Prejudice in Organisations

PREJUDICE IN ORGANISATIONS

The case prepared by James Clawson and Bryan Smith was a good read. According to John Fernandez (1981), women and minorities create a serious malfunction in corporate operations. They both are not yet accepted as full members of corporate networks. Until they are, not only do they suffer, but so does the corporation. Behaviours in crucial interpersonal relationships that reflect racist and sexist attitudes still continues to seriously hamper many cases toward effectiveness and efficiency. The numbers continue to favour white males, and outspokenness by other groups tend to breed resentment.

It is difficult to work within a system and change it from below. If something is to change, the senior ranks will have to make it happen. Problems associated with clinging to long held prejudices will not go away unless and until practicing managers address the topic of prejudice and its impact on their business lives. Effective managers recognise, welcome, and manage diversity and variety in their work forces. People who understand prejudice and the dynamic's of change, manage them better in themselves and in others.

Definition

Prejudice according to the Oxford dictionary means, an unreasonable dislike of or preference for a person, group, custom, etc, especially when it is based on their race, religion, sex, etc. Allport (1954, 1979), provides a thorough and clear conceptualisation of the term prejudice. Historically, the word prejudice stems from the Latin noun praejudicium, meaning a precedent or judgment based on previous decisions and experiences. According to Allport (1979), prejudice can be defined using a negative component, as in "thinking ill of others without sufficient warrant", or incorporating a bipolar component, as in "a feeling, favourable or unfavourable, toward a person or thing, prior to, or not based on actual experience.

Both definitions include an "attitude" component and a "belief" component. The attitude is either negative or positive and is tied to an overgeneralised or erroneous "belief". although prejudice can hold either a positive or negative valence, racial and ethnic prejudice in many countries, has taken on primarily negative connotations (Allport, 1979).

Institutional prejudice

Deliberate racial discrimination in virtually every form has been illegal for years. None-the-less discrimination is still prevalent in our society. Discrimination can occur within institutions in society. Institutional discrimination is unequal treatment that is entrenched in basic social institutions. It refers to those practises in social institutions that favour one group over another. Prejudicial selection factors occur in institutions such that the "selected selectors" - that is,