Introduction
Even though people do not always have conscious biases regarding their work, these issues still impact their performance. Among the spheres that can be negatively affected by biases in construction project management are every employee’s job satisfaction, individual experience of interacting with co-workers, and team dynamics (Peetz, 2019). These aspects have a significant impact on the overall results of the work in the construction sphere. This paper investigates cognitive biases, with optimism bias receiving the most attention because it is a crucial component of project management, particularly in cost and risk estimates.
Gender bias and confirmation bias are the additional areas of cognitive bias that will be discussed in this presentation. Biases are concepts that have changed through time as their comprehension has grown. Project management encompasses these biases because they are crucial in a collaborative environment (Peetz, 2019). The current paper’s objective is to analyze my co-workers’ experience and my perspective on this topic. It shows that conscious and unconscious personal biases influence, mainly confirmation, gender, and optimism biases, the overall project success.
Types of Biases
Bias supposes the one-sided perception of the information regarded as the complete picture by the individual. In other words, a person does not know the truth but considers their opinion, which is typically oversimplified and prejudged, to be objective (Einhorn, 2023). Among the common biases typical in construction projects are gender bias, optimistic bias, and confirmation bias. They all affect the interactions in the team and the project results.
All the issues mentioned above can be categorized as cognitive biases. When the human mind is compelled to make a judgment and cope with complexity or ambiguity, cognitive biases are the outcome of an attempt at simplifying the situation. It may result in poor reviews and an erroneous assessment of the problem or project. These mistakes may be referred to as systematic biases because they were frequently recurring as opposed to accidental (Einhorn, 2023).
Systematic biases are common mental aberrations that often contradict reason (Einhorn, 2023). When a speedy response is more critical than the correct answer, cognitive biases might benefit the person (Einhorn, 2023). Biases are more frequently perceived as disadvantages in the management of projects since leaders are typically not confronted with those scenarios in their work lives, and precision is often valued over immediate responses.
People are underestimated based on gender, which is the typical example of gender bias that is quite widespread in the professional environment, regardless of all attempts to minimize it. Women are typically not treated equally to men in domains that men have historically controlled (Einhorn, 2023). It can lead to significant gender inequality among team members when females cannot express their opinions and realize their potential (Einhorn, 2023). It harms the team dynamics significantly because, in this case, women feel that they are in a vulnerable position.
When people have a confirmation bias, they overlook data that contradicts their beliefs and search for proof or confirmation to back up their preconceived notions. This behavior potentially harms the project’s success because the employees do not understand the situation objectively (Einhorn, 2023). As a result, their confirmation bias may lead to the neglect of potentially weak aspects in project implementation and result in project failure.
The tendency of project managers to overestimate the benefits of initiatives and minimize their costs leads to optimism bias. Overruns in expenses, as well as demand shortages, have occurred on a significant number of recent projects. It is generally acknowledged that these errors were caused by optimism bias (Einhorn, 2023). It is most noticeable in large infrastructure projects, particularly within the public sector, in which politics have a significant influence (Einhorn, 2023). The mechanism and the consequences of the optimism bias are similar to the confirmation bias, and the adverse effects of the deliberate overlooking of the pessimistic information lead to the same results.
Gathering Experiences
I have experienced the biases mentioned above in the construction industry several times. In all situations, they harmed the teamwork, employee relationships, and the project results. Though, in some cases, the adverse effects were comparatively mild and insignificant, it does not mean that it is possible to overlook them. For example, I often experienced confirmation bias when searching for information supporting my opinion on the project topic. At the same time, when I saw the facts contradicting my perspective, I decided to skip them and not change my hypothesis. As a result, the results of my work were doubted by some of my colleagues, and this cognitive bias made me seem unprofessional in their eyes.
One of my fellow workers told me he has trouble controlling his gender bias. Even though he understands that working with women is not worse than working with men, he still feels they are not as professional as his male colleagues. As a result, he avoids working with females in one team and does not want to interact with them actively during projects. There is no need to say that this discrimination is evident to others, and his reputation and relationships in the project team suffer.
