INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: PERCEPTION

THE ORGANIZATION’S ENVIRONMENT The Individual Interpersonal Influence and Group Behavior Organizational Processes Group behavior and work teams Intergroup conflict and negotiations Organizational power and politics Communication Skills & Abilities Perception Personality Attitudes Values Leadership Communications Decision making Reward System Job Design INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE ORGANIZATION

First law of human behavior: “People are different. What one person considers a golden opportunity another considers a threat.” Caveat

Perception Perception is the process by which individuals make sense of their world. Individuals organize and interpret information from their environments using perceptual filters personality, psychology, experience, preferences, beliefs-based differences Objective vs. perceived realities

Perception People perceive the world uniquely Differences in perceptions can cause problems Communication Conflict Motivation Judgment Decision Making

Object Perception Proximity – things close together are seen as belonging together.

Object Perception Figure-Ground: The figure and the background “switch”

Social Perception How we gather information about the social world--about peoples’ behavior, moods, motives, and traits Similar to object perception, but People are more dynamic than objects We’re trying to figure out intentions, motives, and causes of behavior

Attribution Why did they do that? internal causes external causes traits skills abilities external causes situational constraints

4 attributions for the cause of performance Stable Unstable Internal External

How do we determine cause? (Kelley) Consensus - how do others behave Consistency - this person on other occasions Distinctiveness - this person in other situations

Errors/Biases in Social Perception Selective perception notice stimuli which are salient due to our interests, background, experiences Closure tendency to fill in the gaps when information is missing Assume what we don’t know is consistent with what we do know

Errors/Biases in Social Perception Halo Effects Impression on one dimension affects impression of unrelated dimension Contrast Stereotyping A person has beliefs about a class of stimulus objects and generalizes those beliefs to encounters with members of that class of objects. Primacy/Recency effects Disproportionately high weight is given to the first/last information obtained about a stimulus

First Impressions Influences what subsequent information we notice and how it is interpreted “Fill-in” information consistent with first impression Anchoring Failure to adjust for subsequent information Confirmation Bias Seek out information & perceive stimuli in ways that confirm expectations Discount contradictory information Self fulfilling prophecy (2-way) Recency—availability bias

Errors/Biases in Social Perception Actor-observer difference (aka “the fundamental attribution error”) Actors attribute their behavior to external causes Observer attribute actors’ behavior to internal cause

Errors/Biases in Social Perception Fundamental Attribution Error The tendency to attribute others' bad performance to internal causes & Attribute their good performance to external causes

Errors/Biases in Social Perception Self-serving bias attribute successes to ourselves - internal attribute failures to the environment – external

Performance appraisal and errors in social perception Supervisor: Subordinate:

Perception Implications

Guard against specific biases Stereotypes Be aware that stereotyping can occur with very little information, remain open to new information Recognize that stereotypes rarely apply to a specific individual Fundamental attribution error? Primacy/recency? Halo? Confirmation?

Perception Implications