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Jordan Peterson has 60 minutes in his crosshairs with his strident criticism of efforts to shut the gender pay gap and to tackle unconscious bias. With a vast online audience for his views, the sector needs to answer with hard facts and potent arguments, writes Adam McCulloch.

Information technology would exist a mistake to dismiss the forthright Toronto academy psychology professor as an "alt-right" blowhard; he is a fluent advocate for his views and uses inquiry every bit evidence. Merely and so there are comments such as this: "CEOs should wake up and empathise that 60 minutes is becoming an anti-capitalist fifth column in the heart of their organisations."

Peterson's philosophical positions – informed by thinkers such equally Jung, Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche – have led him to question many contemporary HR policies.

Many might think he'due south being horrible and unfair, but perhaps he's just spotted a chink in HR's armour" – Rob Briner

In January, Peterson discussed the gender pay gap with Channel iv News' Cathy Newman, an interview that has been watched more than seven 1000000 times online. In information technology he argues that the gender pay gap is largely a natural reflection of differences between men and women, differences explained in the Big 5 personality traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

He tells Newman that multivariate analysis of the gender pay gap shows that prejudice is only 1 small factor in the pay gap, one that's much less than "feminists claim". Other factors include women's trend for neuroticism – their likelihood to experience stress, depression and unpredictability – and their high level of agreeableness, to be cooperative and compassionate.

Eradicating the pay gap could work against women'southward true interests, he says, past interfering with their preferred choices, such as less demanding careers.

Newman presses him on why there are merely seven women running FTSE 100 companies. Peterson responds past asking why women would want to, adding that men are more likely to want to work 70-lxxx hours a calendar week. "Men and women are not the same and won't be the aforementioned, but that doesn't hateful women shouldn't be treated fairly."

Women face family 'crises'

There are other reasons why equality is unattainable, Peterson explains: "Many women around the age of between 28 and 32, accept a career-family crisis that they take to deal with. And I recall that's partly, because of the foreshortened fourth dimension-frame that women have to contend with. Women have to become the major pieces of their life put together faster than men."

As an example he uses his piece of work with constabulary firms in Canada where many of the best performers are women withal the firms are unable to brand many of them partners considering they and so oftentimes leave in pursuit of a better work-life balance.

These fundamental gender differences mean that "equality of outcome is undesirable".

"Men and women won't sort themselves into the aforementioned categories if you exit them lonely to practice it of their own accord. We've already seen that in Scandinavia. It's 20 to one female nurses to male… and approximately the same male engineers to female engineers," he explains.

"That's a result of the costless choice of men and women in the societies that have gone further than whatsoever other societies to make gender equality the purpose of the police. Those are in ineradicable differences. You lot can eradicate them with tremendous social pressure and tyranny. Merely if you leave men and women to make their own choices y'all will not go equal outcome."

Gender pay surveys' flawed methodology

In some other YouTube video, Peterson feels that gender pay surveys often produce a predetermined result: "The co-variates you lot include in the equation make up one's mind the issue of the equation." Referring to gender pay inquiries in the academic sphere in the United states, he says that the goal is to conclude that systemic discrimination is at work, "and they gerrymander statistics until they detect a regressive equation that supports their initial claim".

Men and women are non the same and won't be the same, merely that doesn't mean women shouldn't be treated adequately (Jordan Peterson)

Sheila Wild, founder of the EqualPayPortal and former Director of Employment Policy at the Equal Opportunities Committee, published a blog disquisitional of Newman'due south Peterson interview for heightening sectionalisation. She writes that the distinction between fairness and equality was not explored satisfactorily in the commutation. "Nosotros all sympathize fairness, or call up we exercise, simply very few of the states empathize equality. And, sometimes, in order to accomplish equality, it's necessary to be unfair – that's considering much inequality derives from by unfairness."

She adds that Peterson "was selective with the facts, and I don't agree with his conclusions, but I run across with that every twenty-four hours of the week".

