| Many management theorists yearn to be scientific and | | | | term) choices? So even if I do associate black with |
| as a consequence the domain is littered with tools | | | | unpleasant would that necessarily translate into my not |
| which claim to have scientific validity and which go on | | | | giving a black person a job? How are these tests valid |
| to claim the ability to measure, predict and control | | | | without some kind of relation to people acting on their |
| many aspects of human and organisational life. So, for | | | | unconscious biases, and surely there must be some |
| example, you might choose to use Cameron and | | | | ethical problems of pursuing this. In other words, I can |
| Quinn's Competing Values Framework which is | | | | understand how efforts can be made to make the |
| supposed to allow you to diagnose and change your | | | | test internally consistent, but in what way are they |
| organisation's culture and values. By using the tools | | | | consistent with the 'real world' they claim to represent? |
| managers can help employees line up and point in the | | | | How would one 'prove' their predictability? Predictive of |
| same direction by adopting the values you require in | | | | what? |
| your organisation.Then of course there is the Myers | | | | Thirdly, the tests conform to the behaviourist |
| Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which is supposed to | | | | assumptions of cognitive psychology where attitude is |
| indicate which of the Jungian personality archetypes | | | | considered to be an individual construct which dictates |
| best describes your character. | | | | behaviour, and if identified can be changed. Attitude |
| Alternatively you might use an Implicit Association Test | | | | precedes behaviour, rather than being understood the |
| (IAT) to diagnose unconscious bias in your | | | | other way round, that because I have behaved in a |
| employees.The IAT is usually administered as a | | | | particular way over many, many occasions, so this has |
| computer-based test where respondents are asked to | | | | formed my attitude.There is also the rationalist |
| make associations between words. The idea seems | | | | causality behind the idea of 'surfacing your mental |
| to be that when faced with a choice between two | | | | models' in order to change them: the implicit assumption |
| word pairings, black/white, pleasant/unpleasant, | | | | here is that it is possible to make the unconscious |
| hesitation in associating say, black with pleasant is | | | | conscious, and by doing do change first one's attititude, |
| taken to indicate unconscious bias against black | | | | then one's behaviour. |
| people. This is also related to the speed with which | | | | Additionally, my attitude, a tendency to act in a |
| one associates white with pleasant. It is a test based | | | | particular way, will have been formed in different social |
| on manual dexterity, measuring speed of response in | | | | settings. It may be that I am racist but sit with an |
| typing. Despite the enormous amount of energy and | | | | interview panel who are not: as this becomes obvious |
| resources put into replicating and validating these tests, | | | | to me it becomes extremely difficult to express my |
| they are deeply problematic. | | | | racial bias in public. The opposite is also true if I am not |
| Firstly, in the test I took it was not possible to associate | | | | racist, but the other people I interview with are - so I |
| both white and black with pleasant in the same | | | | may feel constrained in saying what I really think. And |
| iteration: one is always obliged to choose between | | | | on what basis do I can I assume that the people I am |
| them. One could be forgiven for thinking that the test is | | | | interviewing with are unconsciously biased unless they |
| creating the conditions it claims to be testing for. | | | | explicitly give this as a reason for not appointing a |
| Secondly, in what way do word association tests | | | | black candidate? The test takes no account of the |
| actually correlate with real-world (if you forgive the | | | | social nature of prejudice. |