Free Report About How To Overcome Stereotypes Of Managers

Some managers are inspiring; some are motivating, while others completely fail to involve the personnel. The entertainment industry seems to have created the perfect formula for the “poor manager” character. When employees choose to leave their jobs, this happens often because of the managers or their relations with the people from their working environment. People give up to people, not to jobs.
One of the greatest threats to an organization’s performance and good relation and communication between employees and management is the act of stereotyping. Stereotypes are beliefs and judgments of others, be them individuals or group of persons that are based on cultural preconceptions. Such preconceptions could be related to sex/gender, ethnic group, race, religion or even age. When such stereotypes persist in the workplace, employees that candidate for promotions may be overlooked, work teams may not function properly and the organizational culture erodes. In some cases, lawsuits may result from such situations that are discriminatory in nature, damaging the public image of the organization. (Lipscomb)
Stereotyping among managers and employees includes statements about individuals from certain generations (stereotyping based on age), and individuals who have various philosophical views and beliefs about work. However, the tendency to stereotype generally comes from discriminatory practices frowned upon by federal and state laws that prohibit discriminatory practices in the workplace. (Mayhew)
Most of the time, stereotyping of others does not result from any malicious intent to inflict harm upon them, but rather because of the human as a preceptor, lack of processing the information on the situations. Most of the people naturally assume that everyone is entirely responsible for their behavior, as none can be aware of all the possible situational factors that may have brought one to a certain point, this assumption leading to a basic attribution error. Moreover, it is very difficult and impractical to find out everything about an individual, be it a manager or an employee; therefore it is easier to use stereotypes in such situations.
Even if stereotyping cannot be completely eradicated, its impact could be minimized if one is aware of what to do given such a situation. According to Ronald Sims, in his Managing Organizational Behavior book, employees could overcome the stereotypes of their managers using impression management. Impression management can make an employee or even a job candidate more attractive to a manager or a superior if Sims’s three recommendations are being taken in consideration by the person involved/interested.
First lesson taught is that looks matter. An employee who wants to be viewed as a good employee by their manager or superior has to be not just physically neat, but also to leave an overall general good impression, through his words, actions, performance and not least his relations with his colleagues.
Another suggestion for the employee to overcome managerial stereotyping would be the avoidal of excuse-makings and justifications, even if they are legitimate, as those are rather incriminatory statements, losing propositions. Being in a defensive position is difficult anyway, but relying on such methods may lead the superiors to suspect other things about that person, as well. One would better prove themselves in other, more accurate and demonstrative/obvious ways that are not at all ostentative and are rather related to great behavior and good performance on the job. (Sims)
The third of the three recommendations for the employees stated by Sims in his book, would be to rely and use more subtle techniques when interacting with the managers and following a specific purpose. Diplomacy is a very useful trait, not easy to attain, but most efficient when used in any workplace relationship. Attaining subtle agreement from one’s superior is the utlimate lead to a very good relationship, to reaching approval, recognition and better rewards. (Sims)

References

Lipscomb, David. 'Where & How To Deal With Stereotyping In The Workplace'. Everyday Life - Global Post. N.p., 2015. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.
Mayhew, Ruth. 'How To Reduce Workplace Stereotyping'. Small Business - Chron.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.
Sims, Ronald R. Managing Organizational Behavior. Westport, Conn.: Quorum Books, 2002. Print.