PERCEPTION

 Perception can be defined as a process by which individuals

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

 Perception is not just what one sees with eyes. It is a much

more complex process by which an individual selectively
absorbs or assimilates the stimuli in the environment,
cognitively organizes the perceived information in a specific
fashion and then interprets the information to make an
assessment about what people select, organize, and
interpret or attach meaning to events happening in the
environment.

 Since perception is subjective process, different people

may perceive the same environment differently based on
what particular aspects of the situation they choose. For
example, some employees may perceive the work place
as great if it has favourable working conditions, good
pay.

 Others may perceive it as great if it has challenging

assignments and opportunity to grow. Managers should
sharpen their perceptual skills so that they are as close
to perceiving people, events, and objects as they truly
are. When “misperception” occurs due to perceptual
errors and distortion, managers are bound to make poor
or improper decision.

 Perception is process through which short-run changes are

made in behaviour in response to inputs from work
environment.

 The process itself consists of two major actions:

i) attention to incoming stimuli; and

ii) translation of such stimuli into a message that leads to
a meaningful behavioural response.
  Perception is a form of behaviour and, therefore,
influenced by at least the following factors:

i) characteristics of the object or source of incoming

stimuli (such as a supervisor issuing work request);
ii) the situation or conditions under which the stimuli
occur (such as timing of a message); and
iii) Characteristics of the perceiving person. The last
category is extremely important in determining the way
incoming stimuli will be interpreted and subsequent
response. An individual’s motives, previous learning
and personality will influence perception. Managers
must take such consideration into account in
predicting the way their actions and order will be
perceived by others.

Five Stages in Perceptual Process:

Stage I: Observation Phase – It depicts the environmental
stimuli being observed by the five senses of the perceived
Stage II: Selection of the Stimuli: This is governed both by
factors external to the perceived, such as the characteristics of
the stimulus, and internal to the individual, such as the
personality disposition and motivations of the perceiver.
Stage III: Organizing Stage – In this stage, the perceiver is
influenced by figure and ground, grouping, and several
perceptual errors such as stereotyping halo effects, projection
and perceptual defence.
Stage IV: Interpretation Stage: This stage is governed by the
perceiver’s assumptions of people and events and attributions
about causes of behaviour and feelings.
Stage V: Behaviour Response: In this stage the response of the
perceiver takes on both covert and overt characteristics. Covert
response will be reflected in the attitudes, motives, and feelings
of the perceiver and overt responses will be reflected in the actions
of the individual.
FACTORS INFLUENCING PERCEPTION:

Several factors influence how we process the perceptual inputs

and transform them into outputs. There are three broad
categories: Characteristics of Perceiver, Characteristics of Target,
and Characteristics of Situation.

1. Characteristics of Perceiver:
A person’s needs and motives, self-concept, past experience,
emotional state, and personality aspects strongly influence the
perceptual process.

Needs and Motives:

Unsatisfied needs or motives stimulate individuals and may exert
a strong influence on their perception. For examples, two groups
of subjects – One group who is deprived of food for about 24 hours
and the other group which had food enough were shown the
blurred pictures and asked to explain the contents. The first
group perceived the blurred image as food far more frequently
than the other group. People needs and motives thus play a big
part in the perceptual process.

Self Concept:
It refers how a person perceives himself/herself which in turn
influence his or her perception of the world around them. If
a person perceives himself as incompetent, then he perceives the
world as threatening. On the other hand, if he feels himself as
confident and capable, he will perceive everything around as
friendly.

Attitudes:
Attitudes are a set of emotions, beliefs, and behaviours
towards a particular object, person, thing, or event. Attitudes
are often the result of experience or upbringing, and they can
have a powerful influence over behaviour.

