This document discusses stereotypes and how they can negatively impact perceptions in employment. It begins by defining a stereotype as a set of beliefs about characteristics of a group. It then examines different types of common stereotypes including sex-role stereotypes, age stereotypes, racial and ethnic stereotypes, and disability stereotypes. The document also discusses how stereotypes are formed through a four step process of categorization, inference of traits, formation of expectations, and maintenance of stereotypes. It provides examples of research showing how these various stereotypes can influence hiring decisions, performance evaluations, and career advancement.

1. Stereotypes: Perceptions about Groups of People
TO THE POINT
How can managers use knowledge of stereotypes and stereotype
formation to more effectively reduce problems associated with
sex role, age, racial, and disability stereotypes?
LO.3
While it is often true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder,
perception does result in some predictable outcomes. Managers
aware of the perception process and its outcomes enjoy a
competitive edge. The Walt Disney Company, for instance,
takes full advantage of perceptual tendencies to influence
customers' reactions to waiting in long lines at its theme parks:
Example. In Orlando, at Disney-MGM Studios, visitors waiting
to get into a Muppet attraction watch tapes of Kermit the Frog
on TV monitors. At the Magic Kingdom, visitors to the Extra
Terrestrial Alien Encounter attraction are entertained by a
talking robot before the show. At some rides, the company uses
simple toys, like blocks, to help parents keep small children
busy and happy during the wait.20
This example illustrates how the focus of one's attention
influences the perception of standing in long lines.
Likewise, managers can use knowledge of perceptual outcomes
to help them interact more effectively with employees. For
example, Table 7–2 describes five common perceptual errors.
Since these perceptual errors often distort the evaluation of job
applicants and of employee performance, managers need to
guard against them. This section examines one of the most
important and potentially harmful perceptual outcomes
associated with person perception: stereotypes. After exploring
the process of stereotype formation and maintenance, we
discuss sex-role stereotypes, age stereotypes, race stereotypes,
disability stereotypes, and the managerial challenge to avoid
stereotypical biases.
table 7–2

2. Commonly Found Perceptual Errors
PERCEPTUAL ERROR
DESCRIPTION
EXAMPLE
RECOMMENDED SOLUTION
Halo
A rater forms an overall impression about an object and then
uses that impression to bias ratings about the object.
Rating a professor high on the teaching dimensions of ability to
motivate students, knowledge, and communication because we
like him or her.
Remember that an employee's behavior tends to vary across
different dimensions of performance. Keep a file or diary to
record examples of positive and negative employee performance
throughout the year.
Leniency
A personal characteristic that leads an individual to consistently
evaluate other people or objects in an extremely positive
fashion.
Rating a professor high on all dimensions of performance
regardless of his or her actual performance. The rater that hates
to say negative things about others.
It does not help employees when they are given positive
feedback that is inaccurate. Try to be fair and realistic when
evaluating others.
Central tendency
The tendency to avoid all extreme judgments and rate people
and objects as average or neutral.
Rating a professor average on all dimensions of performance
regardless of his or her actual performance.
It is normal to provide feedback that contains both positive and
negative information. The use of a performance diary can help
to remember examples of employee performance.
Recency effects
The tendency to remember recent information. If the recent
information is negative, the person or object is evaluated

