Hidden biases — the automatic ways in which people have more positive emotional or associative reactions to some groups and more negative reactions to others — can influence how managers formulate hiring and promotion decisions, employee reviews and other managerial tasks. “While there is some controversy about the extent to which these automatic biases are related to conscious judgments or the decisions we make, it’s very likely that they influence managerial tasks,” Professor Elke Weber, the Jerome E. Chazen Professor of Management, told students last Wednesday during a discussion on unconscious bias and its role in decision making.
An expert on behavioral models of judgment and founder and codirector of the University’s Center for Decision Sciences, Weber suggested that managers automate part of the decision-making process by using linear models to avoid the influence of unconscious biases. The discussion was part of the School’s first-ever Leadership and Ethics week. The weeklong series coincided with the launch of the School’s new Honor Code and an interactive online resource for students on integrity, ethics and conduct. “The new Honor Code reflects a renewed emphasis on transparency and the importance of upholding the highest ethical standards — qualities essential to the continued thriving of the School,” said Dean Glenn Hubbard.
Other highlights of the week included a Montrone Series roundtable discussion with Adam Quinton, managing director of Merrill Lynch; a talk on leadership and integrity by Lew Frankfort ’69, chairman and CEO of Coach and a member of the School’s Board of Overseers; a screening and discussion of the film Fast Food Nation; and a Montrone Series roundtable discussion with Thomas Reece, chairman of Dover Corporation.
Hosted by the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics, the Paul M. Montrone Seminar Series on Ethics is an intimate series of roundtables which focus on real-life ethical issues and the consequences of decisions. Leadership and Ethics week was an initiative of the Sanford C. Bernstein Student Leadership and Ethics Board and the Columbia Business School Honor Board.
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