Role of Bias Play

Running head: ROLE OF BIAS PLAY
Role of Bias Play
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ROLE OF BIAS PLAY
Introduction
Biases in the recruitment processes, and in interviews are the partial responses that the
interview panel or the recruiters have over the candidates. There is also a partiality that
happens over the individuals on the preconceived response based on the structure, and the
tenor of the questions that are asked in the interview process. There are often situations where
the prepared questions are asked in a distorted manner so that the decision of the recruitment
changes (Bennet, 2014). The partiality that happens often depends on the religion, caste and
gender. There are various kinds of interview bias. The impression of a persona often
influences a person how to feel or think about the character of others. The bias in the hiring
process and mistakes in the recruitment of the individuals eventually result the organisation
to have employees who are unfit for the job. According to Bennett (2014), this leads to a
decline in the productivity of the organisation. The brand value and the reputation of the
company eventually decreases in the long run since the employees of the organisation that
have been hired were not hired on the basis of their skill set and their performance. Thus
there needs to be fair interview processes so that the people are hired according to their
abilities and there is no partiality. Proper strategic and standardized recruitment processes
will eventually lead to the improvement of the organisational performance as well as the
employee satisfaction in the long run (Dobbin & Kelly, 2016). The following essay answers
the questions regarding the types and the frequency of the biased recruitment process and also
how can these be reduced.
Discussion
What types of bias impact recruitment and selection processes?
According to Carias & Sondak (2008), the workplace can be affected by the
unconscious bias. Insensible bias can introduce the unintentional discrimination in the

ROLE OF BIAS PLAY
organisation and can result in poor decision making of the employees. Such an unconscious
bias prevents the creation of an inclusive workplace. These biases prove to have an impact on
the mentoring, promotional activities as well as recruitment processes. The gender bias in an
organisation can hamper the equal opportunities that the men and the women should be
sharing in terms of selection processes. The women often doenjoy progression in their
leadership role and in the management. According to a survey, by Jonsen, Schneider &
Maznevski (2011), for every one percent rise in the diversity of the gender and cultural
diversity, the sales revenue is increased by 3 percent. However this diversity is hampered and
there is no sort of increase in the productivity if there is unconscious bias at the recruitment
level of the employees. The few kind of implicit bias that effect the recruitment at the
interview level are the Halo effect, the Horn Effect, Leniency Effect., Contrast effect,
Conformity bias, Confirmation bias, and Personal Similarity Bias (Fiske & lee, 2008). The
halo effect is a type of cognitive bias in which the way we behave with an individual is
dependent and influenced by the overall impression of the person. It justifies the old English
sayingthat says, “First impression is the last impression.” For example, if a person is found to
be nice and friendly in the organisation, he is also expected or assumed by the others to be
smart and clever (Bennet, 2014). The Horn effect is the type of unconscious bias, which is
created by the first impressions again but it is totally opposite to the Halo effect. According to
the Horn effect, any kind of unfavourable characteristic of a person can create an unconscious
bias that will affect the impression so much so that his other traits and beliefs will eventually
be overshadowed. Often the individuals are rated higher than what they have in personal
context. In recruitments and in interviews, often the interviewer rate the candidates higher
than what they actually are to avoid any sort o f unfavourable reflections on them. Since they
rate them leniently, this is termed as lenient bias (Burrell, 2016). The candidate or the
interviewee is often rated negatively and is subjected to biased recruitment procedure. The

ROLE OF BIAS PLAY
contrast effect takes place when an interviewee is rated high again but when he is contrasted
with the previous candidate. Most likely if a person is not so good, the interviewee who is
next to him in line is rated in a biased manner even if he is not suitable for the position. This
often happens when the people are shortlisted from their resumes. As discussed by Paluck &
Green (2008), there can also be a bias when the other interviewers select a particular
candidate and irrespective of a different opinion, the interviewer gets inclined towards the
opinion of the others. Such a situation is termed as conformity bias. Bezrukova et.al., (2016),
says, the confirmation bias occurs when the opinion regarding a candidate is dependent not
on how he presents himself or his resume speaks but on information during the interview.
Also there is a biased decision during the recruitment off candidates when the personality
traits of the interviewee has a similarity with the personality of the interviewer. This type of
bias is often termed as affinity bias or personal similarity bias (Bezrukova et.al., 2016).
What is the role if merit/argument of merit? Why may relying on merit be a
flawed approach?
As stated by Stahl et.al., (2010), the role of merit in a work place implies better
quality of the work, and improved quality of the employees working in the organisation. In
order to create an effective workplace, the assessment of merit in the process of hiring and
promoting is extremely essential. Selection of a candidate on merit is the process in which the
people are hired on basis of their skills, performance, talents and their abilities. There is no
bias in the recruitment process if an individual is selected on the basis of merit. It ensures
effective competition and the applicants can effectively compete for the position of the jobs
(Lee, 2011). Discovering and selecting the people on the basis of their talents and merits, is
extremely essential because the best candidates get ruled out in the interviews and the hiring
processes because of the biased decisions of the panel. On the basis of assumptions and
unconscious bias, the merit of a person loses its arguments.