Self-Reflection: Personal Biases

901 words | 4 page(s)

When I think of the biases I might possess, there is a range of characteristics that comes to my mind with the comparative perspective of biases that might be possibly possessed by other student fellows. Among common prejudices, remarked by the World Trade Organization is the gender bias, which is rather a negative one and commonly perceived among different types of organizational behavior. In this paper, I will reflect that my personal biases do not significantly differ from other common biases and reflect on my practice in the daily and business operations. My research will be based on the distinction between the ability-type biases and information-type biases.

First of all, personally I perceive the term bias as the one that already the one possessing a negative connotation. Thus, my major task was to focus on the positive biases and try to distinguish them among the negative. As mentioned above, one of the most common biases driven in the decision-making is gender prejudice. Even though in the business world most companies operate the terms in support of gender equality, yet the number of CEOs and COOs operate in the decision-making without taking into consideration the necessity of providing services for women with children, or women who prefer to work in the different working schedule. Personally, unfortunately, I also belong to a number of people who have an issue with the full respect of gender role at the workforce. In fact, I fully support women’s intentions in obtaining careers. However, sometimes I catch myself unable to respond to some of the crucial questions asked my female colleages being aware that the question also concerns me personally. I would also include the gender bias as the judgement error that often occurs due to my personal inaccuracy of explaining the tasks to diverse groups of people.

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Among ability-type biases I personally tend to express the cases of being overconfident. Sometimes, I tend to make decisions based on my personal perceptions of certain ideas being sure that the rest of the team shares my point of view. In fact, in some cases being overconfident may be considered as an asset. While working in the setting of the constant deadline-pressure with the requirements to act quickly and respond to the teamwork, one shall be able to demonstrate the confidence and the ability to handle the situation ahead of others. Thus, such bias may be regarded as a coin with a flip side, leading to both positive and negative outcomes. Among other ability-driven biases, I could also notice that I am often influenced by the cheerleader effect. In other words, I sometimes sense that I am more attractive in my speeches and the research delivery while working in the group or public. In fact, such an effect can be often noted in various working environments. However, for me it serves as an illustrative example of a rather negative bias in practice in the settings of the organizational behavior.

Unlike the ability-driven biases, the information-type biases reflect one’s abilities to make the decisions regarding the information presented and the facts related to that matter. In fact, personally I am influenced by the two following types of the information-driven biases: anchoring bias and confirmation bias. In fact, they significantly differ between each other, yet their relation to the information permits to analyze the two types together. My anchoring bias could be noted in he situations when I tend to make decisions based only on the single piece of information. As for me, if the given information contains refutable sources it could be used in the decision-making as the solid point of information. However, the research in the organization behavior, particularly mentioned in Harvard Business Review qualifies such a tendency in decision-making as a negative driver for decision-making. However, these days I can qualify it as a negative bias in the process of the decision-making. Thus, it is one of the biases I could further work in the future. Besides that, I tend to the confirmation bias. In other words, I often rely on the decisions proposed by managers without taking into consideration significant amount of research made on the respective topic by independent workers and my colleagues. Having mentioned the ability-type biases as well as the information-type biases, I would shift to designing the strategies for bias prevention in different settings.

Biases comprehended by an individual have a significant impact on the culture of the decision-making in the company. In various settings such biases as overconfidence may serve as an asset of the delivering the required goals. In other cases, they might be a challenge to be reviewed. Specifically, I would strive to prevent my tendency to base my decisions on the information-type biases. In fact, such aspects as the overwhelmed reliance on managers and their perspective might have harmful effects on businesses.

Among the strategies that could be prevented in terms of biases, one could foster certain organizational values and following them while basing my decisions. In fact, the strategy for getting rid of gender-based decisions could be substituted with the facts of organizing the pleasant and adjustable environment for vulnerable categories of people. Furthermore, one could change the strategy of being a leader to becoming a listener. It would be beneficial in terms of elimination the impact of overconfidence in the decision-making. Thus, the listed strategies could be applied in order to achieve the effective management.

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