Stereotype Threat Experiences, Active Listening - Assignment Example

Questions 3-6 Student’s Name Institution of Affiliation Answer #3 Stereotype threat can be explained as a self-confirming belief that arises in a situational predicament where an individual or individuals feel that they can be evaluated on the basis of a negative stereotype (Beilock, Rydell & McConnell, 2007). Every individual has a negative stereotype which if the individual is reminded of that negative stereotype, it raises the individual’s anxiety which in turn disrupts the individuals thought processes thereby affecting the individual’s performance in this case students are the most affected. In case an individual encounters many repeated stereotype threat experiences, this can cause the individual to lose confidence, loss of interest and poor performance in the individual’s area of interest (Good, Aronson & Inzlicht, 2003). The ladder of inference was proposed by Chris Argyris in 1970, it provides a way of describing how individuals through a sequence of mental processes move from raw data that involves either something seen, heard or a comment said to you and translates the data into a conclusion. Every individual’s beliefs have a tendency to reinforce the information or data that every individual chooses, and the way the individual understands it, this process becomes a feedback positive loop. However, the sense of positive do not necessarily mean that that the loop is good, al it means is that the feedback pushes the mental processes onwards in lieu of stopping it, and thus confirms what the individual already believes. These selective thought processes that individuals tend to conform to are not good and have in many cases caused individuals to have a bad judgement and misguided beliefs about others. For example, from my own personal experiences there was this day that we agreed to go out and watch a movie with my first friend in college Mary. We agreed to meet outside the movie theatre at 2000hrs so that we could sit together throughout the movie. I was punctual and I arrived at exactly 2000hrs only to find that Mary was nowhere to be seen. After waiting for over an hour, she arrived and did not even bother to explain why she was late. In fact I had to admit that according to the way she behaved, she hadn’t realised she was late at all. I was furious at Mary during the entire time we spent watching the movie knowing that she simply wasn’t bothered to be punctual. After that night, I decided that there was no point for us being friends anymore because she valued her time more and didn’t bother explaining why she was late. A week later, Mary asked me whether we could go out to watch a movie together but I made an excuse in order not avoid going out with her. At the end, all that Mary concluded was that I didn’t want to go out again, she did not bother to ask why I couldn’t go. I also never bothered to ask Mary why she was late, all I did was make my own observations and arrive at a conclusion. I had even decided that our friendship wasn’t worth anymore without even telling her what was bothering me. Answer #4 High quality workplace connections can be defined as workplace interactions that makes an employee feel revitalized, open, engaged and motivated, this interactions do not necessarily rely on close relationships but mostly on simple employee exchanges in meetings that makes both employees feel valued. The daily interactions among employees in the workplace have a significant impact on employee moods, motivation and energy levels, this in turn energizes the workplace through relationship information processing. According to Jane Dutton, there are three ways of promoting high quality connections at the work place namely: (1) Respectful engagement- where manager’s, employers and employees treat each other with respect by creating positive energy and a good feelings cycle that increases employee productivity by being present, listening, punctuality, authenticity, affirmation and communicating. (2) Task enabling- where managers should be actively engaged in encouraging employees and assisting them in effective performance through coaching, facilitating, being accommodating and nurturing. (3) Trust- here, managers should adopt an approach to management that is capable of boosting employee engagement and motivation such as trusting employees by believing in their dependability and integrity through sharing, self-disclosure, language use, delegating and providing feedback (Dutton, 2003). In respectful engagement as the name suggests involves managers and employees engaging with each other in a manner that is respectful. It also involves appreciating the significance and existence of other individuals. Respectful engagement can occur through active listening, active constructive responding and appreciative feedback. Active listening Active listening can be defined as a communication technique that asks the listener to concentrate fully, understand, respond and then remember what the speaker is saying or has said in order to improve or create a mutual understanding. Active listening plays a major role in respectful engagement