1. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: PERCEPTION

2. 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

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

4. 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

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

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

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

8. 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

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

10. 4 attributions for the cause of performance
Stable
Unstable
Internal
External

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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

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

18. Performance appraisal and errors in social perception
Supervisor:
Subordinate:

19. Perception Implications

20. 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?

21. Perception Implications