Stereotypes, stereotyping:
Dictionary of the French Language: stereotype: opinion ready-made, which reduce singularities. Syn: cliché. 2. Stable association of elements (pictures, ideas, symbols, words) that form a unity.
Rey, J. et al., 2008. Le nouveau petit Robert de la langue française. Paris: Le Robert
Sociology definition: derived from the Greek stereos= solid, typos=mark, and applied in the late 18th century as a technical term for the casting of a papier maché copy of printing type, the concept was developed by the north American journalist Walter Lippman in his book Public Opinion (1922) to mean the fixed, narrow 'picture in our head', generally resistant to easy change. It usually carries a pejorative meaning – in contrast to the sociological process of typification.
Scott, J. et al., 2005. Oxford dictionary of sociology, Oxford: Oxford University Press (pp638-639)
Human resources definition: stereotyping us the act of judging people according to our assumption about the group to which they belong. It is based on the belief that people from a specific group share similar traits and behave in a similar manner. Rather than looking at a person's individual qualities, stereotyping leads us to jump to conclusions about what someone is like. This might act against the person concerned (negative stereotypes) or on their favor (positive stereotypes). For example, the negative stereotype of an accountant is someone who is dull, uninteresting, and shy – which, of course, is a slur on all the exciting, adventurous accountant in the world. A positive stereotype us that accountant are intelligent, conscientious, and trustworthy – which is equally an inaccurate description of some of the accountant you are likely to encounter. The problem with stereotypes is that they are generalizations (so there are always often inaccurate). It is vital for managers to resist resorting to treating employees unfairly and making poor quality decisions that are detrimental to