2MIT4310 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

ASSIGNMENT 1

University of
Wales Lampeter
Organizational Behaviour

Submitted to, Michael Goeden, Grafton College.

Date: 11th March 2010

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Table of Content:

Table of Content:.................................................................................................................2
Introduction:.........................................................................................................................3
Issues:...................................................................................................................................3
Communication at the workplace:...................................................................................3
Stereotyping:....................................................................................................................6
Gender-Based Stereotypes:..........................................................................................7
Racial Stereotypes:.......................................................................................................8
Preventions and Guidelines:............................................................................................9
Conclusion:........................................................................................................................12
Bibliography:.....................................................................................................................13
Word Count: 3227 (Including Bibliography and Table of content)..................................14

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Introduction:
Within an organization people communicate with each other through different
mediums. In order to pursue effective communication they can use different gesture or
pretend to show a different personality. In a variety of situations, people tend to make
judgments of other people at the workplace through their behaviour. Unconsciously they
create their own estimations about their communications; this estimate tells them whether
to believe and trust on communicator. These estimates depend on communicator’s
mannerism, how well they are in speaking? Or what language they have used?
Nonetheless organizations have diverse behaviors with respect to the culture,
languages, genders, positions or physical appearance etc. They have to work in a team or
group sometime; they have to get together in seminars or exhibitions. Their attitudes vary
gigantically which causes different issues at the workplace. These issues could be on one
medium or mediums of communication in an organization. Selecting this kind of medium
(s) and considering them is called Selective Attention at the workplace. In scientific
words, it is the unconscious aptitude to select certain element (s) and to pay no heed to
others (Fincham & Rhodes, 2005). According to the definition of University of Wales
Lampeter:

‘’Selective attention is the ability (often exercised unconsciously) to choose

from the stream of sensory data, to concentrate on particular elements, and to ignore
others.’’
-University of Wales Lampeter, 2010
Therefore, it would be manager’s duty to identify, examine and assemble the
issues and abandon them from cropping up psychologically. Manager has to take several
decisions radically and to change the behaviour of the organization if going erroneous.

Issues:
Communication at the workplace:

Communication seems to be the joint which holds the relationships at the

workplace. These relations can be between customer and management or even in internal
environment of the organization. Effective communication can not only inhale more
profits into the company but also can enhance the mutual understanding between
customer/employees frequently, because it is the only way to allocate the information
throughout the company or within customers. Seeing that communication is vital aspect
in the business, what if it goes poor? Poor communication could be due to the difference
in cultures or Languages. Linguistic features such as pronunciations, Structure of the
sentences or vocabulary of the person who has been selected from other people can repel
him out of the motivation which causes loss or may be results in high staff turnover.
In the following diagram, it has been cleared the procedure of communication,
effective communication will not occur until or unless communicators focuses on each

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ASSIGNMENT 1

and every facet of this diagram. Encoding is the expression and words transmitted by the
source i.e. Sender. Whereas, Decoding is the interpretation of message sent through
encoding to the receiver. Now in the most cases due to the inadequate encoding or
decoding ineffective communication can occur ( Hudson, 1996)

Decodin
Sender: Encoding Message: g Receiver:
Ideas Words Vocabulary
Feelings Facial Expression Understanding
Attitudes Eye Contact Assumptions
Gestures Tone of Voice Strategies and agendas
Body Language
Conveying method Cultural Expression

Feedback:
NOISE
Positive Response:
Negative Effective
Debate Non Effective poor
Body language or results.
gestures Effective listening
No feedback

Encoding and decoding gone incorrect:

As a result of incorrect encoding and decoding problems occur, which might be

due to careless coding and lazy decoding (listening). Though it is apparent that
ineffective communication obstructs organizational triumph, it occurs when managers are
not conscious about the behaviour and manifestations of employees or due to the lack of
3 C’s (Clarity, Completion, and conciseness)(Himashu Juneju, 2010). The prevention
strategies to resolve this barrier to communication would be:
• Face to face interactions: Feedback would be supportive for the managers
for the regular check and correct.
• Reality checks: Manager should not consider that whatever they are
encoding, listener is decoding it i.e. employees might recognize the
message in different zone than manager’s intended message. Therefore
managers should regularly check.
• Time and Place: Right time is inversely proportional to the wrong
message. If the place is fine but message is wrong or vice versa ineffective
decoding will occur. Managers should have ability to identify the right
time and right place.

