Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Karen Morley, Major Street Publishing, $29.95.
“By replacing bias with inclusion, organisations will create personal, social, productivity and economic value that will sustain future success.”
A registered psychologist with a desire to align what leaders do with the available evidence for what works, Dr Morley’s book has abundant data, it is educational and easy to read. It tells you how to play a better part in a more inclusive world.
Bias might be built-in to how our brains work, but that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable. Recent advances in psychology and neuroscience give us an unprecedented insight into how biases interfere with good decision-making. When it comes to leadership, these biases create a sticky floor making it hard for women to rise to the top, despite their talents and ambitions. The good news is that the frustratingly slow pace of change in achieving gender balance can be accelerated if you know more about how partiality works.
In this book, Dr Karen Morley explains how biases, particularly the insidious unconscious ones, trip us up. She outlines what approach to take to minimise their impact on organisations and shares stories from leaders committed to making their organisations fairer.
In the foreword, Kathryn Fagg – a professional engineer and Boral Ltd chairman – admits that Karen says: “the compelling logic for increased diversity is because it increases performance”.
Research shows that having a diverse workforce provides tangible and measurable benefits. Companies are more profitable, more collaborative and more inclusive when they hire women.
If you want to help reduce gender bias, then this thought-provoking and realistic book is a valuable reference tool for any leader in today’s workplace. With candour and insight, it provides clear suggestions for achieving change on diversity and inclusions.
If you correctly tell us who wrote the foreword for Beat Gender Bias, you could win one of two books of Beat Gender Bias. Entries should be sent to [email protected] by Monday, 8 June 2020. Names of the winners will be announced in Frank Cassidy’s PS-sssst…! column on 9 June 2020.
