Organizational Behavior

Anubha Maurya

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• INDIVIDUAL PROCESSES – PERCEPTION

• The concept and need for studying

• Perceptual organization

• Perceptual interpretation

• Attribution process

• Perceiving others

• Comparison of own perception with others’ estimation

PERCEPTION

“ WE DON’T SEE THINGS AS

THEY ARE, WE SEE THINGS AS

WE ARE.”

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What is the perceptual process?

Perception.– The process by which people select,

organize, interpret, retrieve, and respond to information.

– Perceptual information is gathered from:• Sight.• Hearing.• Touch.• Taste.• Smell.

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Perception

“ The study of perception is concerned with identifying the process through which we interpret and organize sensory information to produce our conscious experience of objects and object relationship.”

“ 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 categorize this information and how to interpret it within the framework of existing knowledge.

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Perception• The process by which

individuals select, organize, and interpret the input from their senses to give meaning and order to the world around them.

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Components of Perception

• The perceiver is the person trying to interpret some observation that he or she has just made, or the input from his or her senses.

• The target of perception is whatever the perceiver is trying to make sense of.– In OB terms, the target of perception is

often another person.

• The situation is the context in which perception takes place.

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Insert Figure 4.1 here

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What is the perceptual process?

Stages of the perceptual process.

– Information attention and selection.

– Organization of information.

– Information interpretation.

– Information retrieval.

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• Selecting StimuliExternal factors : Nature,

Location,Size, contrast, Movement, repetition, similarity

Internal factors : Personality, Learning, Motivation

Organizing Figure Background ,Perceptual Grouping( similarity, proximity,closure, continuity)

Response Covert: Attitudes ,

Motivation,Feeling

Overt: Behavior

Environmental stimuli

InterpretingPerceptual Error

(Defence, Stereotyping,Halo Effect, Projection,

Expectancy effect)Attribution

(Internal External cause, Learning,

Cause for success & failure)

Observation(Taste, smell, hearing,

Sight, touch)

Perceptual Process

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The Perceptual Process

1.Selection– Process by which

people filter out most stimuli so that they can deal with the imp ones (external & Internal factor)

Eg – bell ringing, dog barking, coffee brewing

3.Interpretation– An assessment of the

info collected for the purpose of making judgement.

2.Organization– The process which

people group environmental stimuli into recognizable

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What is the perceptual process?

Factors influencing the perceptual

process.

– Characteristics of the perceiver.

- Characteristics of the perceived.

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What is the perceptual process?

Characteristics of the perceiver.

– The perceptual process is influenced by the

perceiver’s:

• Past experiences.

• Needs or motives.

• Personality.

• Values and attitudes.

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What is the perceptual process?SELECTION - EXTERNAL

Characteristics of the perceived.– The perceptual process is influenced by characteristics of the

perceived person, object, or event, such as:

• Contrast. (stands out against the background- colored pen on white board)

• Intensity (more intense more perceived – loud noise when student attendi lecture)

• Size. (Larger the size of external factor more likely to be perceived)

• Motion. (movement tends to receive more attention-video game)

• Repetition (repetitive are more likely to be perceived than single factor-advt)

• Novelty (familiar or novel factor in environment – elephant on road)

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What is the perceptual process? SELECTION - INTERNAL

Personality – Perception shapes personality which in turn

affect how and what people perceive – locus of control (hold

external environment for failure)

Learning – Expectation of a perception based on past

experience with same or similar stimuli. Tall building – arch, ID,

Appraiser or female ugly or beautiful

Motivation – A persons most urgent need and desire at

particular time can influence perception. Telephone ringing while

bathing

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What is the perceptual process?ORGANISATION

Continuity – tendency to perceive object as continuous

pattern (inability to detect change)

Closure - tendency to complete an object and perceive as

constant – mgr facing complex decision may be able to develop

fairly accurate understanding even if info is not complete. With

experience they gv solution.

Proximity – group of object may be perceived as related

because of there nearness to each other

Similarity – more alike object greater tendency to perceive

them as a common group – team with diff color t-shirt

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What is the perceptual process?INTERPRETATION – Judgemental error

• Similarity – tendency to see others having characteristic more like our own

• Contrast – to compare at same time

• First Impression error – Quick impression that are resistant to change

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INTERPRETATION - perceptual ERROR?

Common perceptual distortions include:– Stereotypes or prototypes.(tendency to assign attributes to

someone solely on the basis of category in which the person has been placed)

– Halo effects. .(Evaluation of another person solely on the basis of one attribute, either fav or unfav)

– Selective perception.– Projection.– Contrast effects.– Expectancy effect – Self-fulfilling prophecy .(Expecting certain things to happen

shapers the beh of the perceiver in such a way that is expected to more likley happen))

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What are commonperceptual distortions?

