2. Contents
• Introduction
• Factors influencing perception
• Attribution theory
• Shortcuts in judging others
• Specific applications in organizations
• Link between perception and individual decision making
• The decision making process
2
3. Introduction
People’s behavior does not depend on their external environment
but on what they see or believe it to be.
For example, a supervisor may try to help his subordinates in
achieving their target by guiding them and giving suggestions.
Some employees may feel that he is interfering and controlling
them but others may feel that he is helping his employees. So, it
all depends on employee’s perception or opinion.
Perception can be defined as a process by which individuals
manage and understand their senses to give meaning to their
environment.
3
4. Perception
What is Perception?
4–4
A process by which
individuals organize and
interpret their sensory
impressions in order to
give meaning to their
environment.
The process by which an individual
organize, select and interpret the
stimuli to produce a meaningful
picture of the environment
•People’s behavior is
based on their
perception of what
reality is, not on
reality itself.
•The world as it is
perceived is the
world that is
behaviorally
important.
9. In black you can read the word GOOD, in white the word EVIL (inside each
black letter is a white letter). It's all very physiological too, because it visualize
the concept that good can't exist without evil (or the absence of good is evil ).
4–9
10. You may not see it at first, but the white spaces read the word optical, the blue
landscape reads the word illusion. Look again! Can you see why this painting
is called an optical illusion?
4–10
11. 4–11
This one is quite tricky!
The word TEACH reflects as LEARN.
12. You probably read the word ME in brown, but.......
when you look through ME
you will see
YOU!
4–12
13. 4–13
Test Your Brain
This is really cool. The second one is amazing so please read all
the way though.
ALZHEIMERS' EYE TEST
Count every " F " in the following text:
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE
SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTI
FIC STUDY COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS...
HOW MANY ?
14. WRONG, THERE ARE 6 -- no joke.
READ IT AGAIN !
Really, go Back and Try to find the 6 F's .
The reasoning behind is
The brain cannot process "OF".
Incredible or what? Go back and look again!!
Anyone who counts all 6 "F's" on the first go is a genius
Three is normal, four is quite rare.
4–14
15. More Brain Stuff . . From Cambridge
University.
O lny srmat poelpe can raed tihs.
cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was
rdanieg. The
phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a
rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy,
it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the
olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the
rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed
it wouthit a porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by
istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I
awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if
you can raed tihs psas it on !!
4–15
16. Learning Objectives
After this unit, you will be able to understand
Factors influencing perception
Attribution theory
Specific applications in organization
16
18. Importance of Perception
To better understand how people
make attributions about events.
We don’t see reality. We interpret
what we see and call it reality.
The attribution process guides our
behavior, regardless of the truth of
the attribution
4–18
19. Factors that Influence Perception
4–19
Factors in the Perceiver
•Attitudes
•Motives
•Interests
•Experience
•Expectations
Factors in the
situation
•Time
•Work setting
•Social setting
Factors in the target
•Novelty
•Motion
•Sounds
•Size
•Background
•Proximity
Perception
20. Factors Influencing
Perception
The perception of a individual depends on three factors, namely
Perceiver-These are the most common characteristics that affect the
perception of an individual like attitudes, motives, interests, past
experiences and expectations.
Target-Characteristics of the target also affect what is being perceived.
These characteristics include attractiveness, gregariousness (sociability)
and tendency to group similar things together.
Situation-The situation in which objects or events are seen by individuals
also affect their attention. This includes time, heat or light
20
21. Person Perception: Making Judgments
About Others
5–21
Attribution Theory
When individuals observe
behavior, they attempt to
determine whether it is
internally or externally
caused.
22. Attribution Theory
It was proposed by Kelly in 1972.
It suggests that when we observe an individual’s behavior, we try
to find whether it was caused internally or externally.
Internally caused behaviors are under the personal control of an
individual whereas externally caused behavior is due to some
outside causes or situation.
The three factors in this regard are
Distinctiveness
Consensus
Consistency
22
23. Contd.
Distinctiveness is whether an individual displays different
behaviors in different situations. The behaviors are observed. If
the behavior is unusual, it is due to an external factor. If it is
usual, it is internal.
