The story is about a ski instructor named Miranda who is having several issues with her new boss, Hank because he has done and said many things over the course of the time that he has been there to show that he may be sexist. This scenario has a lot to do with perception. Perception is defined as “a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment” (Robbins & Judge, 166). This paper will discuss what perception is and how much of an impact in can have in the work place.
Miranda’s perception of her boss Hank is that he is a sexist. The initial problem that is discussed is the fact that she did not like the fact that as one of the most experienced ski instructors at the resort but she was only being assigned to teach the children instead of the adults, the same for all the other female instructors. She sees how Hank separates the men and the women instructor to have a meeting about work procedure, “After introducing himself and Harika, he took the men to one room, and Harika took the women to another,” (Cohan, Fink,Gadon, Willits & Josefowitz, 2013). That was the first thing that bothered her because she could not understand what it is that had to be said to only the male instructors that could not also be said to the female. Although this bothered her initially, she decided to find a positive side to the situation, and went along with it. The more she went along with what was going around the job place, it seemed like more and more sexist behaviors were being revealed and worst of all, being condoned by Hank. This is proven by the last situation in which Hank verbally disrespects Miranda in front of the other instructors about a situation that was probably more his fault than hers. “Why did you tell those two people that they could have a private lesson at 10 tomorrow?” (Cohen, Frank, Gadon, Willits, & Josefowitz, 2013)
The factors that influenced Miranda’s perceptions are the perceiver, the target, and last but not least the situation. The perceiver is in the object as defined by Robbins and Judge (167), and the perceiver in this scenario is Miranda. Robbins and Judge claim that the target is what is being perceived (167), and the target in this story is Hank. The situation is the context in which the perception is being made (Robbins & Judge, 167), and the situation is the possible sexism of a boss in the work place. The factor that most influenced Miranda’s perception is both the target and the situation. In this scenario, there cannot be one without the other. Miranda’s perception is being influenced by Hank’s behavior, which is being perceived as sexism, which is also the situation. “All the women instructors were being assigned to teach children, and all the men instructors were given adult students.” (Cohen, Fink, Gadon, Willits, & Josefowitz , 2013). Robbins and Judge state that the attribution theory tries to explain the ways in which we judge people differently, depending on the meaning we attribute to a given behavior. (168). This is seen in the passage where Hanika , Hank’s wife who is Japanese has to deal with clerical aspects of the school and does whatever her husband tells her to do. Hannika does not give ski lessons as well and “Miranda sees her as an archetype of Japanese women: polite and submissive.” (Cohen, Fink, Gadon, Willits &Josefowitz , 2013). Miranda based on this concluded that Hannika’s submissiveness to her husband is a cultural thing. Distinctiveness refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations. (Robbind & Judge, 168). Miranda displays different behaviors in different situations she had with her boss Hank. The first instance happens when Hank had told the scheduling people that Miranda will not be available on a given weekend but Miranda stayed optimistic. (Cohen). Miranda felt horrible when Hank yelled at her in front of her peers for accepting to give a private class to a costumer claiming that she was not supposed to. “You know you are not supposed to hustle ‘privates.” (Cohen, Fink, Gadon, Willits, & Josefowitz , 2013). Robbins and Judge claim that consensus happens if everyone who faces a similar situation responds in the same way. (168). Miranda responds the same way after was told by Nancy’s son that the people at the front desk told him that she was not working that weekend “I thought you weren’t here today; that’s what the people at the front desk told me.” (Cohen, Fink, Gadon, Willits, & Josefowitz, 2013), and another customer was told the same thing by the front desk people when she asked for Miranda the following weekend, “But the following weekend, another customer approached Miranda expressing surprise that she was on the slope because the front desk has said that she had not shown up.” (Cohen, Fink, Gadon, Willits, & Josefowit z, 2013). Miranda stayed optimistic thinking it was a mistake by her boss. Consistency is when an observer looks for consistency in a person’s actions. Does the person respond the same way overtime? (Robbins & Judge, 168). Hank is looking for consistency in his employees as he wants the female employees to teach children while the male employees teach adults. Overtime, Miranda asked a client to go to the front desk and book an appointment for private classes with her saying “Sure, why don’t you just check with the front desk and let them know what you want?” (Cohen, Fink,Gadon, Willits, & Josefowitz, 2013 ). The different errors and shortcuts that can influence someone’s perception are fundamental attribution error, self-serving bias, selective perception, halo effect, contrast effect, stereotyping, employment interview, performance evaluation, and performance expectation. (Robbins &Judge, 169-174). Attribution error is seen in the passage when Hank is mad at Miranda for asking a client to go to the front desk and schedule an appointment for private classes with her. He claims Miranda’s action will cause them to disrupt the original schedule saying “Why did you tell those two people that they could have a private lesson at 10 tomorrow? We already had you scheduled for something else. Now, we are going to have to change the whole schedule because of you.” (Cohen, Fink, Gadon, Willits, & Josefowitz , 2013). Hank is on the wrong because he has been asking the people on at the front desk to tell clients that Miranda will not be working if they requested her and she was never aware of what her schedule will be like. Miranda should have been clear with the client who wanted private lessons with her that she is not allowed to do that according to the job regulations and that she is not also allowed to give lessons to adults instead of saying “[to the parent] Excuse me. [To the couple] Sure, why don’t you just check with the front desk and let them know what you want?” (Cohen, Fink, Gadon, Willits, & Josefowitz , 2013). This will save her from getting into trouble with Hank. If she had done so, Hank will not be yelling at her in front of her peers as he did. The second thing Miranda should do is to avoid putting pressure to teach adult classes. She should give it some time and prove herself to her boss. He is aware of it which is why he switches topics whenever she wants to talk to him about it. In conclusion, Miranda is a very hard working woman who loves to teach and is ready for bigger challenges. She believes that experienced people at the job should be able to teach adults and also give private classes but her boss does not see things in the same direction. He believes women should only teach kids and men will teach adults. He is sexist and constantly changed the topic on her whenever she confronted him about this issue. Even after being yelled at by her boss, Miranda couldn’t leave because she needs the job.