CONCEPT MAP CHAPTER 3

CH 4: Stereotyping in Organizational Settings

Definition of Stereotyping:

-Stereotyping is a derivative of social identity theory, in which people assign traits to others
based on their membership in a social category.

- Examples of social category like age group, gender, and race.

- Stereotyping can be positive, negative or neutral. Both positive and negative stereotypes can
be harmful and they can occasionally serve as a learning experience.

-For example, stereotypes about gender can cause unequal and unfair treatment because of a
person's gender.

- Furthermore, according to Katz and Braly (1933), there is racial stereotyping. Racial
stereotypes always seem to favor the race of the holder and belittle other races. It is probably
true to say that every ethnic group has racial stereotypes of other groups.

- For example, White Americans were seen as industrious, progressive and ambitious. While,
African Americans were seen as lazy, ignorant and musical.

WHY PEOPLE STEREOTYPE

 Categorical thinking
– Categorical thinking means it is easier to remember features of a stereotype
than the constellation of characteristics unique to everyone we meet.

-This is means people rely on group attribute such as race, nationality or gender
rather than personal attribute like kind, having a good sense of humour or good
personality which make them difficult to remember the individual or someone
characteristics.

 Strong need to understand and anticipate others’ behavior

– This is means we have an innate need to understand and anticipate how others
will behave. It especially when we deal with unknown individual under certain
situation, the stereotyping will become important at that time.
- This is because we don’t have much information when first meeting someone,
so we rely heavily on stereotypes to fill in the missing pieces.
 - For example, during the interview, the interviewer will tend to relate a person
character by associating them with their personal background.
 Enhances our self-perception and social identity
– People tend to develop negative stereotypes.
-For example, in organization, imagine my new coworker has a political affiliation
that differs from me. So based on the negative stereotypes, if I make
assumptions about my new colleague in terms of her or his political affiliation, I
might start off with a hostile and unfriendly relationship. However, if I get to know
my new coworker as an individual, I might be able to put aside any political
differences for the sake of productivity and build a strong working relationship
built on mutual understanding.

ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE OF STEREOTYPING

Advantage
 It enables us to respond rapidly to situations because we may have had a similar
experience before.
 It can be seen as simplifying our surroundings so they are easier to
understand.
 Stereotypes enable us to categorize people into groups, which allows us to
form expectations about people and situations making life more predictable
and easier to understand.

 Could assist in making decision

 It can be useful if we are in a new situation and need to make a quick
judgment and fast decisions.
 For example, if we have never been around a member of royalty before, we
might stereotype them as being formal and reserved, which will help us to
respond to them in a respectful manner to follow their behavior.

Disadvantage
 It makes us ignore differences between individuals
- The downside of using a stereotype to make a judgment about someone is
that it might be completely misguided and incorrect, causing you to act
differently towards the person which can offend them.
- The saying "Don't judge a book by its cover" demonstrates that appearance
isn't enough to understand who a person really is.
- We think things about people that might not be true where there is an
inaccuracy in our predictions.
- For example, someone might like watching sports but actually he is non-
athletic.

 Discrimination and prejudice could happen.

- This is a form of prejudice and can be distressing for the person who is being
prejudged, who might feel that they are misunderstood, particularly when a
stereotype is racially motivated.
- Stereotyping can create these problems in many social situations like the
workplace, at school or in the local community where the competition and
hostility may happen.
- For example, in the workplace if a female boss were to manage a group of
men, the female might feel that she has to prove that she is capable to do the
job because of the negative stereotyping that suggests that women are less
capable. And the men might in turn assume that she is bossy and
incompetent and after that could creating negativity for her in the company.

Strategies to Minimizing Stereotyping Biases

• Diversity awareness training

- Company should educate employees about the benefits of diversity,

sensitivity to equality and to block inaccurate perception.

- Through this training, employee could understand that each individual is

unique, and recognizing an individual differences in dimensions of race, ethnicity,
gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, religious beliefs, or other
ideologies.

• Meaningful interaction
 - This statement is based on the contact hypothesis, which states that,
under certain conditions, people who interact with each other will be less
prejudiced or perceptually biased against each other.

- For example, in organization, employer should simply spending time with

the employees such as plan social gatherings or games for the employees to
help build relationships.

- This is because this meaningful interaction could potentially improves

empathy toward others, that is, the extent to which we understand

and are sensitive to the feelings, thoughts, and situations of others.

CH 5: Attribution Theory

Definition:

Refers to the perceptual process of deciding whether an observed behavior or event is caused
largely by the person (internal) or by the environment (external factors).

Types of The Attribution Theory

Internal Attribution

 The process of assigning the cause of behaviour to some internal

characteristic, rather than to outside forces.
 We attributing the cause of someone’s behavior to their personality or abilities
rather than situation or fate.
 For example, dishonest, lack of motivation or lazy can be categorized as
internal attribution.

External Attribution

 The process of assigning the cause of behaviour to some situation or event

outside a person's control rather than to some internal characteristic.
 We attributing the cause of someone’s behavior to situational or outside
factors rather than the person.
 For example, situation or fate like traffic jam, family emergency or other
circumstances that prevented the coworker from attend work can be
categorised as external attribution.