Social Perception, and Attribution, and Individual Decision Making

Social Perception, and Attribution, and Individual Decision Making Perception is the process of receiving information about and making sense of world around us. It involves deciding which information notice, how to categorize this information and how to interpret it within the framework of existing knowledge. Another definition of perception is “A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment”. We can summarize the perception with this sentence “We don’t see the things as they are, we see things as we are”.
Why is perception important in the study of Organizational Behaviour? Simply because people’s behaviour is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself. Virtually all management activities rely on perception. In appraising performance, managers use their perceptions of an employee’s behaviour as a basis for evaluation.
Factors that influence perception are categorized to three groups;
1)Factors in the perceiver: Attitudes, Motives, Interests, Experience, Expectations
2)Factors in the situation: Time, Work Setting, Social Setting
3)Factors in the target: Novelty, Motion, Sounds, Size, Background, Proximity, Similarity
Shortcuts used in judging others;
1)Selective Perception: a characteristic that make someone stand out in our mind will increase the probability that it will be perceived
2)Halo Effect: drawing a general impression based on a single characteristic
3)Contrast Effects: our reaction is influenced by others we have recently encountered
4)Projection: the tendency to attribute our own characteristics to other people
5)Stereotyping: judging someone on the basis of our perception of the group to which they belong
Attribution in Organizations Attribution simply refers to how a person explains the cause of another’s or his or her own behaviour. Attribution thus is the most relevant application of perception concepts of organizational