Your Firm Is Hiring A New Marketing Manager

Your firm is hiring a new marketing manager and you and one of the other senior managers has been interviewing candidates. A candidate just completed the interview process and you felt that she had the skills and background needed for the position. After expressing this to the other manager he replied that this person would not be a good fit and that you should continue to search for another person.

The candidate in question had the following skills, background and characteristics:

* Hispanic Woman

* Masters Degree in Marketing

* Worked for a competitor for the past 20 years

Based on your review of this situation answer each of the following questions:

* Identify the possible heuristics and/or biases that may have influenced your co-worker's opinion.

* Are there ethical or legal implications from making a hiring decision based on his opinion?

* What would your response be to your co-worker?

* How would you convince him that this person is right for the job and should be hired?

The possible heuristics and/or biases that may have influenced my co-worker's opinion are the representativeness and attribution heuristics. My co-worker may feel that the Hispanic woman would be an unusual fit for the position a marketing manager and that she may be better suited for another job. My co-worker may also think that due to the fact she used to work for a competitor it could be a conflict of interest. If most people behave similarly when confronted by the same situation, a dispositional explanation is probably wrong. But there could be some ethical and legal implications from making a hiring