...UVA-OB-0381 PREJUDICE IN ORGANIZATIONS The problems faced by women and minorities create a serious malfunction in corporate operations. Minorities and women have yet to be accepted as full members of corporate formal and informal networks. Until they are, not only do they suffer but so does the corporation. The utilization of minorities and women in many, many cases toward corporate effectiveness and efficiency continues to be seriously hampered by behaviors in crucial interpersonal relationships that reflect racist and sexist attitudes. - John Fernandez1 Although many would like to believe otherwise, prejudiced attitudes continue to present problems for millions of people in our society. Prejudices result in counter productive behavior such as demeaning humor, verbal abuse, harassment, violence, and more subtly (given comparable performance) lower pay, slower or non-existent promotions, systematic exclusion from various gatherings, greater scrutiny, higher standards, and awkward social encounters. Many groups labor with these realities in the work place: women, racial minorities, older workers, foreign nationals, sexual preference, religious and ethnic groups, and the physically handicapped all feel the sting of social prejudice. Prejudice is a problem that touches all aspects of life, but it has only recently been addressed openly in the work place. Prejudice lingers despite the fact that noticeable shifts in the composition of our work force have taken...
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...Prejudice can be described as a word which is derived from the Latin word Prae Judicium meaning ‘to try in advance’ (Clawson et al: 1990). Prejudice happens when we pre-judge individuals on first encounter about their character or appeal. Most individuals who are prejudiced are usually rigid in their prejudices and their beliefs are unsubstantiated. Prejudice can create serious tension in an organization because it has the potential to strain interpersonal relationships in a workplace. People can practice prejudices in various forms. Some of the areas of potential prejudice could be gender, race, age, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity and physical disabilities. Prejudices can be systematically dealt with in the workplace. I work for one of the United Nations (UN) agencies. The UN has noted and is mindful of potential prejudices that can exist in the workplace, especially that the workplace is made up of employees from various countries, backgrounds, ethnic groupings, varying religious beliefs (including atheists), sexual orientation, races and as an organization, The organisation has a very diverse workforce. This diversity has not been ignored. The UN has taken deliberate steps to introduce workplace policies that encourage tolerance amongst employees and in turn, tolerance in the communities in which we serve. The policies are part of the orientation package for every new employee who joins the UN. There are Executive Directives (EXDs) that are issued and reviewed...
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...1. THE BENEFITS OF SELF EVALUATION / SELF AWARENESS AS IT RELATES TO LEADERS IN TODAY’S ORGANIZATIONS The study of human behaviour is critical to the effectiveness of organizations. Organizational behaviour is “a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness” (Robins, 2001). Every established organization strives to achieve its goals and business objectives, yet at their peak are managers, leaders, who have been vested with the responsibilities to ensure that these goals and objectives are actualized. The success of these leaders therefore becomes corresponding to the success of the organizations they lead. They, however, must be self – aware. They must know that their personalities and behaviours give them impetus to achieving success while working with their people. They must be able to identify their strengths and weaknesses and channel them to directions that will make them effectively carry out their leadership functions. Runn, (2011) calls self evaluation, “self leadership” and states that it forms a critical part and foundation to a person’s leadership. According to Brodie (2011), leaders who are self aware can play to their strengths, get others to achieve equal success by utilizing their own skills, can easily adapt to changing circumstances and will think before they act. This is because when leaders...
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...extension, such a person is certainly not worthy of having as a leader. Hence self assessment is foundationally important in the life of every leader(Bonem,2015:1). The study conducted in 2010 by Green Peak Partners and Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, established that self-awareness trumps all in the leadership assessment. Consequently, self awareness is a critical trait for successful leaders(Lipman,2013:1). Self-awareness, especially for those who lead organizations, is a clear understanding of the impact they are having on the people around them. Leaders must be aware of the impact of their behavior on their direct reports, peers and supervisors. Some leaders find it difficult to comprehend the lack of commitment on the part of employees, they do not understand why colleagues cannot connect and willing to collaborate on a project. It is probably because they cannot decode the leaders behavior(Zenger,2014:1). Members of the Senior Leadership Team(SLT) of my present organization were all evaluated, using the insight discovery method and 360 degree feedback. After the evaluation, it was lucid, they almost all had the same leadership style, hence there was a need for a new "leadership-mix". This assessment gave birth to the ''Emerging Leaders Program''(ELP); and one criteria before enrolment, is that you must be assessed. Assessed for a better leadership mix. Leaders influence people. An understanding of 'self' is critical to understanding others. As...
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...Q1. Understanding human behavior is critical to organizations – discuss the benefits of self evaluation/self assessment as it relates to leaders today. Understanding human behavior is critical to managers at all levels inside any organization. Individual managers within the organization can especially benefit from conducting self-evaluations. It is essential for managers to be self -ware and understand how their own behavior and personality can give them a better perspective while working with others. Being self-aware allows one to recognize and improve their strengths and weaknesses in order to maximize their leadership potential. In Organizational Behavior, Robins & Judge (13th Edition) tell us that organizational behavior is the knowledge gained about individuals, groups and the effect of structure on behavior in order to make organizations work more effectively. A major goal for any organization should be to work more effectively and to continuously make improvements, this is summarized by the Japanese Philosophy of Kaizen. For an organization to strive to continuously improve the leadership and management must adapt and learn. There are many ways in which a manager can strive to improve and one of those is through self-evaluation. What is a self-assessment or evaluation? Daniel Goleman (2000. Page 80) tells us that an accurate self-assessment is a “realistic evaluation of your strengths and limitations”...
