18 business focus The lure of the ‘other half’
frequently overlook the fact that there is a range of possible ‘rights’, treating their own preferences as absolutes rather than what they often are, namely manifestations of personal bias. Political parties and organisations ignore this at their peril. As Bob Woollard, chairman of the Conservative Grassroots umbrella group said: "Droves of previously loyal Conservative Party members are leaving."
David Cameron * George Osborne *
Dr Gloria Moss, reader in management and marketing at Buckinghamshire New University, explains how businesses can use the ‘homogeneity principle’ to their advantage in the economic revival ...
Consider the political elite of this country. Cameron and his chancellor, Osborne, not only share physical features (rectangular faces and similar hairline) but schooling at two of the country’s most expensive schools, Eton and St Paul’s with fees of £30,000 plus per annum. Rewind a few decades and consider Harold Macmillan who promoted Margaret Thatcher to a junior minister in 1961, just two years after she became an MP. The physical similarities between these two Oxford alumni are so pronounced in the drooping eyelids and acquiline noses that a diplomat referred to her as Macmillan's ‘natural daughter’.
This speedy promotion of a women at a period when her local constituency chairman had to be persuaded to even adopt her as a candidate, was extraordinary. You might say that Super-Mac was just replacing the previous incumbent, Pat Hornsby-Smith, with another woman but significantly, a second female MP, Joan Vickers, later Baroness Vickers, was also available. Moreover, even Macmillan himself took 16 years to reach junior ministerial rank.
Successful businesses need to take advice from people who mirror their external audiences and customers and not surround themselves with people like themselves. It may feel more comfortable to do the latter but where the constituency group differs from the group directing the communications or product offering, it will not necessarily be as effective. For example, in retailing, women are still under-represented at senior levels of retail organisations despite being responsible for 83% of all purchases and a giant 92% of food and grocery purchases, a big slice of M&S’s business. My research shows the massive impact of gender on people’s design creations and preferences, whether for graphic product or web design with men preferring designs produced by men and women by women. The homogeneity principle is natural enough but for organisations to maximise profitability, they need to reflect the demographic and thinking of the target market at all levels of the organisation.
Harold Macmillan *
The fact is similarity is a powerful driver, with Plato mythologising the powerful human quest for ones ‘other half’ in his Symposium. Take the CEO of Marks and Spencer, Mark Bolland and his CFO, Alan Stewart, for example. They share oval faces, blue eyes and hair parted on the right and in videos announcing this year’s somewhat disappointing results, both sport brown suits. (http:// investor-marksandspencer. com/
mb-fy2013.html). Having colleagues like oneself may be comforting but not always brilliant for the business.
Margaret Thatcher *
So, how can businesses use the so-called ‘homogeneity principle’ to their advantage rather than detriment?
New knowledge in the social sciences is opening up vistas with my own research, for example, showing the massive impact of bias on understandings of ‘good leadership’, ‘good teamwork’ and ‘good design and advertising’. This new research takes us far from Cameron’s justification of an ex-Etonian as "the right person" for a certain job since notions of what is ‘right’ are mutable and not fixed. In fact, people can
* Photos attributed as follows: David Cameron - See page for author [see page for license], via Wikimedia Commons George Osborne – By HM Treasury [see page for license], via Wikimedia Commons
Harold Macmillan – By Vivienne (Florence Mellish Entwistle) (Active 1940, died 1982) [see page for license], via Wikimedia Commons
Margaret Thatcher – Provided by Chris Collins of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation (Margaret Thatcher Foundation) [GFDL (
httpwww.gnu.orgcopyleftfdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (
httpcreativecommons.orglicensesby-sa3.0)] via Wikimedia Commons
www.businessmag.co.uk THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JULY/AUGUST 2013
Gloria Moss MA, FCIPD, PhD is a reader in management and marketing from the faculty of design, media and management at Buckinghamshire New University. Dr Moss is a renowned expert in diversity and runs short in-company workshops on unconscious bias and how to master this for greater profitability.
Buckinghamshire New University offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate business-related courses, with a focus on applied learning.
Details:
gloria.moss@
bucks.ac.uk 07771-535087
www.bucks.ac.uk/courses advice@bucks.ac.uk 0800-056-5660
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