3. negatively.
Although a professor has given good lectures for 12 to 15
weeks, he or she is evaluated negatively because lectures over
the last 3 weeks were done poorly.
It is critical to accumulate examples of performance that span
the entire rating period. Keep a file or diary to record examples
of performance throughout the year.
Contrast effects
The tendency to evaluate people or objects by comparing them
with characteristics of recently observed people or objects.
Rating a good professor as average because you compared his or
her performance with three of the best professors you have ever
had in college. You are currently taking courses from the three
excellent professors.
It is important to evaluate employees against a standard rather
than your memory of the best or worst person in a particular
job.
Stereotype Formation and Maintenance
“A stereotype is an individual's set of beliefs about the
characteristics or attributes of a group.”21 Stereotypes are not
always negative. For example, the belief that engineers are good
at math is certainly part of a stereotype. Stereotypes may or
may not be accurate. Engineers may in fact be better at math
than the general population. In general, stereotypic
characteristics are used to differentiate a particular group of
people from other groups.22
It is important to remember that stereotypes are a fundamental
component of the perception process and we use them to help
process the large amount of information that bombards us daily.
As such, it is not immoral or bad to possess stereotypes. That
said, however, inappropriate use of stereotypes can lead to poor
decisions; can create barriers for women, older individuals,
people of color, and people with disabilities; and can undermine
loyalty and job satisfaction.
Stereotyping is a four-step process. It begins by categorizing
people into groups according to various criteria, such as gender,

4. age, race, and occupation. Next, we infer that all people within
a particular category possess the same traits or characteristics
(e.g., all women are nurturing, older people have more job-
related accidents, all African Americans are good athletes, all
professors are absentminded). Then, we form expectations of
others and interpret their behavior according to our stereotypes.
Finally, stereotypes are maintained by (1) overestimating the
frequency of stereotypic behaviors exhibited by others, (2)
incorrectly explaining expected and unexpected behaviors, and
(3) differentiating minority individuals from oneself.23 It is
hard to stop people from using stereotypes because these four
steps are self-reinforcing. The good news, however, is that
researchers have identified a few ways to break the chain of
stereotyping.
Page 189
Research shows that the use of stereotypes is influenced by the
amount and type of information available to an individual and
his or her motivation to accurately process information.24
People are less apt to use stereotypes to judge others when they
encounter salient information that is highly inconsistent with a
stereotype. For instance, you are unlikely to assign stereotypic
“professor” traits to a new professor you have this semester if
he or she rides a Harley-Davidson, wears leather pants to class,
and has a pierced nose. People also are less likely to rely on
stereotypes when they are motivated to avoid using them. That
is, accurate information processing requires mental effort.
Stereotyping is generally viewed as a less effortful strategy of
information processing. Let us now take a look at different
types of stereotypes and consider additional methods for
reducing their biasing effects.
Go to www.mcgrawhillconnect.com for an interactive exercise
to test your knowledge of the commonly found perceptual
errors.
Page 190
Sex-Role Stereotypes
LO.4

5. A sex-role stereotype is the belief that differing traits and
abilities make men and women particularly well suited to
different roles. These stereotypes have been found to influence
our perceptions of women as leaders. A recent summary of this
research, for example, revealed that (1) people often prefer male
bosses, (2) women have a harder time being perceived as an
effective leader (e.g., women were seen as more effective than
men only when the organization faced a crisis and turnaround),
and (3) women of color are more negatively affected by sex-role
stereotypes than white women or men in general.25 Researchers
believe that sex-role stereotypes are related to gender-based
expectations that people use without any conscious awareness.
The key question, however, is whether or not these stereotypes
influence the hiring, evaluation, and promotion of people at
work.
A meta-analysis of 19 studies found no significant relationships
between applicant gender and hiring recommendations.26 A
second meta-analysis involving 24 experimental studies
revealed that men and women received similar performance
ratings for the same level of task performance. Stated
differently, there was no pro-male bias. These experimental
results were further supported in a field study of female and
male professors.27 Unfortunately, results pertaining to
promotion decisions are not as promising. A field study of 682
employees in a multinational Fortune 500 company
demonstrated that gender was significantly related to promotion
potential ratings. Men received more favorable evaluations than
women in spite of controlling for age, education, organizational
tenure, salary grade, and type of job.28 Biases against women
also were found to be more prevalent when they worked in
nontraditional jobs.29
Go to www.mcgrawhillconnect.com for a video case on Todd
McFarlane.
Age Stereotypes
Age stereotypes reinforce age discrimination because of their
negative orientation. For example, long-standing age

