Perception

MANAGING PERCEPTION
Principles Social Perception Impression Management & Attribution

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PERCEPTION : Few Definitions
Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. (Robbins) Perception is the process of (*)
 Creating an internal representation of the external world  Interpreting what our senses provide in order to give meaning to the environment we are in  The resulting interpretation is the perceiver’s reality, and it can vary widely from person to person
(*) Tosi H.L., Rizzo, J.R., & Carrol, S.J. 2000. Handbook of Organizational Behaviour. New Delhi: Infinity Books. P. 144

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Sensation vs. Perception
All knowledge of the world depends on the senses and their stimulation Raw sensory data alone are insufficient to explain the coherent picture of the world. People must process these sensory data and make sense out of them in order to understand the world around them. Five Physical Senses: Vision, Hearing, Touch, Smell & Taste – affected constantly by numerous stimuli External (light, sound, odor etc) & Internal (Gland secretion (adrenaline) hormones - affect & influence us. 3

Two factors’ Key Role
Two factors that play key role in the internal cognitive aspects of perception are: Perceptual Selectivity and Perceptual Organization. Perceptual Selectivity:
 What gets the attention of an individual is the focus  Why an individual chooses one & not the other stimuli that confront.

Consists of outside environmental influences such as: Intensity; Size; Contrast; Repetition, Motion & Novelty

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Internal Set: Learning & Perception
Learning
 plays a single biggest role in developing perceptual set creating an expectancy to perceive in a certain manner  Such expectancies are vital element in the cognitive explanations of behaviour ie., people see & hear what they expect to see & hear since they have been conditioned by their previous learning  Past experience make one see people in a particular way; e.g., people from the north/south hardworking or otherwise

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Internal Set: Leaning & Perception
Motivation & Perception

Have vital impact on perceptual selectivity Primary Motives, General Motives, The Secondary Motives  A person who has a relatively high need for power, affiliation, or achievement will be more attentive to the relevant situation variables

Personality & Perception
– Personality, values, & age affect the way people perceive the world around them; – e.g., sr mgr “The biggest problems with youngsters is their tendency to avoid making small, unpleasant decisions; Young Mgrs: don’t want to pay attention to disciplining people, digging the boring & repetitive records.
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PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION
– Here the focus is what takes place in the perceptual process once the information from the situation is received. This process is commonly referred to Perceptual Organization.

1. Figure & Ground: What you select to see will you organize your perception (perceptual selectivity influences perceptual organization)

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PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION
2. Perceptual Grouping - The tendency to group several stimuli into a recognizable form Closure – people perceive a whole when one does not actually exist; Seeing a whole where none exists; e.g., supervisor sensing complete agreement where in fact opposition exists among people Continuity – the continuity principle says that a person will tend to perceive continuous lines or patterns. Proximity – stimuli close to each other are perceived as a whole pattern of parts belonging together; Similarity – Greater the similarity of stimuli, greater the tendency to perceive them as a common group;
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PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION
3. Perceptual Constancy – gives a person a sense of stability in the changing world;

4. Perceptual Context - meaning & value to a simple stimuli, e.g., a Memo or pat on the back
5. Perceptual Defense – a person builds a block against stimuli or situational events in the context that are personally/ culturally unacceptable or threatening.
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Social Perception
Directly concerned with how an individual perceives the other; how we get to know others Characteristics of the perceiver & the perceived reveal a profile of the perceiver Characteristics of the person being perceived which influence social perception:
– Status & Role; & and the visible traits of the person being perceived.
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Attribution
It is how a person explains the cause of another’s or his own behaviour It is the process by which people draw conclusions about the factors that influence or make sense of one another’s behaviour Two types of attributions:
– Dispositional Attribution – Situational Attribution
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Attribution Errors:
• Fundamental attribution error: people tend to ignore

powerful situation forces ... But tend to attribute others’ behaviour to personal factors even when it is clear that the situation caused the person to behave that way. • Halo Effect Self-Serving Bias

Stereotyping Contrast effect Recency effect

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Impression Management
Is the process by which people attempt to manage or control the perception others form of them. Two components of Impression management are : Impression Motivation & Impression Construction

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Employee Impression Management Strategies
Demotion Preventative Strategy Employee try to minimize responsibility for some negative event or stay out of trouble ACCOUNTS – excuse/ justify Promotion Enhancing Strategies
Seem to maximize responsibility for a positive outcome or to look better than they really are

ENTITLEMENT – feels credit is not given; therefore make sure that everybody gets to know of it
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Employee Impression Management Strategies

Demotion Preventative Strategy APOLOGIES – for -ve outcome DISASSOCIATION – g..

Promotion Enhancing Strategies ENHANCEMENT –
OBSTACLE DISCLOSURE

ASSOCIATION

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