Kate Marley’sStory
Kate Marley grew up in Brooklyn, NewYork the daughter of immigrants. Her father was from Jamaica andher mother from Puerto Rico. While not educated themselves, herparents valued education and Kate had been a diligent student sinceearly childhood. She worked her way through City College of NewYork and got a full scholarship for law school at PaceUniversity.
When Kate obtained her law degree(JD), she applied for a position with a large and respectedcorporate law firm. She was among dozens of applicants; but,because of her outstanding academic record and excellent referencesfrom her professors she was among the four selected. As a newassociate, she worked sixteen hour days and weekends, she acceptedroutine assignments graciously, and was well liked by colleaguesand clients. Her willingness to work extremely hard and her strongdesire to achieve excellence in her job were directly tied to hergoals of becoming professionally and financially successful.
Recently however, events at work hadcaused her to develop doubts about whether her achievements wouldpay off as she hoped. She wanted very much to be recognized for herwork in tangible ways with more choice case assignments and aninvitation to become a partner in the firm. She had recentlylearned that 3 of her male colleagues who had joined the firm aftershe and whose performance levels were inferior to her own, hadreceived larger bonuses than she had received. Further, it appearedthey were being groomed for better assignments; and, one among themhad already been invited to become partner in the firm.
Kate’s mind kept returning to thesecases. She became more and more suspicious that something besidesperformance was holding her back. It took a long time for her tobecome bold enough to speak to one of the firm’s partners about herconcerns, but she finally took the opportunity that arose oneevening during the firm’s Christmas party. She had been chattingalone with the partner in charge of the area in which she presentlyworked. She hardly was able to give any attention to theconversation because she was thinking about whether she should risktelling him how upset she was.
He noticed her uneasiness and asked ifanything was wrong. She poured it all out and couldn’t help but cryas she did. He seemed to listen sympathetically. Then he said that,although he knew he shouldn’t tell her this and he would deny thathe ever did, she would have to face the fact that her chances ofrising higher in the firm were not good because some of the oldpartners were not ready to accept a minority woman as a partner inthe firm.
She felt her heart pound and her gorgerise. Kate had never felt her whole being flooded with such rage.She said, “Thank you for telling me,†then quietly got up and left.The next day she resigned. The next week she accepted a position inanother law firm with a 20% base pay increase.   Threeyears later she became a partner in that firm.
Answer both of the followingquestions. Spelling and grammar are 20% of the grade for is exam,80% for content and demonstration of knowledge of thetopics.
1. Apply the concepts we studied inChapter 4 on Perceptions and Attribution Theory explain allthe possible reasons that the senior partners did notperceive Kate’s performance favorably as compared to her fellowmale associates in the firm Identify and define the as many of thevarious concepts we studied that might explain faulty perception ofKate. Simply listing “stereotypes†is not a sufficientresponse.
2. Using the Equity Theory fromChapter 6, explain why Kate was motivated to leave the firm afterhearing why she was being overlooked by the senior partners as forbetter pay and advancement. Be sure to define the various parts ofthe theory as you explain Kate’s motivation to depart.