Consensus occurs, if, everyone responds in the same way to a
particular situation.
Consistency is the regularity in a person’s actions. Highly
consistent behavior is due to internal causes.
23
25. Errors and Biases in
Attributions
5–25
Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to underestimate
the influence of external factors
and overestimate the influence
of internal factors when making
judgments about the behavior
of others.
26. What are common
perceptual distortions?
Common perceptual distortions include:
Stereotypes or prototypes.
Halo effects.
Selective perception.
Projection.
Contrast effects.
26
27. Errors and Biases in
Attributions (cont’d)
5–27
Self-Serving Bias
The tendency for individuals to
attribute their own successes
to internal factors while
putting the blame for failures
on external factors.
28. Shortcuts in Judging Others
Individuals use short cuts to judge others.
Understanding these short cuts help to recognize when they can
cause significant misrepresentation.
Selective perception
Any characteristic that makes a person, object or event separate
from others has a better chance of being perceived.
An individual cannot take in everything that is seen.
Selectivity is judging others quickly but there is a risk of
misjudgment.
28
29. Halo Effect
Halo effect (Murphy & Anhalt, 1992) is judging a person on the basis of
single characteristic.
For example, a student may judge a lecturer on the basis of only one
characteristic i.e. his enthusiasm and not considering any other factor.
This is known as Halo effect.
Contrast Effects
Individuals do not evaluate a person in separation. Their reactions to one
person are affected by other persons they have recently met. This is
known as contrast effect.
For example, in an interview a candidate’s evaluation may depend on his
or her place in the interview schedule.
29
30. Stereotyping
It is the tendency to judge somebody on the basis of the group to which he
or she belongs.
This type of judgment is sometimes inaccurate.
In organizations stereotypes are based on gender, age, race, ethnicity,
etc.
“ALL MUSLIMS ARE TERRORISTS!’’
30
31. Specific Applications Of Shortcuts in
Organizations
(1) Employment Interview :Interview
Evidences show that interviewers make perceptual judgments
while interviewing candidates. These judgments are inaccurate.
Different interviewers see different things in the same candidate.
Interviewers get an impression about the candidate in the first four
or five minutes and rarely change their view after that.
32
32. 2) Performance Expectations
Individuals try to support their perceptions of reality, even when they are
not appropriate. A good example of this is self-fulfilling prophecy.
It is the tendency for someone’s expectations about another to cause that
person to behave in a manner consistent with those expectations (Wilkins,
1973).
Self fulfilling prophecy is of two types
Pygmalion Effect: It is positive example of self-fulfilling
prophecy. In this people who have high expectations from
others improve their performance.
Golem Effect: It is negative example of self-fulfilling prophecy.
In this people who have low expectations from others lower
their performance.
33
33. Performance Evaluation
An employee’s performance appraisal depends on the perceptual process.
Appraisals can be both - objective and subjective.
The perception of an evaluator about the characteristics or behavior of
the employees, affect the result of the appraisal
Employee Effort
An individual’s future in the organization does not only depend on his
performance.
The evaluation of an individual’s effort is a subjective judgment which can
be biased.
34
34. Link Between Perception and Individual
Decision Making
Decision making takes place after a problem.
A problem is defined as a gap between the current state and the
desired state.
A decision is taken by interpreting and evaluating information.
The perception of decision maker takes care of the following two
issues:
Data are received from multiple sources.
Which data are relevant to the decision maker
and which are not.
35
36. One day a wealthy father took his child to
spend the night with a very poor family with
the purpose to show him the reality of other
people who did not have a lot of money to
spend.
On their return home, the father asked his son
what he thought about the experience and he
replied:
It has been a very good experience daddy,
37. I have learned that we have one dog and they
have four, we have a very nice swimming pool
but they have the river, we have a sun roof and
they have the sky with the stars and the moon,
we have a beautiful porch with a big garden
and they have the forest.
While the child was speaking the father was
out of breath by hearing the things his son
was telling him.
Then the child added: Thanks dad for
showing me how poor we are!
38. For you my friend:
When we measure what we
have, the result is our
perception of life .
If we have love, friends, health,
sense of humor and positive
thinking, we have everything in
life.
If we are poor of spirit then…,
we have a problem
