Assignment 1: What is selective attention? What are the main issues associated with selective attention at the workplace and how can managers prevent some of these issues from arising?

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Table of ContentsIntroduction:....................................................................................................................................3Further debate on selective attention:..............................................................................................3Multiple levels of selection:.............................................................................................................4What is perception??........................................................................................................................4Perception leading to particularity which is selective attention/perception:..................................5

Perceptual selectivity Process:.............................................................................................................5

Figure No 01 – showing Perceptual selectivity process:.......................................................................5

Main issues which arises of selective attention:..............................................................................61: Discrimination:............................................................................................................................6

Gender discrimination..........................................................................................................................8

Religious discrimination.......................................................................................................................8

Asian discrimination:...........................................................................................................................8

2: Favoritism at workplace:.............................................................................................................8Sexual favoritism:............................................................................................................................9

Playing favorites at workplace may result in:......................................................................................9

3: Stereotyping at workplace:........................................................................................................101. Racial & ethnic stereotyping:.....................................................................................................10

2. Gender stereotyping:.................................................................................................................10

3. Unconscious stereotyping:............................................................................................................11

4: Halo effect which leads to self fulfilling prophecy:..................................................................115: Self fulfilling prophecy as a result of stereotyping and halo effect:..........................................12Ways for managers to avoid these problems:................................................................................12

Workplace diversity:..........................................................................................................................12

Writing non discrimination policies and practicizing them:...............................................................13

Performance management................................................................................................................13

Business ethics...................................................................................................................................14

Flexibility:...........................................................................................................................................14

Don’t promote tribes ways at workplace:..........................................................................................14

Employee & Manager’s involvement and participation.....................................................................15

First impression is not necessarily the last impression:......................................................................17

Power Politics:...................................................................................................................................17

CONCLUSIONS:..........................................................................................................................17

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REFERENCES:.............................................................................................................................18

Introduction:

A fundamental empirical phenomenon in human cognition is its limitation. (Cohen. A.). One trademark of a limited system is its need for selection which is attended selectively. Furthermore, In theory, the selection can be random. However, people are able to perform a non random selection. For example, drivers in a junction with traffic lights are able to focus on the lights rather than on other stimuli present in the scene. The mechanism in charge of the selection is termed as “selective attention”. The world constantly bombards us with information: sights, sounds, scents, and so on. Our minds organize this stream of sensation into a mental map that represents our perception or reality. In no case is the perception of a certain person the same as the world itself, and no two maps are identical. As you view the world, your mind absorbs your experiences in a unique and personal way. Because your perceptions are unique, the ideas you want to express differ from other people's Even when two people have experienced the same event, their mental images of that event will not be identical. As senders, we choose the details that seem important and focus our attention on the most relevant and general, a process which is known as selective perception.Selective attention could be devastating in many of the situations. It may arise many of the problems and issues at any of the workplace and is not healthy. Some of the issues which arises of selective attention at workplace are stereotyping, halo effect, discrimination, prejudices, favoritism etc.

Further debate on selective attention:“Attention is a very broad term and arriving at a consensus regarding operational definitions of its various components has been one of the thorniest problems faced by cognitive scientists.” (Allport, 1989; Schneider & Shiffrin, 1977; Wickens; 1980). For understanding the selective attention at the cognitive level, the functional issues should be considered. “Firstly, an individual is bombarded by a vast array of perceptual inputs simultaneously and must, in order to function effectively, somehow select certain things for enhanced processing while ignoring others.” (Allport, 1989 & Posner, 1991). Selective attention may be further subdivided into operations such as disengagement from a current focus, engagement of a new focus and sustained focal attention over the time. Secondly, in the selective attention there appears to be the limits on the number of the things that can be processed simultaneously; that is, bottleneck or capacity limitation exists on the ability to divide attention between multiple stimuli or mental events. (Posner & Peterson, 1990).

