Management

Stereotypes: Perceptions about Groups of People

TO THE POINT

How can managers use knowledge of stereotypes and stereotype formation to more effectively reduce problems associated with sex role, age, racial, and disability stereotypes?

LO.3

While it is often true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, perception does result in some predictable outcomes. Managers aware of the perception process and its outcomes enjoy a competitive edge. The Walt Disney Company, for instance, takes full advantage of perceptual tendencies to influence customers' reactions to waiting in long lines at its theme parks:

Example. In Orlando, at Disney-MGM Studios, visitors waiting to get into a Muppet attraction watch tapes of Kermit the Frog on TV monitors. At the Magic Kingdom, visitors to the Extra Terrestrial Alien Encounter attraction are entertained by a talking robot before the show. At some rides, the company uses simple toys, like blocks, to help parents keep small children busy and happy during the wait.20

This example illustrates how the focus of one's attention influences the perception of standing in long lines.

Likewise, managers can use knowledge of perceptual outcomes to help them interact more effectively with employees. For example, Table 7–2 describes five common perceptual errors. Since these perceptual errors often distort the evaluation of job applicants and of employee performance, managers need to guard against them. This section examines one of the most important and potentially harmful perceptual outcomes associated with person perception: stereotypes. After exploring the process of stereotype formation and maintenance, we discuss sex-role stereotypes, age stereotypes, race stereotypes, disability stereotypes, and the managerial challenge to avoid stereotypical biases.

table 7–2

Commonly Found Perceptual Errors

PERCEPTUAL ERROR	DESCRIPTION	EXAMPLE	RECOMMENDED SOLUTION
Halo	A rater forms an overall impression about an object and then uses that impression to bias ratings about the object.	Rating a professor high on the teaching dimensions of ability to motivate students, knowledge, and communication because we like him or her.	Remember that an employee's behavior tends to vary across different dimensions of performance. Keep a file or diary to record examples of positive and negative employee performance throughout the year.
Leniency	A personal characteristic that leads an individual to consistently evaluate other people or objects in an extremely positive fashion.	Rating a professor high on all dimensions of performance regardless of his or her actual performance. The rater that hates to say negative things about others.	It does not help employees when they are given positive feedback that is inaccurate. Try to be fair and realistic when evaluating others.
Central tendency	The tendency to avoid all extreme judgments and rate people and objects as average or neutral.	Rating a professor average on all dimensions of performance regardless of his or her actual performance.	It is normal to provide feedback that contains both positive and negative information. The use of a performance diary can help to remember examples of employee performance.
Recency effects	The tendency to remember recent information. If the recent information is negative, the person or object is evaluated negatively.	Although a professor has given good lectures for 12 to 15 weeks, he or she is evaluated negatively because lectures over the last 3 weeks were done poorly.	It is critical to accumulate examples of performance that span the entire rating period. Keep a file or diary to record examples of performance throughout the year.
Contrast effects	The tendency to evaluate people or objects by comparing them with characteristics of recently observed people or objects.	Rating a good professor as average because you compared his or her performance with three of the best professors you have ever had in college. You are currently taking courses from the three excellent professors.	It is important to evaluate employees against a standard rather than your memory of the best or worst person in a particular job.

Stereotype Formation and Maintenance

“A stereotype is an individual's set of beliefs about the characteristics or attributes of a group.”21 Stereotypes are not always negative. For example, the belief that engineers are good at math is certainly part of a stereotype. Stereotypes may or may not be accurate. Engineers may in fact be better at math than the general population. In general, stereotypic characteristics are used to differentiate a particular group of people from other groups.22

It is important to remember that stereotypes are a fundamental component of the perception process and we use them to help process the large amount of information that bombards us daily. As such, it is not immoral or bad to possess stereotypes. That said, however, inappropriate use of stereotypes can lead to poor decisions; can create barriers for women, older individuals, people of color, and people with disabilities; and can undermine loyalty and job satisfaction.