through both parties being attentive to what each one is saying. For example, in the college where I study it is a requirement that every once in a while, student counsellors are invited to come and talk to us students. After every counselling session, the counsellors asks questions and the student who replies correctly gets extra credit on their overall grades. Active constructive responding This directs to either one among the four ways of how individuals answer to good news; it is a constituent of Shelly Gables theoretical framework. It is an effective way of responding, that provides the messenger of the good news and the listening party a positive outcome. For respectful engagement, an individual must share in the joy of others by communicating genuine curiosity, pride and interest in the good news of another individual. For example, when my friend George obtained a scholarship to study at MIT, I was happy for him and I bought champagne for us to celebrate his luck. As we celebrated, I asked him how he got the scholarship and what subject he intended to study. Appreciative feedback This can be defined as an act of approving, complimenting and acting on people’s opinions in regard to certain ideas. Feedback is mostly provided by managers to the employees of the organization. Appreciative feedback assists in enhancing respectful engagement among individuals, especially managers and employees where managers by proving an appreciative feedback show their employees that they value their opinions in regard to certain matters. For example, I work at a supermarket during my free time from class time. The supermarket sometimes experiences losses due to theft. One day the manager approached me and asked for my opinion on how to prevent the theft from happening. I suggested to him that he should install monitors on every corner of the supermarket to display what the cameras recorded instead of only displaying on one small screen found in his office. Surprisingly, after a few days video monitors were installed. I felt valued by the manager by the fact that he had accepted my idea which later on proved to be useful because the rate of theft decreased gradually. Answer #5 Appreciative inquiry can be defined as a way of seeing and being. It involves a process and a worldview for assisting to bring about a positive human systems change such as groups communities and organizations with the assumption that the questions that individuals ask tends to focus an individual’s attention in a certain direction. Appreciative inquiry commences when individuals grounds themselves and their organizations in the five core appreciative inquiry principles that include: positive, anticipatory, constructionist, poetic and simultaneity (Cooperrider & Whitney, 2001). When using the appreciative inquiry approach, individuals engaged in the appreciative inquiry process ask questions such as, “How many times have our clients being pleased with the services that we offer and what is it that we can be able to learn and apply from the times we have been successful?” and “Without trying to be humble, what is it that you value a lot about your work, organization and yourself?”. Instead of concentrating on the negative side of the organization and trying to change that negative side, individuals using the appreciative inquiry considers the positive by looking at what can work and using it as a future development base (Bushe, 1999). The appreciative inquiry process consists of four distinct phases namely: Design, destiny, dream, and discover (4-D cycle). Discover: At this phase, as individuals talk to each other, they discover the organizations high-point experiences, this enables the individuals to also start discovering the capabilities and strengths of the organization or the organizations positive core. Dream: In this phase, a group of individuals is encouraged to collectively and through imagination by asking themselves questions such as “”how would it be like if…?” in order to visualize other possible things. Design: In this phase, a small group of individuals are concerned with exploring certain design elements of what can be completed to construct capacity and what the organization should morally do. Deliver (Destiny): This is the final phase concerned with delivering the dream and the design. This phase is that of improvisation and experimentation. Small implementation teams that are formed commits themselves to the repeated physical examination of innovation, learning and providing results that every stakeholders worries about. Deficit management approach primarily focuses on what’s broken while appreciative inquiry mainly focuses on what’s working. Deficit model deals with overcoming weaknesses while the appreciative inquiry model lays emphasis on the possibilities. The deficit model entirely involves problem solving while the appreciative inquiry model entails co-constructing. The deficit management approach is externally driven while the appreciative inquiry approach is internally driven. Deficit management provides short-term solutions while on the other hand appreciative inquiry provides sustainable solutions. The deficit model