Status Quo Bias in the Workplace

Is your organization unknowingly sabotaging its own progress? The Status Quo Bias, a subtle yet powerful human tendency, often keeps businesses from innovating, limiting performance and stifling employee engagement

The Status Quo Bias refers to the non-progressive stance that is typically taken by employees to keep things just the way they were before. This is related to regret aversion and loss aversion.

Sticking to the status quo and shying away from change will certainly limit performance and adversely affect employee engagement in the workplace. For any company to keep business afloat in today’s competitive era, there must be clear signs of progress, and that necessitates periodic alterations in the existing work regimen.

As with any change, there is always a certain percentage of risk associated. Most employees might not prefer to experiment with newfound ideas on the off chance that they inadvertently end up putting their livelihood at stake. So, they choose to keep things as they have always been.

This perceived threat isn’t just about financial security; it encompasses a deeper fear of failure leading to reputational damage, missed promotions, reduced bonuses, or even negative performance reviews. For many, the comfort of predictable, albeit suboptimal, results outweighs the uncertain potential gains of a risky new approach. It’s a fundamental human inclination to protect what we have, even if it means missing out on something better.

What is the Status Quo Bias?

Here, we can associate two other theories – regret avoidance and loss aversion – which help to shed a little more light on the reasons that employees might behave this way. Regret avoidance, as the name suggests, is the preference of an individual to steer clear of any path that will lead him/her to regret the course of action taken later on. On the other hand, loss aversion tends to highlight the human tendency to favor avoiding loss over acquiring gains: after all, the rule of thumb in understanding human behavior is that losses loom larger than gains (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979).

The statement adequately reflects the behavior of people wishing to preserve their current wealth as opposed to risking it for a probable increase.

With all this information in mind, contemplate the following example:

Status Quo Bias in Context

Imagine that the company you work at has always had a reliable and stable IT service provider for many years now. Although there have never been any issues with the service, since then, a lot of new IT service providers have surfaced with much better pricing and flexibility.

Though these newer providers could ultimately benefit you, because of the status quo bias, you will not consider looking for an upgrade and risking the stability that you’ve managed to maintain over the years. Even though a part of you knows that it might cut down costs, you refuse to take that leap of faith.

There are a couple of ways that a company could help its employees overcome this bias. By maintaining a healthy environment that promotes inclusivity, employees will likely feel more confident in their abilities and, as a result, won’t shy away from taking the initiative in the hopes of bettering their performance.

Moreover, managers must incorporate appropriately timed milestones to evaluate progress. This will instill the need to improve upon prior performance among employees and thus compel them to break the status quo.

This is where frameworks like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) become invaluable. By setting clear objectives and breaking them down into smaller, measurable key results with defined timelines, managers can transform a daunting ‘leap of faith’ into a series of smaller, manageable steps. Each milestone acts as a controlled experiment. If a step doesn’t yield the desired outcome, it provides a safe learning opportunity to adjust course, rather than a catastrophic failure. This inherent agility reduces the perceived risk for employees, making them more willing to experiment and drive progress

So, how do we move forward?

In order for things to get better, employees need to feel comfortable suggesting changes. One way to do this is to create a positive environment in which everyone feels like they can contribute. The goal is to make the office a place where everyone can be themselves and genuinely suggest their new ideas, learn from one another, and are comfortable abandoning the status quo.

However, employees alone cannot overcome this bias. Managers and leaders play a crucial role. Often, the status quo is inadvertently reinforced by a culture that penalizes failures or doesn’t actively celebrate experimentation and learning. If employees fear repercussions for trying something new that doesn’t immediately succeed, they will naturally revert to safer, known methods. True progress requires leadership to not just tolerate but actively encourage thoughtful risk-taking and view ‘failures’ as valuable data for improvement.

When everyone feels like they can speak up, employers are also more likely to get to know their employees, and there is an increase in employee engagement and motivation. This way, they can take advantage of their strengths and ask them to seek positive change in areas that they know could be improved.

Beyond general positive reinforcement, companies can implement specific tactics like ‘innovation challenges’ or ‘hackathons’ where employees can freely explore new ideas, or ‘celebrating small wins from new initiatives’ to showcase the positive outcomes of breaking from routine. Regularly soliciting ideas through anonymous suggestion boxes or dedicated brainstorming sessions can also empower employees to voice their innovative thoughts without immediate pressure.

It’s also important that employees know their company values progress. Beyond the focus on day to day responsibilities, it’s important to have a workplace that appreciates growth as part of their mission. If the entire company is on board with making positive changes, then individuals will be as well. When everyone is on the same page, positive changes are more likely to be made.

Final Thoughts

Breaking your organization out of the norm can be difficult, and combating human instinct to resist change will not be easy for anyone, however armed with the knowledge of status quo bias and the right tools, you can succeed. Profit.co’s tools help guide that transformation by aligning teams with clear goals and progress.