Role of Stereotypes in Workplace and Organisational Behaviour Solutions

Running head: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 0
Organisational Behaviour
Stereotypes

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 1
ROLE OF STEREOTYPES IN WORKPLACE
With the growing popularity of globalisation and digitalisation, companies are able to expand
their operations overseas which require them to deal with people from different culture, race,
background and religion. It is important that corporations implement policies for human
resource management (HRM) to maintain a positive working environment and motivate
employees. According to Alfes et al. (2013), a positive relationship between management and
employees is crucial since it promotes upward communications and it enables management to
motivate employees for improving their performance. In order to avoid offending an
employee or creating a positive bonding, managers rely on stereotypes while interacting with
employees. A stereotype is described as a general image or set of attributes regarding a group
or person that a significant number of people believe to be true (Von Hippel, Sekaquaptewa
and McFarlance, 2015). It represents a thought or belief that is widely accepted by a large
number of people about an entire group or specifies type of individuals’ behaviour or
characteristics. In multinational organisations, it is common for top-level executives to rely
on stereotypes while dealing with employees from different culture, race or background in
order to avoid any incident that might offend their beliefs. However, excessive reliance on
stereotypes can negatively affect an organisation because each individual is different from
another and categorising them into a group might offend their feeling (Malos, 2015). This
essay will argue the role of stereotypes in companies and analyse how management use them
while dealing with employees. This essay will evaluate the significance of stereotypes by
critically analysing its advantages and disadvantages. Further, organisational behaviour
theories will be discussed in the report for proving recommendations for organisations.
ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
Organisational behaviour is a study of individuals in an organisational setting which assists
management in creating more efficient business operations and positive relations between
management and employees (Fisher and To, 2012). Organisational behaviour theories focus
on establishing a supportive and motivating culture in the organisation, and stereotyping can
either positively or negatively affect the company’s culture. While performing different
human resource activities, managers rely on stereotypes for filing incomplete information and
creating positive relations with employees. For example, during recruitment and selection
process, HR managers might be influenced by ‘selective perception’ based on stereotypes.

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 2
Selective perception is referred to a process through which people perceive what they want to
perceive in media messages (Ray, 2015). Individuals selectively interpret based on the basis
of their interest, experience, attitudes, and background. Similarly, during an interview, HR
managers can perceive a job applicant based on their previous experience with another person
from the same religion, caste, race or background, and they can create a negative impression
about the job candidate because the person belongs to a specific group. This is stereotyping,
and it contradicts human rights legislation. However, it is human nature tendency to gather
people into groups based on general impressions (Cheung and Wu, 2014). Similarly,
managers might promote one employee over another based on their previous experience with
specific religious group. For example, it is a common stereotype that Germans are efficient
and methodical and Jews are ambitious. However, every person is different from another, and
each individual has different set of characteristics which differentiate them from another.
Therefore, taking organisational decisions based on stereotypes can negatively affect a
company’s operations and working environment.
IMPACT OF STEREOTYPING
There are both positive and negative implications of using stereotypes in a corporation.
Stereotypes usually occur when managers judge a person based on the group to which the
employee belongs to. Especially, at the workplace, sometimes, managers have to assume a
person thinking or behaviour in order to interact effectively. It is difficult for executives to
learn about every employee, and during the interaction, they can make any joke or statement
that might offend the person (Czopp, Kay and Cheryan, 2015). However, managers can rely
on stereotypes as they are to avoid this situation and it can result in establishing a positive
working environment in the firm. For example, if a manager is meeting a new client or an
employee from another culture for the first time, then usually the first thing that he/she do is
to gather information about the person’s culture. As per Finkelstein, King and Voyles (2015),
this information is often highly generalised and based on such information, the manager
makes assumptions about a person’s character and beliefs. Due to prior knowledge regarding
a person’s culture, the manager can ensure that he/she did not offend them by taking any
action that might be considered as offensive in the employee’s culture (Berdahl and Min,
2012). For example, being late in meetings is considered as rude and insulting in Germany.
Therefore, while meeting with a German employee, the manager can avoid being late in the
meeting which creates a positive relationship between them. Similarly, while interacting with