| Case Study 3.1 | Hy Dairies, Ltd. | |

Rochelle Beauport, Assistant Brand Manager at Hy Dairies, is a member of a visible minority group. She enjoys her position with the company as she finds it both challenging and it has the ability to directly impact the company’s profitability. During her most recent annual performance review, Beauport was offered a new position as a Market Research Co-ordinator. This position is a lateral move. Syd Gilman, the Vice President of Marketing, is offering Beauport the position as a reward for her efforts in improving the sales of Hy Dairies’ Gourmet Ice Cream. While the market research co-ordinator position is not typically thought to be a route to top management, it is a position that Gilman …show more content…

There were a number of perceptual errors involved in this situation. Gilman had the misperception that because Beauport is in marketing, as he is, she would naturally want to follow a similar career path to his. This ‘false consensus effect’, where Gilman assumed that everyone in a group, in this case the marketing department, have similar beliefs or behaviours to his, resulted in the misperception that Beauport would be excited to have the same opportunities that he had.

Beauport, for her part, had a misperception regarding Gilman and the situation due to the ‘recency effect’, where people make a perceptual error in which most recent information dominates our perception of others. In Rochelle Beauport’s situation, it is the perception that because her most recent employer did not want women or minorities in senior management positions, she assumes that Hy Dairies would have a similar practice.

Preventing misunderstandings of this nature takes some effort and consideration. When administering performance reviews, ensure that all reviews contain a clear development plan. This will allow the employee to fully understand what areas are in need of development, as well as how this development can occur. For employees who are being considered for advancement, it will allow for a clear plan to be laid out showing the logical progress to be followed in order to advance with the organization. This