Author Question: How can employees guard against thinking stereotypically? What will be an ideal ... (Read 17 times)

lak · **on:** Jul 7, 2018

How can employees guard against thinking stereotypically?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What are schemas and how do they influence the perceptual process?

What will be an ideal response?

bbburns21 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 7, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Employees have to guard against thinking stereotypically about different types of organizational members. One way to do so is to encourage members of an organization to think about the characteristics that really affect job performance, as opposed to irrelevant characteristics like age, race, or gender.

Answer to Question 2

When we rely on experiences and the knowledge we have gathered from a variety of sources to interpret and make sense of any new person or situation we encounter, we are using schemas. These abstract knowledge structures are stored in memory and allow people to organize and interpret information about a given target of perception. Schemas influence the sensory input we pay attention to and the input we ignore. By selecting sensory input consistent with existing schemas and discounting or ignoring inconsistent input, schemas are reinforced and strengthened. Although schemas are resistant to change, they are not immutable.