Stereotyping is a four-step process. It begins by categorizing people into groups according to various criteria, such as gender, age, race, and occupation. Next, we infer that all people within a particular category possess the same traits or characteristics (e.g., all women are nurturing, older people have more job-related accidents, all African Americans are good athletes, all professors are absentminded). Then, we form expectations of others and interpret their behavior according to our stereotypes. Finally, stereotypes are maintained by (1) overestimating the frequency of stereotypic behaviors exhibited by others, (2) incorrectly explaining expected and unexpected behaviors, and (3) differentiating minority individuals from oneself.23 It is hard to stop people from using stereotypes because these four steps are self-reinforcing. The good news, however, is that researchers have identified a few ways to break the chain of stereotyping.

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Research shows that the use of stereotypes is influenced by the amount and type of information available to an individual and his or her motivation to accurately process information.24 People are less apt to use stereotypes to judge others when they encounter salient information that is highly inconsistent with a stereotype. For instance, you are unlikely to assign stereotypic “professor” traits to a new professor you have this semester if he or she rides a Harley-Davidson, wears leather pants to class, and has a pierced nose. People also are less likely to rely on stereotypes when they are motivated to avoid using them. That is, accurate information processing requires mental effort. Stereotyping is generally viewed as a less effortful strategy of information processing. Let us now take a look at different types of stereotypes and consider additional methods for reducing their biasing effects.

Go to www.mcgrawhillconnect.com for an interactive exercise to test your knowledge of the commonly found perceptual errors.

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Sex-Role Stereotypes

LO.4

A sex-role stereotype is the belief that differing traits and abilities make men and women particularly well suited to different roles. These stereotypes have been found to influence our perceptions of women as leaders. A recent summary of this research, for example, revealed that (1) people often prefer male bosses, (2) women have a harder time being perceived as an effective leader (e.g., women were seen as more effective than men only when the organization faced a crisis and turnaround), and (3) women of color are more negatively affected by sex-role stereotypes than white women or men in general.25 Researchers believe that sex-role stereotypes are related to gender-based expectations that people use without any conscious awareness. The key question, however, is whether or not these stereotypes influence the hiring, evaluation, and promotion of people at work.

A meta-analysis of 19 studies found no significant relationships between applicant gender and hiring recommendations.26 A second meta-analysis involving 24 experimental studies revealed that men and women received similar performance ratings for the same level of task performance. Stated differently, there was no pro-male bias. These experimental results were further supported in a field study of female and male professors.27 Unfortunately, results pertaining to promotion decisions are not as promising. A field study of 682 employees in a multinational Fortune 500 company demonstrated that gender was significantly related to promotion potential ratings. Men received more favorable evaluations than women in spite of controlling for age, education, organizational tenure, salary grade, and type of job.28 Biases against women also were found to be more prevalent when they worked in nontraditional jobs.29

Go to www.mcgrawhillconnect.com for a video case on Todd McFarlane.

Age Stereotypes

Age stereotypes reinforce age discrimination because of their negative orientation. For example, long-standing age stereotypes depict older workers as less satisfied, not as involved with their work, less motivated, not as committed, less productive than their younger co-workers, and more apt to be absent from work. Older employees are also perceived as being more accident prone. As with sex-role stereotypes, these age stereotypes are based more on fiction than fact.30

OB researcher Susan Rhodes sought to determine whether age stereotypes were supported by data from 185 different studies. She discovered that as age increases so does employees' job satisfaction, job involvement, internal work motivation, and organizational commitment. Moreover, older workers were not more accident prone.31 With respect to performance, a meta-analysis involving over 52,000 people showed that age was unrelated to task performance, creativity, and performance in training workshops.32 Some OB researchers, however, believe that this finding does not reflect the true relationship between age and performance. For example, one study of 24,210 people demonstrated that age and experience predicted performance better for complex jobs than other types of jobs.33 Another study of 1,000 doctors, ages 25 to 92, and 600 other adults revealed “that a large proportion of older individuals scored as well or better on aptitude tests as those in the prime of life.”34

What about turnover and absenteeism? One meta-analysis showed that age and turnover were negatively related.35 That is, older employees quit less often than did younger employees. Similarly, a second meta-analysis indicated that age was inversely related to both voluntary (a day at the beach) and involuntary (sick day) absenteeism.36 Results from these two meta-analyses suggest managers should focus more attention on the turnover and absenteeism among younger workers than among older workers.

