When Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was approached by two of his executives and told that the company was paying men and women unequally, Benioff’s response was typical of many managers: no way.

“It’s impossible because we have a great culture here,” he recalled, when asked about the exchange during a 60 Minutes interview. “We’re—we’re a ‘best place to work.’ And we don’t do that kind of thing. We don’t play shenanigans paying people—paying people unequally. It’s unheard of. It’s crazy.”

Company pride can be a good thing. A really good thing. Nobody wants to be a part of an organization they aren’t proud of. But sometimes, especially for leaders, this positivity can blind us to real problems. This week: why leaders are sometimes the last to recognize bias in the workplace.

My company, myself

Previous research suggests that having more power leads people to feel a greater sense of responsibility for the organization and its members. And while this causes managers to want to act in ways that are fair and equitable, it also leads them to feel a greater sense of organizational identification. That is, their self-worth is tied to the worth of the organization.

Kellogg’s Maryam Kouchaki and her colleagues wondered if that organizational identification would prevent managers from noticing potential negative issues within their team—including inequity. So across several studies, they put this theory to the test.

First, using survey data, they confirmed that those in positions of power reported less inequity in their organizations. This was true across years and organizations—and held even when the research team controlled for age, race, gender, experience, and education.

To investigate whether this blindness was the result of organizational identification, the team recruited nearly 1,000 participants to take a new survey about their workplace. Participants were asked whether they supervised or managed others and then rated how much they identified with their organization, as well as how much inequity there was in their organization. Again, people in managerial positions reported less gender and racial inequity in their organizations. Critically, managers also reported identifying more with their organization than did non-managers.

Seeing bias elsewhere, just not here

This doesn’t mean, however, that managers are incapable of seeing inequality. In a separate study, some participants rated their own workplace, while others rated other workplaces. Managers and non-managers similarly rated inequity in these other workplaces. But managers rated inequity in their own organization 17 percent lower than non-managers.

“It shows that managers are not blind to the problem,” Kouchaki says. “They just cannot see it within their own organization.”

This can have real consequences, making managers less supportive than non-managers of diversity initiatives. But the researchers were also able to show that when managers are asked to reflect on inequality—by recalling specific instances of it at their workplace—they become more supportive.

“A lot of times, we can see systemic problems, but we think we are different than other people,” Kouchaki says. “We are not being intentionally mindful and recognizing that these problems could happen anywhere.”

You can read more details about this study in Kellogg Insight.

Jessica Love, editor in chief
Kellogg Insight