Ben Waber hat Make Work Fair von Iris Bohnet besprochen
A Great, Process-Focused Book
This is a great, research-driven review of different process changes that workers and organizations can implement to improve fairness. Bohnet and Chilazi quickly dispense with the utility of "trainings," then move across different aspects of mostly HR-related processes to examine how tweaks can significantly improve fairness in different outcomes for different demographic groups. I would argue that these changes are not systemic, since while with the possible exception of norms fundamental questions about whether a process itself (individual promotions, compensation models, particular businesses, etc.) need to be scrapped and redesigned from the ground up are not considered. Similarly, the role of political action to achieve workplace fairness is not considered, which is surprising given that the most significant improvements to fairness have all been brought that way. A more minor quibble is the use of terms such as "de-bias," which is literally impossible (see Kleinberg's Impossibility Theorem). Overall, it's still …
This is a great, research-driven review of different process changes that workers and organizations can implement to improve fairness. Bohnet and Chilazi quickly dispense with the utility of "trainings," then move across different aspects of mostly HR-related processes to examine how tweaks can significantly improve fairness in different outcomes for different demographic groups. I would argue that these changes are not systemic, since while with the possible exception of norms fundamental questions about whether a process itself (individual promotions, compensation models, particular businesses, etc.) need to be scrapped and redesigned from the ground up are not considered. Similarly, the role of political action to achieve workplace fairness is not considered, which is surprising given that the most significant improvements to fairness have all been brought that way. A more minor quibble is the use of terms such as "de-bias," which is literally impossible (see Kleinberg's Impossibility Theorem). Overall, it's still an excellent, useful book, and hopefully we get a sequel that can explore these issues further. Highly recommend