Another co-worker in the leadership position always suffers from optimism bias, significantly affecting her motivation. She overreacts to everything at the beginning of the project and has many aspirations regarding the positive realization of the plan. Though, she faces challenges and problems that require time and effort, which frustrates her. She is not initially ready to deal with problems, and her motivation is minimal to continue in this case. It typically makes her performance results worse than they might have been, and the project’s success suffers. The significant problem is that she is the team leader, which causes her to lose optimism after the challenges become destructive to the project.
Analysis
The common theme in the collected experiences regarding biases is the conscious or unconscious misperception of reality. The pattern is based on applying the initially subjective opinion to the objective evaluation (Springer, 2023). It makes communication in the team difficult, decreases the motivation of the employees, and develops the project based on the wrong facts and conclusions (Springer, 2023). In this case, biases positively affect job performance and the project’s overall success. Oversimplification and segregation of some employees deprive the work of diversity and inclusion, which is unacceptable from the long-term perspective.
Mitigation Strategies
There are specific tactics to combat biases and reduce the likelihood of failure. First, there will be a formal commencement event where previous endeavors will be addressed (Springer, 2023). The employees will analyze what was incorrect with the earlier projects and how it can be avoided again.
Making sure that decisions are based on reliable information, avoiding confirmation bias, clearly defining planning strategies, considering the positive as well as the harmful elements of the project, and educating the team participants about the project management procedure, mainly how to handle unforeseen events (Springer, 2023). They also stress the significance of developing multiple alternative approaches to the project, setting up a group to manage it, and creating mechanisms for providing constructive criticism to staff.
Gender discrimination has impacted people’s lives in several ways for a very long time. Women are still underrepresented in management roles in the workforce. Numerous studies have shown that people frequently accept gender stereotypes and assign particular nouns and verbs to either men or women (Springer, 2023). Competent, ambitious, autonomous, determined, rational, and domineering are traits often associated with men (Springer, 2023). The archetypal woman, however, is characterized by qualities like kindness, caring, cooperation, obedience, understanding, and consideration (Springer, 2023). These gender stereotypes are often utilized to hasten judgments while establishing opinions about others (Springer, 2023).
Although it seems illogical, human brains are hardwired to believe this is the case (Springer, 2023). Women who deviate from the stereotypical female demeanor frequently encounter hostility and condemnation (Springer, 2023). It is possible to overcome this gender bias by actively emphasizing equality among team members and promoting women in the workplace. It is critical to remember that such changes in the perception of gender do not occur instantly, and people need time to change their stereotypical views.
The Reference Class Forecasting approach can lessen the confirmation and optimism bias. The Reference Class Forecasting (RFC) technique is a way to make project cost predictions more accurate (Springer, 2023). Similar projects are examined instead of focusing solely on the current issue, and data gathered from them is applied to the current topic (Springer, 2023). The information collected relates to how effectively the projects met their objectives, whether they were completed on schedule and within budget, and if not, by how much. By doing this, it can draw lessons from the past, and the estimations improve in realism and precision.
The first step is finding a pertinent reference class (Springer, 2023). Second, a probability distribution for the reference class must be chosen (Springer, 2023). To do this, data about projects in the identical reference category must be found and used to infer something about the projects in this category. The projects need to be changed after they are contrasted to the distribution from the original class. Using this strategy helps leaders avoid subjectivity and faults related to the wrong choice of information in projects.
Conclusion
Since biases are the end product of a complicated psychological process, changing them takes time. A successful leader’s qualities have changed over time, and now management places more weight on female qualities like those mentioned above. It is the consequence of changing leadership to promote a positive workplace and share responsibility.
All project managers must be conscious of cognitive biases to counteract them. It is possible to mitigate the impacts by recognizing biases and taking the proper steps. The investigation shows that promoting enhanced project performance, diversity, and fairness makes the team’s work more coordinated and effective. The biases have no evident positive effects, which all harm the result. Therefore, it is critical to understand them and to eliminate them in construction project management.
References
Einhorn, C. S. (2023). Problem solver: Maximizing your strengths to make better decisions. Cornell University Press.
Peetz, D. (2019). The realities and futures of work. ANU Press.
Springer, M. L. (2023). Project and program management: A competency-based approach. Purdue University Press.