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Furthermore, in the view of Lavie.N, et al., “Goal directed behavior requires focusing attention on goal relevant stimuli while ignoring irrelevant distracters. However, the mechanisms for such behavioral control by selective attention remain to be elucidated.”

Multiple levels of selection: All the models and theories related to the selective attention assume a single attention mechanism. Early and late debate concerns the locus of that single mechanism. In the view of Cohen. A., “the literature suggests that there may be at least two distinct levels in which selection may take place, with distinct mechanisms operating in each of these levels.” He further argued that “There is a high level selection used for strategic choices such as a preference of one task over another. It is often stated that strategic selection is performed by a set of processes called “executive functions”. There is also a second, lower- level selection mechanism that may even be modality- specific.”

What is perception??

Business Dictionary.com identified perception as “ Process by which people translate sensory impressions into a coherent and unified view of the world around them. Though necessarily based on incomplete and unverified or unreliable information, perception is the reality and guides human behavior in general.”

Buchanan. A. & Huczynski.A. (1991, 2nd ed.,) defined perception as “Perception is the active psychological process in which stimuli are selected and organized into meaningful patterns.”

Perception is the process by which organisms interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world. Sensation usually refers to the immediate, relatively unprocessed result of stimulation of sensory receptors in the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, or skin. Perception, on the other hand, better describes one's ultimate experience of the world and typically involves further processing of sensory input. In practice, sensation and perception are virtually impossible to separate, because they are part of one continuous process.

(Lindsay. P. & Norman. A. , 1977)Perception can also be defined as the process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. (Robbins P. S., 1993) Perception, once formed creates a resident tendency for quick, active, and intuitive cognition of the person, people, thing, or event being perceived. Perception leads to non-deliberate thoughtful decision-making or decision below the level of consciousness. It has been called “thinking without thinking”, and it ultimately leads to unconscious prejudice or similar behavior.

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Perception leading to particularity which is selective attention/perception: While understanding the metaphysics of particularity the judgment process is more important in organizational context. How you judge people and perceive their attributes leads to selective perception which is selective attention. Judgments may be the same as perception. But the considerable point is that whether perceiving implies the already present role of the judgment in the environment or not.

(Benjamin.A. 2007)

Perceptual selectivity Process:

It is the process by which we filter or screen out information that we do not need. Surrounded by the environmental stimuli we only figure out the one which we are attending to. What gets inside our minds goes through two screening stages which are sensation and perception. Major factors that affect perceptual selectivity are illustrated below. These factors decide for what information we gets and what is kept out. The external factors are those outside the individual while the internal factors refers to characteristics of the individual.

External factors Stimulus context factors Factors

Motivation

Internal factors Stimulus Factors Personality

Figure No 01 – showing Perceptual selectivity process: Adapted from: Buchanan.D & Huczynski. (1991), Organizational behavior: An introductory text: Foreword by Derek Pugh. Prentice Hall International (UK) Ltd: Hertfordshire

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Perceptual selectivity

Expectationss

Past experiences

Main issues which arises of selective attention:Some of the main issues which arises of selective attention are as following:

1: Discrimination: Dictionary.com defined Discrimination as, “ treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit”.

Conceptual framework of discrimination and its effects in the workplace are as follows:

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PersonalEconomicPsycho-social perspectives

Organizational Work efficiency production cost

AreasRace, colour, language, sex, ideology, physical efficiency

Effects: Psychological corruption Stress anxiety & negative attitudes Demotivation Poor health Reduced confidence Insecurity Absenteeism Exclusion Reduced productivity Poor efficiency Decrease in activity Unhealthy competition

Figure 02: Conceptual framework of discrimination: Adapted from: Jennie Naidoo & Regmi. Krishna.,(2009): Understanding the effect of discrimination in the workplace: equal opportunities international, Vol 28, No 05, pp398-414. Emareld Group Publishing Limited.

