floor than their junior colleagues.  For female senators, however, power didn’t translate into more speaking time.  Brescoll surmised that women spoke up less because they were concerned about the potential backlash stemming from appearing to talk too much.

The study demonstrated that in a culture where women’s leadership is measured against the traditional male leadership style, if “women act in ways that are consistent with gender stereotypes, they are viewed as less competent leaders.”  However, if women act in ways that are consistent with stereotypes of competent leaders they are viewed as less “likeable”.

The study examined how gender-based stereotyping may hinder women’s advancement in the workplace.  Researchers found that women leaders are expected to be more effective at “taking-care” behaviors while men are expected to be more effective at “taking-charge” behaviors.

In this piece authors discuss the phenomenon of women not speaking up in the workplace.  The authors say that “when a woman speaks in a professional setting, she walks a tightrope.  Either she’s barely heard or she’s judged as too aggressive.  As a result, women often decide that saying less is more.”

The authors find that women have limited access to leadership positions primarily due to “second-generation bias” – “a powerful but subtle and often invisible barriers for women that arise from cultural assumptions and organizational structures, practices, and patterns of interaction that inadvertently benefit men while putting women at a disadvantage.”  They outline three actions organizations can take to support women’s access to leadership positions..

Williams and Dempsey describe how four patterns – “Prove it Again”, “ The Tightrope”, “The Maternal Wall” and “The Tug of War” serve as obstacles to women’s success in the workplace and outline how women can combat these patterns.

The authors assert that women’s lack of confidence lead them to engage in behaviors that undermine their effectiveness and success.  Men often overestimate their abilities and performance, while women underestimate both and women tend to attribute failure to a lack of inherent ability.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett distinguishes sponsorship from mentorship and discusses why sponsors rather than mentors are the key to the success and advancement of high-performing women in the workplace.  She also offers women a roadmap to finding sponsors and how to build sponsorship relationships.

In this HBR classic, the authors explore the link between cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence and explains that cultural intelligence picks up where emotional intelligence leaves off.  They also provide a tool to help you create your cultural intelligence profile and share tips on how you can cultivate cultural intelligence.

In today’s workplaces, managers and leaders must learn to effectively manage and lead employees who are different than them.  Hyun offers strategies to navigate and leverage diversity in increasingly global workplaces.

Meyer provides a tool for decoding cultural differences and influences that impact how individuals from different cultures work together.  This “culture map” tool positions helps readers anticipate behaviors and preferences of individuals from different countries.