6. stereotypes depict older workers as less satisfied, not as
involved with their work, less motivated, not as committed, less
productive than their younger co-workers, and more apt to be
absent from work. Older employees are also perceived as being
more accident prone. As with sex-role stereotypes, these age
stereotypes are based more on fiction than fact.30
OB researcher Susan Rhodes sought to determine whether age
stereotypes were supported by data from 185 different studies.
She discovered that as age increases so does employees' job
satisfaction, job involvement, internal work motivation, and
organizational commitment. Moreover, older workers were not
more accident prone.31 With respect to performance, a meta-
analysis involving over 52,000 people showed that age was
unrelated to task performance, creativity, and performance in
training workshops.32 Some OB researchers, however, believe
that this finding does not reflect the true relationship between
age and performance. For example, one study of 24,210 people
demonstrated that age and experience predicted performance
better for complex jobs than other types of jobs.33 Another
study of 1,000 doctors, ages 25 to 92, and 600 other adults
revealed “that a large proportion of older individuals scored as
well or better on aptitude tests as those in the prime of life.”34
What about turnover and absenteeism? One meta-analysis
showed that age and turnover were negatively related.35 That
is, older employees quit less often than did younger employees.
Similarly, a second meta-analysis indicated that age was
inversely related to both voluntary (a day at the beach) and
involuntary (sick day) absenteeism.36 Results from these two
meta-analyses suggest managers should focus more attention on
the turnover and absenteeism among younger workers than
among older workers.
Page 191
Racial and Ethnic Stereotypes
Many different racial and ethnic stereotypes exist. For instance,
African Americans have been viewed as athletic, aggressive,
and angry; Asians, as quiet, introverted, smarter, and more

7. quantitatively oriented; Hispanics, as family oriented and
religious; and Arabs, as angry. Racial and ethnic stereotypes are
particularly problematic because they are automatically
triggered and lead to what researchers call micro
aggressions.Micro aggressions represent “biased thoughts,
attitudes, and feelings” that exist at an unconscious level.37
Unfortunately, they can affect our behavior and negatively
affect people of color. Consider the following scenario:
Example. Two colleagues—one Asian American, the other
African American—board a small plane. A flight attendant tells
them they can sit anywhere, so they choose seats near the front
of the plane and across the aisle from each other so they can
talk. At the last minute, three white men enter the plane and
take the seats in front of them. Just before takeoff, the flight
attendant, who is white, asks the two colleagues if they would
mind moving to the back of the plane to better balance the
plane's load. Both react with anger, sharing the same sense that
they are being singled out to symbolically “sit at the back of the
bus.” When they express these feelings to the attendant, she
indignantly denies the charge, saying she was merely trying to
ensure the flight's safety and give the two some privacy.38
What do you think, was the flight attendant exhibiting a micro
aggression or were the colleagues being too sensitive?
Negative racial and ethnic stereotypes are still apparent in many
aspects of life and in many organizations.39 Consider the
experience of Eldrick (Tiger) Woods. Tiger was raised in two
different cultures. His mother was from Thailand and his father
was African American. Since becoming a professional golfer in
1996, Tiger has won 95 tournaments and has more career
victories than any other active player on the PGA Tour. He also
has the lowest career scoring average and greatest amount of
career earnings than any other golfer in the history of the game.
He also is the only golfer in history to hold the title for all four
major tournaments at the same time.40 Unfortunately, Tiger has
experienced a host of racial stereotypes and biases (see Real
World/Real People on page 192). Let us now consider the