Discrimination happens when an employer treats one employee less favorably than others. It could mean a female employee being paid less than a male colleague for doing the same job, or minority ethnic employee being refused the training opportunities offered to white colleagues.

According to the study by sociologist James Elliott of Tulane University, New Orleans, L.A and Ryan. A Smith of city University of New York compiled statistics from two-hour interviews with male and female workers from across the country. They divided respondents into three categories. Laborers with no power; supervisors with the power only to supervise; and managers with the power to hire, fire and set pay. From their statistics, the researchers determined that discrimination has common patterns throughout the American workplace, in small firms and large fortune companies alike.

(USA Today Magazine [serial online], March 2005)Discrimination could be:

Gender discrimination

Race discrimination

Sexual orientation discrimination

Age discrimination

Asian discrimination

Religious discrimination

Cultural discrimination7

“DISCRIMINATION”Unfair practice

Disabilities discrimination

Some of them in detail are as follows:

Gender discrimination: The link between masculinity and work is the topic of the sociological investigation at the workplace. Women currently constitute forty five percent of the paid labor force, but they continue to lag behind men in earnings and organizational power. (Kliener. B; Sandico., 1999). This figure is more than 50 % now days, women almost being equal with men at the workplace, they get fewer wage and fewer bonuses just because they are female. These figures claim that women’s lesser achievement is due to gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Normally, male employees are found to hold relatively negative stereotypic attitudes, compared to their female counterparts. (Mihail. D., 2006)

Religious discrimination: Religious discrimination could be an element of selective attention too. People are discriminated with religious jokes, dismounting religious beliefs of others or may because of lack of concern. Much country’s rapidly diverse workforce is promoting companies to accommodate employees on variety of issues, such as religious expression. (Cheng.C & Kliener.B., 2001). An organization has the obligation to provide reasonable accommodations for the religious practices of an employee or prospective employee. The equal opportunity Commission (EEOC) Guidelines, “do not confine the definition of religious practices to atheistic concepts or to traditional religious beliefs” defines the policy against the religious discrimination at the workplace.

Asian discrimination:

Throughout the European countries, the qualified, hardworking Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indians and many other Asian immigrants are discriminated and are denied job opportunities, fired or otherwise discriminated for reasons that have nothing to with their abilities or jobs. They are discriminated as lay off’s, for their promotions, their wages, and are harassed emotionally and sexually. (Kliener.b; Dong.Nha., 1999)

2: Favoritism at workplace:Your dictionary.com defined Favoritism as, “the showing of more kindness and indulgence to some person or persons than to others; act of being unfairly partial”. Favoritism is considered to be the fast track to the employees career development. Race and gender are the sources of discrimination but apart from that the limiting access to power and promotion is much associated with favoritism at workplace too. This tendency toward in group favoritism is stronger in filling higher-level managerial positions than in lower level supervisory slots.

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(USA Today Magazine [serial online], March 2005)Favoritism should be under any kind of social pressure or because of some religious way. Those who are Muslims will play favorites with the Muslims in any foreign national country just because they are from the same religion. At the workplace these kind of situations may arise when other expects from you that you should be their favorite just because you share the same thing with them, may be religion or a race or anything.

Other important form of favoritism is sexual favoritism which happens everywhere now a days. Sleeping with your boss may gurantee your career development is the notion which some people work on but it is totally wrong as different people have different values and ways of behaving. The merit for your work should be your work itself not your attributes.

Sexual favoritism: Sexual favoritism exists where a person who is in position of authority rewards only those who respond to his/her sexual advances, whilst other deserving employees who do not submit themselves are denied promotion, merit rating and salary increases.

(March 2001--www.workinfo.com.htm) In today’s work obsessed and job focused culture with ever increasing time being spent at work, office romances are common place which are the result of being favorite or the same.

(Buchanan. P., 2001)Companies are much more likely to take action in a workplace romance scenario to reduce public scrutiny and financial costs. Atlanta journal constitution article reported that a high-profile sexual favoritism case can result in 20percent drop in productivity with up to a 30 percent loss in company profits.

