Biases Associated With Vendor Selection, Essay Example

This memo will address biases associated with vendor selection and will offer suggestions to prevent gender, race, religious biases in a business environment.

The obvious dilemma in this scenario stems from the ethical conflict of gender and/or religious discrimination and how to counter the possibility of prejudicial practices in vendor selection from a possible business partner.  Denise is making decisions based on her own prejudices about the practices of the Crescent representatives even as she is hoping they will not make biased decisions about her company.   In order to demonstrate ethical leadership to the employees, management must set the example and tone regarding expected employee conduct. Although Denise has no legal obligation to reveal the gender or ethnicities of her staff, demonstrating a respect for the Crescent staff members through gaining an understanding of their customs regarding gender interactions in the workplace would help her forge the positive professional relationship she is hoping for. It would also foster a more respectable workplace environment for her employees. Rather than merely paying lip service to ethical conduct, it would behoove her to demonstrate her beliefs in ethical practices by not using trickery or deception in order to secure the contract. Denise may have misunderstood the cultural factors that were at play during said meeting. Traditional Islamic practices have stringent guidelines regarding physical contact between males and females, which may be what Denise perceived during the meeting. She may have misconstrued that as prejudicial treatment and it is therefore is irrational of her to assume that a company with a financial portfolio as distinguished as Crescent’s has achieved such a status without encountering and doing business with other companies with employee profiles similar to that of her staff.