8. following evidence regarding racial and ethnic stereotypes in
organizations.
A meta-analysis of interview decisions involving samples of
4,169 African Americans and 6,307 whites revealed that whites
received higher interviewer evaluations. Another study of 2,805
interviews uncovered a same-race bias for Hispanics and
African Americans but not for whites. That is, Hispanics and
African American interviewers evaluated applicants of their
own race more favorably than applicants of other races. White
interviewers did not exhibit any such bias.41
Page 192
real WORLD // real PEOPLE
Tiger Woods's Experiences with Racial Bias
“I became aware of my racial identity on my first day of school,
on my first day of kindergarten. A group of sixth graders tied
me to a tree, spray-painted the word ‘nigger' on me, and threw
rocks at me. That was my first day at school. And the teacher
really didn't do much of anything. I used to live across the
street from school and kind of down the way a little bit. The
teacher said, ‘Okay, just go home.' So I had to outrun all these
kids going home, which I was able to do. It was certainly an
eye-opening experience, you know, being five years old. We
were the only minority family in all of Cypress, California.
“When my parents moved in, before I was born, they used to
have these oranges come through the window all the time. And
it could have not been racially initiated or it could have been.
We don't know. But it was very interesting, though people don't
necessarily know it, that I grew up in the 1980s and still had
incidents. I had a racial incident even in the 1990s at my home
course where I grew up, the Navy golf course. And right before
the 1994 US Amateur, I was 18 years old, I was out practicing,
just hitting pitch shots and some guy just yelled over the fence
and used the N word numerous times at me. That's in 1994.”
Despite his international acclaim and reputation, Tiger Woods
battled racial stereotypes into the mid-1990s. What can be done
to stop the spread of racism and racial stereotypes?

9. SOURCE: C Barkley, Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man?
(New York: Penguin Press, 2005), p 7.
Performance ratings were found to be unbiased in two studies
that used large samples of 21,547 and 39,537 rater–ratee pairs
of African American and white employees, respectively, from
throughout the United States. These findings revealed that
African American and white managers did not differentially
evaluate their employees based on race.42
Given the increasing number of people of color who will enter
the workforce over the next 10 years (recall our discussion in
Chapter 2), employers should focus on nurturing and developing
women and people of color as well as increasing managers'
sensitivities to invalid racial stereotypes and what is called
stereotype threat.Stereotype threat “refers to the ‘predicament'
in which members of a social group (e.g., African Americans,
women) ‘must deal with the possibility of being judged or
treated stereotypically, or of doing something that would
confirm the stereotype.' ”43 Research has documented that
stereotype threat was associated with lower performance on
evaluative tasks for women and nonwhites. For example,
African Americans and women performed worse on academic
tests when something primed them to think about race or
gender. The drop in performance was higher when people
experienced a race/ethnicity-based stereotype.44 These results
suggest that it is important for teachers and managers to avoid
activating any race/ethnicity or gender stereotypes (e.g., asking
people about their race or gender) when people are taking
evaluative tests such as an academic test, an employment test,
or a graduate school admissions test.
Page 193
Disability Stereotypes
People with disabilities not only face negative stereotypes that
affect their employability, but they also can be stigmatized by
the general population. These trends create a host of problems

10. for people with disabilities. For example, people with
disabilities are more likely to be unemployed—the
unemployment rate in December 2010 was 15.6% for people
with disabilities and 9.4% for those without disabilities—and to
make less money than those without disabilities.45 People with
disabilities also were found to be two-and-a half times as likely
to live in poverty as people without disabilities.46 The problem
is even more pronounced for people with serious mental illness.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was created in 1990
in response to these statistics. This act prohibits discrimination
against qualified employees with physical or mental disabilities
or chronic illness and requires “reasonable accommodation” of
employees with disabilities.47
Managerial Challenges and Recommendations
The key managerial challenge is to reduce the extent to which
stereotypes influence decision making and interpersonal
processes throughout the organization.
We recommend that an organization first needs to inform its
workforce about the problem of stereotyping through employee
education and training. Training also can be used to equip
managers with the skills needed to handle situations associated
with managing employees with disabilities. The next step
entails engaging in a broad effort to reduce stereotypes
throughout the organization. Social scientists believe that
“quality” interpersonal contact among mixed groups is the best
way to reduce stereotypes because it provides people with more
accurate data about the characteristics of other groups of
people. As such, organizations should create opportunities for
diverse employees to meet and work together in cooperative
groups of equal status.
Another recommendation is for managers to identify valid
individual differences (discussed in Chapter 5) that differentiate
between successful and unsuccessful performers. As previously
discussed, for instance, research reveals experience is a better
predictor of performance than age. Research also shows that
managers can be trained to use these valid criteria when hiring

