Unpacking ‘Meritocracy’

An organisation decides to start ‘pool campus’ from B-level colleges in an effort to hire more women.

Managers are nudged or incentivised or even explicitly pushed towards hiring diverse talent.

‘Diversity targets’ are now on managers’ workplans.

All the above, in some form or the other, are a reality for many organisations that have decided to push the envelope on Diversity. And those of us who have had the opportunity to engage managers from these organisations in Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) conversations, know that simmering in the minds of almost all managers is the ‘Meritocracy’ question – Are we not compromising on Meritocracy in order to meet Diversity targets?

As a matter of fact most managers are often found stating this, and not asking, because it is not even a question in their minds. It is also the kind of contagious thing that gets passed on and reinforced through thoughtless corridor conversations. Often my first response (thankfully only in my head) is – in all honesty, hands on your heart, tell me atleast half of your hires make you proud of your ‘meritocratic’ hiring system!

Well, cynicism apart, I do want to flesh out my counter to this ‘Meritocracy’ argument which raises its head each time we mention Diversity.

A definition is always a good place to start. For purpose of this conversation, Meritocracy may be defined as a system where performance and abilities are rewarded objectively, independent of any other factors (or bias).

Coming back to the Meritocracy question, here are a few thoughts that unpack the definition in a manner that Diversity becomes a part of Meritocracy and not an anti –

Reassess the Equation – When we look at Diversity and Meritocracy as an either / or equation, we eliminate the possibility of Diversity being a part of the criteria that comprises Meritocracy. For instance – If a meritocratic system says that a candidate needs to have X, Y and Z set of skills and abilities, then Diversity should be one of these variables in the equation, and not something that is considered inversely proportional. Over the years, we have hard-boxed Meritocracy into a rigid set of expectations / criteria, leaving no room for Diversity – so when managers are asked to make room for Diversity, it suddenly seems like they will have to drop X or Y or Z….well not really, and even if they did need to tone these down, are we not then bringing in an important, perhaps missing, variable D. Question then becomes, do we value D as much as X, Y or Z.

Paradox of Meritocracy – Research by Indiana University sociology professor Stephen Bernard, coined the ‘Paradox of Meritocracy’ which indicates that those who consider themselves to be meritocratic can actually exhibit the most bias. ‘Meritocratic’ managers and organisations assume they are being objective and do not watch out for bias, thus reinforcing stereotypes. As a result, too much confidence in Meritocracy can actually take away from Fairness and Equity, thus significantly impacting the focus on hiring or growing diverse talent. When an organisation relies heavily on Meritocracy, bias becomes a stronger blind-spot.

How Objective? – As much as we’d like to believe that our people processes are objective, the truth remains that they have plenty room for subjectivity. Who gets hired or promoted may have less to do with objective performance assessments and more to do with factors such as manager’s ‘comfort level’ with a candidate, the ‘right vibe, ‘cultural fitment’, hiring / promoting for ‘potential’ etc. These are all the places where subjectivity and bias seep into seemingly objective processes. When Harvey Specter – the hotshot character from Suits – sums up the hiring criteria as ‘hire another me’, he is pretty much putting into words what most managers explicitly or implicitly gun for! Career opportunities often have less to do with objective meritocratic criteria than we like to believe.

So the next time that you are conflicted with the Meritocracy question, or you come across one of the many managers who are, it may help to unpack the ‘Meritocracy’ criteria and take a hard look at it – knock off the irrelevant, stereotyped factors and make place for Diversity, or simply expand the criteria to include Diversity. Either way, Diversity belongs with Meritocracy.

Ruchira Gokhale