Playing favorites at workplace may result in:

Tortuous behavior such as making false statements about a worker to benefit the paramour of an employee may result in civil liability for the individuals making the false statements.

In the absence of specific company policy, an employer may take action against employees engaged in a consensual relationship if the company believes that the relationship at workplace or any other aspect of it indicate poor judgement on the part of employees.

A relationship that results from favoritism or may be from sexual or any other kind of harassment or any other pattern of behavior which leads the employee to believe that the only way to advance is to be involved with the person or supervisor or manager may subject the manger and the company to legal claims.

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3: Stereotyping at workplace: A stereotype is an oversimplified generalization about a person or group of people without regard for individual differences. Even seemingly positive stereotypes that link a person or group to a specific positive trait can have negative consequences.

(National middle School Association, 1999)According to Lhamon, the term stereotype was developed in 1798. Then the “image setting process was named as stereotyping”. (Lhamon, 2002). Oxford Advanced learner’s Dictionary explained stereotyping as “fixed idea or image that many people have of a particular type of person or thing, but which is often not true in reality.” (Hornby, 1995, pp1169)Sociologist Charles E. Hurst of the College of Wooster states that, "One reason for stereotypes is the lack of personal, concrete familiarity that individuals have with persons in other racial or ethnic groups. Lack of familiarity encourages the lumping together of unknown individuals".

(Hurst, Charles E, 2007)

1. Racial & ethnic stereotyping: Chang.H. & H.Kliener. B. (2003) defined them as “racial stereotypes are automatic and simplified mental pictures of all members for a particular racial group.” They further commented that “Racial and ethnic stereotypes disregard the full humanity and uniqueness of people. When perceptions of different races are distorted and stereotypical, it is demeaning, devaluing, limiting and hurtful to others”. (University Counselling centre, 2000)Some of the examples of racial and ethnic stereotyping are as follows:African black people were usually depicted as primitive, childlike, cannibalistic persons who live in tribes, carry spears, believe in witchcraft and worship their wizard. Stereotypes of Muslims often involve themes associated with violence. The Scottish are often stereotyped as being tightfisted, argumentative, drunk and highly strung, or as having bad teeth. The portrayal of "Groundskeeper Willy" in The Simpsons is a classic example. Jewish people have been stereotyped throughout the centuries as scapegoats for a multitude of societal problems. Jews are still stereotyped as greedy, and misers.

2. Gender stereotyping:

>>>Masculinity -femininity: The masculinity- femininity dimension distinguished what kind of achievements is associated with the gender based work. Women are considered to be more sensitive rather than men who are supposed to do hard manual jobs. At the workplace women, are often stereotyped for not doing any work and for fancying man with their beautified looks.

Literature has singled out society’s stereotypes and prejudices against women in position of power. (Catalyst 2002, 2005). According to the latter, women are viewed as lacking in the competencies and drive that are considered vital to be effective managers.

(Mihail. D., 2006)

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3. Unconscious stereotyping:The pre-set opinions about the other person as in linguistic and sociological terms are formed by the process of unconscious stereotyping. The unconscious stereotyping, in the business context is when the judgments are made on the language used. Cooke.C. 1998 described it as “The process of unconscious stereotyping—is of forming attitudes about communicators and what they say based on the language they use.” Unconscious stereotyping is important to the business communicators. As the judgments are made about the communicator and the content which is being communicated, this makes the audience to associate the attitude of a person with what is being said. Keeping this in mind, the communicators use the language features which they know receivers have positive opinions about. This is the reason why a UK company developed a guidelines and a management process for managing the communication styles which would develop a linguistic style and will encourage positive attitudes among the workforce. (Cooke.C. 1998)

4: Halo effect which leads to self fulfilling prophecy: Thorndike .E (1920), defined the halo effect as “a problem that arises in data collection when there is carry-over from one judgment to another.”