Stereotypes or prototypes.

– Combines information based on the

category or class to which a person,

situation, or object belongs.

– Strong impact at the organization stage.

– Individual differences are obscured.

– Eg an alcoholic, a doctor, president

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What are commonperceptual distortions?

Halo effects.– Occur when one attribute of a person or

situation is used to develop an overall impression of the individual or situation.

– Likely to occur in the organization stage.– Individual differences are obscured

(hidden).– Important in the performance appraisal

process.– Eg excellent attendance dosnt mean productive

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What are commonperceptual distortions?

Projection.– The assignment of one’s personal attributes

to other individuals.ie see their own trait in other people

– Especially likely to occur in interpretation stage.

– Projection can be controlled through a high degree of self-awareness and empathy.

– Eg an empl frightened by rumor on org change may not only judge others to be more frightened than they are but also assess various policy decision as more threatening than they really are

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What are commonperceptual distortions?

Self-fulfilling prophecy.– The tendency to create or find in another

situation or individual that which one expected to find.

– Also called the “Pygmalion effect.”– Can have either positive or negative

outcomes.– Managers should adopt positive and

optimistic approaches to people at work.

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The Pygmalion Effect

• Pygmalion was an ancient king who carved a beautiful female statue

• He loved the statue so much that she came to life

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Self-fulfilling Prophecy

• When one’s expectations for certain behavior in another person lead to that person behaving as expected

• The Pygmalion effect is self-fulfilling prophecy in the teacher/student relationship

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The Pygmalion Effect

• A teacher’s high or low expectations eliciting high or low achievement from their students

• Also known as “teacher expectation effects” (Trouilloud, Sarrazin, Bressoux, & Bois, 2006)

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How can the perceptualprocess be managed?

Impression management.– A person’s systematic attempt to behave in

ways that create and maintain desired impressions in others’ eyes.

– Successful managers:• Use impression management to enhance

their own images.• Are sensitive to other people’s use of

impression management.

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How can the perceptualprocess be managed?

Distortion management.

– Managers should:

• Balance automatic and controlled information

processing at the attention and selection

stage.

• Broaden their schemas at the organizing

stage.

• Be attuned to attributions at the interpretation

stage.

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Factors influencing perception

A number of factors operate to shape and sometimes

distort perception. These factors can reside in the

perceiver, in the object or target being perceived or in

the context of the situation in which the perception is

made.

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• Factors influencing Perception

Factors in the perceiver• Attitudes• Motives• Interests• Experience• Expectations

Perception

Factors in the Target• Novelty• Motion• Sounds• Size• Background• Proximity• Similarity

Factors in the situation• Time• Work Setting• Social Setting

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What is attribution theory?

Attribution theory aids in perceptual interpretation by focusing on how people attempt to:– Understand the causes of a certain event.– Assess responsibility for the outcomes of

the event.– Evaluate the personal qualities of the

people involved in the event.

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What is attribution theory?

Internal versus external attributions of

causes of behavior.

– Internal causes are under the individual’s

control (personality trait, emotion, motive, or

ability)

– External causes are within the person’s

environment. (people, situation, chance)

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What is attribution theory?

Factors influencing internal and external attributions.– Distinctiveness — consistency of a person’s

behavior across situations. Good attendance and performer, even if late its ascribed

– Consensus — likelihood of others responding in a similar way (traffic jam)

– Consistency — whether an individual responds the same way across time. (person coming late)

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What is attribution theory?

Fundamental attribution error.– Applies to the evaluation of someone’s else behavior.

– Attributing success to the influence of situational factors.

– Attributing failure to the influence of personal factors.

– THE CAUSE OF POOR PERFORMANCE (BY OTHERS) IS DUE TO PERSONAL FACTORS (LAZY…DIDN’T TRY VERY HARD)

– Eg Terrorist– what circumstance makes him

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What is attribution theory?

Self-serving bias.

– Applies to the evaluation of our own behavior.

– Attributing success to the influence of personal

factors.

– Attributing failure to the influence of situational

factors.– THE CAUSE OF POOR PERFORMANCE (BY

MYSELF) IS DUE TO SITUATIONAL FACTORS (POOR SUPPORT), NOT BECAUSE OF A LACK OF EFFORT

Eg aeroplane – cockpit problem – u blame others

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What is attribution theory?

Attributions across cultures.

– The fundamental attribution error and self-

serving bias operate differently in different

cultures.

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