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• The ‘you’ attitude: Managers can overcome the ineffective communication

while using this theory:
o Look at possessions of others’.
o Give importance to intelligence of employees.
o Examine what employees want to know.
o When there is positive situation, use ‘You’ rather than ‘I’.
o In negative situation try to avoid ‘You’.
Example:

In pizza company when one employee requested for holidays:

Communication 1: (Consider condition 1)
Manager: You will not be happy to hear that we cannot allow you to take holidays now.
Employee: Is there any other option? I am compelled, I have to go there.
Manager: Sorry I have told you, apply again if you wish.

After this improper communication, However employee did not get any
motivation and send an application again:
Communication 2: (consider condition 2)
Manager: You will now be glad that your application has been granted.
Employee: Thank you manager, best regards.
Manager: You’re Welcome. Enjoy your trip.

That’s what managers should proceed with, and prevent from first condition
handle it beautifully like:
Effective Communication 1:
Manager: I am really regretful to explain that your application of holidays has been rejected.
Employee: is there any other option?
Manager: Sorry again, I am trying my best, soon you will get, thank you.

‘’Remove your communicational Barriers; they are costing you more than
you think.’’
--Shawn Smith, 2003

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Condition 1 Condition 2

Stereotyping:

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Business and Management:

‘’Making assumptions about individuals (which may or may not be correct) on the
basis of the groups to which they belong or are held to belong. Such assumptions may
be based on age, class, gender, ethnic’s origin, nationality, religion, or sexuality.
Unfortunately, human beings are liable to have selective prejudices towards their
follow, seeing only what they want to see and ignoring factors that do not fit in with
their preconceived beliefs. They also tend to assume that all members of a group have
the same or similar characteristics.’’

Conscious and unconscious stereotyping processes have no difference in nature.

In conscious stereotyping a person based on capricious facets such as mannerism and
appearance. It is commonly being scowled in modern organizations, which perceive
stereotyping as a defective path to form attention towards people and dishearten it even it
is a joint of the company. Contrary, unconscious stereotyping is no more dependable as a
natural way to form attitudes towards people; it is not easy for managers to prevent from
unconscious stereotyping. This process of unconscious stereotyping depends upon the
language used during conversation.

For instance, study of stereotypes illustrates that:

 Americans are friendly, generous, broadminded as well as intolerant,
arrogant and dictatorial.
 Asians are shrewd, attentive and alert but reserved.
 Africans are powerful, intelligent but also exhausted and fuming.
 Australians are trustworthy, friendly, wittiness but also racist.

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Distinctly all of Americans are not friendly or Asians are shrewd. So while
considering pros of the person’s character, the person should be selected not nationality,
which demonstrates effective managerial behaviour. It is human nature; people view
themselves in absolute affirmative way. Nonetheless they assume other is deceitful and
fraudulent but they tend to act in a comparable way that is how they capture the image of
other’s personality to develop stereotypes. It will get ejaculated soon after
communication put off (Conflict Research Consortium, 1998)

Horns and Halos Effect:

It is an effect which is formed when one’s judgment of other is inclined by the

first impression, it might be a sympathetic (horns) or pathetic (halos). It could be an
aspect of what they are wearing, or their language etc. Sometimes, in interviews when
well qualified employee comes little bit late due to the positive reason or even comes in
improper clothes, he may be passed over as a unpunctual or untidy person. Whereas the
candidate who arrives at time and well dressed get the position.
‘’We tend to give more favorable judgments to people who have characteristics in
common with us’’
--Goeden, 2010

Walt Disney Company: A Case:

Soon after Walt Disney became popular in America, it started revolution towards
Europe. Employees were allotted according to their age and appearance which is called
‘’casting’’. The most stunning and winsome persons get opportunity to work in front-line
jobs. Whereas, old ladies worked in merchandise, old men worked in security, Haitian
women used to labor in housekeeping, Puerto Rican people used to work in food services
preparations and Africans used to be cooks and stewards. The high average stereotyping
resulted to 200-300% staff turnover every year. In France, Managers of Walt Disney
were supposed to use English Language only, other languages were not accepted that
time. Employees were really expected to be good at English in order to work in
organization. Ineffective communication, lack of cultural behaviour and stereotyping
among managers were the major grounds for the staff turnover (Anthony et al.., 1992).
Therefore it illustrates that employees were selected not with respect to their qualification
but with respect to their nationality, color, appearance, gender and language which is
another example of stereotyping. Thereby the company appointed some managers with
thorough knowledge of organization behaviour. Nowadays it seems that company has
changed its behavior, however it can be seen in their outlets that all the beautiful and
winsome personnel are working on the board.

Gender-Based Stereotypes:

Despite of the fact that women are the source of talent in the workplace in all over
the world, some managers tend to be a barriers in women’s advancement at the

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workplace. This sort of selective attention is also counted in stereotyping. Some people
think that women are negative than skilled men, predominantly in the male-dominated
areas such as engineers, drivers etc. Therefore it is stereotyping to consider that African
tall girls are a good basketball player, Asian students are good in mathematics or
Muslims are terrorists.