The preferences and likingness affects ones perception. A

lecturer, who likes bigger class, feels comfortable in a lecture
session which has more than hundred students. Another
lecturer, who likes small class with a lot of questions, may not be
so comfortable in such big classes.
Interests:
Individual’s focus of attention is also influenced by the interests
of people. A plastic surgeon will more likely to notice an imperfect
nose than a plumber. Because of our individual interests differ
considerably, what one person notices in a situation, can differ
from what other person perceives.
Past experiences:
Individuals past experiences also influence in molding ones
perception. For example if one has had problem responding to
examination questions in the past, he or she will tend to perceive
even simple, straightforward examination question as tricky.
Likewise, if a person was betrayed by a couple of friends, he or
she would never venture to cultivate new friendship in future.
Psychological or Emotional State:
If an individual is depressed, he or she is likely to perceive the
same situation differently from the other person who is at the
extreme level of excitement or happiness. If a person has been
scared of seeing a snake in the garden, she is likely to perceive a
rope under the bed as a snake. Thus, the emotional and
psychological states of an individual also influence the perceptual
process and the different types of interpretation of the situation.
Expectation:
Expectations can also distort the perceptual process. If a person
expects police officers to be more authoritative and dictatorial, he
or she may perceive them as if they are rough and tough
regardless of the Police Officers actual traits.
New Experience:
If a person experiences something new, that is more likely to grab
attention than the objects or events that has been experienced
before. For example, a person is more likely to notice the
operations along an assembly line if this is first time that person
has seen an assembly line. In 1970’s women police officers are
highly visible because traditionally Police Officers positions were
predominantly held by males.

Personality Characteristics:
There is a strong relationship between personality factors and
perception. For example, secure people tend to perceive others as
warm supportive than those, who are more cold and indifferent.
Similarly, self-accepting persons perceive others as lining and
accepting them. Those who are not se;llmnbnvcxlf-accepting tend
to distrust others. Insecure, thoughtless or non-self-accepting
persons are less likely to perceive themselves and those around
them accurately. In all probabilities, they are likely to distort,
misinterpret or in other ways defensively perceive the situation

2. Characteristics of Target:
The ways things are organized around us are greatly influencing
the perceptual process. Some of the typical characteristics
include bright color, noise; novel objects, bigger unusual size,
moving objects, status, appearance, contrast, intensity, repetition
etc. catch people attention. For example, an unusual noise raised
by a person, a strong beam of light suddenly flashed, a very
handsome, attractive person among a group of clumsy people, a
red light against the black background, an unusually obese
person amidst a group of slim people etc.
Organization of Target:
People tend to organize the various parts of elements in the
environment as a meaningful whole. Such organizing activity is
a cognitive process and those are based on Gestalt Principles.
The following are the four Gestalt Principles – Figure and Ground,
Proximity, Similarity, Closure, Continuation.
Figure and Ground:
What a person observes is dependent on how a central figure is
being separated from its background. This implies that the
perceived object or person or event stands out distinct from its
background and occupies the cognitive space of the individual. In
a dance programme, the spectators’ tend to perceive the dance
performance against the back ground music, backdrop setup etc.
The perceiver thus tends to organize only the information which
stands out in the environment which seems to be significant to
the individual.
Proximity:
People tend to perceive things, which are nearer to each other, as
together as group rather than separately. If four or five members
are standing together, we tend to assume that they are belonging
to same group rather than as separately. As a result of physical
proximity, we often put together objects or events or people as one
group even though they are unrelated. Employees in a particular
section are seen as group.
Similarity:
Persons, objects or events that are similar to each other also tend
to be grouped together. This organizing mechanism helps us to
deal with information in an efficiently way rather than getting
bogged down and confused with too many details. For examples,
if we happen to see a group of foreign nationals at an International
seminar, Indians are grouped as one group, British as another,
Americans as yet another based on the similarity of nationalities.
Closure:
In many situation, the information what we intend to get may be
in bits and pieces and not fully complete in all respects. However,
we tend to fill up the gaps in the missing parts and making it as
meaningful whole. Such mental process of filling up the missing
element is called as closure. For example, while giving promotions
to the staff members, the managers will try to get full information
to make an effective decision, in absence of getting complete
information, managers try to make meaningful assumptions and
based on that suitable decision will be made.
3. Characteristics of the Situation:
The context at which the incident is occurring can influence the
perceptual process. The physical, social, organizational settings,
time etc. can influence how we interpret the stimuli. For example,
late coming of subordinate at birthday party may be ignored but
treated him as an important guests by the manager, but at same
time, the same person’s late coming to an important official
meeting will be viewed as seriously and manager may issue a
memo seeking his explanation. Thus, the location of an event, the
social context in which takes place, timing and the roles played
by the actors play a significant part in how we interpret the
situation.

