1. GSB - MBA – TM I
BA 6115 – Organaisational
Behaviour
Unit II - Perception
5–1
2. “We don’t see things as
they are, we see things as
we are.”
A.Nin
“We see reality only as
shadows on the rough wall
of a cave.” Plato
5–2
3. What Is Perception, and Why Is It Important?What Is Perception, and Why Is It Important?
• People’s behavior isPeople’s behavior is
based on theirbased on their
perception of whatperception of what
reality is, not onreality is, not on
reality itself.reality itself.
• The world as it isThe world as it is
perceived is the worldperceived is the world
that is behaviorallythat is behaviorally
important.important.
• People’s behavior isPeople’s behavior is
based on theirbased on their
perception of whatperception of what
reality is, not onreality is, not on
reality itself.reality itself.
• The world as it isThe world as it is
perceived is the worldperceived is the world
that is behaviorallythat is behaviorally
important.important.
5–3
4. Perception is the process of receiving
information about and making sense of the
world around us. It involves deciding
which information to notice, how to
categorise that information, and how to
interpret it within the framework of our
existing knowledge – shape opinions,
decisions and actions.
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5. It is a psychological, cognitive
process by which people select,
organise and interpret sensory
stimuli into meaningful information
about their environment – the
manner in which a person
experiences the world – a person’s
view of reality.
Everyone sees the world through
different eyes.
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6. Why managers study perceptionWhy managers study perception
Employees react to perceptions and not
reality
Assumptions about employees
People are lazy and need to be controlled.
Big organisations are successful organisations.
Good leaders are good speakers
Big organisations dehumanise employees
People are more emotional
A productive worker is a happy worker
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7. Sensation and perceptionSensation and perception
Physical and psychological
Perceptual information is gathered
from
> Sight
> hearing
> Touch
> taste
> smell
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9. Perceptual processPerceptual process
1. Environmental stimuli – objects and stimuli in the
immediate environment
2. Observation – taste, smell, hearing, sight, touch
3. Perceptual selection – It is the process of filtering
information received by our senses -external factors – size,
intensity, contrast, motion, repetition, novelty, familiarity,
context Internal factors – personality, learning, motivation
4. Perceptual organisation – perceptual grouping – continuity,
closure, proximity, similarity
5. Interpretation – errors – perceptual defence, stereotyping,
halo effect, projection, expectancy effects
6. Response – covert – attitudes, motivation, feelings
overt - behaviour 5–9
10. Steps in perceptionSteps in perception
1.Selection; “speed read others – depends
on interests, background, experience,
attitudes, etc. People unconsciously focus
on those aspects of the individuals,
events, or situations that are consistent
with, or reinforce, their preceding
attitudes, moods, values, needs, or
schemata (mental mages0, even as they
screen out other, relevant information as
inconsistent with their pre-held beliefs. 5–10
11. • Selectivity – Figure-ground – meaningful
portion- figure, meaningless portion – ground
• Relevancy - selection is a subjective process
• Mental models – To achieve our goals with
some degree of predictability and sanity, we
need road maps of the environments in which
we live. These road maps are called mental
models – internal representations of external
world.
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12. Figure ground - faces-vase of RubinFigure ground - faces-vase of Rubin
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16. 2. Organisation - Cognitive process– Gestalt
process (Gestalt is also known as the "Law of
Simplicity" or the "Law of Pragnanz) - Gestalt -
"essence or shape of an entity's complete form")–
grouping, closure, simplification
> grouping – similarity or proximity
> cognitive closure – filling in missing
information
> Simplification – saliency (prominence) –
tendency to see patterns in random events.
.
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17. People make sense of information
even before they become aware of
it – called categorical thinking –
organising people and objects into
preconceived categories that are
stored in our long term memory
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25. 3. Interpretation – subjective and
judgmental - self concept
a. Halo effect – a perceptual distortion
shortcuts (Halo error or Horns or rusty halo
error)
- when the traits are unclear in
behavioral expressions
- when traits are not frequently used by
the perceiver
- when traits have moral implications
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26. If there is one important ‘rotten’ attitude,
it can spoil a ‘barrel’ of attitudes – a
dominant feature of a person overwhelms
the observer’s overall impression of the
person being observed. The overall
impression is skewed by a single
characteristic of the person or situation.
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27. b. Stereotyping –
c. Attribution – the way people come to understand
the causes of their own and others’ behaviors.
i. identical behaviour differently
ii. Causal explanation – own behaviour to
situations and others’ behaviour to personal
dispositions
internal behaviour to external causes
others’ behaviour to internal causes
Fundamental attribution error – self serving bias
d. Impression
e. Inference 5–27
28. f. Projection – individuals’ attribution of their own
feelings, attitudes and perception to others.
Individuals can project their fears, hatreds,
anxieties, and resentments onto others whom
they view as less powerful - scapegoating
g. Perceptual set – an expectation of a particular
interpretation based on past experience with
the same or similar set. (old woman/young
woman). Managers are influenced by their
functional specialisations, or back grounds.