The halo effect refers to evaluating another person solely on the basis of one’s attribute, either favorable or unfavorable. Halo effect basically is the general assessment of the overall person. That is if the manager regards a person as good. He will tend to review the person’s whole performance in the positive way even if he is not working that positively. In other words, the halo effect blinds the perceiver to the attributes that also should be evaluated to obtain a complete, accurate impression of the other person. (Hellriegel & Slocum. 2009)

Self-fulfilling prophecy is another important aspects of the halo effect. Halo effect when bombarded with our own made up projections, affects the judgment which later on affects our decision making process The propensity for the halo effect to operate is not random. Research suggests that it is likely to be extreme when the traits to be perceived are ambiguous in behavioral terms, when the traits have moral overtones, and when the perceiver is judging traits with which he or she has had limited experience.

(Bruner. J.S & Tagiuri.R.)

>>>>Levels of halo effect: Holding high expectations of another tends to improve the individual’s performance, which is known as the Pygmalion effect. The Pygmalion effect has its roots in Greek mythology when Pygmalion who hated women fell in love with the sculptor of the

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women and wished for her to the Goddess to be in real world. In other words, we strive to validate our perceptions of the reality no matter how faulty they may be. Subordinates whose managers expect them not to perform well don’t perform well. This effect could be quite devastating in the workplace because if a person who doesn’t do well are rewarded for nothing and ones, who work whole day long don’t get a single nod of appraisal.

(Hellriegel & Slocum. 2009)

Another level of the halo effect is Golem effect which refers to the loss in performance resulting from low expectations on the boss’s part. If a manger notices that a subordinate sales reports are always late, this leads the manager to doubt whether the employee is committed to being a high achiever. This may result in manager watching employee more closely. In result of this, employee becomes afraid to make suggestions that could improve the report for fearing of turning report in late. The manager then interprets this as the lack of initiative.

( Mozveni.A. 2007)

5: Self fulfilling prophecy as a result of stereotyping and halo effect:

Chang.H. & H.Kliener. B., in their journal on common racial stereotypes commented on self-fulfilling prophecies as “If people are repeatedly recognized in a negative image, they will begin to develop feelings of inferiority. Thus “the feelings of inferiority can lead to self fulfilling prophecies that perpetuate the stereotype.” (University counseling centre, 2000).

Gadot.V. & Drory.A (2006) clarified self fulfilling prophecy as “The self fulfilling prophecy is the tendency for someone’s expectations about another to cause that individual to behave in a manner consistent with those expectations.” When you expect certain things to happen it shapes the behavior of the perceiver in such a way that what you expect is more likely to happen within the organization. Self fulfilling prophecies can be either positive or negative.

Ways for managers to avoid these problems: Some of the solutions for the managers to reduce the intensity of selective attention and its issues are as follows:

Workplace diversity:

The idea of diversity management is that it seeks to go beyond ruling out discrimination because of legal or ethical considerations alone. If a manager does not adopt an unbiased approach to diversity at work, the costs to the organization can be indirect as well as direct to the employee

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themselves and to the organizational benefit too. Indirect costs could be adverse publicity, cultural misunderstandings and end-consumer disinterests. Pilbeam & Corbridge (2002, p191) stated that: “a managing diversity philosophy is founded on the acceptance and recognition that individual differences are to be valued and actively used in the pursuit of organizational and individual goals”The lack of managerial diversity has many profound implications for some employees, because if some employee raises some form of grievance against another employee, he should be properly addressed. Because it’s much better to minimize the effect of the conflict in the start of it than when it have done its harm.

Writing non discrimination policies and practicizing them:

The pattern of workforce and workplace is much changed now in these days. The working population is getting older and there more women and people from ethnic minorities at the workplace. Everyone has to be treated fairly at work and to be free of discrimination of any kind be it age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or belief. Everyone should be handled according to the equal law.