PERSON PERCEPTION: MAKING JUDGMENT ABOUT OTHERS

Attribution Theory:
While observing people’s behaviour such as getting an overseas
assignment or promotion to top management position or failed
miserably in university examination or fired from the employer
etc., we attempt to determine whether it was internally caused
or external caused. If those factors such as knowledge, skill,
effort, talent, hard work, positive attitude are responsible for
the occurrence of behaviour, it is labelled as internally
caused. Internally caused behaviours are those that are believed
to be under the personal control of the individual. If those
factors such as situational factors such as location
advantage, non-availability of material, contacts with
influential others, etc. are responsible for the occurrence of
behaviour, it is labelled as externally caused. Externally
caused behaviour is seen as resulting from outside causes; that
is, the person is seen as forced into the behaviour by the
situation.
If an employee is late for work, one can attribute his late coming
due to laziness or lack of interest in the job of over sleeping. This
would be internal interpretation. If an employee late coming is
due to traffic jam or road accident or his wife sickness, then he is
making external attribution.

There are three factors which are used to determine whether

the behaviour is caused by internal factors or due to external
factors. They are: Distinctiveness, Consensus and
Consistency.
Distinctiveness:
It refers to whether an individual displays different
behaviours in different situations. If a person is coming late not
only to office but also to picnic party or to birth day party or to
attending meeting etc. If his late coming behaviour is not unique,
it will probably be judged as internal. (Low Distinctiveness) If
his late coming behaviour is unusual, that is, only to office work,
his late coming behaviour is due to external attribution. (High
Distinctiveness)
Consensus:
It refers to whether all the people who are facing with a
similar situation respond in the same way or not. If all the
people are responding the same way, then there is high
consensus. If consensus is high, then his late coming behaviour
is due to external factors. If only this worker is late and all
others are punctual, then there is low consensus. If
consensus is low, then his late coming is due to internal
factor.
Consistency:
It refers whether a person responds the same all the time,
that is, whether his late coming is common in all the days or
once in a blue moon. If his late coming is reported in all the days,
then there is high consistency. If there is high consistency, his
late coming behavior is due to internal factor. If his late coming
is reported only one time, then there is low consistency. If there
is low consistency, then his late coming is due to external factors.
The more consistent the behavior, the more the observer is
inclined to attribute it to internal factors.
Errors in Attribution:
While attributing the causes for the behavior of individuals,
people tend to commit two types of errors.
Fundamental Attribution Error:
There is tendency to underestimate the influence of external
factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when
making judgment about the behavior of others particularly with
reference to the victims of accidents or failures. This is called the
fundamental attribution errors. For example, a sales manager is
likely to attribute the poor performance of his sales agents to
laziness rather than to the new product line introduced by the
competitor or current recession prevailing in the society etc.
Self-Serving Bias:
There is also a tendency for individuals to attribute their own
success to internal factors such as ability or effort, while putting
the blame for failure on external factors such as luck or fate. This
is called the self-serving bias. While assessing the performance of
subordinates, the managers are likely to provide feedback in a
distorted manner depending on whether it is positive or negative.

Perceptual Distortions and Problems

Stereotyping A common shortcut to the perceptual process is to

evaluate an individual based on the group or class to which he or
she belongs. Stereotypes reduce tension in an unusual way.
Encountering a person who does not fit our stereotype of that
person’s group can be painful to our ego. We lessen the discomfort
by looking for behavior that conforms to the stereotype. Assume
that you believe that Chinese workers are meticulous. When you
meet a Chinese worker on the job, you might have a tendency to
search for evidence of meticulousness.