At the present time in Greece, organizations are recruiting large number of

women who can work in all fields. At a halt it is being assumed that managers give
promotions to male more than female even though they are equally qualified, this
inclined toward gender-based stereotyping. Women are under-represented with respect to
their aptitude in the Greek business culture. (Mihail, 2006)

Racial Stereotypes:

‘’Race is any of the groups into which humans can be divided according to their
physical characteristics, for example color of the skin, color and type of hair, shape of
the eyes and nose.’’
--OXFORD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.

It has been crystal cleared that human nature diverse people into groups. Media is
also playing insignificant role in developing these racial stereotypes. People do not have
opportunities to be in contact with other races so that media is the primary medium of
revealing different races. Following are the stereotypes which media is allocating on the
TV, radio, newspaper and internet:

 African Americans: Their stereotypes are that they are idle, lazy and brainless
and they live their lives depending on welfare. Another stereotype is that they
are criminal and involved in corrupt activities.
 Native Americans: Their most common stereotype is that they receive all
benefits and government money because they are natives and mostly they are
high standard and political leaders. And also that they are alcoholic by nature.
 Asians: One common stereotype about Asian is they are nerd, they are boring
and their mathematics is great. Another stereotype about Asians is they are
really good at martial arts. Asians who are living in America are spies and hate
America.

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 Arabs: Mostly people think all Arabs are Muslims that is strong stereotype.
After the September 2001 activity people started strong racism stereotype that
Arabs are terrorist and involved in suicide bombings.
 Jews: The stereotype about Jews is they are rich and they know how to make
money, they are controlling the economy of the world, they have control over
media and the federal government.

Consider all of these statements. Are they correct? Do they make any sense? Or just
viewing the negative picture of humanity? Undoubtedly these statements are wrong and
meaningless. Managers should be involved in employees at the workplace in order to
attain mutual understanding and judge them with their personality and aptitude, rather
than reflecting stereotypes. Think how President Obama has proved that their nothing
like racism in the world, as he is African American, it proves that above statements do
not have any meanings.

Preventions and Guidelines:

 If Mangers use first person in their communication, most commonly receiver

decode it incorrectly, so it is better to use third person in written and verbal
communication.
 Informal approaches can tie up employees with managers easily. Nonetheless
slang words and language can influence the credibility of managers and
employees especially in written communications (Cooke, 1998). So in general
managers should use informal language with staff but also formal sometimes in
account of proving themselves serious about the matter.
 Jargons are another approach which managers can use in communication,
especially in electronic businesses and technical industries. They are sometimes
intricate as well so managers should explain briefly when they are using jargons.
Examples of jargons could be CPU, PC, MB, GHz, etc.
 Some managers adopt the style which is alike sales person i.e. propaganda. This
feature highly put negative affect on the employees. It includes buzzwords like
implementations, empowerments and unavoidable phrases. Managers should
avoid this negative feature throughout.
 Intimidating and hostile stereotyping can be ruined or lowered down when
managers take peace-making actions which would lead to think that stereotyping
is false in the organization. ‘Disarming’ is surprisingly helpful and rational, this
process helps breaking down negative stereotypes as they identify that
stereotyping is a real opponent in the organization’s success.
 Crisis Communication Mechanisms are proposed to prevent from the problems
followed by ineffective communication process. It explains that accurate time and
right place available should be used aesthetically through normal
communicational channels. While these mechanisms are based on crises time’s
strategies, still they allocate managers to choose right place to overcome these
problems.

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 Knowledge: would be another barrier to communication and bring up issues

regarding stereotypes. For instance, Manager on the floor might give more
importance to the person who is more educated though another person has same
position at the workplace. Managers should try to abandon these kind of issues
and consider them properly rather than throwing in the vain.
 Communication Pre-tests could help managers to draw the employees’ attention
towards authentic material. These tests might be conducted before seminars or
speeches in the form of written handouts or small presentations. This would
prevent misunderstandings likely to happen in meetings or speeches.

‘’Thinking about how things are said, as well as what is actually said, people can help
to build much more effective communications.’’
--Cooke, 1998

 Overcoming Stereotypes: In attention of overcoming racial stereotypes,

managers have to realize that how atrocious this process is and it always ends in
losses and drawbacks (Hough, 2001). As managers should identify and examine
that either stereotype is due to cultural influence or social. They should consider
following bullet points:
o Acknowledge yourself first, measure the element of stereotype in
yourself. Being a human beings, what kind of selections you have in
yourself, chase them.
o Get awareness about the inner and outer feelings and thoughts; if there is
material of stereotypes relocate them with positive and appropriate
ingredients, perceive how they are affecting your social and cultural
beliefs.
o Exercise factual information, whenever you find stereotype thoughts
about an individual or group. Managers would be able to attain this factual
information once they start to picture their selves in front of different races
and groups.
o Consult with Media whenever you get any realistic and rational thing
about different cultures and races. Here consulting means to get involved
in their movies to get awareness about their cultural and social values, chat
with them electronically, go on social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc).

