PERCEPTION

Chapter-5 2

What do you see ?

Chapter-5 3

Chapter-5 4

Organizational Behavior / Perception5

Organizational Behavior / Perception7

Chapter-5 8

Chapter-5 9

PERCEPTION

“ WE DON’T SEE THINGS AS THEY ARE, WE SEE THINGS AS WE ARE.”

Learning Objectives

To understand Meaning of Perception Sensation Vs Perception Sub processes of Perception Perceptual Selectivity Factors influencing Perception Perceptual Organization Social Perception Impression Management Linkage between Perception and

Individual decision-making

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Meaning of Perception

Perception may be defined as the process by which an individual selects, organizes and interprets stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture of the environment in which he lives.

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Sensation Vs Perception

Sensation deals with the basic behavior of an individual, caused by his physiological functions.

Perception is the process by which an individual selects, organizes and interprets stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture of the environment in which he lives.

Perception Differs From Sensation

Study the following example. These will help you understand the difference between perception and sensation more clearly.

1. You buy a two-wheeler that you think is the best, but not the one that the engineer says the best.

2. A subordinate’s answer to a question is based on what he heard his boss says, but not on what boss actually said.

Perceptual Process

Input Throughputs Output

StimuliSelection Organisation

Interpretation Action

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Sub processes of Perception

External Environment

Confrontation

Consequences Behavior

Feedback

InterpretationRegistration

Sociocultural Environment

Physical Environment

Perception• During the Registration phenomenon the physiological (sensory & neural) mechanism is mostly affected (ability to see and hear affect perception)

• In organizations, employees’ interpretation largely depends on their learning, motivation and their personality

• Example: Kinesthetic Feedback (Sensory feedback from muscles) – that helps manufacturing workers perceive the speed of materials moving by them in the production process.

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Perceptual Selectivity

Though people are exposed to several stimuli, they tend to select only a few at a given point of time, this is perceptual selectivity.

Subliminal Perception : when the stimuli is so subtle (not noticeable) that an individual may not even be conscious that he is exposed to some stimulus.

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Factors Influencing Perceptual Selectivity

External Attention Factors

Intensity Size Contrast Repetition Motion Novelty and familiarity

Internal Set Factors

Learning and Perception

Motivation and Perception

Personality and Perception

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External Attention Factors

IntensityAccording to the intensity principle of attention, the intensity of an external stimulus determines its probability of being perceived.Example: Light Colour Bright Colour

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Size:A larger object is more likely to be noticed than a smaller object.Example: Which you can read fast?

God is great God is great

External Attention Factors

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Contrast: According to the principles of contrast, the stimuli that contradict most with the background or the expectations of people receive maximum attention.

Example: Which white square is smaller?

External Attention Factors

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Motion:People gives more attention to moving objects than the stationery objects.Example:Moving object Stationery object

External Attention Factors Contd…

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RepetitionThe more number oftimes a stimulus isrepeated, the more it is likely to be noticed

Novelty and Familiarity:New objects in afamiliar situation orfamiliar objects in anew situation draw the perceiver’s attention.

External Attention Factors Contd…

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Internal Set FactorsLearning and Perception:Learning by itself plays a major role in developing the perceptual set.Example:

HillyTerrrain

Ahead

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Motivation and Perception:

The primary motives:Hunger and Thirst The secondary motives:The need for power, The need for affiliation and The need for achievement

Personality and Perception:

Personality of a person influence perception

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Factors Influencing Perception The Perceiver The Target The Situation

How to improve perception?1. Perceiving Oneself Accurately: One need

to improve more awareness about himself / herself.

2. Improving One’s Self-Concept: When people successfully accomplish what they want, it develops a sense of self-regard and self-esteem. It is called ‘Self-Concept’.

3. Be Empathetic: Empathy means to be able to see a situation as it is perceived by other people. In a way, it is like putting your feet in another’s shoes.

4. Having Positive Attitude: Positive attitude makes one’s perception positive or more accurate.

5. Avoiding Perceptual Distortions: Some factors such as hallo effect, stereotyping, attribution, first impression, etc. distort one’s perception about things or problems.

6. Communicating Openly: Experience suggests that sometimes perception gets distorted due to communication gap or / and inadequate communication.

How to improve perception? (Cont..)

Perception and its applications in OB

The word ‘Organisation’ among other things, implies where most of individual work together for achieving the organisational and individual goals. Perception tends to influence decision-making. Thus, Perceptions, in many cases, have important effect on organisations.