An important workplace consequence of stereotypes is that they

typically lead to performance standards or expectations based on
an individual’s group membership. Manufacturing engineers from
Germany have a positive reputation (stereotype) for their skill
level. A manufacturing manager might therefore have very high
standards of what he perceives to be superior work from a German
engineer
Halo Effect A tendency exists to color everything that we know
about a person because of one recognizable favorable or
unfavorable trait. When a company does not insist on the use of
objective measures of performance, it is not uncommon for a
supervisor to give favorable performance ratings to persons who
dress well or smile frequently. The fine appearance or warm smile
of these people has created a halo around them. Group members
often create a positive halo about one member who is articulate
and witty. In reality, the person’s professional competence may be
average.
Projection Another shortcut in the perceptual process is to project
our own faults onto others instead of making an objective
appraisal of the situation. A manager might be asked to
recommend a group member for a difficult troubleshooting
assignment out of town. The manager might hesitate, saying,
“Most of the people in my group do not handle pressure well.” In
reality, handling pressure poorly is the manager’s key weakness.

Selective Perception People use this mechanism when they draw

an unjustified conclusion from an unclear situation. A feedback e-
mail message from the manager might be interpreted as
documentation to help the company build a case for firing the
individual. Selective perception can have negative consequences
when it leads to self-deception about potentially bad news. A
worker planning for retirement, for example, might not pay
attention to the trend toward companies doing away with
traditional pensions. She observes only the encouraging news that
many companies still do have traditional pensions. As a result, the
worker may not embark on a serious investment program for
retirement.
What can managerial workers do with knowledge about
perceptual distortions? If it appears that a work associate is
making obvious use of a perceptual distortion, one should gently
confront the person about the discrepancy in his or her thinking.
In the pension example, a coworker might have said, “Look, I
claim no great foresight about our company pension plan, but our
company could eliminate pensions at any time—particularly if we
are bought out. If you want to fulfill your retirement dreams, you’d
better start investing now.”

ADAPTED FROM: Dubrin (2019)

WHAT ARE EMOTIONS AND MOODS?

 Emotions can greatly influence our attitudes toward others,
our decision making, and our behaviors.

 It can even spark conflict with potentially disastrous

consequences.

 For example, after being told to “stop being a crybaby,” one

employee threw a hot bean burrito at his supervisor, snapped
his headset in two, and stormed out of the building.

 In truth, we are human and cannot set aside our emotions,

but we can acknowledge and work with them. And not all
emotions have negative influences on us.

 For example, when Fausto Martinez found out about

Amazon’s minimum wage hike, he was extremely happy—he
looked forward to a better quality of life, more time with
family, and the lack of a need for a second full-time job.

 By increasing the minimum wage, Amazon was able to

improve the quality of life of its employees and stay
competitive with regard to retaining them.

 First, however, we need to discuss three terms that are

closely intertwined: affect, emotions, and moods.
 Affect is a generic term that covers a broad range of feelings,
including both emotions and moods.

 Emotions are intense, discrete, and short-lived feeling

experiences that are often caused by a specific event.

 Moods are longer lived and less intense feelings than

emotions and often arise without a specific event acting as a
stimulus.

Emotional Intelligence

 The effective use of emotions has a major impact on career

and personal success. Emotional intelligence refers to
qualities such as understanding one’s own feelings, empathy
of for others, and the regulation of emotion to enhance living.

 Emotional intelligence has to do with the ability to connect

with people and understand their emotions. A worker with
high emotional intelligence can engage in behaviors such as
sizing up, pleasing, and influencing people.

 Emotional intelligence is regarded by some researchers as an

ability that focuses on the recognition and control of personal
emotions. The person who insults the boss during a group
meeting would be deficient in this regard.

 Researchers also view emotional intelligence as a

combination of intellect and various personal traits and
emotion.

 Among the traits included in this approach would be

insensitivity, such as making a derogatory comment about a
coworker’s hairstyle.

 Reflecting the broader view of emotional intelligence, Daniel

Goleman and his associates regard this type of intelligence
to include four key domains (or components): Later research
has identified 12 emotional intelligence competencies nested
within each domain. All 12 competencies are learnable
capabilities that facilitate effectiveness in working with
people as a leader or individual contributor.
Daniel Goleman’s of Emotional Intelligence:

1. Self-awareness.
 The ability to understand one’s own emotions is the
most essential of the four emotional intelligence
competencies.

