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Individuals & Groups in Organizations
Perception and Communication
Attitudes, Values, Ethics, and Emotions
GF4 2004 Frances Jørgensen [email protected]
Agenda
• What is perception? Why is it relevant to us?• What (mis)shapes our perceptions?• Personality & Personality Types• Values at Work• Culturally-based values: Where are the Danes?• Ethics• Emotions• Communication
Defining Perception (and the reason we need to understand it)
• Perception: a process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around us; how we view and interpret what happens around us.
• Peoples’ behavior is based on their perceptions of what reality is, not on reality itself.
How many legs?
Are the black lines parallel?
Optical Illusions: Perceptual “Tricks”
What do YOU see?
Selective Attention/Perception• What are we to do with all of the stimuli
bombarding us all the time?
• We sort out what we will pay attention to/remember according to our own interests, background, experiences, and attitudes as well as characteristics of the stimuli, such as size, intensity, motion, repetition, and novelty of the stimulus.
• Thus, the characteristics of the perceiver, the situation/context, and the target object (stimulus) all factor into what we pay attention to…
Attribution Theory(Kelly, 1973)
• Attributions: the perceived causes of our own behavior or the behavior of others. As humans, we need to be able to understand and explain why we and those around us act the way we do.
• Attributions may be internal (we have some control) or external (forces in the environment for which we can’t control).
Attribution Theory (cont’d)
• Whether we attribute others’ behavior as being caused by internal or external factors is based on 3 factors:– Consensus: was he the only employee late
today?– Distinctiveness: is he known as a slacker or
usually very hard working?– Consistency: is he often late or rarely ever?
Biases or Distortions of Perceptions
• Fundamental attribution error: when making judgments of others behavior, we tend to underestimate the influence of external factors and to overestimate the influence of internal factors.
• Self-serving bias: we tend to attribute our own successes to internal factors and to attribute lack of success to external factors.
Other perceptions gone wrong…
• Primacy– Remember 1st impressions!
• Recency– Gosh it’s hard to remember so far back!
• Halo– One good (or bad) trait is all it takes.
• Projection– If I’m hard-working (lazy, (dis)honest, etc) then you
probably are too!• Stereotyping
– You (Plural) are all alike!
Talk it over
How can perceptions influence
us at work?
• As managers?
• As employees?
• 5.5 min. mini-discussion. I WANT EXAMPLES!!!
(Very) Short overview of Personality
•Relatively stable pattern of behaviors
and consistent internal states that
explain a person's behavioral tendencies
•“Relationship” between personality and
job performance.
•Type A and Type B Personalities: which
are you?
Outgoing, talkative
Courteous, empathic
Caring, dependable
Poised, secure
Sensitive, flexible
Big Five Personality Dimensions
Extroversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Emotional Stability
Openness to Experience
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
• Extroversion versus introversion
• Sensing versus intuition
• Thinking versus feeling
• Judging versus perceiving
Courtesy of Thompson Doyle Hennessey & Everest
What do we mean by values?
•What we generally believe is important in our relationships, work…life.
•Our values help us “know” what is right or wrong and good or bad and serve as the basis for our decisions
•Values come in all shapes and forms, including cultural values, ethical values, and organizational culture values.
JapanJapan
GermanyGermany
UnitedUnitedStatesStates
Collectivism
Individualism
ChinaChina
Individualism- Collectivism
Where is Denmark?
The degree that people value and focus on the individual (“I”) versus focus on the group (“we”)
The degree that people accept an unequal distribution of power in societyJapanJapan
GermanyGermany
UnitedUnitedStatesStates
FranceFrance
High Power Distance
MalaysiaMalaysia
Low Power Distance
Power Distance
Where is Denmark?
High U. A.
Low U. A.
JapanJapan
GermanyGermany
SingaporeSingapore
The degree that people tolerate ambiguity (e.g. less rigid rules) or feel the need for systematic rules and structure.
Uncertainty Avoidance
UnitedUnitedStatesStates
Where is Denmark?
JapanJapan
SouthSouthKoreaKorea
Achievement
Nurturing
SwedenSweden
The degree that people value assertiveness, competitiveness, and achievement (masculine) versus relationships and nurturing for the well-being of others (feminine)
Achievement-Nurturing
UnitedUnitedStatesStates
Where is Denmark?
