Answer

1. 1. Cultural Bias in Employment

      I will take you through:

      1. Introduction
      2. Cultural Bias in Employment
      3. Current Trends of Cultural Bias
      4. Legal Elements to Cultural Bias
      5. Implications of Cultural Bias for HR Practice
      6. Recommendations for HR Professionals
      7. Conclusion

      Introduction

      • The current workplace is a diverse environment with people from different cultures.
      • Cultural bias involves interpreting and making judgements based on one’s culture (McCormick, 2015).
      • Cultural bias is an affront to equality and fairness in the workplace.

      Cultural Bias in Employment

      • Cultural bias in employment comes from HR professionals who might value different emotions in the selection of job candidates.
      • Hiring is sometimes hidden in the cloak of company culture, which makes HR professionals biased in their recruitment and selection.
      • Failure to have cultural diversity competencies might result in cultural bias for the HR professionals (MacNab & Worthley, 2013).
      • Although cultural fit is key in the workplace, there should be measures to keep HR personnel from going rogue (McCormick, 2015).

      Current Trends of Cultural Bias

      	A recent study from the Pew Research Center  indicates cultural bias for different racial groups exists as shown above (Sexton, 2015)

       

       

       

       

       

       

      Legal Elements to Cultural Bias

      • Federal laws in the US prohibit discrimination based on race, origin, religion, etc. (Equal Protection Clause).
      • Racial bias is one of the discriminatory grounds prohibited by the Fourteenth Amendment to the US constitution.
      • Denying qualified applicants employment because of their cultural beliefs and practices is unlawful discrimination (McCormick, 2015).
      • Cultural bias adversely affects cultural diversity in the workplace.

      Implications of Cultural Bias for HR Practice

      • Cultural bias is a peculiar form of discrimination and failure to address it may have serious implications for HR practice.
      • With the aging population, cultural bias is likely to deprive employers qualified and competent employees (MacNab & Worthley, 2013).
      • Failure to effectively manage diversity can have negative outcomes such as high rates of turnover and decreased organizational performance.
      • Cultural bias can lead to legal cases against companies, especially by individuals who feel discriminated because of their race (McCormick, 2015).

      Recommendations for HR Professionals

      • Employers should put in place policies and regulations that help HR personnel to identify ways to identify and prevent unconscious cultural bias.
      • HR professionals should remove discriminatory language from their job descriptions (McCormick, 2015).
      • A clear and fair method for rewards should be set out to ensure that cultural bias does not impede some employees from being rewarded.
      • Cross-cultural managers should be equipped with cultural competencies to handle value differences in the workplace (MacNab & Worthley, 2013).

      Conclusion

      • Cultural bias in the workplace is an impediment to diversity because it leads to unconscious prejudice against some talented individuals.
      • Research has shown that cultural bias against different racial groups exist even among multiracial adults.
      • Cultural bias is against the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment to the US Constitution.

      Employers should eliminate cultural bias by avoiding discriminatory job descriptions and providing guiding policies for HR professionals to follow in recruitment and selection