Employment Interview: Interviewers make perceptual judgments that are often inaccurate. Different interviewers try to see different things in the same candidate and thus, arrive at different perceptions about the same candidate.

Performance Appraisal: Assessment of an employee’s performance very much depends on the perception of the evaluator about the employee. In practice, an employee’s future is closely tied to his or her performance appraisal.

Performance Expectation: New employee during their selection process acquire a set of expectations both about the organisation and job he is expecting to achieve.

Employee Effort: In many organisations, the level of an employee’s performance is given high importance.

Employee Loyalty: While assessing employees, the managers also make another important decision whether the employee are loyal to organisation or not.

Perception and its applications in OB (Cont..)

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Emphasizes on the subsequent activities that take place in the perceptual Process after a stimulus is received.

Perceptual Organization (Pattern)

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Forms of Perceptual Organization

Figure-ground Perceptual Grouping

Closure Continuity Proximity Similarity

Perceptual Constancy Perceptual Context Perceptual Defense

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Perceptual Organization

Figure-ground:

In perceiving stimuli or phenomena, the tendency is to keep certain phenomena in focus and other phenomena in background.

Figure-Ground Illustration

•Field-ground differentiation– The tendency to distinguish and focus on a stimulus that is classified as figure as opposed to background.

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An individual tends to group several stimuli together into a recognizable pattern.

Various forms Closure Continuity Proximity Similarity

Perceptual Grouping

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The perception of elements like size, shape, color, brightness and location of an object remains constant and does not change from individual to individual.Example: Photograph

Perceptual ContextIt provides meaning and value to objects, events, situation and other people in the environment.

Perceptual Constancy

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It refers to the screening of those elements which create conflict and threatening situation in people.

Perceptual Defense

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Social Perception

It is directly concerned with how one individual perceives other individuals; how we get to know others.Factors

affecting Social

perception

Attribution Stereotyping The Halo Effect

Characteristics of Perceiver & Perceived

• Knowing oneself makes it easier to see others accurately

• One’s own characteristics affect the characteristics one is likely to see in others

• People who accept themselves are more likely to be able to see favorable aspects of others people

• Accuracy in perceiving others is not a single skill

Characteristics of a person being perceived that influence

social perception• The status of person perceived will greatly influence others perception of the person

• The person being perceived is usually placed into categories to simplify the viewer’s perceptual activities. Two common categories are status and role

• The visible traits of the person perceived will greatly influence others perception of that person

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Attribution Attribution refers to how

people explain the cause of another’s or their own behavior.

The determination depends on three factors: Distinctiveness Consensus Consistency

ExternalAttribution

Distinctiveness Does this person

behave in this manner

in other situation?

YesHigh

ConsistencyNoLow

Consistency

NoLow

Consensus

YesHigh

Consensus

YESLow

DistinctivenessNO

HighDistinctiveness

ConsensusDo other person Behave in the Same manner?

ConsistencyDoes this person

behave in this same

manner at other times ?

Internal Attribution

Shortcuts in Judging Others:

1.) Selective Perception 2.) Halo Effect 3.) Contrast Effects 4.) Stereotyping

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Stereotyping

It is the tendency to perceive another person as belonging to a single class or category

Halo effect The person is perceived on the

basis of one trait or event.

Specific Applications in Organizations:

1.) Employment Interview

2.) Performance Expectations

3.) Performance Evaluation

4.) Employee Effort

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Impression Management

It is referred to as “self presentation”

It is the process by which people try to manage or control the perceptions formed by other people about themselves.

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Impression Management Strategies Used By Employees

Demotion-preventive strategy

Accounts ApologiesDisassociation

Promotion-enhancing strategy

Entitlements Enhancements Obstacle-disclosure Association

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It is used when employees want to minimize their responsibilities for negative outcome Accounts Apologies Disassociation

Demotion-Preventive Strategy

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It is used when employees want to maximize their responsibility for a positive outcome or improve their image

Entitlements Enhancements Obstacle-disclosure Association

Promotion-Enhancing Strategy:

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Linkage Between Perception and Individual Decision-making

Perception has a crucial role in individual decision-making in organizations, by affecting both the decision as well as the quality of the decision.

The decision taken by an individual is a complex process involving the intake of data, screening procession and interpreting and evaluating of data, based on the perceptions of the individual.

Any Question?

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