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...How I can reduce prejudice in the workplace Prejudice can be defined as the preconceived notion that devalues individuals due to their perceived membership of a particular social group (Abrams, 2010). It takes place when people pre-judge others on the initial encounter on their appeal or character. Ideally, prejudice is not discrimination. The former is a negative feeling about the individuals that belong to particular groups. The latter is a behavioral and mental consciousness of the differences in persons and the readiness to treat them differentially because of that consciousness. For instance, the members of ethnic or racial groups become prejudice victims when others believe that they are inferior, disinterested in working, or lazy. Individuals can prejudice others in numerous forms. Age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical disabilities, religion, race, and gender are areas of potential prejudice in a place of work. The social problems associated with prejudice according to Paluck & Green (2009) are violence, inequality, and discrimination. Prejudice can essentially generate severe tension within an organization as it is likely to strain the interpersonal relationships. In most cases, prejudicial attitudes hold individuals within organizations back and create an undetectable barrier to triumph. The employees can deal with prejudices within the workplace. If I were to work in a place where there is any prejudice, I would first of all develop an awareness of this problem...
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...Introduction Discrimination and prejudice has gradually become one of the major impacts and burdens in the workplace and all over the world. Research shows that both have existed for thousands of years and have been transmitted throughout generations. There are many phases to prejudice and discrimination and over time each has become more sophisticated. Even today, it is hard to believe that in some individuals mindsets they feel that are not prejudice nor have they ever discriminated against someone. People suffer through discrimination because they have differences amongst one another: different beliefs, different cultures, and different skin color. For this paper, I will discuss prejudice and discrimination, some characteristics of both and why individuals still suffer from prejudice and discrimination today. What is prejudice? If an individual stated that he/she didn’t like a certain color or a certain type of food would that be considered prejudice, however if the same person stated he/she didn’t like the color black because made them feel sad would that be considered a prejudice? Prejudice is an internal entity, a product of experience, an emotion felt or a belief structure. Prejudice is a set of factors that can cause an individual to develop a conclusion which favors one person to another. It could be a positive or negative judgment about someone or something based on pure feeling alone. Prejudice is a pre-judgment about someone or something based on the individual...
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...citations for all the sources you use. • What is discrimination? How is discrimination different from prejudice and stereotyping? Discrimination: the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. (Oxford Dictionaries, 2013) In my opinion, discrimination, stereotyping and prejudice are very similar; they often overlap and can easily be mistaken for one another. Prejudice is defined as preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience (Oxford Dictionaries, 2013) or a preconceived judgment or opinion, an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge, an instance of such judgment or opinion, an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics. (Merriam-Webster, 2013). Stereotyping is defined as a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. (Oxford Dictionaries, 2013) I would say they differ because both Prejudice and Stereotyping are opinions or ideas based on unjust opinions, ideas or unreliable generalizations about a person or group whereas Discrimination is when a person or group uses prejudice or stereotypes in taking action by denying equal rights and opportunities to these individuals and groups. So, in short prejudice and stereotypes are negative attitudes, opinions and ideas and discrimination would be to take these...
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...Stereotypes are not only harmful in their own right; they do damage by fostering prejudice and discrimination. After all, if encyclopedia readers are led to believe that Black people have intellectual limitations, why spend time and money educating Black children? As used here, "discrimination" involves putting group members at a disadvantage or treating them unfairly as a result of their group membership. More specifically, "personal discrimination" refers to acts of discrimination committed by individuals (e.g., a manager who refuses to hire Jewish employees), whereas "institutional discrimination" refers to discriminatory policies or practices carried out by organizations and other institutions (e.g., an anti-Semitic immigration policy). Prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination often go hand-in-hand, but it is also possible to have one without the others. When an ethnic group is stereotyped with a neutral or positive attribute such as "family-oriented," prejudice and discrimination may not be involved. Similarly, a generalized prejudice against "foreigners" or "amputees" may not include specific stereotypes or acts of discrimination. There are even times when discrimination takes place without prejudice or stereotyping, either intentionally or unintentionally. For an illustration of how this can occur, consider the following hypothetical problem: Suppose your school or organization is accused of sex discrimination because the overall percentage of female job candidates...
