LO 14-7 Give examples of how to decrease prejudice. Prejudice can be reduced individually and in the workplace by increasing contact and communication with members of diverse groups, by placing people in equal-status positions, and by encouraging cooperation and interdependence, rather than competition.
1. What are the three components of an attitude? Describe the three components of a prejudiced attitude.
2. What individuals and groups can you think of who are likely targets of prejudice and discrimination? Do you fit into any of these groups that are likely targets? Have you ever found yourself a target of prejudice or discrimination as a member of this group? Explain.
3. Discuss some of the sources of prejudice. Within these sources, can you think of a particular prejudice that you have and how it arose? Explain your personal example.
4. Discuss the negative effects of discrimination in the workplace, both on the individual and on the business organization. Have you seen any discriminatory acts occurring in your workplace? Explain.
review questions
ageism 357 bias 347 cognitive
categorization 349 discrimination 346 economic prejudice 352 Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) 348
key terms
equal status 363 ethnocentrism 350 institutional
prejudice 348 interdependence 363 prejudice 346
proximity 363
racism 351 self-fulfilling
prophecy 362 sexism 352
sexual harassment 359 stereotypes 346
5. Describe steps that can be taken in the workplace to reduce or prevent sexual harassment.
6. How is institutional racism or institutional sexism different from open racism or sexism?
7. What is meant by the term self-fulfilling prophecy? Think of an example in your life or someone else’s where a self-fulfilling prophecy (either positive or negative) arose. Explain your personal example.
8. What are some of the common myths about people with disabilities in the workplace? What is being done to protect employment for this group?
9. Under what circumstances is it acceptable to treat co-workers or
employees differently because of their differences? Should you be blind to differences between co-workers or employees, or recognize them openly?
10. People today talk a lot about “tolerance.” Is there a difference between tolerance and acceptance of differences, whether they are cultural, gender- related, religious, or other? Explain the differences.
critical thinking questions
IMPRESSION FORMATION: ARE PERCEPTIONS INFLUENCED BY ETHNICITY?
School-to-Work Connection: Interpersonal Skills
Do people hold generalized perceptions of others just because of their ethnicity? This project will help you discover that for yourself.
First, decide what two ethnic groups you would like to study (as a class or as an individual project). They may include African Americans, Native Americans, Japanese, French, Italians, or any other ethnic group. Next, each student should approach at least two people and ask them to take part in a study on impression formation. If this is a class project, decide with your classmates what ethnic groups you want to study. Those who agree to participate should be asked to conjure up an image of members of a particu- lar ethnic group and then describe their characteristics on the rating scale that follows. Half the participants should be asked to describe a member of the second ethnic group chosen for the study. The data collected from all the students will allow you to compare the participant’s perceptions as influenced by awareness of a person’s ethnicity.
working it out 14.1
Part One. The person you have in mind is (ethnic group).
Describe this person using the rating scale in the table at the end of these instructions.
1. When you think about people in this ethnic group, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
2. What is most characteristic of members of this group?
3. What is most definitely not characteristic of them? (What would be surprising or unexpected to see?)
4. What characteristic do you think most people assign to members of this group?
Part Two. Now do the same for the second person and ethnic group.
Examine your results. Are you surprised by any of these results? Do you hold certain perceptions about people just by being aware that they belong to a specific ethnic group? If so, what can you do about it? How can you reduce your stereotypic beliefs about members of certain ethnic groups?
Part Three. Try this exercise again, substituting male and female for the two ethnic groups, or young person and elderly person, or physically able and physically challenged, and so on.
RATING SCALE
Dominant 1 2 3 4 5 6 Submissive
Warm 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cold
Unambitious 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ambitious
Stupid 1 2 3 4 5 6 Smart
Clean 1 2 3 4 5 6 Dirty
Disliked 1 2 3 4 5 6 Liked
Poised 1 2 3 4 5 6 Unpoised
Unaggressive 1 2 3 4 5 6 Aggressive
Insensitive 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sensitive
Active 1 2 3 4 5 6 Passive
Source: Adapted from Ayala Pines and Christina Maslach, Experiencing Social Psychology: Readings and Projects, 3rd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1993), pp. 203–205.
GENDER STEREOTYPES IN THE MEDIA
School-to-Work Connection: Interpersonal Skills
Much of what people learn about men and women comes from the way they are portrayed on television and in movies, newspapers, and magazines. How are men and women portrayed differently in the media? This is the question you will try to answer in this project.
