Lecturer: Daniel Dinale, PhD
The University of Sydney
I acknowledge the tradition of
custodianship and law of the Country on
which I live and work - the Gadigal Lands
of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation. I
pay my respects to those who have cared
and continued to care for Country.
Map of Indigenous Australia:
https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/map-indigenous-australia
Acknowledgement of Country
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– What did you learn last week - breakout
– Unconscious Bias
–What is Unconscious Bias?
–What are the outcomes of unconscious bias?
– Breakout – Your Experience
–What are organisations doing around unconscious bias?
• The Case of Starbucks
– How can we improve unconscious bias intervention outcomes?
Questions?
Agenda
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In breakout groups, discuss your key
takeaways from last week’s lecture
AND complete your key learnings
document
– What are your key takeaways
from last week? Why are these
important to G, D&I?
– How do they impact on peoples
experience of work?
– How can this content support you
with your assessments?
Nominate someone to report back
Breakout Session – Key Learnings – 7 minutes
The University of Sydney
Lecture 2: Unconscious (or Implicit) Bias
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– Bias is an ‘inclination or prejudice for or against one person or
group, especially in a way considered to be unfair’ (Oxford
Languages)
– Biases can be held by or against individuals, groups or
institutions.
– They can result in unfair outcomes to the person or group that the
bias is held against.
– Two types of bias:
– Conscious biases are inclinations or prejudicial beliefs that we
are consciously aware of.
– Unconscious bias on the other hand are biases that we don’t
know we have, and can also be contrary to our personal beliefs.
What is bias?
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“The attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding,
actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. Activated
involuntarily, without awareness or intentional control. Can be either
positive or negative. Everyone is susceptible”
(Kirwan Institute, 2016)
What is Unconscious Bias? (also known as implicit
bias!)
Page 8The University of Sydney
“The attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding,
actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. Activated
involuntarily, without awareness or intentional control. Can be either
positive or negative. Everyone is susceptible”
– Formed over a lifetime about different groups of people (Kirwan
Institute, 2016).
– Formed over a lifetime by family, people of authority, media
(DiAngelo, 2018).
– Arise outside our conscious awareness (vs conscious bias) and are
sometimes in direct contrast to our openly held beliefs (Kirwan
Institute, 2016).
What is Unconscious Bias? (also known as implicit bias!)
Page 9The University of Sydney
“The attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding,
actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. Activated
involuntarily, without awareness or intentional control. Can be either
positive or negative. Everyone is susceptible”
What is Unconscious Bias? (also known as implicit bias!)
(Source: Kirwan Institute, 2016)
Page 10The University of Sydney
“The attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding,
actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. Activated
involuntarily, without awareness or intentional control. Can be either
positive or negative. Everyone is susceptible”
Biases need to be addressed at the individual level and the
structural or systemic level.
What is Unconscious Bias? (also known as implicit bias!)
Page 11The University of Sydney
– Linked to discriminatory outcomes, poor interactions,
constrained employment opportunities, decreased likelihood
of receiving life-saving emergency medical treatments
(Devine et al 2012)
– In the workplace this can manifest as:
– Biases in recruitment through job ads written with unconscious
biased weaved through
Outcomes of Unconscious or Implicit Bias at Work
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What’s wrong with/biased in this job ad?
We are looking for a dynamic digital native to join our fast-
paced startup as a Social Media Marketer to execute the
aggressive strategy developed by our Chairman and CEO. The
ideal candidate will have 2-3 years experience in a similar role,
he/she will have a degree in IT, media, communications, or
other relevant degree from a top 25 University. Cultural fit with
our organisation is imperative.
Benefits include one month’s holiday, birthdays off, beer-
stocked fridges, 12 weeks fully- paid maternity leave and
educational benefits for self and spouse.
Social Media Specialist
Page 13The University of Sydney
We are looking for a dynamic digital native to join our fast-
paced startup as a Social Media Marketer to execute the
aggressive strategy developed by our Chairman and CEO. The
ideal candidate will have 2-3 years experience in a similar role,
he/she will have a degree in IT, media, communications, or
other relevant degree from a top 25 University. Cultural fit with
our organisation is imperative.
