Organizational Behavior: Perception

Food Survey Recently a world-wide survey was conducted by the UN. The only question asked was... : "Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?" The survey was a huge failure because...: 1.In Africa they didn't know what "food" means. 2.In Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest" means. 3.In Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage" means. 4.In China they didn't know what "opinion" means. 5.In the Middle East they didn't know what "solution" means. 6.In South America they didn't know what "please" means. 7.In the USA they didn't know what "the rest of the world" means

Perceptual Process Model Selective Attention Organization and Interpretation Environmental Stimuli Feeling Hearing Seeing Smelling Tasting Emotions and Behavior

Perception: A Social Information Processing Model Competing environmental stimuli: * People * Events * Objects Interpretation and categorization Stage 1 Selective Attention/ Comprehension Stage 2 Encoding and Simplification A C F A B C D E F Memory Judgments and decisions Stage 3 Storage and Retention Stage 4 Retrieval and Response C

Social Information Processing Model of Perception Stage 1: Selective Attention/Comprehension Stage 1: Selective Attention/Comprehension - Attention is the process of becoming aware of something or someone - People pay attention to salient stimuli Stage 2: Encoding and Simplification Stage 2: Encoding and Simplification - Encoding is the process of interpreting environmental stimuli by using information contained in cognitive categories - The same information can be interpreted differently by people due to individual differences Stage 3: Storage and Retention Stage 3: Storage and Retention - Encoded information or stimuli is sent to long- term memory - Long-term memory is composed of three compartments containing categories of information about events, semantic materials, and people Stage 4: Retrieval and Response Stage 4: Retrieval and Response - Information is retrieved from memory when people make judgments and decisions

Factors That Influence Perception Characteristics of the Perceiver Values and attitudes Motives Interests Experience Expectations Perception Characteristics of the Target Structural beauty Novelty and Familiarity Motion and Change Repetition Intensity Sounds Size Contrast and Background Proximity Perceptual context Time Work setting Social setting

Attribution Process Internal Attribution – Perception that outcomes are due to motivation/ability rather than situation or fate External Attribution – Perception that outcomes are due to situation or fate rather than the person

Attribution Errors Fundamental Attribution Error – Attributing behavior of other people to internal factors (their motivation/ability) Self-Serving Bias – Attributing our successes to internal factors and our failures to external factors

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Cycle Supervisorformsexpectations Expectations affect supervisor’s behavior Supervisor’s behavior affects employee Employee’s behavior matches expectations

Identity: Who Am I? Social Identity Organizational Identity Personal Identity

Perceptual Biases and Errors in Decision Making 1.Stereotype : A stereotype is an individual’s set of beliefs about the characteristics of a group of people. 2.Halo: 2.Halo: A rater forms an overall impression about an object and then uses the impression to bias ratings about the object. 3.Leniency: 3.Leniency: A personal characteristic that leads an individual to consistently evaluate other people or objects in an extremely positive fashion. 4.Central Tendency: 4.Central Tendency: The tendency to avoid all extreme judgments and rate people and objects as average or neutral. 5.Recency Effects: 5.Recency Effects: The tendency to remember recent information. Most recent information dominates perceptions, If the recent information is negative, the person or object is evaluated negatively. 6.Contrast Effects: 6.Contrast Effects: The tendency to evaluate people or objects by comparing them with characteristics of recently observed people or objects. 7.Primacy : 7.Primacy : First impressions 8.Projection : 8.Projection : Believing other people are similar to you

The Stereotyping Process Professors are absent-minded Our instructor is a professor Our instructor is absent-minded Assign category’s traits to the person Assign person to category based on observable info Develop categories and assign traits

Improving Perceptual Accuracy ImprovingPerceptualAccuracy DiversityInitiatives Empathize With Others PostponeImpressionFormation KnowYourself ComparePerceptions