Inequality is one of the foremost challenges of our age, and it’s a problem that has vexed policy makers around the world. A recent study from Cambridge University explores some of the ways in which our organizations perpetuate the inequalities we see across society.
The study looks specifically at three ‘organizational myths’ that the researchers believe not only pervade organizational life, but help to perpetuate inequality.
“Organisations, far from being neutral entities, constitute bounded, rationalised and formalised spaces in which economic opportunities intersect with structures of exclusion and disadvantage,” the researchers say.
The myths of efficiency, meritocracy and positive globalization are explored through the lens of the HR practices that pervade our organizations. The authors believe that we need to get real about the biases that distort the way organizations function, and only then can we really begin to tackle inequalities.
“The issue of who suffers from inequality has been well understood, but there has been little attention paid to the organisational mechanisms that allow inequality to persist,” the researchers say. “Our paper finds that inequality is fostered by organisational practices, and it is allowed to escape scrutiny thanks to three myths that are deeply entrenched in the organisational world and conceptualised in textbooks written about organisations and taught in business schools.”
Supporting inequality
The paper suggests that the myths of efficiency, meritocracy and globalization have become a part of organizational lore, but they may be having negative consequences on equality. For instance, the increasingly large pay gap between executives and workers is often justified by a combination of meritocratic reward for the smartest people and the global nature of executives remit.
This notion of meritocracy was not born out by evidence, with career progression so often determined by inherently non-meritocratic means that often fail to reflect a range of social and cultural factors. Despite this, people largely believe in the meritocracy myth, with both those who do rise up the career ladder believing in it, and also those who don’t. These people tend to blame themselves for not progressing, which perversely does directly affect the meritocratic nature of firms as the best people can be put off.
Similar myths exist around the benefits of globalization within multinational firms. These myths tend to reinforce local hierarchies and the class-based social systems they’re so often based upon. The researchers suggest this provides ample opportunities for the educated elite, but can often result in local workers being exploited.
They believe that inequality needs to receive much more attention in business schools, and obtain parity with ethics and climate change as key issues to discuss. The first step towards this is accepting that organizations are often not the sanitized portrayal painted in textbooks, and instead are often riddled with visible and invisible barriers that create unequal environments.