is dependent on relationships while the appreciative inquiry model is relationship independent. Deficit management approach relies heavily on expert knowledge while on the other hand, appreciative inquiries relies on individual strengths. Deficit model involves reforming and transition while appreciative inquiry involves transformation and invention. Deficit model highlights past failures while appreciative inquiry highlights past successes. Lastly, the deficit model entails prediction and control while appreciative inquiry model entails discoveries and surprises. Answer #6 An emotionally intelligent leader can be defined as a leader who has the capability to identify, apply, comprehend and manage his or her own emotions in a positive way to ease stress, offer empathy to others, communicate effectively, defuse conflict and get over challenges (Stein, 2009). Having emotional intelligence is crucial for a leader’s success. Emotional intelligence, unlike intellectual ability is learned and not acquired, therefore, any individual can learn emotional intelligence. There is also a big difference between learning emotional intelligence and a real life practical application of the knowledge learned (Goleman, 2006). Emotional intelligence model developed by Mayer and Salovey is measured using the Mayer-Solovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) which is founded on a sequence of emotion-based problem-solving items. The test is designed on IQ test based on ability. An individual’s abilities are tested against all the four emotional intelligence branches to generate scores for every branch together with a total score. A consensus fashion is employed in scoring the MSCEIT because of the idea that emotional intelligence needs to be tuned to the social norms. However, the MSCEIT has its own disadvantages such as that its items do not provide correct and objective responses. According to Daniel Goleman, emotional intelligence consists of five elements namely: self-awareness, self-regulation. Social skills, empathy for others and motivation (Goleman, 2006). This are the main ways through which leaders can build and strengthen their emotional intelligence. Self-awareness: If a leader is able to become self-aware, he or she will always know how he feels and realise that his or her emotions and actions can influence the people that the leader leads. It also helps an individual to know his strengths and weaknesses. In order to improve self-awareness, an individual can slow down and keep a journal. Self-regulation: If leaders learns on how to regulate themselves through controlling themselves, they can be able to avoid attacking their followers verbally and making emotional decisions which can compromise their values. In order to achieve this leaders can practice being calm, knowing their values and holding themselves accountable. Motivation: leaders should to be self-motivated. This is because self-motivated leaders are consistent in their work and their quality of work has high standards. Leaders can improve their motivation through knowing where they stand, being hopeful and through re-examining themselves. Empathy: by having empathy, leaders are able to understand their subjects more and assist in developing the individuals on their team, listen to opinions of other individuals, provide feedback and challenge individuals who are behaving unfairly. This can be achieved through putting yourself in another individuals shoes, responding to feelings and paying more attention to body language. Social skills: leaders with good social skills are able to communicate effectively and efficiently to their followers and teams. They are also good in conflict and dispute handling and are usually on the front row setting an example to their subjects. In order to obtain this social skills a leader must improve his communication skills, know how to give praise to others and learn on ways of resolving conflicts (Goleman, MacCoby, Davenport, Beck, Clampa & Watkin, 2001). References Beilock, S. L., Rydell, R. J., & McConnell, A. R. (2007). Stereotype threat and working memory: mechanisms, alleviation, and spillover. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136(2), 256 Bushe, G. R. (1999). Advances in appreciative inquiry as an organization development intervention. Organization Development Journal, 17(2), 61. Cooperrider, D. L., & Whitney, D. (2001). A positive revolution in change: Appreciative inquiry. Public administration and public policy, 87, 611-630. Dutton, J. E. (2003). Energize your workplace: How to create and sustain high-quality connections at work (Vol. 50). John Wiley & Sons. Goleman, D. (2006). Emotional intelligence. Bantam. Goleman, D., MacCoby, M., Davenport, T., Beck, J. C., Clampa, D., & Watkins, M. (2001). Harvard Business Review on what makes a leader. Harvard Business School Press. Good, C., Aronson, J., & Inzlicht, M. (2003). Improving adolescents' standardized test performance: An intervention to reduce the effects of stereotype threat. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24(6), 645-662. Stein, S. J. (2009). Emotional intelligence for dummies. John Wiley & Sons. Read More