Managerial Implications of

Perceptions
Managerial Implications: Hiring
• Interviewers make hiring
decisions based on their
impression of how an
applicant fits the perceived
requirements of a job
• Inaccurate impressions
in either direction
produce poor hiring
decisions

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 Employment Interview
• Evidence indicates that interviewers make perceptual
judgments that are often inaccurate.

• In addition, agreement among interviewers is often poor.

Different interviewers see different things in the same
candidate and thus arrive at different conclusions about the
applicant.
• 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.
• Because interviews usually have so little consistent
structure and interviewers vary in terms of what they are
looking for in a candidate, judgments of the same
candidate can vary widely.
Managerial Implications:
Performance Appraisal
• Characteristics serve as the benchmarks
for evaluating employee performance
• Based more on objective factors of
evaluation rather than subjective.
• Managers use subjective measures in
appraising employees, what
the evaluator perceives to be good or bad
employee characteristics or behaviors will
significantly influence the outcome of the
appraisal.

4-4
Performance Appraisal
• An individual’s future
in an organization is
usually not
• dependent on
performance alone.
An assessment of an
individual’s effort is a
subjective judgment
susceptible to
perceptual distortions
and bias.
Managerial Implications:
Leadership
Good leaders exhibit the following
behaviors:
– Assigning specific tasks to group
members
– Telling others they had done well
– Setting specific goals for the group

4-6
 Managerial Implications:
Leadership
• Poor leaders exhibit the following
behaviors:
– Telling others they had performed poorly
– Insisting on having their own way
– Doing things without explaining
themselves

4-7
Self Concept
• Set of relatively stable perceptions that
each of us holds about ourselves.
• You can know this by answering a simple
question : Who are you?
– How do you define yourself – as a student, a
woman/man, age, religion.
– Describe yourself – moods, feelings,
appearance, social traits, talents, intellectual
capacity, beliefs, social roles.
 Self Concept, Self esteem & Self
Image

Our Self-
Self-Esteem Self-Image
Concept

Our Self-Concept is made up of our self-esteem and our self-image

 Definitions
• SELF-CONCEPT
– The sum total of the ways in which we think
about ourselves. What makes us different from
& similar to others

• SELF ESTEEM
- How highly we think about our abilities and
our self.
• SELF IMAGE
- How we view our self based on others
reactions to us.
Self Concept
• SELF-CONCEPT
– Eg. Being Religious, tall, Athletic.
• Self Esteem
– I am glad I’m athletic
– I am embarrassed about being tall
A Positive Self-Concept
A positive self-concept helps us
in life – how we behave and act
with others.

A positive self-concept
generally makes us feel
happier.
 Self Esteem
• High
– Think highly of others
– Expect to be accepted
– Not afraid of others reaction
– Comfortable with others
whom they view superior in
some ways
– Defend themselves in
critical moments
• Low
– Critical of others
– Expect rejection
– Sensitive to peoples
approval
– Feel threatened by people
they feel are superior
– Feel difficult in defending
themselves in critical
moments
Development of Self-Concept –
Reflected Appraisal
• Our identity comes exclusively from
communication with others.
• Looking-glass self – Put ourselves in the
position of others view ourselves as we
imagine they see us.
• As we learn to speak, understand
language, verbal messages, both positive
negative which come from significant
others.
 Influences to Self-Concept
Life
Experiences Age

Sexual Appearance
Orientation

Self-Concept
Gender
Relationships

Education Culture
Emotional
Maturity
Age
Self-concept changes as we get older.
YOUNG Younger children are limited to descriptions of
CHILDREN: themselves, like boy/girl, size etc.

OLDER Older children can provide much more detailed

CHILDREN: descriptions; hair and eye colour, address, shoe size etc.

ADOLESCENTS: Self concept can be explained in terms of beliefs,

likes and dislikes, relationships.

ADULTS: Adults can explain themselves in terms of quality of

life and their personality.
ELDERLY:
Older adults may have developed even more self
knowledge and developed ‘wisdom’.
 Appearance
By the age of 10 or 12 we begin to compare ourselves
to others. If we think we look good we have a positive
self-image

The important thing is we feel positive about the way

we look. We can easily develop a negative self image
and this can lead to a lack of confidence or to feel
depressed about our relationships with other people.
 How does how we dress affect our self-
concept?

How would being a model affect

someone’s self-concept?
 Gender
Very early in life we know if we are a boy or a girl. How
does this affect our self-concept and our lives?

There are different social expectations of men and women

Girls tend to do much better at school than boys, but

boys do better at higher education. Why is this?

Gender affects the type of employment we go for.

Women are more likely to interrupt their careers to look

after children.
 Culture
Different people have different customs and different ways
of thinking. Your family or community may have different
beliefs and expectations from other families and
communities.
These influences affect the way we think and are called
‘cultural influences’. Different cultures have different views
of what is normal or right and wrong and these are our
norms.

Some societies, in Tollywood more weight is considered

good, where as in Bollywood less weight
Cultural Influences and Norms
Most British people wont eat frog’s legs, snails or horse
meat.
Parents who do not smoke will discourage their children
from smoking.

People from ethnic minority groups are more likely to live

in an extended family.
• Concept of self governs the
behavior patterns at work and
otherwise.
• Can be changed though feedback,
introspection, personality tests.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Persons expectation of the outcome
makes the outcome more likely to occur
– Expected to become nervous in interview
– Teacher explained a task stating you may not
be able to do it
– A friend described someone saying you
wouldn’t like the person
– You go out for a party thinking it would be fun
and it turns out to be fun
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• 2 Aspects:
– Own Expectation Influence your
behavior
– Expectation of one person govern
another's action
Own Expectation Influence your
behavior
• Eg. Sales People who perceive themselves as
effective communicators are more successful
than those who think they are not
• Anxious public speakers.
• Smiling even in bad mood would actually change
the mood
 Expectation of one person govern
another's action
• Another aspect of self-fulfilling prophecy: faith or the
power of positive or negative thinking.