 Having high self-awareness allows people to know their

strengths and limitations and have high self-esteem.

 Effective individual contributors use self-awareness to

accurately measure their own moods, and to intuitively
understand how their moods affect others.

 Effective managers seek feedback to see how well their

actions are received by others.

 A manager with good self-awareness would recognize

factors such as whether he or she was liked, or was
exerting the right amount of pressure on people.
(Emotional self-awareness is the competency associated
with self-awareness.)

2. Self-management/Self-regulation:
 The ability to control one’s emotions and act with
honesty and integrity in a consistent and adaptable
manner is important.

 The right degree of self-management helps prevent a

person from throwing temper tantrums when activities
do not go as planned.

 Effective workers do not let their occasional bad moods

ruin their day. If they cannot overcome the bad mood,
they let work associates know of the problem and how
long it might last.
  A manager with high self-management would not
suddenly decide to fire a group member because of one
difference of opinion. (The competencies associated with
self-management are emotional self-control,
adaptability, achievement orientation, and positive
outlook.)

3. Social awareness:
 Having empathy for others and having intuition about
organizational problems are key aspects of this
dimension of emotional intelligence.

 Socially aware leaders go beyond sensing the emotions

of others by showing that they care. In addition, they
accurately size up political forces in the office.

 A team leader with social awareness, or empathy,

would be able to assess whether a team member has
enough enthusiasm for a project to assign him or her
to that project.

 A CEO who has empathy for a labor union’s demands

might be able to negotiate successfully with the head of
the labor union to avoid a costly strike. (The
competencies associated with social awareness are
empathy and organizational awareness.)

4. Relationship management:
 This includes the interpersonal skills of being able to
communicate clearly and convincingly, disarm
conflicts, and build strong personal bonds.

 Effective leaders use relationship management skills to

spread their enthusiasm and solve disagreements, often
with kindness and humor.

 A corporate professional with good relationship

management skills would not burn bridges and would
continue to enlarge his or her network of people to win
support when support is needed. (The competencies
associated with relationship management are influence,
 coach and mentor, conflict management, teamwork,
and inspirational leadership.)

 Among the many practical outcomes of having high

emotional intelligence is the ability to cope better with
setbacks.

 A review of many studies concluded that low emotional

intelligence employees are more likely than their high
emotional intelligence counterparts to experience negative
emotional reactions to job insecurity, such as high tension.
Furthermore, workers with low emotional intelligence are
more likely to engage in negative coping behaviors, such as
expressing anger and verbally abusing an immediate
supervisor for the organization failing to provide job security.

A concern about the validity of the concept of emotional

intelligence is that a person with good cognitive intelligence would
also engage in many of the behaviors of an emotionally intelligent
person. Another concern is that the popularized concept of
emotional intelligence has become so broad it encompasses
almost the entire study of personality. Some approaches to
presenting emotional intelligence appear to present a long list of
desirable qualities, such as resiliency and vision.

Implications for Managerial Practice

 A major implication of individual differences in cognitive

ability and personality is that these factors have a major
impact on the selection, placement, job assignment, training,
and development of employees.

 When faced with such decisions, the manager should seek

answers to such questions as the following:

a) Is this employee intelligent enough to handle the job

and deal with out-of-the-ordinary problems?
 b) Is this employee too intelligent for the assignment? Will
he or she become bored quickly? Does this employee
think that he or she is overqualified for the job?

c) Is this employee’s personality suited to the assignment?

For instance, is the employee conscientious enough? Is
the employee open to new learning?

 Many employees perform below standard, not because they

are not motivated, but their abilities and personality traits
are not suited to the job.

 For instance, an employee who writes garbled update reports

may be doing so because of below-average verbal
comprehension, not low motivation.

 Another employee might perform poorly as a sales engineer

because she dislikes the part of the job requiring direct
contact with customers because she is introverted. Training
programs and coaching can be useful in making up for
deficits that appear on the surface to be motivational
problems