JapanJapan
NetherlandsNetherlands
RussiaRussia
Long-Term Orientation
Short-Term Orientation
ChinaChinaThe degree that people save and plan for the future versus living in the here and now.
Long/Short-Term Orientation
UnitedUnitedStatesStates
Where is Denmark?
Factors influencing ethical conduct
• Moral intensity– How much we are guided by deep,
general ethics
• Ethical sensitivity– How aware are we of ethical issues and
how important are they?
• Situational influences
Attitude Feelings
Beliefs
BehavioralIntentions
Behavior
Model of Attitudes and Behavior
Emotional Episodes
Emotions & Attitudes• Emotions = experiences, something we feel, relatively
brief; Attitudes =judgments, something we think, relatively enduring, have strong influence on our behaviors.
• Cognitive Dissonance: We feel tension when do something that goes against our feelings, beliefs or attitudes. To feel better, we generally change our attitude (rather than our behavior).
• Emotional Intelligence: being able to assess own and others’ emotions to direct own behavior; related to personality, but can (partly) be developed.
EmotionalEmotionalIntelligenceIntelligence
Emotional Intelligence Dimensions
Self-Motivation
Self-Awareness
SocialSkill
Empathy
Self-Regulation
Job Satisfaction and Behavior• Job satisfaction is a general attitude toward the
job; high job satisfaction builds loyalty and commitment to the work place, reducing theft, (sometimes) absenteeism, turnover.
• Are satisfied employees good performers?– When rewarded, performance leads to job
satisfaction (not vice versa, at least at the individual level)
– Satisfied workers make for satisfied customers
What does it take to create job satisfaction?
• Mentally challenging work
• Equitable rewards & benefits
• Supportive Work Conditions
• Supportive Colleagues
• Personality-Job Fit
• The right genes (not jeans!)
Communication
• Definition: the transfer and understanding of meaning.
• Poor communication is the #1 source of interpersonal conflict.
• We spend about 70% of our working hours involved in some kind of communication.
Receiver
Decodemessage
Encodefeedback
Formfeedback
Sender
Formmessage
Encodemessage
Decodefeedback
TransmitTransmitMessageMessage
TransmitTransmitFeedbackFeedback
Receiveencodedmessage
Receivefeedback
Noise
Communication Process Model
Nonverbal Communication
• Actions, gestures, facial expressions, etc.
• Emphasizes our verbal communication
• Provides subtle clues to non-spoken messages
• Remember: Actions often speak louder (and more accurately) than words!
Communication Barriers• Perceptions: selective attention, attributions, biases,
errors—were you paying attention?!
• Filtering: Don’t kill the messenger!
• Defensiveness: If I feel threatened, I will create communication barriers
• Language– Jargon (how we show “them” we’re experts)– Ambiguity (harder to pin them down)
• Information Overload
Episodes of information overload
Employee’s information processing
capacity
Time
Information Load
Information Overload
Communication in the workplace
• Old fashioned face-to-face & open designs• Shift meetings• Team meetings• Management “walk arounds”• Email• Newsletters• Intranet• Surveys • The Grapevine
Communicating Through E-mail
Advantages of E-mail–It’s (usually) efficient–“Conversation” can take place at different times–Can purposefully scan and sort–Fewer social status barriers
Problems with E-mail–Information overload–Interpreting emotions–Flaming (no sleep on it strategy)–Lacks empathy or social support
I heard it on the grapevine…• What the research says…
– Information travels quickly in all directions– Few people spread rumors to many– The more alike we are, the more we use the
grapevine– Usually includes more than a grain of truth
• The power of the world wide web– Email becomes the fastest way to spread
rumors– Our rumors know no boundaries– Who’s checked out vault.com???
Cross-Cultural Communication
• Verbal differences– Language: be careful of translations!– Voice intonation– The woes of humor
• Nonverbal differences– Interpreting nonverbal meaning
• Physical distancing (also male/female)
– Importance of verbal versus nonverbal– Silence and conversational overlaps
Active Listening Process and Strategies
ACTIVEACTIVELISTENINGLISTENING
RESPONDING
• Show interest• Clarify the message
SENSING• Postpone evaluation• Avoid interruptions• Maintain interest
EVALUATING
• Empathize• Organize information