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Racial and Ethnic Stereotypes

Many different racial and ethnic stereotypes exist. For instance, African Americans have been viewed as athletic, aggressive, and angry; Asians, as quiet, introverted, smarter, and more quantitatively oriented; Hispanics, as family oriented and religious; and Arabs, as angry. Racial and ethnic stereotypes are particularly problematic because they are automatically triggered and lead to what researchers call micro aggressions. Micro aggressions represent “biased thoughts, attitudes, and feelings” that exist at an unconscious level.37 Unfortunately, they can affect our behavior and negatively affect people of color. Consider the following scenario:

Example. Two colleagues—one Asian American, the other African American—board a small plane. A flight attendant tells them they can sit anywhere, so they choose seats near the front of the plane and across the aisle from each other so they can talk. At the last minute, three white men enter the plane and take the seats in front of them. Just before takeoff, the flight attendant, who is white, asks the two colleagues if they would mind moving to the back of the plane to better balance the plane's load. Both react with anger, sharing the same sense that they are being singled out to symbolically “sit at the back of the bus.” When they express these feelings to the attendant, she indignantly denies the charge, saying she was merely trying to ensure the flight's safety and give the two some privacy.38

What do you think, was the flight attendant exhibiting a micro aggression or were the colleagues being too sensitive?

Negative racial and ethnic stereotypes are still apparent in many aspects of life and in many organizations.39 Consider the experience of Eldrick (Tiger) Woods. Tiger was raised in two different cultures. His mother was from Thailand and his father was African American. Since becoming a professional golfer in 1996, Tiger has won 95 tournaments and has more career victories than any other active player on the PGA Tour. He also has the lowest career scoring average and greatest amount of career earnings than any other golfer in the history of the game. He also is the only golfer in history to hold the title for all four major tournaments at the same time.40 Unfortunately, Tiger has experienced a host of racial stereotypes and biases (see Real World/Real People on page 192). Let us now consider the following evidence regarding racial and ethnic stereotypes in organizations.

A meta-analysis of interview decisions involving samples of 4,169 African Americans and 6,307 whites revealed that whites received higher interviewer evaluations. Another study of 2,805 interviews uncovered a same-race bias for Hispanics and African Americans but not for whites. That is, Hispanics and African American interviewers evaluated applicants of their own race more favorably than applicants of other races. White interviewers did not exhibit any such bias.41

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real WORLD // real PEOPLE

Tiger Woods's Experiences with Racial Bias

“I became aware of my racial identity on my first day of school, on my first day of kindergarten. A group of sixth graders tied me to a tree, spray-painted the word ‘nigger' on me, and threw rocks at me. That was my first day at school. And the teacher really didn't do much of anything. I used to live across the street from school and kind of down the way a little bit. The teacher said, ‘Okay, just go home.' So I had to outrun all these kids going home, which I was able to do. It was certainly an eye-opening experience, you know, being five years old. We were the only minority family in all of Cypress, California.

“When my parents moved in, before I was born, they used to have these oranges come through the window all the time. And it could have not been racially initiated or it could have been. We don't know. But it was very interesting, though people don't necessarily know it, that I grew up in the 1980s and still had incidents. I had a racial incident even in the 1990s at my home course where I grew up, the Navy golf course. And right before the 1994 US Amateur, I was 18 years old, I was out practicing, just hitting pitch shots and some guy just yelled over the fence and used the N word numerous times at me. That's in 1994.”

Despite his international acclaim and reputation, Tiger Woods battled racial stereotypes into the mid-1990s. What can be done to stop the spread of racism and racial stereotypes?

SOURCE: C Barkley, Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man? (New York: Penguin Press, 2005), p 7.

