MGMT 3720
Assignment #2 This is a case about an experienced ski instructor named Miranda. She seems to have developed a perception of her new boss is that he might be sexist. She feels that he might be overlooking more qualified female instructors for men. Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. (Robbins & Judge, 2013) I will be discussing Miranda’s perception of her boss and the factors that have influenced her judgment. I will talk about the way she sees her boss Hank and if there might be any errors in her judgment. Finally I will discuss what I believe this young ski instructor should do. Miranda’s perception of the situation is that her boss Hank does not treat the men and women fairly at the ski resort. Miranda might be correct as all the men instructors were assigned to adults while the women taught all the children The men instructor’s would report to Hank and the women to Hank’s Japanese wife Harika, 10 years his junior, and unable to speak English with confidence. (Cohen, Fink, Gadon, Wilits,, & Josefowitz, 2013) The only supervisor’s for the ski lodge would be men and all assignments would be handled through the front desk and that no instructors were to schedule own classes. The changing room for the instructors’ turned into a men’s locker room where inappropriate conversation became the norm and included Hank, Miranda’s boss. Hank had even begun to comment on how Miranda looked. A number of factors operate to shape and sometimes distort perception. These factors can reside in the perceiver; in the object, or target, being perceived: or in the context of the situation in which the perception is made. (Robbins & Judge, 2013) The perceiver in this case would be attitude, the situation is the work setting, and the target is the sounds. Miranda believes that Hank seems to have a borderline misogynist view towards women. When Hank took over as the new director he brought with him only male instructors and only has men as supervisors. Miranda sees Hank’s wife Harika as an archetype of Japanese women: polite and submissive. (Cohen, Fink, Gadon, Wilits,, & Josefowitz, 2013) Many of the men that Hank has put in charge of teaching the adults are first-year instructors. At the start of the ski season meeting Harika said that Hank wanted them to develop good rapport with the customers, especially the children who needed mothering as much as instructions. (Cohen, Fink, Gadon, Wilits,, & Josefowitz, 2013) The locker room banter about how the women looked at the resort would often include Hank joining in. Hank had even begun to compliment Miranda’s looks. Attribution theory tries to explain the ways in which we judge people differently, depending on the meaning we attribute to a given behavior. (Robbins & Judge, 2013) Distinctiveness refers to whether an individual displays different behavior in different situations. What we want to know is whether the behavior is unusual. If it is, we are likely to give it an external attribution. If it is not, we will probably judge the behavior to be internal. (Robbins & Judge, 2013)Harika told the women they were not to date other instructors as Hank thought it would interfere with work. While on a chairlift with Hank, he told Miranda that she should start dating one of the other instructors. This type of distinctiveness would be external. Consensus is an opinion or position reached by a group as a whole. From an attribution perspective, if consensus is high, you would probably give an external attribution. From an attribution perspective, if consensus is low, you would probably give an internal attribution. (The Free Dictionary, 2013) When Miranda spoke to Susan about the females only teaching children she said she had not felt the same way but could understand her point of view. This type of consensus would be an internal attribution. Consistency is the agreement or accordance with facts, form, or characteristics previously shown or stated. (The Free Dictionary, 2013) The more consistent the behavior, the more we are inclined to attribute it to internal causes. (Robbins & Judge, 2013) When a behavior is erratic it would be considered external. Hank has the females only teaching children, talks about the female clients, and has a wife who in Miranda’s view is submissive. All of these consistent attributes would seem to attribute to an internal cause. There are common biases and errors that we make in our decision making every day. The following list those biases and errors, overconfidence bias, anchoring bias, confirmation bias, availability bias, escalation of commitment, randomness error, risk aversion, hindsight bias, and application: financial decision making. We also can use shortcuts when judging others. Some of the common shortcuts are selective perception, halo effect, contrast effects, and stereotyping. There are also specific applications of shortcuts in organizations. These can take place during the employment interview, performance expectations, and the performance evaluation. The halo effect is in play because Miranda’s general impression of Hank is that he is sexist in the way he treats women. She is using the contrast effect by comparing Hank to her former employer. After the locker room incident when Hank joined in on the bashing of female clients Miranda has probably begun to stereotype him. Miranda’s anchoring bias of Hank’s misogynist view began when Hank arrived and only had the men as adult instructors. Her confirmation bias might have come when Hank got upset when Miranda told a couple she would give them a private lesson instead of having them go through the front desk as she had been instructed to. The availability bias was around Miranda as she was in the private room when Hank would make comments about the female clients. Her hindsight bias came after her chairlift conversation with Hank as nothing changed as she had requested. Miranda could quit her job if she feels so uncomfortable or she could complain to the owner of the ski lodge. If she quits her job she could get another job at a different ski resort and not have to feel so uncomfortable at work. With a tough economy though it might be harder to find a new job then she thought. If she complains, the owner of the ski lodge might fire Hank and get a new head instructor. The downside to this plan is that the new instructor might be even worse than Hank in his handling of the instructors. Miranda has done quite a bit of rumination, meaning the reflecting at length on her situation. Past studies have shown that women are more likely to overanalyze problems before making a decision and to rehash a decision once made. Hank and Miranda might suffer from cultural differences and this might make Hank not place the importance on logic and rationality. In the Chairlift case Miranda’s perception of her new boss Hank is that he is probably that of a misogynist. The attitude, work setting, and sounds that she perceives all around her are the factors that are influencing her perception of Hank. Hank’s external distinctiveness, the internal consensus she feel’s, and the consistent internal attributes that Miranda perceives will also lead her to her presumptions. Her judgments and biases on these situations have made Miranda come to her conclusions. Whether Miranda quit or tell a superior will have to be decision that she will have to make based on her perception of the situation.