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...vvvallow the employer to discover hidden prejudices and related harmful experiences in the work environment. These discoveries give the employer an opportunity to address risks that could lead to harassment or discrimination lawsuits. The information gathered will also be helpful in understanding the needs of the employees including issues revolving around training, support, employee turnover, and opportunities for advancement. In addition, a diversity audit also looks at the range of clientele and if their public image is limited to particular racial or cultural backgrounds. Audits of this nature vary widely depending on how in depth the organization is willing to investigate. Read more: http://www.ehow.com/info_8774039_diversity-audit.html#ixzz2ffHNX74Lallow the employer to discover hidden prejudices and related harmful experiences in the work environment. These discoveries give the employer an opportunity to address risks that could lead to harassment or discrimination lawsuits. The information gathered will also be helpful in understanding the needs of the employees including issues revolving around training, support, employee turnover, and opportunities for advancement. In addition, a diversity audit also looks at the range of clientele and if their public image is limited to particular racial or cultural backgrounds. Audits of this nature vary widely depending on how in depth the organization is willing to investigate. Read more: http://www.ehow.com/info_8774039_diversity-audit...
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...Kennedy highly supported them and almost reduces the ninety percent of the prejudice between white and colored American. But later different government rehabilitates the previous status of being bias in the country, whereas George W. Bush also supported formally not proper thoughts and was supported for their mission. In Barack Obama's administration, the mission and objective of the NAACP was almost achieved, due to the members and Barack Obama in the same organization. After achieving the president ship in the United States of a colored america, all the previous bias and prejudice almost ended. This organization usually conduct the campaign which eliminate the biased for colored American and in case of any discrepancy reported, with African American, specially on the bases of prejudice so the Association protest the government of the United States to create the unbiased environment for the colored American. However, they usually protest for the civil rights of the African American, and time to time arrange the rallies and campaigns to show the quantity of the African American which ultimately shows the power of them as well. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a non profitable organization and associative body which protests for the African American Civil Rights. The organization formed in 1909 in United States of America. Its mission is to eliminate the biased and prejudice environment for the African American and to provide the equal distribution...
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...Work-Related Attitudes: Prejudice, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment 1. Define attitudes and work-related attitudes, and describe the basic components of attitudes. Attitudes are the stable clusters of feelings, beliefs, and behavioral tendencies directed toward some aspect of the external world. Work-related attitudes involve such reactions toward various aspects of work settings or the people in them. All attitudes consist of a cognitive component (what you believe), an evaluative component (how you feel), and a behavioral component the tendency to behave a certain way). Attitudes: Relatively stable clusters of feelings, beliefs, and behavioral intentions toward a specific object, person, or institution. Work-Related Attitudes: Attitudes relating to any aspect of work or work settings. Evaluative Component: Our liking or disliking of any particular person, item, or event. Cognitive Component: The things we believe about an attitude object, whether they are true or false. Behavioral Component: Our predisposition to behave in a way consistent with our beliefs and feelings about an attitude object. 2. Distinguish between prejudice and discrimination, and identify various victims of prejudice in organizations. Prejudice refers to negative attitudes toward members of specific groups, and discrimination refers to treating people differently because of their prejudices. Today’s workforce is characterized by high levels of diversity, with many groups...
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...To the leader(s) and representatives of the Islamic Center of Bergen County, Hello! Our names are Courtney Ford and Brenna Peterson. We are both currently freshmen at Mahwah High School, and are writing this letter on behalf of our 9th grade Honors English class, in the hopes that you may be able to contribute to our unit on the themes of prejudice and discrimination and its presence in our society, from the past to the present day. In class, we are in the midst of discussing the aforementioned themes as a prelude to reading Elie Wiesel’s Night, in an effort to understand the effects prejudice and discrimination against a minority can have in local communities and in society as a whole. As such, we and our fellow classmates have been contacting...
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...behavior is particularly prejudice. The person may be aware of that he is bias. Social prejudices are a social problem, because a group is looking at another individual or group as the group feels that they are superior to others. The social interaction among some groups might have to create common biases. Social biases may be very harmful and can interfere with human interaction (Fiske, 2010). Define the concepts of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination Prejudice means feeling or having attitude towards members of a group, established solely on the basis of membership in this group. Stereotypes dealt with generalizations regarding others that usually cause display of others group predictable and typical characteristics. Discrimination means an act of a group or person against another group or person who is the prejudice subject. Stereotypes put people into groups having similar attributes or characteristics. Stereotypes have the ability to distort the perspective of a person. As soon as a stereotype becomes active, the features belong to the group, either positive or negative, they are easy to remember. Stereotypes can influence social judgments on how much a person loves another, and this behavior is normal. There was a time when because of the stereotyping group or person will become self-fulfilling. Prejudice, as an attitude and can work a plan to collect information regarding other group members. The information which is compatible with the prejudices is usually more careful...
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...THE IMPACT OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY ON ORGANIZATIONS A Research Paper Presented To The Research Department Air Command and Staff College In Partial Fulfillment of the Graduation Requirements of ACSC by Maj Molly K. Moon March 1997 Disclaimer The views expressed in this academic research paper are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the official policy or position of the US government or the Department of Defense. ii Contents Page DISCLAIMER ................................................................................................................ ii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.......................................................................................... iv PREFACE....................................................................................................................... v ABSTRACT................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 FROM GRUDGING ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO MANAGING DIVERSITY .............. 3 IMPACT OF DIVERSITY ON INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS.................... 9 Diversity Climate Factors.......................................................................................... 12 Identity Structures................................................................................................ 12 Prejudice and Discrimination .................
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