Assignment task: Address either of the two scenarios
You are manager of a district that has just hired several recent university and college graduates. Most of these people are starting their first full-time job, though most of them have held part-time and summer positions in the past. They have general knowledge of their particular skill area (accounting, engineering, marketing, etc.) but know relatively little about specific business practices and developments. Explain how you would nurture the self-concepts in these new hires to strengthen their performance and maintain their psychological wellbeing. Also explain how you might reconcile the tendency for self-enhancement while preventing the new employees from forming a negative self-evaluation.
During a diversity management session, a manager suggests that stereotypes are a necessary part of working with others. "I have to make assumptions about what's in the other person's head, and stereotypes help me do that," she explains. "It's better to rely on stereotypes than to enter a working relationship with someone from another culture without any idea of what they believe in!" Discuss the merits of and problems with the manager's statement.