5–28
31. PerceiverPerceiver
If you expect policemen to be authoritative,
young people to be unambitious, or individuals
holding public offices to be unscrupulous, you
perceive them as such regardless of their actual
traits.
Motivation influences perception – the Pollyana
principle – ’people process pleasant events
more efficiently then they do unpleasant
events.’
Perception begins with the perceiver – old
adage; “ When Peter talks about Paul, he is
also talking about Peter.” 5–31
32. Personality –
- Weak individuals find fault in others
- secure individuals perceive others as warm
- thoughtful individuals do not expose by
expressing extreme judgments of others
- persons who accept themselves perceive
things favorably
- self accepting individuals perceive themselves
as liked, wanted and accepted by others.
- values and attitudes - perceptual defence –
screening out of information that threaten our
values and beliefs. – protects our self esteem.
5–32
33. TargetTarget
Loud people are more likely to be noticed
in a group than quiet ones, so too are
extremely attractive or unattractive
individuals – relationship to background –
tendency to group close things and similar
things together – salience- intensity –
contrast – status – Self-fulfilling
prophecies (SFP) – also called the
“Pygmalion effect”. – the tendency to
create or find in another situation or
individual that which one expected to find
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34. Sometimes novelty cannot be effective unless care
is taken e.g., in translating;
E.g., Schweppe’s Tonic Water was translated as ‘Il
Water’ in Italian meaning water in the bath tub.
- Pepsi’s ‘Come alive’ in German meant, ‘come
out of the grave’.
- In Asia it meant, ‘bring your ancestors back
from the grave.’
- advertisement for a cereal manufactured in
US, ran a picture of a freckled , red-haired, crew-
cut, grinning kid saying, “See kids, it’s great!”. The
company failed in Britain which is not a child-
centred society.
5–34
35. Context/situationContext/situation
Time, location, light, heat, or any number
of situational factors
Constancy – stability in a changing
environment, continuity
Context – Doodles
Defence ; denial, modification of data,
refusal to change, change in perception
e.g., transferred emotion – a psychological
process in whichour emotions screen out
large blocks of information that threaten
our values and beliefs.
5–35
36. Social identitySocial identity
Perceptual process is an interesting
combination of our self-perceptions and
perceptions of others – how perceive the
world depends on how we define ourselves –
this connection between self-perception and
the perception of others is explained through
social identity theory – people maintain a
social identity by defining themselves in
terms of the groups to which they belong and
have an emotional attachment.
5–36
37. Inter-personal perceptionInter-personal perception
i. Temporal extension
ii. Categorisation –
stereotypes
iii. Parataxis - the placing together
of sentences, clauses, or phrases without a
conjunctive word or words, as Hurry up, it is
getting late! I came—I saw—I conquered.
iv. Functional inference
v. Metaphorical
generalisation 5–37
38. Person Perception: Making Judgments About
Others
Person Perception: Making Judgments About
Others
5–38
39. Attributions are inferred causes; that is, the
cause-and-effects assigned to observed
behaviour – inferred causes
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40. Determination depends on
Distinctiveness: shows different
behaviors in different situations.
Consensus: response is the same as
others to same situation.
Consistency: responds in the same way
over time.
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41. Person perceptionPerson perception
Primacy effect – first impressions –
implicit personality theories about the
relationships among physical
characteristics, personality traits and
specific behaviour, e.g., voice quality.
First impressions are lasting impressions –
difficult to change
> Recency effect –the most recent
information dominates our perception of
others.
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42. Internally caused behaviours are those
that are believed to be under the
personal control of the individual.
Externally caused behaviour is seen
as having been forced into the
behaviour by the situation.
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44. Errors and Biases in AttributionsErrors and Biases in Attributions
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45. Fundamental attribution error occurs
when there is limited information about
the situational factors affecting other
people. The person performing the
behaviour is more sensitive to situational
influences- can lead to disagreement over
the degree to which employees should be
held responsible for their poor
performance or absenteeism.
5–45
49. People unconsciously focus on aspects of
individuals, events or situations that are
consistent with, or reinforce, their
preexisting attitudes, moods, values ,
needs, or schemata as they screen out
other, relevant information as inconsistent
with the preheld beliefs.
5–49
51. 5–51
The Poggendorff Illusion is an optical illusion
that involves the brain's perception of the
interaction between diagonal lines and
horizontal and vertical edges.
In the picture, a straight black and red line is
obscured by a grey rectangle. The blue line,
rather than the red line, appears to be a
continuation of the black one, which is clearly
shown not to be the case on the second
picture.
53. 5–53
To this day, it is not known why this illusion
happens. There are many theories about why
this simple geometrical illusion occurs, but
none proposed gives a satisfactory account for
all the conditions under which it diminishes or
appears. It could be that the human
visual system is extremely poor at interpreting
the path of diagonal lines, although it is not
understood why. A potential theory is that the
technical 2D shape of the "line" and the angle
have some kind of special relationship that
causes our brain to be fooled.