Performance ratings were found to be unbiased in two studies that used large samples of 21,547 and 39,537 rater–ratee pairs of African American and white employees, respectively, from throughout the United States. These findings revealed that African American and white managers did not differentially evaluate their employees based on race.42

Given the increasing number of people of color who will enter the workforce over the next 10 years (recall our discussion in Chapter 2), employers should focus on nurturing and developing women and people of color as well as increasing managers' sensitivities to invalid racial stereotypes and what is called stereotype threat. Stereotype threat “refers to the ‘predicament' in which members of a social group (e.g., African Americans, women) ‘must deal with the possibility of being judged or treated stereotypically, or of doing something that would confirm the stereotype.' ”43 Research has documented that stereotype threat was associated with lower performance on evaluative tasks for women and nonwhites. For example, African Americans and women performed worse on academic tests when something primed them to think about race or gender. The drop in performance was higher when people experienced a race/ethnicity-based stereotype.44 These results suggest that it is important for teachers and managers to avoid activating any race/ethnicity or gender stereotypes (e.g., asking people about their race or gender) when people are taking evaluative tests such as an academic test, an employment test, or a graduate school admissions test.

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Disability Stereotypes

People with disabilities not only face negative stereotypes that affect their employability, but they also can be stigmatized by the general population. These trends create a host of problems for people with disabilities. For example, people with disabilities are more likely to be unemployed—the unemployment rate in December 2010 was 15.6% for people with disabilities and 9.4% for those without disabilities—and to make less money than those without disabilities.45 People with disabilities also were found to be two-and-a half times as likely to live in poverty as people without disabilities.46 The problem is even more pronounced for people with serious mental illness. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was created in 1990 in response to these statistics. This act prohibits discrimination against qualified employees with physical or mental disabilities or chronic illness and requires “reasonable accommodation” of employees with disabilities.47

Managerial Challenges and Recommendations

The key managerial challenge is to reduce the extent to which stereotypes influence decision making and interpersonal processes throughout the organization.

We recommend that an organization first needs to inform its workforce about the problem of stereotyping through employee education and training. Training also can be used to equip managers with the skills needed to handle situations associated with managing employees with disabilities. The next step entails engaging in a broad effort to reduce stereotypes throughout the organization. Social scientists believe that “quality” interpersonal contact among mixed groups is the best way to reduce stereotypes because it provides people with more accurate data about the characteristics of other groups of people. As such, organizations should create opportunities for diverse employees to meet and work together in cooperative groups of equal status.

Another recommendation is for managers to identify valid individual differences (discussed in Chapter 5) that differentiate between successful and unsuccessful performers. As previously discussed, for instance, research reveals experience is a better predictor of performance than age. Research also shows that managers can be trained to use these valid criteria when hiring applicants and evaluating employee performance.48

Removing promotional barriers for men and women, people of color, and persons with disabilities is another viable solution to alleviating the stereotyping problem. Home Depot's participation in the “Ken's Kids” program is a good example of how companies can assist people with disabilities to obtain meaningful work. The Ken's Kids program helps disabled individuals find work by providing vocational training and job placement services (see Real World/Real People on page 194). Home Depot personnel believe that the program is a success.49

In conclusion, it is important to obtain top management's commitment and support to eliminate the organizational practices that support or reinforce stereotyping and discriminatory decisions. Research clearly demonstrates that top management support is essential to successful implementation of the types of organizational changes being recommended.

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real WORLD // real PEOPLE

Home Depot Participates in the Ken's Kids Program in Attempt to Hire People with Disabilities

Ken's Kids carefully assess potential trainees using a five-step selection process—application, interview, observation, store assessment, and parent interview—explains Deborah Callaghan, the Pennsylvania state coordinator. She oversees 45 Home Depot associates with disabilities.…

Coaches “work side by side with trainees for three months in stores, reviewing tasks and things like product knowledge,” explains Callaghan…. “Store managers receive sensitivity training as well.”

Home Depot's district manager Debbie Kiedeisch commented on key aspects of the program's success. “You must have the support and buy-in from store management and store associates.” Ken's Kids works to build that support by meeting with managers. The Home Depot's district managers conduct orientation and training so store managers can uphold company policies and explain procedures to new associates. Another reason the program is viable, she adds, is the level of support workers get from their coaches along the way.