Pick one type of medium: your favorite newspaper, magazine, TV pro- gram (a news program, a soap opera, cartoons, music videos, situation
working it out 14.2
comedy, etc.), or radio programs (news format, rock music, sports, etc.).
Decide on your research sample gathering (a week, seven issues, ten hours, etc.) and the particular material you are going to observe. Record your results.
1. What was your source (what type of medium)?
2. What were you looking at (advertisements, cartoons, other)?
3. How did you collect your data (at what times, how often, and so on)?
What exactly did you observe (what programs and how many hours, or what magazine and how many issues)?
4. What themes around gender did you discover? Were there any surprises in what you found? Is the media’s portrayal of men and women accu- rate? How powerful are the media’s messages on gender?
Source: Adapted from Ayala Pines and Christina Maslach, Experiencing Social Psychology:
Readings and Projects, 3rd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1993), pp. 203–205.
Case Study Questions
1. Thinking about the questions, if you were considering hiring someone and wanted to be sure that you were hiring a reliable employee, these are things you might want to know as well. So, why can’t you ask these ques- tions? What is inherently wrong with want- ing to know these things about a potential employee—why is it illegal, when not directly related to job tasks?
2. Using the skills you have learned in previ- ous chapters and the information you have learned in this chapter, what would you have said to this interviewer during the interview, in order to end these personal questions?
3. Let’s say the interviewer continued this line of personal questions, even after you said some- thing. The interview ended, and you were not hired. Would you have taken further action?
Explain.
A bout 15 years ago, many years after the Civil
Rights Act made discrimination in hiring illegal, a professor with a Ph.D. was interviewing for a research job at a university in California.
Although many of the questions asked by the interviewer were clearly not allowable, the inter- viewer persisted. Some of those questions were:
• How old are you?
• Are you married?
• Do you have any children?
• How old are they?
• What type of day-care arrangement do you have?
• What type of backup day-care arrangements have you made?
• Are you planning on having more children?
• What kind of car do you drive?
• Is it reliable?
• How will you get to work if you have car trouble?
It’s None of Your Business
case study 14.1
case study 14.2
Two Against One
E lena Aguilar-Trujillo was the department
director in a small software design company.
Although the start-up company seemed to be get- ting new business in all the time, it was still strug- gling financially, and salaries were low.
Elena supervised eight employees. They all seemed to get along well, with the exception of Julia Sandoval and Kathy O’Donnell, two employees who were very good friends and seemed to form an alliance against the department secretary, Miranda Kirkpatrick. In fact, they seemed to sabotage and undercut her whenever they could. Elena couldn’t understand it. They had all grown up in the same area of the state, were all women, were the same age, and had similar interests. If anything, they should be closer than anyone else.
Events finally came to a head when Miranda asked for six weeks off without pay in order to go on a long sailing trip with her husband in their new boat. “That does it!” exclaimed Julia. “We have to get rid of her! She’s always prancing around here, showing off her new clothes and jewelry, bragging about all the stuff her husband buys her. I’ve had it with her!” Then Kathy chimed in, “Me too! If we don’t fire her, I might just have to go get a job somewhere else!”
Elena was shocked and tried to remember any situations in which Miranda was boastful, but couldn’t remember any. Then it dawned on Elena: the real problem these two employees had with the secretary had nothing to do with her work or behavior at all. They were just resentful that their secretary was more financially success- ful than they were. They were just getting their careers started, but Miranda’s husband had his own successful business, and Miranda didn’t have to work if she didn’t want to.
“Kathy and Julia, meet me in my office in 10 minutes,” said Elena. “We need to talk.”
Case Study Questions
1. What type of prejudice is being illustrated here? What is it based on?
2. If Elena did decide to fire Miranda in order to keep the peace within the department, what legal recourse would Miranda have, if any?
Explain.
3. Let’s say you have been called in as a mediator to settle this interdepartmental conflict. What steps will you take? What will these steps be based on?
15
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
After studying this chapter, you will be able to:
LO 15-1 Define ethics.
LO 15-2 Explain the importance of a code of ethics.
LO 15-3 Describe the process of rationalizing unethical behavior.
LO 15-4 Explain ethics in the context of the U.S. workplace.
LO 15-5 Describe the influence of group goals on ethics.
LO 15-6 Give examples of global ethics issues.
LO 15-7 Define social responsibility.
LO 15-8 Describe the process of whistleblowing.
S T R A T E G I E S F O R S U C C E S S
Strategy 15.1 Making Ethical Decisions: A Quick Ethics Test from Texas Instruments
Strategy 15.2 Becoming Culturally Aware of Ethical Conduct