Halo effect

According to Rob Briner, professor of organisational psychology at Queen Mary University of London, Peterson makes several points that 60 minutes leaders should heed. But Briner feels there is a danger the Canadian's persuasive fashion and selective apply of scientific discipline could pb to a "halo consequence where people accept what he says without looking at the prove." He fears his views could appeal to those "who experience some resentment and who don't similar to see other people gaining more than power".

Peterson, James Damore and Google

Concluding year, Peterson's criticisms were thrown into sharp relief past the debate over Google software engineer James Damore, who had attacked the cyberspace giant's "flawed diversity agenda".

Google, like other tech firms, is acutely aware of the lack of women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds amidst its teams.

Peterson fully endorsed Damore's views, interviewing him at length on his YouTube aqueduct.

Damore wrote in an internal – only leaked – manifesto: "When information technology comes to variety and inclusion, Google's left bias has created a politically correct monoculture that maintains its concord past shaming dissenters into silence."

These could have been the words of Peterson himself: and so information technology'due south unsurprising when Damore acknowledges he is a large fan of the professor.

He adds that the abilities and choices of men and women differed in role because of biology and this was why "we don't encounter equal representation of women in tech and leadership".

During the YouTube discussion Damore alleges that Google held meetings to "pressure people to increment the diversity of their squad".

Peterson responds: "It's lamentable to hear that at that place'south an acceptance of the idea that diverseness tin can be mapped onto race and gender, specially with regard to performance – there is no evidence of that [improved operation] whatever."

This seems to be a directly challenge to the thought that increasing diversity enlarges the pool of available talent, and and so has a positive effect on the bottom line also as being fairer.

Danielle Brown, Google's vice president of diversity, rejects Damore'southward "incorrect assumptions about gender" and confidently asserts Google's delivery to its employee policies: "Diverseness and inclusion are a central part of our values and the culture we proceed to cultivate. Nosotros are unequivocal in our belief that multifariousness and inclusion are critical to our success as a company."

Damore was fired in August last year and has subsequently defendant the company of discriminating against "white conservative men" in a class action merits.

Professor Binna Kandola, partner at occupational psychology consultancy Pearn Kandola, goes further: "Peterson has a myopic view of research and uses information technology selectively for his purposes."

He adds that objective data shows at that place are very few differences between men and women in terms of the roles they tin can fulfil.

Peterson often misses the historical context, says Kandola, ignoring the fact that men and women have taken on very unlike roles in dissimilar eras – men dominating nursing roles until Florence Nightingale helped to create a profession that was soon considered "women'southward piece of work". And in the Showtime World War women enthusiastically took on manufacturing and manual tasks, completely altering perceptions of their competence and potential as workers.

However, for Briner, Peterson does score some hits in his criticism of equality and diversity in organisations: "60 minutes must ask itself whether information technology is confusing the business case with a moral case. Let'southward be clear: are we doing this for business or for moral reasons?"

He argues that Peterson offers a springboard for helping professionals question and justify their policies: "Many might retrieve he'due south beingness horrible and unfair, just perhaps he'due south just spotted a chink in HR's armour".

Practitioners, he adds, need to exist aware of the hazard that CEOs will tune into the Canadian's ideas and want to know "why HR is wasting all this money".

Unconscious bias

As might be expected, Peterson is not a fan of the growing desire to test and train in the area of unconscious bias. He says: "The HR equity people are mucking about with people'southward unconscious bias.

"They want your perceptions to fall into accordance with their demands. Your involuntary unconscious perceptions have to exist retrained."

Again, he is careful to footing his scathing criticism in some kind of evidence: "People are categorised by novelty disfavor. You lot tin can't distinguish racial [or any other kind of] bias from novelty aversion. Nosotros can't distinguish stereotyping from perceptual addiction."

He describes implicit association testing (IAT), adult by psychologists in the US, every bit deeply flawed because, he claims, they can't reproduce results with the aforementioned individuals, so are unreliable.

