Prejudice: A Weed in the Workplace

In today’s society, we face prejudice every day in many forms. Most people in today’s society have either been victims of prejudice or are guilty of exhibiting prejudice towards others.

Workplace biases are predominant in a work environment however it should not become a culture of the place. That is when public administrator plays a crucial role because based on their role they expect that biases should rather be replaced by team building effort in order to achieve a common goal which will bring prosperity to the organization. Since, at the end of the day, it is the quality of the team’s work toward task accomplishment so it is never healthy in a work environment to have comparisons within the team members. At a workplace, it is always expected to have relational transparency and public administrators always ensure the organization is following through the requirement. This paper will be breaking down the role of the public administrator, team building, and how public administrators avoid workplace biases by emphasizing how a public administrator always needs to withdrawn from his or her opinion and look at from others perspective for a better result within the workplace in order to manage others and work in teams.

It has been thoroughly thought over what current topic or issue that people experience in most environments today, at both a micro and macro level that would be able to be examined and have come to the decision of looking at the most widely discussed subject, prejudice. All people are affected by prejudice in one way or another and it can impact on people's lives depending on what form it has taken. Also to be able to acknowledge that all people can be prejudices and see this is the first step to overcoming it.. The question that has been decided upon is that of “What types of prejudice do we see commonly today and how do they affect an individual at a micro and macro level?”

Prejudice is when we have a preconceived opinion about someone or a group of people that is formed without knowledge, or even a real understanding about them.

Prejudice exists as a constant element in society, constantly influencing decisions and altering perspectives of individuals. It serves as a barrier toward equality and ultimately misshapes any sort of balance in a situation. This discrimination towards individuals is especially evident in the work force. Particularly for workers of lower classes or minorities, there is a very overt prejudice toward these individuals because of their differences. It is often believed that because they are of a minority group, they are inferior and less capable than those of a more prominent race.

Most common form of prejudice, in the United States at least, is in between racial groups. Unfortunately, racial prejudice is so prevalent in the Western society. I believe most people think of themselves as unprejudiced these days, even myself. Sometimes we didn’t realize that we have expressed indirect forms of prejudice, ones that are subtler. Example in the American society could be when white people

In a perfect world, people would be equal in rights, opportunities, and responsibilities, despite their race or gender. In the world we live in, however, we always face all kinds of neglect based on different attributes. All over the United States, certain people treat others with prejudice because of particular features they possess. Unfortunately, prejudice and discrimination occur even in places which, by definition, should be free of all personal prejudices – specifically, in offices and other business surroundings. This tragedy is called workplace discrimination; not every unfair behavior at work, however, can be assessed as discrimination. Discrimination in the workplace happens when an employee experiences unfair treatment due to their race, gender, age, religion, marital status, national origin, disability or veteran status, or other characteristics. Discrimination is one of the largest issues people face in the workplace and it must be dealt with. The U.S. have laws and regulations on discrimination but it still often occurs. Workplace discrimination appears in hiring, training, promotion, firing, and other institutional or interpersonal treatment. Discrimination sometimes causes an employee to leave or quit the workplace, resign from a position, or in more severe cases, to commit suicide or act violently against the discriminators. Discrimination is one of the largest issues many people face in the workplace.

Unfortunately, many workplaces have utilized the colorblind approach that emphasizes peoples’ similarities rather than their differences, in order to “treat everyone the same.” The rhetoric behind these tactics are that differences lead to problems between one another, marginalized groups must assimilate into the dominant culture, individual culture must be abandoned, and that there are absolutely no biases at play, although this only leaves marginalized employees more untrusting of their straight, white, male coworkers. Colorblindness also allows those who perpetuate microaggressions to be excused from holding accountability for expressing offensive beliefs and biases. Those offended may ultimately leave their job or their performance will decline. During recruitment, heterosexist and racial biases determines who is “qualified” (218). Companies who adopt a colorblind tactic have very low retention rates because although overt, prejudicial instances may be addressed, covert ones are ignored and deemed as

In psychology, prejudice is different from discrimination. Prejudice is an unjustifiable and often negative stereotyped attitude that a person holds against the members of a particular social group. Whereas, discrimination is when prejudicial attitudes cause members of a particular group to be treated differently than others in situations that call for equal treatment. Thus, prejudice leads to discrimination. There are several factors that contribute to prejudice and discrimination, and there are many techniques for reducing the development of prejudice and discrimination.

For years now, understanding prejudice has been one of human’s greatest challenges. Prejudice can be described as an unfavourable, negative attitude towards a social group and its individual members. On the surface this may not seem like a significant issue, however, it can become associated with dehumanisation and violence. It is suggested that every human is prejudice; people make assumptions based on characteristics such as age, sex, and ethnicity. There are many explanations of prejudice, however, there has never been an internationally accepted theory. In early 20th Century, Prejudice was considered an innate quality of humans, and instinctive response to certain characteristics of a person. Other psychologists may argue that prejudice is an attitude that is acquired over time, catalysed by social agents.

Prejudice is all around us. It has become a common thing that almost everyone in their life has run into at some point in a certain situation. Whether the prejudice of sex, religion, or gender comes from a celebrity, a friend, or a complete stranger, it’s inevitable.

The general populace is guilty of articulating prejudicial remarks to one another. While there are people who are fully aware of the derogatory remarks they make, others act with ignorance or with the intention of humor. The existence of insensitivity towards a crucial subject is the continuous acceptance of discriminatory behavior against minorities. Consequently, the resentment is reciprocated by the minorities back to the middle and working class people. This is the culture families implement and learns to live with and as a result, prejudicial attitudes pass on from one generation to another. The primary cause of prejudice is a sociological perspective of a person under predominance of the socialization process, economic competition, and conforming to social norms.

With all of the advances in modern society and human behavior, racism is still a crisis that many people have to cope with. It can occur at any place or at any time, including in the workplace. Racial discrimination arises when someone is treated differently based on their actual or perceived race. Many people believe that if one were to be in the vicinity of a respected workplace that they would be respected by all co-workers and employers; this is in no way true. A big amount of minority employees, mainly African-Americans, are affected by racial discrimination in the workplace whether it’s from their employers or their fellow co-workers, and it is not at all acceptable. Racial discrimination is a situation that has always been a problem, so we must show an effort to try to eliminate it from our society.

Great post Stephanie, it's somewhat unfortunate that certain things while we may not have experienced them that we are completely aware that they go on all around us this especially is true when it comes to differences in the workplace. The "glass ceiling" term is a perfect example for the specific fact that it is covert. In today's society most things would need to be convert to get away with specific types of prejudice or discrimination while i'm not denying some organizations or business's are non covert about some of their practices I would think given the heightened climate of prejudice and discrimination today most organizations would be covert in order to avoid situations of being accused of being prejudice or discriminatory. Regardless

Overcoming unconscious bias in the workplace may be a difficult task, or nearly impossible but I do believe that if we take the initiative to understand and seek out unconscious bias, we can find ways to minimize it. Of course, we always have the option to look to Human Resources to help with many of the problems that arise during work but, according to Chamberlain, “while human resources is often the driver of a company’s focus on diversity and inclusion, it cannot be just an HR issue or a diversity committee/council issue,” (Chamberlain, 2016). With that being said, if more companies work to combat unconscious bias throughout all departments, the overall organization will be able to work in better harmony. To give