Case Study 3.1 HY DAIRIES, INC.

(Page 90) Case Study Summary According to the passage, Rochelle Beauport is a woman with different color in the Hy Dairies Company. She had been offered a new position from assistant brand manager to market research coordinator by Syd Gilman, the vice president of marketing in Hy Dairies, for her successful effort of improving the sales of Hy s gourment ice cream. Syd Gilman rewarded her with the new opportunity of position in order to give her new experience of working level and enhance her career in Hy Dairies. Rochelle Beauport in other hand, enjoyed her former position better as it seems to be more challenging and directly affected the companys profitability than the new position which was more towards backroom job. Since the new position was thought not to be the route to top management in many organizations, Rochelle thought that because of her differences, she has been place apart and unimportant to the company. Even she felt reluctant, she did accept the offer. However, Mr. Gilman did not realize that he actually had given Rochelle a wrong perception about the Discussion Questions: 1. Apply your knowledge of stereotyping and social identity theory to explain what went wrong here Stereotyping, as the derivative of social identity theory, is defined as the process of assigning traits to people and it happens when people make generalization usually exaggerated and sometimes offensive. It lays the foundation for prejudice and discrimination in a society or organisation. The social identity theory explains how we perceive people through categorization, homogenization and differentiation. It is obvious in the case of Rochelle Beauport that she enjoyed being an assistant brand manager. It seems to be more challenging and it directly affects the companys profitability than the new position, market research coordinator, which was more towards backroom job. Besides Beauport thought that marketing research was not the route to top management in most organizations. She was also able to build up a perception that maybe because of her color, she was set aside or had been sidelined. What went wrong probably here is Mr. Gilman misperceived that Beauport would love the new position that he had gone through before his position today. He thought that by the new position offered to her would help her broad her experience and enhance her career at Hy Dairies. But actually, he was not aware of the different self and social concepts of others, like Beauports case. Factors like social identity, work experiences and characteristics were related to stereotyping.

2)What other pe rceptual error is apparent in this case study? The other perceptual error that is apparent in this case study is Halo Effect, which occurs when one attribute of a person or situation is used to develop an overall impression of the individual of situation. Like stereotypes, these distortions are more likely to o ccur in the organization stage of perception. In this case, Rochelle, when b e i n g p r o p o s e d t h e n e w p o si ti o n o f ma r ke ti n g re se a r ch co o rd i n a to r, ca me i n to conclusion that Mr. Gilman was actually did not want her in the top management. She felt that Mr.Gilman was trying to sideline her because of her different social identity. Therefore, her reaction towards the good news was onl y a weak Thank you, Mr Gilman. 3)What can organizations do to minimize misperceptions in these types of situations? First in every communication process, Listening is important. A message cannot beinterpreted by the listener if he doesnt pay attention on what the speaker says. In Mr. Gilmans case he must have the eagerness to discuss and to clarify anything that is unclear or seems unreasonable. Because his insight is to give her the position where he started, he must hear the side of Beauport. But Beauport interpreted it in a different way, where she felt that she was like underestimated. Hence, there was a miscommunication. On the other hand, Beauport must also speak for what bothers her. As we read the case study, she hesitated but instead thanked Mr. Gilman. She must frankly direct Mr. Gilman on what her insights are regarding the new position. Know about your employees or employer or co-worker when you are in a company. It is hard to have a conversation to an individual that you do not have a background identity about him/her because this will only end up in a miscommunication.