PERCEPTION

A process by which individuals organize and

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

Is

the process by which individuals select,

organize and interpret the input from their
senses.

Why does the Perception is

important in the
Organizational Behaviour?

FACTORSINFLUENCING PERCEPTION

The Perceiver - is the person trying to interpret some

observation that he/she has just made.

The Target is whatever the perceiver is trying to make sense

of. The Target can be another person, a group of people, an
event, a situation, an idea, a noise or anything that the
perceiver focuses on.

The Situation is the context in which the perception takes

place.

Person Perception: Making Judgments about

Others

Attribution Theory is when individuals observe behaviour,

the attempts to determine whether it is Internal or External.
Internal Attribution causes under the individuals control.

External Attribution causes are within the peoples

environment.

SHORTCUTS THAT FREQUENTLY

USED IN JUDGING OTHERS

Selective Perception - People selectively interpret

what they see on the basis of their interest,
background, experience, and attitudes.
Halo Effect - Drawing a general impression about an
individual on the basis of a single characteristic.
Contrast Effects - Evaluations of a persons
characteristics that are affected by comparisons with
other people recently encountered who rank higher or
lower on the same characteristics.
Projection Attributing ones own characteristics to
other people
Stereotyping Judging someone on the basis of
ones perception of the group to which that person
belongs.

SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS IN ORGANIZATIONS

Employment interview - Early impressions are very

important! Perceptual judgments are often inaccurate

Performance Expectations - People attempt to validate

their perceptions of reality

Ethnic Profiling Is it right to profile employees?

Performance Evaluations Many subjective components

are used in the evaluation of employees.

Employee Effort How is effort perceived? It is often a

reason for terminations.

Link Between Perception and Individual

Decision Making

Decisions = Choosing between 2 or more alternatives

Problems = A discrepancy between some current state of

affairs and some desired state

ASSUMPTIONS OF THE RATIONAL

DECISION-MAKING MODEL:

Problem Clarity - The problem is clear and unambiguous.

Known Options - The decision-maker can identify all relevant criteria

and viable alternatives.

Clear Preferences - Rationality assumes that the criteria and

alternatives can be ranked and weighted.

Constant Preferences - Specific decision criteria are constant and

that the weights assigned to them are stable over time .

No Time or Cost Constraints - Full information is available because

there are no times or cost constraints.

Maximum Payoff - The choice alternative will yield the highest

perceived value.

Bounded Rationality- individuals make decisions by constructing

simplified models that extract the essential features from problems
without capturing all their complexity.

Intuitive Decision Making - an unconscious process created out of

distilled experience.

COMMON BIASES & ERRORS

Overconfidence Bias
Confirmation Bias
Representative Bias
Commitment
Randomness Error

Anchoring Bias
Availability Bias
Escalation of
Hindsight Bias

Individual Differences in DecisionMaking Styles .

Directive Style -- people using this style has a low

tolerance for ambiguity and seeks rationality.
Analytic Style -- people using this style have a much
greater tolerance for ambiguity than do directive
decision makers.
Conceptual Style -- people tend to be very broad in
their outlook and consider many alternatives

ORGANIZATIONAL CONSTRAINTS

Performance Evaluations

Reward Systems

Formal Regulations

System-Imposed Time Constraints

Historical Precedents

Criteria in Decision Making:

Utilitarian criterion

Rights criterion

Justice criterion

How can we improve creativity in decision making?

1) expertise

2) creative-thinking skills and

3) intrinsic task motivation

Source: www.csus.edu/iniv/s/sablynskic/ch5obe150.htm