Organizational Behavior, 9/E Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn Prepared by Michael K. McCuddy Valparaiso University John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 52 Chapter 5 Study Questions  What is the perception process?  What are common perceptual distortions?  How can perceptions be managed?  What is attribution theory?

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 53 Study Question 1: What is the perception process?  Perception. – The process by which people select, organize, interpret, retrieve, and respond to information. – People process information inputs into responses involving feeling and action. – The quality or accuracy of a person’s perceptions has a major impact on responses.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 54 Study Question 1: What is the perception process?

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 55 Study Question 1: What is the perception process?

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 56 Study Question 1: What is the perception process?

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 57 Study Question 1: What is the perception process?  Information attention and selection. – Selective screening. Lets in only a tiny portion all the information that is available. – Two types of selective screening. Controlled processing. Screening without perceiver’s conscious awareness.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 58 Study Question 1: What is the perception process?  Organization of information. – Schemas. Cognitive frameworks that represent organized knowledge about a given concept or stimulus developed through experience. – Types of schemas: Self schemas. Person schemas. Script schemas. Person-in-situation schemas.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 59 Study Question 1: What is the perception process?  Information interpretation. – Uncovering the reasons behind the ways stimuli are grouped. – People may interpret the same information differently or make different attributions about information.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 510 Study Question 1: What is the perception process?  Information retrieval. – Attention and selection, organization, and interpretation are part of memory. – Information stored in memory must be retrieved in order to be used.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 511 Study Question 2: What are common perceptual distortions?

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 512 Study Question 2: What are common perceptual distortions?  Stereotypes or prototypes. – Combines information based on the category or class to which a person, situation, or object belongs. – Individual differences are obscured. – Strong impact at the organization stage.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 513 Study Question 2: What are common perceptual distortions?  Halo effects. – Occur when one attribute of a person or situation is used to develop an overall impression of the individual or situation. – Likely to occur in the organization stage. – Important in the performance appraisal process.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 514 Study Question 2: What are common perceptual distortions?  Selective perception. – The tendency to single out those aspects of a situation, person, or object that are consistent with one’s needs, values, or attitudes. – Strongest impact is at the attention stage. – Perception checking with other persons can help counter the adverse impact of selective perception.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 515 Study Question 2: What are common perceptual distortions?  Projection. – The assignment of one’s personal attributes to other individuals. – Especially likely to occur in interpretation stage. – Projection can be controlled through a high degree of self-awareness and empathy.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 516 Study Question 2: What are common perceptual distortions?  Contrast effects. – Occur when an individual is compared to other people on the same characteristics on which the others rank higher or lower. – People must be aware of the impact of contrast effects in many work settings

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 517 Study Question 2: What are common perceptual distortions?  Self-fulfilling prophecy. – The tendency to create or find in another situation or individual that which one expected to find. – Also called the “Pygmalion effect.” – Can have either positive or negative outcomes. – Managers should adopt positive and optimistic approaches to people at work.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 518 Study Question 3: How can perceptions be managed?  Impression management. – A person’s systematic attempt to behave in ways that create and maintain desired impressions in others’ eyes. – Successful managers: Use impression management to enhance their own images. Are sensitive to other people’s use of impression management.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 519 Study Question 3: How can perceptions be managed?  Distortion management. – Managers should: Balance automatic and controlled information processing at the attention and selection stage. Broaden their schemas at the organizing stage. Be attuned to attributions at the interpretation stage.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 520 Study Question 4:What is attribution theory?  Attribution theory aids in perceptual interpretation by focusing on how people attempt to: – Understand the causes of a certain event. – Assess responsibility for the outcomes of the event. – Evaluate the personal qualities of the people involved in the event.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 521 Study Question 4:What is attribution theory?  Factors influencing internal and external attributions. – Distinctiveness — consistency of a person’s behavior across situations. – Consensus — likelihood of others responding in a similar way. – Consistency — whether an individual responds the same way across time.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 522 Study Question 4:What is attribution theory?  Fundamental attribution error. – Applies to the evaluation of someone’s else behavior. – Attributing success to the influence of situational factors. – Attributing failure to the influence of personal factors.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 523 Study Question 4:What is attribution theory?  Self-serving bias. – Applies to the evaluation of our own behavior. – Attributing success to the influence of personal factors. – Attributing failure to the influence of situational factors.

Organizational Behavior: Chapter 524 Study Question 4:What is attribution theory?  Techniques for effectively managing perceptions and attributions. – Be self-aware. – Seek a wide range of differing information. – Try to see a situation as others would. – Be aware of different kinds of schemas. – Be aware of perceptual distortions. – Be aware of self and impression management. – Be aware of attribution theory implications.

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