Hy Dairies Inc. Case Study

Case Study 3.1 – Hy Dairies Inc.

Satish Chandra Dahal

Westcliff University

BUS 540: Organizational Behavior

Professor: Jinan Ziade, Ph.D.

March 16, 2019

Case Study 3.1 – Hy Dairies, Inc.

Introduction

Hy Dairies, Inc. got latest sales figures which actually was a great deal of satisfaction, because of miscommunication in between vice president of marketing and brand manager certain problems have raised in a company like stereotyping and social identity (McShane & Von Glinow, 2017). We will discuss based on a case study about perceptual errors, the cause of stereotyping, social identity and solutions for the situation in organizations which were raised in the company because of miscommunication.

Review/Analysis of the Case

As seen in the case study we will start with stereotyping and social identity theory to explain what went wrong in Hy Dairies, Inc. which created a misunderstanding, we will also try to find out if there are any other perceptual errors which are apparent in case and come up with the solutions for the problems which was raised.

Stereotyping and Social Identity Theory at Hy Dairies, Inc.

Stereotyping is a perceptual process which we assign our self to the character for identifying a group and then automatically transfer those features to anyone we believe is a member of that group. Generally, stereotypes are formed from personal experiences, shared beliefs across society and cultures (McShane & Von Glinow, 2018) in another part social identity is the portion of self-concept people derived from perceived membership in a relevant social group (na, 2019). In this case, Beauport misperceived her boss Gilman about her promotion to Marketing Research Coordinator. Here I see, Beauport was not convinced by the information provided by Gilman because of stereotypes ‘women cannot be in top level of company' she got with her past boss; she thought that even Gilman and her company is trying to side-line her from reaching top level at Hy Dairies, Inc. at another part her social identity of being black was making her think about stereotype that black person shouldn't be in top level of company and also being women in another side she was totally believing that company don't want women in top management which were wrong according to the case. (Rimal & Real, 2003) Here, Beauport was going through stereotypes which distort reaction to information (Bordalo, Coffman, Gennaioli, & Shleifer, 2015) and she was categorizing her social identity and Gilman's social identity. Another problem was stereotype helps to lay a foundation for discriminatory attitudes and behavior which is unintentional discrimination and Beauport thought decision makers are relying on stereotypes to establish a notion of the ‘ideal person' in brand management post (McShane & Von Glinow, 2018).

Perceptional Errors at Hy Dairies, Inc.

Perceptual Defence: Here people tend to defend what they perceived from the available information and they establish a view which they don't want to change soon and in an easy way. They always try to defend their view. Like in case, Beauport already was thinking about leaving the company because of Gilman decision or try to confront Gilman. She was thinking about how sexist and racist practices are there in Hy Dairies, Inc. and how Gilman was conversing it through the intention of Gilman was never the same as Beauport perceived things. Case shows neither Gilman nor Hy Dairies, Inc. tends to support sexist and racist practices inside the workplace. (Banerji, 2018)

Projection: Here people tend to see their own trait to other people (Thakuri, 2018). In case, before Gilman was given Vice-President for a marketing position, he also worked as Marketing Research to round out his marketing experience. Just because of this, Gilman also thought that Beauport is deserving candidate for top-level management and as he served for company in marketing research she also have to do it to make her marketing experience even better, though Beauport was never want to be in marketing research as she was more enjoying her work in position of brand management. (Brown, 1986)

How organizations can minimize these situations

We normally sort people into groups and make them fall in those group without using our logical and rational thinking about them (Haggard, Clark, & Kalogeras, 2002). To minimize these situations we need to control our brain to stop sorting people in groups without knowing them and use rational and logical thinking before sorting them in some groups (Jervis R.) Here are some points on solving these situations in organizations:

An organization should establish clear criteria in advance for making a decision of hiring, promotion to stop biases out of the decision-making process.

Decision makers should be more accountable and think through whether unintentionally or intentionally decision will screen out certain good candidates or not.

Regular training to decision makers and employees should be provided with open dialogue and awareness.

A clear way of communication should be implemented while providing information about promotion, demotion and inter-departmental transfer with a proper reason of decision so that employees don't misperceive it.

A culture of rewarding employees who engages him/herself with different groups out the best in culture by strengthening diversity.