Hy Dairies Ltd Case Study

Rochelle Beauport, who was hired as an assistant brand manager at HY Dairies LTD two years ago, and happened to be one of the few woman of color, increased the sales volume and market share of the product significantly over the past two quarters. Syd Gilman, the Vice president of marketing at HY Dairies, offered Rochelle a new position as a market research coordinator due to her great performance. As Gilman had gone through the same path and advanced his career through the market research coordinator; he thought it would be a great opportunity for Rochelle to boost her career in the following years. When Rochelle was offered the job, she was certain that marketing research coordinator position would not take her to the higher lever in management position. Rochelle is unsure about her self-view. As she had been a victim of discrimination and gender inequality in in her previous job in the similar position, she assumed that she had been demoted due to her skin color and that women can’t handle a management job.

Stereotyping and social identity are the roots that cause the symptoms in this case. Based on the social identity theory, Rochelle self-categorized herself as minority; she perceived that her gender and her skin color are the factors that would not let her go further in her career. She felt her personal identity as someone who had made a huge difference in the sales profit, had been neglected. She also stereotyped the vice-president as a racist. That’s when the perceptual bias occurred and that is why she had a negative attitude towards the new position. Syd, on the other hand, anticipated that Rochelle would be thrilled with this position thinking she would enhance her career through this position.

One of the evidence we can see in this case is False-Consensus. Syd is projecting his way of thinking onto Rochelle. What he did not realize was that Rochelle is coming from a different background and work experiences. He did not know that Rochelle was discriminated in her previous company and that made her quit her position. He didn’t anticipate the consequences of the way he offered the job that may make Rochelle think of quitting again. He overestimated that Rochelle would see this position as a transition to a higher level. Lack of communication is one of the main problem that caused both parties misinterpreted each other. Gilman did not take a time to explain Rochelle that what advantages this position have for her and that he had held the same position before he became a vice-president. Rochelle did not ask Syd why she was offered this position and that she was enjoying her role as an assistant bran manager.        

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