Once Managers take hold of these components, they will definitely learn a lot,
they will be able to implement these skills on others now. These components with
aesthetic examples will facilitate in overcoming stereotypes and transporting better
quality in conversations resulting in effective communication. (University of Notre
Dame, 2008)

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Conclusion:
After grasping the whole picture of several issues that are involved in Selective
Attention at the workplace, it is being concluded that these barriers destroy the
organizational profits and put off the reputation of the company. While designing the
ratio of preventions that managers should follow to reduce these issues, it is also being
discussed that most of the people just get selected through their first impression which is
the way wrong process. Managers should examine the whole criteria of selecting an
appropriate source to proceed with the profits for the organizations. Some of the practical
examples and case studies were also the part of this report. There were some questions
arising about communication at the workplace in this report as well as for stereotypes.
Managers should put themselves first at the position of listener; they should clarify the
arduous sentences they have used in their conversation in order to prevent from selective
attention in the form of ineffective communication. It is also proved that there is a strong
link between stereotyping and communication:

‘’The process of unconscious stereotyping, the forming of attitudes towards

communicator and communication based on the language used, is an important issue
for people working in corporate communication.’’
--Cooke, 1998

In the nutshell:

‘’ There are only two kind of people in the world, good and bad. Good people always
do good deeds, on the contrary bad people do bad things.’’

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Bibliography:
Ficham R and Rhodes P, (2005), Organizational Behaviour, 4th Edition, Oxford.

Handy C, 1995, ‘Understanding Organizations’, London Penguin.

Chris Cooke, 1998, ‘’Not so much you say, but how you say it’’ Context Consulting
London, 1998.

Szu – Hsien Chang and Brian H. Kliener, 2003, ‘’ Common Racial Stereotypes’’ Article
Volume 22 Number 3 2003

Anthony, R., Lovemann, G., and Schlesinger, L. (1992) Euro Disney: The First 100
Days Harvard Business School Case 9-693-013

Dimitrios Mihail, 2006, ‘’ Gender-based Stereotypes in the workplace: the case of

Greece.’’ University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2006

Hudson, R.A., 1996 ‘Sociolinguistics’ Cambridge University Press, UK, Page 2006.

Patricia B. Campbell, Jennifer N. Storo, ‘’Myth, Stereotypes and Gender Differences’’

Office of educational Research and Improvement, 2010, Available at:
http://www.campbell-kibler.com/Stereo.pdf
Accessed: 2nd March, 2010

David A. Hough, Vol. 35, No1, 2001, ‘’ how can we overcome Cultural Stereotypes’’
Memoirs of Shonan Institute of Technology, Available at: http://www.campbell-
kibler.com/Stereo.pdf
Accessed: 2nd March 2010

Anonymous, 2010, ‘’Poor Communication Leads to Inadequate Workplaces’’ AE, 2010,

Available at: http://www.anonymousemployee.com/csssite/sidelinks/poor_communication.php
Accessed: 3rd march 2010.

Himanshu Juneju, 2010, ‘’ Causes of Ineffective Communication’’ Ezine Articles,2010,

Available at: http://ezinearticles.com/?Causes-of-Ineffective-Communication&id=2085862
Accessed: 3rd March 2010.

Shawn Smith J.D, 2003, ‘’ Communication Barriers’’ Next Level Consulting LLC, 2003,
Available at: http://www.nextlevel-consulting.com/articles/management/article06.html
Accessed: 4th March, 2010

University of Colorado, USA, ‘’ Inaccurate and overly Hostile Stereotypes’’ Conflict

Research Consortium, 1998, Available at:
http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/problem/stereoty.htm
Accessed: 4th march, 2010

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University of Notre Dame, ‘’ Overcoming Stereotypes’’ University Counseling Center,

2010, Available at: http://ucc.nd.edu/self-help/multicultural-awareness/overcoming-
stereotypes/
Accessed: 4th March, 2010

Oxford Reference online, logged in through www.athens.co.uk

Pasted Pictures’ Links:

http://i.ehow.com/images/a04/kh/7i/learn-effective-communication-skills-800X800.jpg

http://brandingbrand.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/effective_communication.jpg

Word Count: 3227 (Including Bibliography and Table of content)

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