ORGANIZATIONAL

BEHAVIOR
Perception
Group Adventurer

Azhar Ayub
(MB-09-37)
 Introduction

 People’s behavior does not depend on their

external environment but on what they see or
believe it to be.
 What one perceives is a result of interplays
between past experiences, including one’s culture,
and the interpretation of the perceived.
 For example, a supervisor may try to help his
subordinates in achieving their target by guiding
them and giving suggestions.
Some employees may feel that he is interfering
and controlling them but others smay feel that he
is helping his employees. So, it all depends on
employee’s perception or opinion.
 History
 In philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science,
perception is the process of attaining awareness or
understanding of sensory information.

 The word "perception" comes from the Latin words

perceptio, percipio, and means "receiving, collecting,
action of taking possession, apprehension with the
mind or senses."

 Perception is one of the oldest fields in psychology.

 The oldest quantitative law in psychology is the Weber-

Fechner law, which quantifies the relationship between the
intensity of physical stimuli and their perceptual effects.
 Definitions

 “ WE DON’T SEE THINGS AS THEY ARE, WE SEE

THINGS AS WE ARE.”

 “The process by which individuals select, organize, and

interpret the input from their senses to give meaning and
order to the world around them”

 “Process by which people translate sensory impressions

into a coherent and unified view of the world around them.
Though necessarily based on incomplete and unverified (or
unreliable) information, perception is 'the reality' and
guides human behavior in general.”
 Definitions Cont…
 “The process by which
individuals organize and
interpret their impressions
in order to give meaning to
their environment.”

 “The process by which

individuals organize and
interpret their
impressions in order to
give meaning to their
environment.”
 Definitions Cont…

 “The study of perception is

concerned with identifying
the process through which
we interpret and organize
sensory information to
produce our conscious
experience of objects and
object relationship.”
 Definitions Cont…

 “Perception is the process

of receiving information

1/9/2011
about and making sense of
the world around us. It
involves deciding which
information to notice, how
to categorize this
information and how to
interpret it within the
framework of existing
knowledge.
4
 Definitions Cont…
Perception is YOUR
interpretation of “reality”
after information/stimuli is …
Filtered out
Selected
Organized
Defined
….using YOUR existing…
Knowledge

Needs

Beliefs
 Social
SocialPerception
Perception

Social Perception -
interpreting information
about another person

Perceiver Characteristics Target Characteristics

• Familiarity with target • Physical appearance
• Attitudes/Mood • Verbal communication
• Self-Concept • Nonverbal cues
• Cognitive structure • Intentions
Situational Characteristics
• Interaction context
• Strength of situational cues
 Why We Study Perceptions?

 To better understand how people make

attributions about events.

 We don’t see reality. We interpret what we see

and call it reality.

 The attribution process guides our behavior,

regardless of the truth of the attribution.
Components of Perception

Perceiver Situation

Target
 Components of Perception
Cont…
 Perceiver
These are the most common characteristics that affect
the perception of an
individual like attitudes, motives, interests,
past experiences and expectations.
 Target
Characteristics of the perceiver also affect what is being
perceived. These characteristics include attractiveness,
gregariousness (sociability) and tendency to group similar
things together.
 Situation
The situation in which objects or events are seen by
individuals also affect their attention. This includes time,
heat or light
Factors influencing Perception
Factors Influencing
Factors inPerception
• Attitudes
the perceiver

• Motives
• Interests
• Experience
• Expectations

Factors in the situation

Perception
• Time
• Work Setting
• Social Setting
Factors in the Target
• Novelty
• Motion
• Sounds
• Size
• Background
• Proximity
• Similarity
Organizational Behavior / Perception 6
 Perceptual Selection

 Filtering process

 Depends on 2 major factors

 External Environment

 Internal Environment
 The Perceptual Process
 Sensation
An individual’s ability to detect stimuli in the immediate
environment.
 Selection
The process a person uses to eliminate some of the
stimuli that have been sensed and to retain others for
further processing.
 Organization
The process of placing selected perceptual stimuli into a
framework for “storage.”
 Translation
The stage of the perceptual process at which stimuli are
interpreted and given meaning.
 Perceptual Process Selecting Stimuli
External factors : Nature,
Receiving Stimuli Location,Size,contrast,
(External & Internal) Movement,repetition,similarity
Internal factors : Learning,
needs,age,Interest,