• In talking about illness, there appear to be two main

forces at play – the doctor’s prognosis of the situation
(prophecy) and the patient’s faith in that reality.

• This can be a positive or a negative thing depending on

the situation (for instance, if the patient is told that s/he
will recover, it should work to the patient’s benefit to put
all faith in that prognosis. On the other hand, patients
who are expected to die, have higher chances for survival
if they reject the prognosis – preferably by substituting a
negative prophecy with a positive one)
Performance expectations
Expectations become reality.
• A study was undertaken with 105 soldiers in the
Israeli Defense Forces who were taking a fifteen-
week combat command course.
• Soldiers were randomly divided and identified as
having high potential, normal potential, and
potential not known. Instructors got better results
from the high potential group because they
expected it confirming the effect of a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Important force in communication
but does not explain all behaviors
• Cannot be simply connected to
power of positive thinking
• One should follow the faith
realistically
Identity Management – Communication
as impression Management

• Communication
strategies people use
people use to influence
how others view them.
• So far we have referred to
self as if each of us had
only one identity
• In truth each of us
possesses several selves,
some private, others
public and often each of
them are different.
Identity – Perceived Self
• Perceived Self
– Person you believe yourself to be in
moments of honest self examination
– Unlikely to reveal all of it to others
– Impression about your looks,
intelligence etc. Not as smart as I wish.
 Identity – Presenting Self
• Presenting Self
– Public image, way we
want to appear to
others
– Seek to create a
socially approved
image
– Loyal Friend
– Diligent student
– Responsible Worker
 Identity
• According to
sociologist
Erving Goffman
• Face – Presenting
Self
• Facework –
Verbal & Non-
verbal ways to
maintain our
public image.
 Facework
• Work in 2 ways
– Managing Our own
Identity
– Communicate in ways
that reinforce the
identities that others
are trying to present.
Characteristics of Identity
Management
1. We strive to construct
Multiple Identities
2. Identity Management
is collaborative
3. Identity Management
can be Conscious Or
Unconscious
4. People Differ in their
degree of Identity
management
 Characteristics of Identity
Management
We strive to construct
Multiple Identities
• Play a variety of roles in
different situations
• Play different roles with
same person As son, As
partner, As Family member
As a Boss
Characteristics of Identity
Management
• Identity Management is collaborative
• Identity related communication is kind of
process theater in which we collaborate
with other actors to improve scenes in
which our characters mesh.
• Collaboration doesn’t mean aggressive.
• Eg: Family member didn’t convey phone
message.
– Identity as thoughtful people, Original, aggressive
combatants
 Characteristics of Identity
Management
– Identity Management can
be Conscious Or
Unconscious
1. Conscious – During
interviews, first date. With
significant other.
2. Unconscious – while
alone, slip into roles
naturally with people with
regular interactions Eg.
Customers at work,
family members.
Characteristics of Identity
Management
– People Differ in their
degree of Identity
management
1. High Self Monitors
2. Low self Monitors
– None of them are ideal
communicators some
times being calculative
is good and other times
impulsive.
 Characteristics of Identity
Management
– High Self Monitors
• Pay attention to their own behaviors than
others reactions
• Adjust their communication to desired
reactions
• Good Actors can create the desired
impression
• Act interested or friendly when feel opposite
• Good People readers, though not read easily
• Since detached and analytical may prevent
themselves from experiencing any event
completely,
 Characteristics of Identity
Management
– Low self Monitors
- Express what they are thinking
and feeling without much
attention to the impression
- Simple and have more focused
idea of who they are and want
to be
- Easy to read, Predictable
- Due to lack of flexibility may not
be very smooth in social
interaction.
Why Manage Impressions
• Social rule govern behavior in variety of
settings. There is an unwritten contract of
facework while accepting an employment
• Its not whether or not to present a face but
its always which face to present
– Employees should appear reasonably
respectful
– Sales people must be courteous with
customers
Why Manage Impressions
• To accomplish personal
goals
– Appear Likable – act more
friendly
– Polite with neighbors – may
need them for any reason
– Win affection
– Get a good rating
– Put your best foot forward
during interviews, business
proposals
How do we manage Impressions
• Face to face Impression Management
– Manner
– Appearance &
– Setting
How do we manage Impressions
- Face to face
• Manner – Words & Non verbal
Actions
– Shaping how others see you
– Appear friendly or brusque
– Polite & Businesslike
How do we manage Impressions
- Face to face
• Appearance
– Personal item we use shape our Image
– Clothing can say I'm a hippie, I'm
wealthy, I’m non Conformist
– Hairstyle gives an impression – Prim
and proper, loosely kept, grown
intertwined.
How do we manage Impressions
- Face to face
• Setting
– Physical items we use also shape the
Image
– Who I am statement
– Use of automobiles
– Colors
– Music
– Artwork
– Interiors
How do we manage Impressions
– Mediated Communication
• Emails, SMS, Chat
– Don’t convey Postures, gestures, facial
expressions
– Control what to say
– Shape a message to get desired impact
– Many identities and personas
– Communicators concerned with impression
management do not prefer CMC
– Prefer when own self-presentation is
threatened
Impression Management &
Honesty
• Not an Academic Label for
manipulation
• When teach a friend to play guitar, grow
impatient
• At work face a quarrelsome customer
• Friend / Family make a joke on apperance.
• Any Questions……?