Strategy + Business: Four common biases in boardroom culture

Applying the principles of behavioral psychology in the workplace is a popular trend in the corporate world for good reason. Building on foundational work by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, George Loewenstein, Richard Thaler, and others, behavioral psychology offers valuable insights into the biases that help the brain order information and make decisions, and that influence the ways people judge themselves and others. In business settings, such as a meeting of a corporate board, these biases can cause people to over- or undervalue others who sit around the table, or the ideas they express. They can also influence collegiality, whether people feel “safe” enough to speak out, and the ability to nurture diversity of thought. It’s clear that improving board dynamics is an ongoing challenge facing modern companies. For two years running, PwC’s Annual Corporate Directors Survey has revealed that about half (49%) of directors believe that at least one fellow director on their board should be replaced. Read more at Strategy + Business.