55. projectionprojection
Individuals, attribution of their own
feelings, attitudes or perceptions to other
people – , as defence mechanisms, are often
emotional and can be applied to others in
positive or negative ways – individuals can
project their fears, hatreds, anxieties and
resentment onto others whom they view as
less powerful – scapegoating -
5–55
56. StereotypingStereotyping
Derived from the typographer’s word for a printing
plate made from previously composed type. In
1972, Walter Lippman applied it to perceptual
errors- blanket perception.
“Making positive or negative generalisations
about a group or category of people, usually
based on inaccurate assumptions and beliefs and
applying these generalisations to an individual
member of the group.”
5–56
57. stereotypingstereotyping
It is an extension of social identity – tendency to
make positive or negative generalisations about a
group and applying them to an individual – may be
useful when an initial structure must be
constructed and when the amount of incoming data
must be reduced to make sense of the information.
It will be dysfunctional when it affects working
relationships, team cohesiveness, and productivity –
can be barriers to seeing, communicating and
acting effectively when based on erroneous or
hurtful information – often applied to cultural
groups, age, gender, social class, and regional5–57
58. ExamplesExamples
- Sales people are more outgoing and
aggressive
- Accountants are quiet and
introspective
- Married people are stable employees.
- managers do not give a damn about
their people
- union people expect something for
nothing.
5–58
59. - All old workers are less skilled in computer
technology
- All Arabs support Muslim fundamentalism
- All Asians are good in Mathematics
- All Afro-Americans are athletic
- Women are more nurturing than men.
- An Accountant is single-mindedly
preoccupied with precision and form,
methodical and conservative, and a boring
and joyless character.
5–59
60. Stereotyping processStereotyping process
Individuals are grouped on the basis of race, gender,
education, region, occupation, etc.,
Inferences are made that all members of the group have the
same characteristics
Expectations on these generalisations are made to interpret
the behaviour of individual members of the groups
We maintain the stereotypes by exaggerating the
frequency of stereotypic behaviours the others show,
inaccurately explaining the behaviours and separating
them from our own.
The 3 more common types of stereotype are on the basis of
race, age and sex roles.
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61. Stereotyping can present barriers to
seeing, communicating, and acting
effectively, when they are based on
erroneous or hurtful misinformation.-
Generally have some inaccuracies, some
overestimation or underestimation of real
differences, and some degree of accuracy.
However, stereotypes are never as
accurate as our personal knowledge of an
individual.
5–61
62. Problems with stereotypingProblems with stereotyping
i. Stereotyped traits do not accurately
describe every person in that social
category.
ii. We often ignore or misinterpret
information that is inconsistent with the
stereotype.
iii. Stereotypes are notoriously easy to
confirm because they include abstract
personality traits that are supported by
ambiguous behavi0ours.
5–62
63. iv. We develop inaccurate stereotypes
of groups that enhance our own social
identity. – less favorable images of other
groups, which involves subconsciously
assigning inaccurate traits to people in
those different groups.
In spite of all these, stereotyping is a natural
process to economise mental effort. – fills
in missing information, when we lack the
opportunity or motivation to know others
directly.
5–63
64. Ethical problems with stereotypingEthical problems with stereotyping
i. Prejudice; unfounded
negative emotions toward people
belonging to a stereotyped group.
ii. Hurts the performance
evaluations and employment
prospects of older workers.
5–64
65. Self fulfilling prophecies –(Pygmalion effect )
Results of expectations that people will behave in
certain ways regardless of whether or not they
actually do. The way I interact with you elicits and
develops the behaviours I expected from you. Our
perception can influence reality.
Steps in the SFP process:
i. Expectations formed
ii. Behaviour toward the employee
iii. Effects on the employee – better training,
greater self efficacy’
iv. Employee behaviour and performance. 5–65
66. How to develop positive self fulfilling propheciesHow to develop positive self fulfilling prophecies
> Leaders should develop a learning
orientation – appreciate the value of
employee’s learning, not just accomplishing
tasks – accept reasonable mistakes as a
natural part of learning.
> Leaders should apply appropriate
leadership behaviours to all employees –
practise the contingency approach – provide
frequent, objective feedback and creating a
positive relationship by showing support.
5–66
67. Teach leaders how to improve
employees’ self-efficacy – through
behaviour modeling (having the
employee watching someone similar
perform the task well and giving
them the opportunity to practise the
task successfully – convincing
doubtful employees using persuasive
communication principles
5–67
69. Perceptual defencePerceptual defence
Tendency of people to protect themselves
against ideas, objects, or situations that are
threatening – a well known folk song
suggests that people “hear what they want to
hear and disregard the rest.”
Once established – resistant to change.
5–69