Benefits include one month’s holiday, birthdays off, beer-
stocked fridges, 12 weeks fully- paid maternity leave and
educational benefits for self and spouse.
What’s wrong with/biased in this job ad?
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– In the workplace this can manifest as:
– Biases in recruitment
• Job ads written with unconscious biased weaved through
• Booth, Leigh and Varganova (2010) found that applicants
with non-Anglo names had to apply for significantly more
jobs to get the same number of interviews:
– Italian names = 12% more
– Indigenous = 35% more
–Middle Eastern = 64% more
–Chinese = 68% more
– Studies done in Canada and the UK have found similar results.
Outcomes of Unconscious or Implicit Bias at Work
Page 15The University of Sydney
– In the workplace this can manifest as:
– Biases in recruitment & leadership:
• Ageism – not hiring, providing opportunity to or promoting
people of a certain age due to incorrect beliefs
• Leadership
– Poor decision-making in organisations
–Group think
Outcomes of Unconscious or Implicit Bias at Work
Page 16The University of Sydney
– ‘Prove it again’
– ‘Tightrope’
– ‘Maternal wall’
– ‘Tug-of-war’
Bias in every day work interactions (Williams &
Mihaylo 2019)
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– Affinity bias: the tendency to favour people who are like us,
resulting in homogeneous teams and ‘group think’.
– Confirmation bias: happens when we seek to confirm our
beliefs, preferences or judgements, ignoring contradictory
evidence.
– Halo effect: Judging an individual favourably on the basis of
one strong point on which you place a high value.
– Social and group think bias: the tendency to agree with the
majority or someone more senior to us in order to maintain
harmony.
Types of Bias – how do these play out?
Source: MCC and CEW (n.d.) ‘In the eye of the beholder’
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– Create an Inclusive Environment
– Prevent discrimination, lawsuits and damage to reputation
– Hire the best person for the job through attracting a diversity
of candidates by including the majority of the population
– Avoid groupthink, leading to innovation and creativity
– Serve customers better (e.g. Starbucks case)
– … thereby creating an equitable environment, supporting
diversity and inclusion, and reaching business goals
Why should organisations care about managing
unconscious (and conscious) biases at work?
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– Have you encountered unconscious bias in your personal life
or in the workplace?
– What happened and how was it handled?
– What was the impact on you, the target, the organisation?
– How could it have been handled differently?
Assign one person to report back on discussion
Breakout - 7 minutes and report back
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Break – 10 Minutes
Photo by Tetyana Kovyrina from Pexels
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Lecture 2: Unconscious (or implicit) Bias – What are
Organisations doing?
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The Case of Starbucks
– American coffee chain founded in 1971, in Seattle
– Purchased by Howard Schultz in the 1980s
– In 2019, over 30,000 Starbucks worldwide and 8,000 locations
in the US
– Good place to work (health benefits for store staff, family and
partners, stock options, tuition fees).
– Cares about its customers, “Third Place”
– Store Managers key to creating customer experience
– Hosts events and community initiatives
What are organisations doing? (Gino, Coffman and
Huizinga, 2020)
Gino, Coffman, Huizinga (2020): Starbucks: Reaffirming Commitment to the
Third Place Ideal. Harvard Business School, February 21, 2020.
Page 23The University of Sydney
On April 12 2018 a store manager at Starbucks in Philadelphia
called the police on two African-American men in her store who
were behaving neither violently nor disruptively. Police arrived
on the scene and arrested the young men.
The Case of Starbucks (Gino, Coffman and Huizinga,
2020)
Gino, Coffman, Huizinga (2020): Starbucks: Reaffirming Commitment to the
Third Place Ideal. Harvard Business School, February 21, 2020.
Page 24The University of Sydney
Then what happened?