11. applicants and evaluating employee performance.48
Removing promotional barriers for men and women, people of
color, and persons with disabilities is another viable solution to
alleviating the stereotyping problem. Home Depot's
participation in the “Ken's Kids” program is a good example of
how companies can assist people with disabilities to obtain
meaningful work. The Ken's Kids program helps disabled
individuals find work by providing vocational training and job
placement services (see Real World/Real People on page 194).
Home Depot personnel believe that the program is a success.49
In conclusion, it is important to obtain top management's
commitment and support to eliminate the organizational
practices that support or reinforce stereotyping and
discriminatory decisions. Research clearly demonstrates that top
management support is essential to successful implementation
of the types of organizational changes being recommended.
Page 194
real WORLD // real PEOPLE
Home Depot Participates in the Ken's Kids Program in Attempt
to Hire People with Disabilities
Ken's Kids carefully assess potential trainees using a five-step
selection process—application, interview, observation, store
assessment, and parent interview—explains Deborah Callaghan,
the Pennsylvania state coordinator. She oversees 45 Home
Depot associates with disabilities.…
Coaches “work side by side with trainees for three months in
stores, reviewing tasks and things like product knowledge,”
explains Callaghan…. “Store managers receive sensitivity
training as well.”
Home Depot's district manager Debbie Kiedeisch commented on
key aspects of the program's success. “You must have the
support and buy-in from store management and store
associates.” Ken's Kids works to build that support by meeting
with managers. The Home Depot's district managers conduct
orientation and training so store managers can uphold company
policies and explain procedures to new associates. Another

12. reason the program is viable, she adds, is the level of support
workers get from their coaches along the way.
Why wouldn't all companies endorse a program like Ken's Kids?
SOURCE: Excerpted from D M Owens, “Hiring Employees with
Autism,” HR Magazine, June 2010, pp 84–90.
Maurice Baynard is a participant in the Ken's Kids program.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Pygmalion Effect
TO THE POINT
What is the self-fulfilling prophecy, and how can managers use
it to bolster individual and organizational productivity?
LO.5
Historical roots of the self-fulfilling prophecy are found in
Greek mythology. According to mythology, Pygmalion was a
sculptor who hated women yet fell in love with an ivory statue
he carved of a beautiful woman. He became so infatuated with
the statue that he prayed to the goddess Aphrodite to bring her
to life. The goddess heard his prayer, granted his wish, and
Pygmalion's statue came to life. The essence of the self-
fulfilling prophecy, or Pygmalion effect, is that someone's high
expectations for another person result in high performance for
that person. A related self-fulfilling prophecy effect is referred
to as the Galatea effect. The Galatea effect occurs when an
individual's high self-expectations for him- or herself lead to
high performance. The key process underlying both the
Pygmalion and Galatea effects is the idea that people's
expectations or beliefs determine their behavior and
performance, thus serving to make their expectations come true.
In other words, we strive to validate our perceptions of reality,
no matter how faulty they may be. Thus, the self-fulfilling
prophecy is an important perceptual outcome we need to better
understand.
Research and an Explanatory Model

