Biased Perceptions and Personality Traits Attribution: Cognitive Aspects in Future Interventions for Organizations

Abstract

In most European countries, the proportion of females and males pursuing a career in Technology and Engineering is quite different. The under-representation of women in these jobs may be attributable to a variety of factors, one of which could be the negative and stereotyped perception of these work sectors as unsuitable for women. The purpose of this study was to determine whether stereotyped perceptions impact the job representation of males and females in the Construction Industry, which is a particularly male-dominated work sector. Three construction organizations in the West Midlands (United Kingdom) were studied by means of ethnographic interviews and observations. Three (6.7%) of the 45 research participants (mean age 44.3) were women (focusing only in people working in Construction sites). There was a high differentiation of activities between the males and females. Biased perceptions and personality traits attribution played a fundamental role in such a differentiation. Despite some main limitations (low generalisability, lack of longitudinal findings), this study focused on some important practical implications for current work policies: changing the mindsets of people (starting from school age), using new flexible strategies and creating the role of internal advocates. The findings provide definitive evidence of the need to increase the promotion of social communication and public campaigns on gender equalities in male-dominated work sectors, taking into account the cognitive processes behind gender differences. The findings also give new hints on re-thinking the contribution of Psychology, particularly Cognitive Psychology, in fields with allegedly wide gender gaps.

Perceptions of Ethicality: The Role of Attire Style, Attire Appropriateness, and Context

“…The mediating effect we found may also bring support/be relevant for other organizational science theories. For example, Implicit Personality Theory (IPT) (McCrae et al, 2019 ) maintains that individuals exacerbate the strength of relations among traits of individuals they observe, hold biases regarding the perceived or assumed covariation among traits and characteristics, and develop impressions based on insufficient data about strangers (Riva et al, 2019 ; Schneider, 1973 ). In our studies, subjects were asked to judge the ethicality of individuals based only on either photographs or written vignettes that depicted attire.…”

“…In fact, such biases may result in poor employment decision-making (e.g., staffing, promotions, and compensation) and may even adversely impact protected classes, leading to damage to employees’ lives, low retention, low morale, legal liability, and decreased organizational reputation. Stereotypes have negative organizational outcomes including poor selection decisions (Rice et al, 2016 ; Riva et al, 2019 ), age discrimination (Ilișanu & Andrei, 2018 ), negative attitudes towards individuals with disabilities (Nelissen et al, 2016 ), and lower work-life conflict resolution (Li et al, 2017 ).…”

Developing Effective Interventions for Gender Equality in UK Construction Project Organisations

“…Job rotation encourages a gender-balanced working environment, as it exposes employees of all genders to different roles and wider work experiences, leading to improved promotion prospects for higher managerial positions. Job crafting, which is not widely employed in the construction sector, provides an opportunity for jobs to be proactively designed to reduce stress and burnout (Riva et al, 2019).…”

“…For recruitment campaigns to attract women into male-dominated industries, organisations need to increase the number of women employed by setting targets and implementing changes that reduce gender-related stereotyping and bias (Riva et al, 2019). Gender-focused HR recruitment, promotion, and retention initiatives signal to women applicants that the employer monitors equality in recruitment and promotion decisions.…”

Exploring mental health challenges and implications for construction safety

“…The perception of the construction industry and preconceptions of construction workers by the public including the overall image of the industry needs overhaul as public opinion often see it as an industry that is dirty, demanding and an unsafe place to work. Globally, the construction industry is male dominated and a study conducted by Riva et al, (2019) suggests that the male population is on average 89% of the workforce. These male construction workers disproportionately experience a range of factors that increase their risk of poor mental health, for example low job control, high demands at work (Lawani et al, 2017), and occupational stress (Abbe et al, 2011).…”