HRM 601 Organizational Behavior Session 2 Perception Behavior

HRM 601 Organizational Behavior Session 2 Perception & Behavior

What Is Perception? • A cognitive process that involves – detecting – selecting – organizing – interpreting – sensory inputs to make sense of our environment

The Perceptual Process

The Role of Perception In Organizations • How we perceive people affects our appraisal of them • How we perceive people affects our behavior towards them • How we perceive problems affects our analysis, interpretations, and solutions

Perception Is Dynamic • We are constantly interpreting sensory inputs • Our judgments change depending on variation in ourselves, others and the situation

Gestalt Principles of Organization • • Proximity Similarity Closure Figure-ground

Set & Contrast • Set: the effect of past experiences affects what we perceive • Contrast: We make judgments based on objects in relation to background conditions

Object And Person Perception • People are more complex • People are capable of intentional actions • Our judgments about people are more often colored by third hand reports • It is more difficult to determine accuracy of perception regarding people

Organizing Social Perception • • Primacy effects Halo effects Contrast effects Negative Vs positive information

Elements of Social Perception • The situation and saliency • The person being perceived • The perceiver

The Situation • Saliency Cues – Novelty: Only person in group of gender, etc. – Brightness: Wearing bright clothes – Contrast: Unusually big, small, loud, friendly – Extremely positive (celebrity) or negative (victim) – Dominant: Sitting at the head of the table, commanding room

The Person Perceived • • Major visual cues Face cues Voice cues Movement cues

The Perceiver • • Motivation Experience Emotion Personality – Field Dependence - Independence – Tolerance for Ambiguity – Levelers & Sharpeners – Perceptual vigilance & defense

Causal Attribution • The process by which we describe how people explain the causes of behavior • Personal Attribution -- Attributing behavior to internal characteristics of an individual • Situation Attribution -- Attributing behavior to external factors

Kelley’s Covariation Theory

Attribution Errors • Fundamental Attribution Error -- The tendency to underestimate the impact of the situation on other people’s behavior and to overestimate the role of personal causes • Actor-observer error -- The tendency to attribute our own behavior to situational causes and others to personal factors

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy • Defined -- The process by which a person’s expectations about someone can lead to that someone behaving in ways which confirm the expectations • Pygmalion in the Classroom -- Research by Rosenthal and Jacobson • Attractiveness in the beholder’s eye -Research by Snyder, Tanke, & Berscheid

How Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Works Perceiver forms impressions Target adjust s behavior to match perceiver’s actions Perceiver treats target differently than others

Confirmatory Bias • Defined -- The tendency to seek, interpret, and create information that verifies existing beliefs • Seeking information -- Snyder and Swann research on interviewing intro- and extroverts • Interpreting information -- the case of Hannah

The Function of Expectations • • Add stability to perceptual world Permit economy of effort Give us good enough accuracy Allow attention to focus on new information

Forming Stereotypes • Learning to stereotype – putting people in to pigeon holes – if you see one pigeon, you’ve seen them all • The belief - congruence theory – assume that those who appear different have different values

When and Why We Stereotype • • Superficial contact Ego-defensive purpose Instrumental to goals Dysfunctionality of stereotypes

Applications in the Organization • Performance appraisals – attribution bias – confirmatory bias – recency effects • Impression management – self promotion – conforming to norms – flattery