The whole unconscious bias agenda, he says, is office of the "broader abuse of social psychology".

But are Peterson's criticisms really just skating beyond the surface, declining to accept account of the truthful nature and potential of such work?

Harish Bhayani, senior partner at PRM Diversity Consultants, thinks so, but concedes bias testing and training is ineffective if not continuous. He says: The all-time solutions recognise that it is not a one-off fix but a abiding battle against our unconscious brains' ongoing tendencies to stereotype.

Testing without a delivery to follow-upward back up for individuals is another serious upshot to be dealt with. For example, in cases where examination results for an individual show significant bias, a lot of 1-to-one support may be required to help the individual deal with processing the exam outcomes."

Kandola says that Peterson has misrepresented IAT, which has proved useful, particularly in racial stereotyping.

He amplifies Bhayani'due south signal that testing without action is pointless, adding that fairness has become an of import goal: "Fairness means a lot. Peterson may have reservations near one method – the IAT – merely that doesn't hateful bias doesn't exist. There's an abundance of research carried out using CVs. Basically if you change the name on the awarding grade you change the outcome."

Kandola questions Peterson'due south understanding of cadre issues. He says the concept of race based on pare colour was developed in the West for the purpose of justifying the slave trade, then at that place is nothing "natural" about such bias, which Peterson implies when he talks well-nigh people's preference for their "in" equally opposed to "out" group and novelty disfavor.

"Yous tin reduce bias by some fairly simple means: getting people to evaluate several CVs at the same time taking each criterion in turn; taking the names off CVs; when conducting appraisals setting an objective of accuracy."

Another stout defence of unconscious bias work comes from Jane Farrell, chief executive of the EW Group. She says: "I am disturbed by the tenor of some of the debates. It distracts from the real challenges of building more inclusive organisations where leaders know they are doing everything they can to recruit the best, rather than inadvertently cloning themselves."

James Damore and his lawyer Harmeet Dhillon at a printing briefing discussing his lawsuit against Google (see console)
Picture: Michael Liedtke/AP/REX/Shutterstock

She says Peterson'south fears well-nigh employees being labelled biased are groundless, stating how during work with clients over a long period of fourth dimension "nobody was called racist or sexist, and nor should they accept been. We worked through the practical things that could be done differently to ensure they recruited the best. This approach is so far from the people beingness 'marched to re-educational activity past their employer after they have been diagnosed as racist', equally Peterson described recently."

The 'hostile workplace'

I of the more than hitting criticisms of Peterson/Damore's stance over Google's Hr policies (come across panel) has come up from another former Google employee, Yonatan Zunger, who responded to Damore's manifesto in a blog terminal August. He claimed that the meritocracy every bit described in the Damore memo "does not stand for a radically conservative path to business success; it is but a fresh defense of a socially acceptable version of a hostile workplace".

In other words, Peterson and Damore are simply arguing confronting change. Zunger adds: "Technology is all about cooperation, collaboration and empathy for colleagues and customers. All of these traits in your [Damore'southward] manifesto described every bit female person are the core traits that make someone successful at engineering."

The concensus view among specialists in the diversity field seems to be that Peterson is merely explaining certain facets of the here and now. They say he has failed to take account of the historical changes in gender roles or business' and employees' want for fairness through equality of opportunity. Dianah Worman, co-director of Inclusive Talent and an adviser to the CIPD, says: "The concept of success is changing. Peterson seems to assume that the status quo will remain the status quo. Increasing globalisation means more co-operation."

Wherever the debate goes, Peterson's is a voice that is existence captivated by a youthful generation online – tomorrow's employees. HR practitioners should listen to his arguments and be prepared to defend their corner with the best evidence they can find to support the view that fairer recruitment policies brand business sense and benefit united states of america all.

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Source: https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/jordan-peterson-gender-pay-gap-exist/

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