What Stereotypes Are
A manager suggests that stereotypes are a necessary part of working with others and it is better to rely on stereotypes than to work with someone from another culture without any idea of what they believe in. Personally, I do agree with the manager to a certain extend. “Stereotype is a means of simplifying the process of perception and making judgements of other people, instead of dealing with a range of complex and alternative stimuli”. (Mullins, L, 1996, pg157) However, relying too much on stereotypes may lead to some inaccuracies, overestimation or underestimation in real life situation. (McShane, S and Travaglione, T, 2007)
The Positive Side of Stereotypes
Stereotypes usually occur when an individual is judged on the basis of the group to which it is perceived that person belongs to. Especially when it comes to work, sometimes, in order to interact effectively, you have to make assumption of what the person is likely to think and what are some of the behaviours that they can accept. (Wiesner, R and Millett, B, 2000) As such, only stereotypes help to do that. This also explains why the manager suggests that stereotyping is necessary during work.
For example, if you are a manager and you need to meet someone from another culture whom you never met before. Usually, the first thing that you will do is to gather information about the person’s culture and develop a cultural profile. (Deresky, H, 2002)These profiles are often highly generalized. Then from the profile, this is where you will use stereotyping to make an assumption of the person’s character and his believes.
The Negative Side of Stereotypes
Stereotypes are useful as they are quite accurate in some ways. It only becomes a problem when it turns out to be inaccu ...