Human Behavior in Organizations

Session 5
 Perception 

• Perception is a process by which individuals organize and

interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to
their environment.

• It is important to the study of OB because people’s behaviors are

based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself.

6-2
Performance Appraisals: Contrasting Views
Factors That Influence Perception

6-4
 Attribution Theory

• Attribution theory suggests that when we observe an

individual’s behavior, we attempt to determine whether it
was internally or externally caused.
– Internally caused – those that are believed to be under
the personal control of the individual.

– Externally caused – resulting from outside causes.

6-5
 Attribution Theory

• Factors influencing internal and external causation :

Distinctiveness:
Distinctiveness:shows
showsdifferent
differentbehaviors
behaviorsinindifferent
differentsituations.
situations.
Consensus:
Consensus:response
responseisisthe
thesame
sameasasothers
otherstotosame
samesituation.
situation.
Consistency:
Consistency:responds
respondsininthe
thesame
sameway
wayover
overtime.
time.

6-6
6-7
 Errors and Biases in Attributions

• Fundamental attribution error

– We have a tendency to underestimate the influence of external
factors and overestimate the influence of internal or personal
factors when making judgments about the behavior of others.
• Self-serving bias

– The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to

internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external
factors.
6-8
 Common Shortcuts in Judging Others

– Selective perception
• The tendency to selectively interpret what one sees on the
basis of one’s interests, background, experience, and
attitudes.
• Since we can’t observe everything going on around us, we
engage in selective perception.
Projection
• The tendency to attribute one’s own characteristics to other
people
6-9
 Common Shortcuts in Judging Others

• Halo effect

• The halo effect occurs when we draw a general

impression on the basis of a single characteristic.
• Contrast effects
– We do not evaluate a person in isolation.

– Our reaction to one person is influenced by other

persons we have recently encountered.

6-10
 Common Shortcuts in Judging Others
• Stereotyping
– Judging someone on the basis of our perception of the
group to which he or she belongs.
• We have to monitor ourselves to make sure we’re not
unfairly applying a stereotype in our evaluations and
decisions.

6-11
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Cycle
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Effect is Strongest:

• At the beginning of the relationship (e.g. employee

joins the team)

• When several people have similar expectations about

the person

• When the employee has low rather than high past

achievement
 Other Perceptual Errors

• False-consensus effect (similar-to me effect)

– Overestimate the extent to which others have beliefs and
characteristics similar to our own
• Primacy effect

– First impressions
• Recency effect

– Most recent information dominates perceptions

 Impression Management

The process by which individuals try to control the impression

others have of them
– Name dropping

– Appearance

– Self-description

– Flattery
– Favors

– Agreement with opinion

 Impression Management Tactics

The target of perception matches A subordinate tries to imitate her boss’s

Behavioral
his or her behavior to that of the behavior by being modest and soft-spoken
Matching perceiver. because her boss is modest and soft-spoken.

The target tries to present herself A worker reminds his boss about his past
Self-
or himself in as positive a light as accomplishments and associates with co-
Promotion possible. workers who are evaluated highly.

Appreciating The target compliments the per- A coworker compliments a manager on his
ceiver. This tactic works best when excellent handling of a troublesome employee.
or Flattering
flattery is not extreme and when it
Others involves a dimension important
to the perceiver.
Applications of Shortcuts in Organizations

– Employment Interview
• Evidence indicates that interviewers make perceptual
judgments that are often inaccurate.
Interviewers generally draw early impressions that
become very quickly entrenched.
Studies indicate that most interviewers’ decisions
change very little after the first four or five minutes
of the interview.
6-17
Applications of Shortcuts in Organizations

• Performance Evaluation
– An employee’s performance appraisal is very much
dependent upon the perceptual process.
• Many jobs are evaluated in subjective terms.

• Subjective measures are problematic because of

selective perception, contrast effects, halo effects,
and so on.

6-18
 Strategies to Improve Perceptions

• Awareness of perceptual biases

– Knowing perceptual biases exist – e.g. diversity awareness training
– Become more mindful of our thoughts and actions

• Improving self-awareness
– Become more aware of our beliefs, values, and attitudes
– Better understand biases in our own decisions and behavior
– Applying Johari Window

• Meaningful interaction
– Contact hypothesis – the more we interact with someone, the less
prejudiced or perceptually biased we will be
 Know Yourself
(Johari Window)
• Objective is to increase size of open area so that both you
and colleagues are aware of your perceptual limitations:
– Disclosure – tell others about yourself (reduces hidden
area)
– Feedback – receive feedback about your behavior
(reduces blind area)