4 ms·
If a board rejects a (very) competent person based on the person’s gender, race, sexuality, age, then… they lost a very competent person. That person will do gr
by kovek 5y ago
If a board rejects a (very) competent person based on the person’s gender, race, sexuality, age, then… they lost a very competent person. That person will do great work outside of that board. Can we agree on this? Also, is that some sort of Nash equilibrium?
- kenjackson 5y agoNo, we can't agree on this. If most boards reject this person based on one of these things, they may never actually do this work or achieve anything near their potential. We've seen already in the US that culture trumps almost everything else. I've had people tell me that they'd rather their daughter marry a poorer white guy than a richer black guy. That said, all this really ends meaning is that the all-white board hires a couple of tokens they provide no power to and make their lives hell. It's standard process.
- BrianOnHN 5y agoYou're assuming board memberships are meritocratic. Don't assume.
- ivalm 5y agoI don’t think that this formulation reflects the actual situation. Realistically you have a broad pool of near-identical performers (in a sense that your error in judgement is similar to difference in performance) mixed with some bad performers. The goal of the company is not to hire good, but to avoid the bad. So if someone isn’t bad then it’s fine to give preference based on some diversity metric, because you are just choosing between equivalent candidates (to within your ability to objectively measure).
- kovek 5y agoThey still lose a (very) competent candidate, and that candidate will do great work elsewhere (and not for the board)
- ivalm 5y agoIf you have a fixed headcount, then forgoing one candidate for equivalent another doesn’t carry a cost. By hiring person A you would be missing out on person B, by hiring person B you would be missing out on A. The point is that the net cost is 0. So if B brings more diversity then A you should hire B. You are not (net) missing anything.
- r00fus 5y agoYou clearly don't understand how boards operate. They're mainly good-ol-boy networks of rich elites who can open doors for the company. They don't care for competence, pre-se, but connection.