13. The self-fulfilling prophecy was first demonstrated in an
academic environment. After giving a bogus test of academic
potential to students from grades 1 to 6, researchers informed
teachers that certain students had high potential for
achievement. In reality, students were randomly assigned to the
“high potential” and “control” (normal potential) groups.
Results showed that children designated as having high
potential obtained significantly greater increases in both IQ
scores and reading ability than did the control students.50 The
teachers of the supposedly high potential group got better
results because their high expectations caused them to give
harder assignments, more feedback, and more recognition of
achievement. Students in the normal potential group did not
excel because their teachers did not expect outstanding results.
Page 195
Research similarly has shown that by raising instructors' and
managers' expectations for individuals performing a wide
variety of tasks, higher levels of achievement/productivity can
be obtained. Results from a meta-analysis involving 2,874
people working in a variety of industries and occupations
demonstrated the Pygmalion effect was quite strong.51 This
finding implies that higher levels of achievement and
productivity can be obtained by raising managers' performance
expectations of their employees. Further, the performance-
enhancing Pygmalion effect was stronger in the military, with
men, and for people possessing low performance expectations.
Extending these results, a recent study confirmed that female
leaders can produce the Pygmalion effect on male
subordinates.52 This is an important finding in light of the
increasing number of women in managerial roles (recall our
discussion in Chapter 2).
Figure 7–2 presents a model that integrates the self-fulfilling
prophecy, the Galatea effect, and self-efficacy, which was
discussed in Chapter 5. The model shows that the self-fulfilling
process begins with a manager's expectations for his or her
direct reports. In turn, these expectations influence the type of

14. leadership used by a leader (linkage 1). Positive expectations
beget positive and supportive leadership, which subsequently
leads employees to develop higher self-expectations (linkage 2).
The positive Galatea effect created by these higher expectations
then motivates employees to exert more effort (linkage 3),
ultimately increasing performance (linkage 4) and supervisory
expectations (linkage 5). Successful performance also improves
an employee's self-efficacy, which then fuels additional self-
expectations of success (linkage 6). Research provides support
for this model.53 Researchers coined the term Golem effect to
represent the negative side of the performance-enhancing
process depicted in Figure 7–2. The Golem effect is a loss in
performance resulting from low leader expectations.54 Let us
consider how it works.
Figure 7–2
A Model of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
SOURCE: From D Eden, “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy as a
Management Tool: Harnessing Pygmalion,” Academy of
Management Review, January 1984, p 67. Copyright © 1984 by
The Academy of Management. Reproduced by permission of
The Academy of Management via Copyright Clearance Center.
SOURCE: NON-SEQUITUR © Wiley Miller. Dist. by Universal
Press Syndicate. Reprinted with permission. All
Abdullah Alshetwi
PAGE
2
JOURNAL ENTRY #2
Journal Entry #2
Self-Fulfilling prophecy in organizational behavior

15. In Self-fulfilling prophecy there are two types the Pygmalion
effect and the Galatea effect both of which are drawn from the
Greek mythology. Pygmalion Effect is drawn from a Greek
sculptor Pygmalion and it asserts that if one has high
expectations for another person it result to high performance for
that person. On the other hand the Galatea effect states that if a
person has high expectations for himself or herself it leads to
high performance (Kreitner and Kinicki, 2012). This paper gives
an illustration of Pygmalion effect through a story
demonstrating the use of the concept.
As a new student in a new school I decided to join a
team since I did not have many friends and I was looking to
make some friends from the team. I was good but I was not at
the level of my colleagues since they had been training hard for
the championships. I tried out and I was selected for the team to
represent our school because I had just enrolled. I did not
feature in the first three games but when three of our players
were injured the coach put me in the squad as a substitute. The
first game I entered for the final minutes and although I made
no calamitous mistakes I did not add any meaningful aspect to
the game. On our fifth game however, our captain had suffered
an injury as we were warming and I was the only option to fill
up his shoes from the bench. The captain was awesome and the
best player in the team but the team and the coach had so much
belief in me and it was time for me to prove to them and the
opponents how good I was. I played fantastically well and was
given the most valuable player award as our team progressed. It
was the team’s belief in me that spurred me to produce a great
performance even though I lacked the experience.