CHAPTER 2:

THE NATURE OF PERCEPTION,

COGNITION AND ITS IMPACT
ON MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
BY: MDM SHA
WHAT IS PERCEPTION

• What we perceive can be substantially different from objective reality

• All employees in a firm may view the firm as a great place to work – favourable working
conditions, interesting job assignments, good pay, excellent benefits, understanding and
responsible management – but it’s very unusual to find such agreement
 A process by which
individuals select,
organize and interpret
their sensory impressions,
so as to give meaning to
their environment.
 PERCEPTUAL PROCESS
• Perceptual process – a sequence of psychological steps that a person uses to organize and interpret
information from the outside world.
STAGE 1: SELECTION

• first step of perception is the decision of what to attend to.

• When we attend to one specific thing in our environment — whether it is a smell, a feeling, a sound, or something else entirely

• Selecting is the first part of the perception process, in which we focus our attention on certain incoming sensory information. In selection,
we choose stimuli that attract our attention.

• We focus on the ones that stand out to our senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch). We take information through all five of our senses,
but our perceptual field includes so many stimuli that it is impossible for our brains to process and make sense of it all.

• So, as information comes in through our senses, various factors influence what actually continues on through the perception process.
STAGE 2: ORGANIZATION

• Once we have chosen to attend to a stimulus in the environment, the choice sets off a series
of reactions in our brain.

• This neural process starts with the activation of our sensory receptors (touch, taste, smell,
sight, and hearing).

• Organizing is the second part of the perception process, in which we sort and categorize
information that we perceive based on innate and learned cognitive patterns.
STAGE 3: INTERPRETATION

• Interpretation and categorization are generally the most subjective areas of perception, as they involve decisions about whether listeners like what
they hear and want to keep listening.

• We make immediate evaluations that cause automatic judgments of positive and negative reactions toward others, which occur outside of our
awareness.

• The selection, organization, and interpretation of perceptions can differ among different people.

• On the basis of these, the perceptual output, which means, values, attitudes, behavior, etc., of the perceiver may differ.

• Therefore, when people react differently in a situation, part of their behavior can be explained by examining their perceptual process, and how
their perceptions are leading to their responses.
 FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE PERCEPTION
• https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/organisation/organisational-behaviour-perception/31606
Factors in the
perceiver

• Attitudes
• Motives
• Interests
• Experience
• Expectations
Factors in the
situation
Perception
• Time
Factors in the target • Work setting
• Social setting
• Novelty
(new/unusual)
• Motion (changing
position)
• Sounds
• Background
 PERSON PERCEPTION
• Attribution theory – Attribution theory is concerned with how ordinary people explain the causes of behavior
and events.
• Internally caused behaviours:
• Observer believes to be under the personal behavioural control
of another individual
• E.g. employee late for work – overnight partying/ oversleeping

• Externally caused behaviours:

• The situation forced the individual to do
• E.g. traffic jammed, automobile accident
 DETERMINING FACTORS
Distinctiveness Consensus Consistency

• Individual displays different
behaviour in different situations
• If the behaviour is unusual – we
can perceive it as external factor
• if the employee who arrived late
to work today is also the person
that colleagues see as lazy, we
are likely to judge the behavior
(resuming work late) as
internally caused
• Everyone who faces a similar
situation responds in the same
way
• E.g, everyone of the employees
are coming late to the office due
to traffic jammed
• Refer to person’s actions
• Does the person respond the
same way over time?
• The more consistent the
behavior, the more the observer
is inclined to attribute it to
internal causes.

Exhibit 1. Attribution theory

COMMON BIASES AND ERRORS IN ATTRIBUTION

1. Selectivity
2. Assume similarity
3. stereotype
4. Halo effect
COMMON BIASES AND ERRORS IN ATTRIBUTION
SELECTIVITY

For example:
For example, if an HR manager in charge of hiring has
negative beliefs of a certain gender or race, they likely
aren't going to hire them
ASSUMED SIMILARITY

For example:
give better ratings to employees who exhibit the same
interests, work methods, points of view, or standards.
STEREOTYPING

For example:
a boss might assume that a worker from a Middle East
country is lazy and cannot meet performance objectives,
even if the worker tried his best.
HALO EFFECT

For example:
the tendency to rate a man uniformly high or low in
other traits if he is extraordinarily high or low in one
particular trait: If a worker has few absences, his
supervisor might give him a high rating in all other
areas of work.
 REDUCING BIASES AND ERRORS

• Focus on Goals
• Look for Information that disconfirms your beliefs
• Don’t try to create meaning out of random events
• Increase your options – your final choice can be no better than the best of the option set you’ve selected