New Marketing Manager

New Marketing Manager

This situation represents possibly the representativeness heuristic, with using the A, B and C's. A is representing a woman, B is representing a Hispanic and C is putting them both into a classification. I feel that my co-worker either does not want a woman in the position, or a person of a Hispanic descendant, or possibly both. Unfortunately, the perfect candidate is both. She has a Master Degree in business, along with 20 years of experience with working with our competitor. We are looking for someone with high qualifications and experience; she has met all the requirements for the position, so I feel that it is a bias heuristic. With him not wanting to express or discuss any of his feeling or why he has made this decision, I am assuming that it is representativeness heuristic. I feel that using this type of heuristic can lead to poor judgment as well as legal implications.

Upon further research I found another heuristic that wasn't mentioned in our text book. This is Judgmental heuristic, which clearly states that this is methods that one makes during assessments or judgments of probability simpler. These types of judgments are often useful but lead to systematic errors. (Author Unknown, 2007)

I feel that there would be some legal and ethical implications on my co-workers decision, if word got out. If they for instance let their feelings known and word got out, it could end up in a prejudice or discriminating law suit. If my co-worker wants to hire a male, with less experience and education, this would prove the theory of the type of heuristic shown.

I would also discuss with him and point out the importance of hiring a person with experience and show him how we would then cover the Federal stand point on hiring minorities.

Discrimination is referred to as being the behavioral component of prejudice. Discrimination behaviors are directed toward people on the basis of their group