Organizing
Interpreting
Figure Background ,
Attribution ,Stereotyping,
Perceptual Grouping
Halo Effect, Projection
( similarity, proximity,
closure, continuity)

Response
Covert: Attitudes ,
Motivation,
Feeling
Overt: Behavior

Organizational Behavior / Perception 4

Perceptual process
Perceptual Process model
Model
Environmental stimuli

Feeling Hearing Seeing Smelling Tasting

Selective attention

Organisation and
interpretation

Emotions and
behaviour
 Perceptual Errors
 Attribution Theory
 Selective Perception

 Halo Effect

 Contrast Effects

 Projection

 Stereotyping
 Attribution Theory
 It was proposed by Kelly in 1972.
 It suggests that when we observe an
individual’s behavior, we try to find
whether it was caused internally or
externally.
 The ways in which people come to
understand the causes of their own
and others’ behaviors.
Types of Attributions
 Types of Attributions

– Internally caused behaviors are under

the personal control of an individual.

– Externally caused behavior is due to

some outside causes or situation.
 Factors

The three factors in this regard are

 Distinctiveness

 Consensus

 Consistency
 S

Theory of Causal Attributions

Consistency
Does person usually
behave this way in Ye
NO this situation? s

Distinctiveness
Does person behave Internal Attribution
External Attribution differently in different
(to person’s situation) Yes situations? No (to person’s disposition)

Consensus
Do others behave
Ye
s similarly in this No
situation?
 Errors
There are some biases on the part of
perceiver that distort the perception
 Fundamental Attribution Error

– The tendency to underestimate external

factors and overestimate internal factors when
making judgments about others’ behavior.
 Self-Serving Bias
– The tendency to attribute one’s successes to
internal factors while putting the blame for
failures on external factors.
 Shortcuts In Judging Others
 Selective Perception
– People selectively interpret what they see
based on their interests, background,
experience, and attitudes.
– Any characteristic that makes a person, object
or event separate from others has a better
chance of being perceived.
– An individual cannot take in everything that is
seen.
– Selectivity is judging others quickly but there
is a risk of misjudgment.
 Shortcuts In Judging Others
Cont…
– Halo Effect
– Drawing a general impression
about an individual based on
a single characteristic.
 Contrast Effects
– Individuals do not evaluate a
person in separation. Their
reactions to one person are
affected by other persons
they have recently met. This
is known as contrast effect.
 Shortcuts In Judging Others
Cont…
Stereotyping
 It is the tendency to judge
somebody on the basis of the
group to which he or she
belongs
 In organizations stereotypes
are based on gender, age,
race, ethnicity, etc
 SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS IN
ORGANIZATIONS
Employment Interview
 Different interviewers see different things in the
same candidate.
 Interviewers get an impression about the
candidate in the first four or five minutes and
rarely change their view after that.
Performance Expectations
It is the tendency for someone’s
expectations about another to cause that
person to behave in a manner consistent
with those expectations (Wilkins, 1973).
 SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS IN
ORGANIZATIONS Cont…

 Self fulfilling prophecy is of two types

Pygmalion Effect:
It is positive example of self-fulfilling prophecy.
In this people who have high expectations from
others improve their performance.
Golem Effect:
It is negative example of self-fulfilling
prophecy.In this people who have low
expectations from others lower their
performance.
 SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS IN
ORGANIZATIONS Cont…
Performance Evaluation
 An employee’s performance appraisal depends on
the perceptual process.
 Appraisals can be both - objective and subjective.
 The perception of an evaluator about the
characteristics or behavior of the employees,
affect the result of the appraisal
Employee Effort
 An individual’s future in the organization does not
only depend on his performance.
 The evaluation of an individual’s effort is a
subjective judgment which can be biased.
THE END