Awareness and education:

Education is the best solution of minimizing stereotyping. With different cultures introduced inside the organization, one gets the opportunity to learn other person better. Moreover, employers should be introduced to the diversity-training programs.

Performance management: Managers have to guard against the halo effect when rating the employee performance. A manager should not single out a single trait and use it as judging all other performance measures of the person. (Hellriegel & Slocum.2009) He should be able to judge them according to their working capacities and as for the benefits to the organization itself.

Equality & justice be served:

The principal of equal opportunity requires that people should be recruited on the basis of their ability to do the job, with no other factors intruding into the decision. (Armstrong, 2003). For the equal opportunity principles, the duty based ethics point should be clear: to treat all the employees on same basis and not to allow any racist or sexist sentiments to enter decisions about them. As discussed by Boatright, (1999), making recruitment on the basis of prejudices is unjust to those who are disadvantaged. Moreover, the managers who rule out some of the employees from the whole group are actually depriving themselves of significant pool of talent to their own organization.

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Business ethics:A manager should be concerned about the business ethics. When ethics are seen as duties, a manager should make all the employees understand that this should be done at the workplace and this to be refrained from. The desired qualities and character traits that are possessed by good people should be introduced to the employees at role models. When managers bestow someone with selective attention, it may happen that those people start bullying and intimidation, which are plainly unacceptable. Duty-based thinking should be developed in employees underlining the employees rights. Increasingly, now a day’s companies are developing and publishing their own codes of conduct. Besides providing guidance to employees about the expected standards, these publish codes also send a clear signal to the outside world: ‘these are the standards by which we are happy to be judged.’

(Rayner. C; Adam-Smith. D., 2007)

Flexibility: Flexibility has been frequently identified as a key human resource policy goal or outcome, along with strategic intention, quality and employee commitment, ‘ensuring an adaptable organization structure.’ (Guest 1995, p 57). Flexibility in any on the organization can lead to employee’s motivation as well as the finest outcome of the employees too. A manager himself should be flexible to any new ideas which the employees come up with. And to work accordingly to those ideas.

Motives, Motivation and reward:

Today, in this very day everyone knows that fear and money are not the only ways to motivate people to work. The American label, ‘kick ass and take names’ describes a motivational technique which is still widely practiced but not acknowledged much. This is the way and a technique though, but now everyone knows what are their goals and motive and people work to get to their ambitions and goals. A manager should consider the Maslow’s Herierachy needs of a person and work according to them. Freedom of inquiry and expression needs should be mulled over keeping their individual self esteem in their mind.

Don’t promote tribes ways at workplace:

Organizations too or sometimes a collection of tribes, which can be very different in the ways they behave. The bigger the organization, the more tribes you will find. ‘Sales’ will be the one and so will the ‘accounts’, the ‘boys’ in X division and the ‘girls’ in market research. This minimizes the power of workforce and the level of work. A person who cannot be part of the tribe is discriminated and stereotyped. It could be devastating in some situations. Manager should be aware of such groups and should not encourage them. Workplace diversity be introduced to handle such situations. (Handy. C., 1992)

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Employee & Manager’s involvement and participation: Here, employee participation refers to the collective rather than the individual process; it means that all of the employees should be allowed to influence the decision-making process. Such kind of involvement relates to the matters that specifically affect the members of the workforce either in a positive way or a negative way. A manager should practice on the notes of equality here.

(Rayner. C; Adam-Smith. D., 2007)

Highest managerialcontrol of decision making manager tells

manager decides

manager consults employees

joint participation

manager delegates

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Lowest managerialControl of decisionmaking Low employment High employment Involvement involvement

Figure 03: Involvement and participation in decision making: Adapted from Brown, E.J., 2001, A study of the relationship between self-concept and management style: a perspective on individual managers. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Surrey.