Why wouldn't all companies endorse a program like Ken's Kids?

SOURCE: Excerpted from D M Owens, “Hiring Employees with Autism,” HR Magazine, June 2010, pp 84–90.

Maurice Baynard is a participant in the Ken's Kids program.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Pygmalion Effect

TO THE POINT

What is the self-fulfilling prophecy, and how can managers use it to bolster individual and organizational productivity?

LO.5

Historical roots of the self-fulfilling prophecy are found in Greek mythology. According to mythology, Pygmalion was a sculptor who hated women yet fell in love with an ivory statue he carved of a beautiful woman. He became so infatuated with the statue that he prayed to the goddess Aphrodite to bring her to life. The goddess heard his prayer, granted his wish, and Pygmalion's statue came to life. The essence of the self-fulfilling prophecy, or Pygmalion effect, is that someone's high expectations for another person result in high performance for that person. A related self-fulfilling prophecy effect is referred to as the Galatea effect. The Galatea effect occurs when an individual's high self-expectations for him- or herself lead to high performance. The key process underlying both the Pygmalion and Galatea effects is the idea that people's expectations or beliefs determine their behavior and performance, thus serving to make their expectations come true. In other words, we strive to validate our perceptions of reality, no matter how faulty they may be. Thus, the self-fulfilling prophecy is an important perceptual outcome we need to better understand.

Research and an Explanatory Model

The self-fulfilling prophecy was first demonstrated in an academic environment. After giving a bogus test of academic potential to students from grades 1 to 6, researchers informed teachers that certain students had high potential for achievement. In reality, students were randomly assigned to the “high potential” and “control” (normal potential) groups. Results showed that children designated as having high potential obtained significantly greater increases in both IQ scores and reading ability than did the control students.50 The teachers of the supposedly high potential group got better results because their high expectations caused them to give harder assignments, more feedback, and more recognition of achievement. Students in the normal potential group did not excel because their teachers did not expect outstanding results.

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Research similarly has shown that by raising instructors' and managers' expectations for individuals performing a wide variety of tasks, higher levels of achievement/productivity can be obtained. Results from a meta-analysis involving 2,874 people working in a variety of industries and occupations demonstrated the Pygmalion effect was quite strong.51 This finding implies that higher levels of achievement and productivity can be obtained by raising managers' performance expectations of their employees. Further, the performance-enhancing Pygmalion effect was stronger in the military, with men, and for people possessing low performance expectations. Extending these results, a recent study confirmed that female leaders can produce the Pygmalion effect on male subordinates.52 This is an important finding in light of the increasing number of women in managerial roles (recall our discussion in Chapter 2).

Figure 7–2 presents a model that integrates the self-fulfilling prophecy, the Galatea effect, and self-efficacy, which was discussed in Chapter 5. The model shows that the self-fulfilling process begins with a manager's expectations for his or her direct reports. In turn, these expectations influence the type of leadership used by a leader (linkage 1). Positive expectations beget positive and supportive leadership, which subsequently leads employees to develop higher self-expectations (linkage 2). The positive Galatea effect created by these higher expectations then motivates employees to exert more effort (linkage 3), ultimately increasing performance (linkage 4) and supervisory expectations (linkage 5). Successful performance also improves an employee's self-efficacy, which then fuels additional self-expectations of success (linkage 6). Research provides support for this model.53 Researchers coined the term Golem effect to represent the negative side of the performance-enhancing process depicted in Figure 7–2. The Golem effect is a loss in performance resulting from low leader expectations.54 Let us consider how it works.

Figure 7–2

A Model of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

SOURCE: From D Eden, “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy as a Management Tool: Harnessing Pygmalion,” Academy of Management Review, January 1984, p 67. Copyright © 1984 by The Academy of Management. Reproduced by permission of The Academy of Management via Copyright Clearance Center.

SOURCE: NON-SEQUITUR © Wiley Miller. Dist. by Universal Press Syndicate. Reprinted with permission. All