– Viral video taken
– President and CEO Kevin Johnson:
–Woke the next day to hundreds of emails from people outside
the company
–Made a series of public apologies, condemned the event
– Visited the store in Philadelphia
–Met with the Mayor and Chief of Police
– The men received a settlement, the opportunity to be involved
in discussions, mentorship and financial assistance to finish their
degrees
The Case of Starbucks (Gino, Coffman and Huizinga,
2020)
Gino, Coffman, Huizinga (2020): Starbucks: Reaffirming Commitment to the
Third Place Ideal. Harvard Business School, February 21, 2020.
Page 25The University of Sydney
On May 29th 2019, closed HQ and 8000 stores in America to train all 175,000
employees on racial-bias.
Delivered Unconscious Bias training focused on bias, history of discrimination against
African Americans in the US, the black perspective, and was designed by experts.
– Starbucks: Who we are. Who we aspire to be
– The story of race, access and the spaces we all share
– Creating a more welcoming Starbucks
– Planning the journey ahead
https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2018/thethirdplace/
Provided 25,000 iPads, tens of thousands of guidebooks and notebooks for staff to
review together in store
Training was not mandatory, all stores participated but do not how many employees.
Received good feedback.
The Case of Starbucks (Gino, Coffman and Huizinga,
2020)
Page 26The University of Sydney
Starbucks also:
– Re-wrote ‘The Third Place’ policy
– Guidelines for customers
– ACT Model (Assess, Consider, Take Action)
– Provided alternatives to 911
– Third Place Development Series
The Case of Starbucks (Gino, Coffman and Huizinga,
2020)
Gino, Coffman, Huizinga (2020): Starbucks: Reaffirming Commitment to the
Third Place Ideal. Harvard Business School, February 21, 2020.
Page 27The University of Sydney
Outcomes
– Faced issues, and responded
– Rossann Williams, Executive VP and President increased the
amount of time she spends in stores from 50-70%
– Measures of success
–Occasions Per Day and Customer Connection Store, both have
increased, particularly in regions that lost business due to the
incident in Philadelphia
– Employee satisfaction scores high, and want to have more
discussions about race
– Hiring for VP of Inclusion and Diversity
The Case of Starbucks (Gino, Coffman and Huizinga,
2020)
Gino, Coffman, Huizinga (2020): Starbucks: Reaffirming Commitment to the
Third Place Ideal. Harvard Business School, February 21, 2020.
Page 28The University of Sydney
Unconscious Bias Training debate:
– Does unconscious bias training work?
– Do behaviours attitudes and organizational outcomes change
(e.g. more minorities and women in leadership)?
– It’s a ‘Tick the box exercise’
– Bias is too complex for a training session to tackle
– ‘Mandatory’ training less effective
– Can backfire, entrench stereotypes
To train or not to train?
Page 29The University of Sydney
Williamson & Foley (2018) outline three ways to improve
unconscious bias training initiatives:
– Training should be complimented with affirmative action
measures (e.g., targets for women, ethnic minorities in leadership)
– Need ongoing, staged, iterative, multi-level and collective
interventions that are aimed at supporting and sustaining
behaviour change
– Needs to be evaluated and made public – i.e. what has actually
changed?
How to improve unconscious bias training
initiatives?
Williamson & Foley (2018). Unconscious Bias Training: The ‘Silver Bullet’ for Gender Equity?
Page 30The University of Sydney
– Picking your people (diverse candidate pool, objective
criteria, limit referral hiring, skill-based questions)
– Managing day to day (rotate office housework, design &
assign mindfully, value all contributions, respond to double
standards, ask people to weigh in, schedule meetings
inclusively, equalize access)
– Developing your team (clarify eval criteria, performance vs
potential/personality vs skill, manage self promotion, be
transparent)
How can Leaders Disrupt Bias? (Williams & Mihaylo
2019)
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– To be explored in tutorial!
In summary:
– Defined unconscious bias
– Reviewed negative impacts of unconscious bias
– Four most common unconscious biases
– Starbucks as a good practice organisation
– The training debate and how to improve UB initiatives
– How leaders can disrupt bias
– …What you can do
What can you do about unconscious bias?
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– Gender in organisations: women, men and diverse genders
Next week
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Questions?
The University of Sydney
Thank You!