Managing similarity attraction bias in the hiring processes : a theoretical overview

Abstract

The current study aims at investigating and exploring how similarity attraction affects hiring decisions in various selected multinational financial organizations. The existence of cognitive biases has become a significant challenge as well as the subject of extensive research, and managers at all levels are making every effort to understand the causes, effects, and methods for removing their influence on the decision-making process. In addition to the foregoing, businesses try to create diversity in the workforce, which is prone to being reduced due to cognitive biases and, especially, similarity attraction in hiring procedures. The concept of "similarity attraction" refers to a general similarity between a candidate and a hiring responsible personnel, founded on either attitudinal characteristics or similarities of demographic attributes. Hence, the primary objective of the research paper will be to preliminary examine the fundamentals of the similarity attraction bias and how it affects the hiring managers decisions of selection, with particular attention paid to selection criteria, selection criteria choices, selection rationales, reasons for similarity attraction, consequences of similarity attraction, impact on diversity, and overcoming similarity. Simultaneously, the study will theoretically tackle how hiring responsible employees could manage and might reduce the influence of the similarity attraction bias on their hiring-related decisions, specifically what type of knowledge should be necessary and what strategies or tactics could be employed to overcome the aforementioned cognitive prejudgment.