In the article, "Hidden bias at Google" by Farhad Manjoo published on September 24, 2014, Farhad Manjoo reveals the hidden bias of males over females and certain races over others is present in many forms in today's society. Companies such as Google, Apple, and Facebook, have released documents revealing the different races and sex of their employees. This documents showed that men represent an overwhelming majority of the employees compared to women. There is also a severe underrepresentation of Blacks and Hispanics among its work force according to nytimes.com. Google has taken into account of these new reports and has taken action. For example, Google has started a series of workshops in a attempt to make Google more accepting of a diverse community. The series of workshops that Google has launched are based on a field of research in social psychology known as unconscious bias. Unconscious bias are hidden judgments that shape peoples views and can affect several key components in a work environment such as how welcoming or open people are to people of diverse backgrounds and different ideas. Lazlo Block, Google's executive in charge of human resources, suspected that unconscious bias was most likely more hidden and a deeper part of culture. One of Mr. Bock's researchers Dr. Brian Welle claimed that everyone is a little racist or sexist and that damaging bias is unconscious. However, Dr. Welle points out that we can become more aware of our unconscious actions and overcome these hidden judgements with better decision-making and forcing others to face their biases.
Google has taken huge strides towards ending unconscious bias and the social preferences of others by launching several workshops and raising awareness of these recurring problems in Google as well as other major tech companies as well. Although these workshops may not solve the problem of unconscious bias in many companies, it raises awareness and causes employees to be more cautious and aware of their actions. This is a very important first step towards creating a culture of acceptance of diversity. Google also offered several anecdotes in which employees displayed examples of their less biased culture. “Just raising the awareness was enough for people to think about it,” Mr. Bock said. Also, another benefit of improving diversity in Google could be that diverse teams can be more creative than homogenous ones according to nytimes.com and a diverse work force could aid Google's business. Although everyone may be a little racist and sexist, it is still possible to change people's views and opinions for the better and help people be more accepting of others and their differences.
