CHAPTER 4

Social Perception and

Managing Diversity

Chapter 4| Slide 1
 SOCIAL PERCEPTION AND MANAGING
4 DIVERSITY
Why Are These Topics Essential for Success?

4.1 A Social Information Processing Model of Perception

4.2 Stereotypes

4.3 Causal Attributions

4.4 Defining and Managing Diversity

4.5 Building the Business Case for Managing Diversity

4.6 Barriers and Challenges to Managing Diversity

4.7 Organizational Practices Used to Effectively Manage Diversity

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 A Social Information Processing
Model of Perception
What is Perception?
• A cognitive process that enables us to interpret and
understand our surroundings
• OB is concerned with social perception
• Important in OB because perception affects actions
and decisions

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 A Social Information Processing
Model of Perception
Perceptual Errors Can Be Avoided by
Understanding the Process that Guides Perception

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 A Social Information Processing
Model of Perception
Stage 1: Selective Attention/Comprehension
• Attention is the process of becoming consciously
aware of something or someone
• People pay attention to salient stimuli:
– Something that stands out from its context

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 A Social Information Processing
Model of Perception
Stage 2: Encoding and Simplification
• Encoding:
– To interpret and evaluate the environment using schemata
and cognitive categories
– Encoding and schemata help to organize and remember
information
• Simplification:
– Relying on encoding helps us to simplify what might be a
bewildering range of inputs
– Encoding and schemata make the world more manageable

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 A Social Information Processing
Model of Perception
Stage 3: Storage and Retention
• Event Memory
• Semantic Memory
• Person Memory

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 A Social Information Processing
Model of Perception
Stage 4: Retrieval and Response
• Information is retrieved from memory to make
judgments and decisions
― Draw on, interpret, and integrate categorical information
stored in long-term memory
― Retrieve a summary judgment that was already made

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 A Social Information Processing
Model of Perception
Managerial Implications
Hiring
• The existence of implicit cognition may lead to biased decisions
• Managers can be trained to understand and reduce the bias
• Bias can be reduced by the use of structured interviews
• Use of virtual interviews

Performance Appraisal
• Faulty schema about good vs. poor performance leads to inaccurate
appraisals and erodes morale
• Managers must accurately identify and communicate behavioral
characteristics to employees
• Managers need a mechanism for remembering behavior

Leadership
• Employees’ evaluation of leader effectiveness are influenced by their
schemata of good and poor leaders

Chapter 4 | Slide 9
 Stereotypes

What is a Stereotype?
• An individual’s set of beliefs about the characteristics
or attributes of a group
• May or may not be accurate
• Can lead to poor decisions
• Can create barriers for:
– Women
– Older individuals
– People of color
– People with disabilities

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 Stereotypes

Stereotype Formation and Maintenance

Categorization Inferences

Maintenance Expectations

It takes accurate information and motivation to

reduce the use of stereotypes

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 Stereotypes

Managerial Challenges and Recommendations

• Educate people about stereotypes and how they
influence behavior and decision making
• Create opportunities for diverse employees to meet
and work with others
• Encourage all employees to increase their awareness

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 Causal Attributions

What are Causal Attributions?

• Suspected or inferred causes of behavior
• Important because the attributions affect
organizational behavior

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 Causal Attributions

Kelley’s Model of Attribution

• Based on Heider’s theory that behavior can be
attributed either to internal factors within a person or
external factors within the environment
• People make causal attributions by observing three
dimensions of behavior:
– Consensus
– Distinctiveness Can be high or low
– Consistency

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 Causal Attributions

How Does Consensus, Distinctiveness, and Consistency

Lead to Specific Attributions?
• People attribute behavior to either internal causes or external
causes based on ranking of consensus, distinctiveness, and
consistency

Attribution Consensus Distinctiveness Consistency

(People) (Tasks) (Time)
Internal Low Low High
External High High Low

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 Causal Attributions

Attributional Tendencies
Fundamental attribution bias:
― One’s tendency to attribute another person’s behavior to his or
her personal characteristics, as opposed to situational factors

Self-serving bias:
― One’s tendency to take more personal responsibility for
success than for failure

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 Causal Attributions

Managerial Application and Implications

We tend to disproportionately attribute behavior to
internal causes

Other attributional biases may lead managers to take

inappropriate actions

Attributional training sessions can help

An employee’s attributions for his or her own

performance have dramatic effects on subsequent
motivation, performance, and personal attitudes

Chapter 4 | Slide 17
 Defining and Managing Diversity

What is Diversity?
•Represents the multitude of individual differences and
similarities that exist among people
•Study of demographics helps us to best appreciate diversity
–Demographics are the statistical measurements of populations and
their qualities over time

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 Defining and Managing Diversity

Layers of Diversity?
– Personality (stable set of characteristics)
– Internal or surface-level characteristics are apparent to
others (unchangeable)
– External influences and organizational dimensions are
considered deep-level characteristics that take time to
emerge in interactions

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 Defining and Managing Diversity

What is Discrimination?
• Occurs when employment decisions about an
individual are due to reasons not associated with
performance or are not related to the job

Chapter 4 | Slide 20
 Defining and Managing Diversity

Managing Diversity

Managing Diversity Enables

People to Perform up to
Their Maximum Potential

Keys for Managing Diversity

-Education
-Enforcement
-Exposure

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 Building the Business Case for
Managing Diversity
Business Rationale for Diversity
• Managing diversity gives an organization the ability
to grow and maintain a business in an increasingly
competitive marketplace
• An access-and legitimacy perspective on diversity is
based in recognition that the organization’s markets
and constituencies are culturally diverse

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 Building the Business Case for
Managing Diversity
Trends in Workforce Diversity – Women
• Are women breaking the glass ceiling?

Positive Change No Change

Educational Attainment Continuing Pay Gap
Seats on Boards of Pay Gap for Female
Directors MBA Graduates
Leadership Positions in Gender Discrimination
Educational Institutions

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 Building the Business Case for
Managing Diversity
Trends in Workforce Diversity – Racial Groups
• The Census Bureau predicts by 2060 57% of the
workforce will consist of minority groups
• However, current minority groups appear to be
stalled at their own glass ceiling:
― Smaller percentage in the professional class
― More discrimination cases
― Lower earnings

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 Building the Business Case for
Managing Diversity
Trends in Workforce Diversity – Generational
• The population and workforce is getting older
• Four generations of employees are working together
(soon to be five)
• Managers need to deal with generational differences
in values, attitudes, and behavior

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 Barriers and Challenges to
Managing Diversity

Inaccurate
Poor Career Negative Diversity
Stereotypes and Ethnocentrism
Planning Climate
Prejudice

Unsupportive and Lack of Political Difficulty in

Fears of Reverse
Hostile Savvy of Diverse Balancing Career
Discrimination
Environment Employees and Family Issues

Diversity Not Seen

Need to Revamp
as an Resistance to
Appraisal and
Organizational Change
Reward System
Priority

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 Organizational Practices Used to
Effectively Manage Diversity
Generic Options Used to Address Diversity Issues
• Include/Exclude
• Deny
• Assimilate
• Suppress
• Isolate
• Tolerate
• Build Relationships
• Foster Mutual Adaptation
– Only approach that endorses the philosophy behind managing
diversity

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 Integrative Framework for
4 Understanding and Applying OB

Chapter 4 | Slide 28