The degree of involvement and participation may be pivotal to the notion that higher worker involvement and participation will, all things being equal, lead to increased employee motivation, mutual commitment and by implications it increase the stakeholder’s value.

Empowerment: The concept of empowerment has been identified as recent and advanced manifestation of employee involvement, with its advocates arguing that it is the answer to gaining organizational performance. “The universal core to accounts of empowerment is that it confers greater responsibility and accountability to low level employees.” (Block 1987; Klagge 1998). If empowerment is handled to low level employees, it is a greater benefit for the organization, employees are most likely to experience enhanced job satisfaction and commitment, in an environment characterized by trust and greater tolerance of well-intentioned errors, teamwork and enhanced training. (Rayner. C; Adam-Smith. D., 2007)

How to avoid halo effect: Having clear and specific ratings standards can help to avoid the halo effect. Another means to traverse the hazards of the halo effect is completely assess the performance on one performance factor before moving on to next factor. (N.a, 2009)

Interpersonal communication minimizing the communication barriers: Interpersonal communication should be introduced at the workplace. People from different ethnic groups and races should be encouraged to work together and to come up with new innovative collective ideas. This will help them to reduce the communication barriers between them which are the result of discrimination and prejudices.

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First impression is not necessarily the last impression:

“You only have one chance to make good first impression”. Going against this tidbit, a manger should give everyone the second chances depending on the situation. Everyone deserves a second chance. And it’s the right of the employees that they are provided with the environment where they can work according to their needs and values

Power Politics:

Instead of being authoritative to the employees, be influential. Authority and influence means almost the same but have totally different meanings. When you use “influence” it is most likely to mean that you are letting your employees free to reject your suggestions. The power which the manager use should not be negative in the way that manager is covering his own back. It should constructive as it leads to good working environment. Power should not be abused for the favorite ones, while ignoring others who deserve more of that. (Handy. C., 1992)

CONCLUSIONS:

The world constantly bombards us with information: sights, sounds, scents, and so on. Our minds organize this stream of sensation into a mental map that represents our perception or reality. As senders, we choose the details that seem important and focus our attention on the most relevant and general, a process which is known as selective perception. Selective attention could be devastating in many of the situations. How you judge people and perceive their attributes leads to selective perception which is selective attention. What gets inside our minds goes through two screening stages which are sensation and perception. Due to selective attention many problems and issues arises at any of the workplace and is not healthy. Some of the issues which arises of

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selective attention at workplace are stereotyping, halo effect, discrimination, prejudices, favoritism etc. Discrimination happens when an employer treats one employee less favorably than others. Normally, male employees are found to hold relatively negative stereotypic attitudes, compared to their female counterparts. People are discriminated with religious jokes, dismounting religious beliefs of others or may because of lack of concern too. Asians are discriminated too as lay off’s, for their promotions, their wages, and are harassed emotionally and sexually. Race and gender are the sources of discrimination but apart from that the limiting access to power and promotion is much associated with favoritism at workplace too. Favoritism could be under any kind of social pressure or because of some religious way. A stereotype is an oversimplified generalization about a person or group of people without regard for individual differences. One reason for stereotypes is the lack of personal, concrete familiarity that individuals have with persons in other racial or ethnic groups. Lack of familiarity encourages the lumping together of unknown individuals. Literature has singled out some of society’s stereotypes and prejudices against women in position of power. (Catalyst 2002, 2005). According to the latter, women are viewed as lacking in the competencies and drive that are considered vital to be effective managers. Moreover, another issue, halo effect blinds the perceiver to the attributes that also should be evaluated to obtain a complete, accurate impression of the other person. Self-fulfilling prophecy is another important aspect of the halo effect. Halo effect when bombarded with our own made up projections, affects the judgment which later on affects our decision making process. The solutions for the managers to reduce the intensity of selective attention and its issues are the idea of diversity management, Writing non discrimination policies and practicizing them, Awareness and education, Performance management, Equality & justice, business ethics, motivation, empowerment etc.

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