Perception Slides

8/3/2019 Perception Slides

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2/22/2012 PREPARED BY SIMIYU WAMBALABA 1

INTRODUCTION

PERCEPTION


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Perception & Individual Behavior

Perception is a process by which individualsorganise & interpret their sensory impression inorder to give meaning to the environment.

Perception is important because peoples behavioris based on their perception of what reality is,not on reality itself. This is, people do not seereality they interpret what they see and call itreality.

Moreover, understanding perception can help inexplaining individual behavior arising fromperceptual errors as follows:


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i) Selective perception: People selectivelyinterpret what they see based on their

interests, background (religious /culture),experience & attitudes. 2ndly, we are notable to attend to everything in theenvironment because our sensory systemhas limits. This forces us to be selective

in our attention & perception.ii) Halo effect: A person evaluation is

affected & could draw a generalimpression about an individual based on asimple characteristic. When perception ofa person is formulated on the basis of asingle favourable or unfavorable trait orcharacteristic & tends to shut out otherrelevant characteristic of that person.


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iii) Projection: Attributing ones

own characteristics to otherpeople.

iv) Stereotyping: Judging someoneon the basis of your perception ofthe group to which that personbelongs. E.g. family, school


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The Process of Perception

We all have our own picture of the world. Theextent to which we share this world withothers is complex & dynamic process.Recognition of the difference between

perceptual world & the Real world is vitalfor understanding organizational behavior. Its vital that managers are aware of their own

perceived reality & perceptual differences

between individuals that may causeorganizational problems. Managers need tounderstand the importance of peopleperception.


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The Perceptual Process W

e all have our own, unique picture or imageof how we see the real world. E.g. A memo from Management to section heads to

provide statistics of overtime worked withintheir sections in the last 6 months and

projection for next 6 months provokes mixedreactions.a) One head may see it as a reasonable &

welcome request to provide information tohelp head to improved future staffing levels.

b) Another head may see it as unreasonabledemand intended only to enable managementexercise closer supervision & control over theactivities of the section.


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c) The 3rd one may have no objection to provide theinformation but is suspicious that it may lead topossible intrusion into the running of the section.

d) The 4th may see it as a positive action bymanagement to investigate ways of reducing costs &improving efficiency throughout the organization.Each head perceives the memo differently asperception becomes their reality of the situation

each reacts accordingly.

Individuals are unique. Were all unique. Theres onlyone me. We have our own way of looking &understanding our environment & people within it. A

situation may be the same but the interpretation ofthat situation by two people may be vastlydifferent.


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The Perception of People

Perception process is complex in people. E.g. Assenior manager you decide to tour the factoryfloor. This action might be viewed differently by 3supervisors.

Supervisor A:-may not even notice the manager

until pointed out by a staff member. He mayacknowledge him & continue working

Sup B: may agree to walk with the manager-happythat the manager has taken time out to see thework in progress.

Sup C- may frown at the sight of the manager &see him as an indication that something is wrong.These scenarios highlight important principles ofperception.


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a) Selectivity in Attention & Perception

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nderstanding perception must take into accountsensory situation. Were not able to attend to allthings in our environment because our sensorysystems has limits.

These physical limits make us be selective in our

attention and perception. In the above case- SupA did not notice the manager until shown & gaveonly minimal attention

Sup B immediately went to accompany themanager

Sup C was immediately irritated-perceivingmanagers presence as a signal that something wasup.

These different reactions arose from all of themreacting to an identical action of the manager on

a walking tour.


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b) Organization & Judgment

Sup A associated the tour in the light ofthe past managerial visits & perceived thesituation as normal and commonplace &hence did not see the necessity for anyfurther effort.

B- linked the tour with ideas of goodmanagement action & took a positive &

encouraging stance. C linked the visit with negative past

experiences where a visit like this resultedin additional work the following day.


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c) Response & Behavior Pattern

Weve learned to take for grantedcertain constraints in our environment.We assume that features of our worldwill stay the same & we do not needto spend time to seeing things a fresh& new. We thus make a number ofinferences throughout the entire

perceptual process. Although theinferences may save time & speed upthe process they may also lead todistortion & inaccuracies.


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Impression Management

Impression management (self presentation)is the process by which people attempt tomanage or control the perception othersform of them. Theres often a tendencyfor them to try to present themselves so

as to impress others in a socially desirableway. Thus, impression management has

considerable implications for areas such asvalidity of performance appraisal. Is the

evaluator being manipulated into giving apositive rating?. Its also a pragmaticpolitical tool for one to climb the ladder tosuccess in organization & politics.


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In employment situation-subordinatesmay be motivated to control how theirboss perceives them. The degree thismotivation to impress manage dependson the:

a) Relevance the impression has to theindividuals goal, the value of these goalsand the discrepancy between the imageone would like others to hold & theimage one believes others already hold.


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Employees impression management strategies.

a) Demotion-Preventive Strategy:

This is employed when employees try tominimize responsibility for some negative

events or to stay out of trouble.

b) PromotionEnhancing Strategy:

This is employed when employees areseeking to maximize responsibility for apositive outcome or to look better thanthey real are.


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Characteristics of Demotion- Preventive strategy Accounts: These are employees attempts to

excuse or justify their actions e.g. excuses fornot getting something done on time becauseanother higher priority assignment-more likely bysomeone above.

Apologies: Where theres no logical way out, theemployee may apologise to the boss for some

negative event. The apology gives the impressionthat the individual is sorry & also indicates that itwill not happen again.

Disassociation: When employees are indirectlyassociated with something that went wrong (e.g. as

members of a committee or work team that madea bad decision) they may secretly tell their bossthat they fought for the right thing but wereoverruled. They're trying to remove themselvesfrom the group & from responsibility for theproblem.


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Promotion-Enhancing Strategies

a) Entitlements: Under this approachemployees feel that theyve not been givendue credit for a positive outcome. They makesure that it is known through formal channels,or they may informally note to key people

that theyre pleased their suggestions orefforts that worked out so well.b)Enhancements: Here employees may have

received credit but they point out that theyreally did more & had a bigger impact thanoriginally thought. E.g., their effort or ideanot only served a customer well or met adifficult deadline, but can be used in thefuture to greatly increase profits.


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c) Obstacle disclosure: Here, employeesidentify their personal (health or family)

or organizational (lack of resources or co-operation) as obstacles they had toovercome to accomplish an outcome.Theyre trying to create the perceptionthat they obtained the positive outcome

despite the big obstacles. They reallydeserve a lot of credit.

d) Association: Here, the employee makessure to be seen with the right people atthe right time. This creates theperception that the employee is wellconnected & is associated with successfulprojects.


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Guidelines for Organizational Members

(Managers)a) One should be on the look out for

higher probability impression

management strategies. E.g .recruitersshould be careful to separate pure selfpromotion & legitimate claims ofcompetence & those in position of power

or status should be aware ofsubordinates efforts to ingratuatethemselves (buttering up the boss or

apple polishing).


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b) There should be an attempt to minimize

personal situational & organizational featuresthat foster undesirable impressionmanagement.

c) One should look for ulterior motives & avoidbeing overly influenced by impressionmanagement. E.g., be able to distinguishbetween pure self promotion & true

competence to avoid being biased by invalidclaim when appraising staff performance.


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For employees Advise

When selecting an image, nevertry to be something you're not.

People will see through the facade(false appearance). In sum, makeevery effort to put your best

foot forward-but never at thecost of your identity.

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Perception Slides

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