PERCEPTION

To understand what the processes involved in perception are.

To understand why perception is important in organizations

To be able to identify individual biases & errors in perception.

To understand different influences on decision making.

WHAT IS PERCEPTION ?PERCEPTION is a process by which

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

People’s behavior is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself.

The world as it is perceived is the world that is behaviorally important.

Factors that shape (and can distort perception):TargetSituationPerceiver

FACTORS INFLUENCING PERCEPTION

The process of combining , integrating and interpreting information about others to gain an accurate understanding of them.

Attribution Theory : An attempt to determine whether an individual’s behavior is internally or externally caused.

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

KELLEY’S THEORY OF CASUAL ATTRIBUTION: “The approach suggesting that people will believe others actions

to be caused by internal or external factors based on three types of information: consensus, Consistency, and Distinctiveness”.

1. Distinctiveness

2. Consensus

3. Consistency

Social identity : “Who a person is, as defined in terms of his or her membership in various social groups”.

SOCIAL IDENTIFICATION is the process by which we define ourselves in terms and categories that we share with other people.

Many forms of social identity exist, reflecting the many ways in which people connect to other groups and social categories.

A. GENDER IDENTITYB. ETHNIC AND NATIONAL IDENTITIESC. POLITICAL IDENTITYD. VOCATIONSE. PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS AND STIGMATIZED GROUPS

Social identity theory: “A conceptualization recognizing that the way we perceive others and ourselves is biased on both our unique characteristics and our membership in various groups”.

Social Identity Theory is a social psychological analysis of the role of self conception in group membership, group processes, and intergroup relations.

Social identity theory defines group cognitively – in terms of people’s self conception as group members. A group exists psychologically if three or more people construe and evaluate themselves in terms of shared attributes that distinguish them collectively from other people.

Social identity theory addresses phenomena such as prejudice, discrimination, ethnocentrism, stereotyping, intergroup conflict, conformity, normative behavior, group polarization, crowd behavior, organizational behavior, leadership, deviance and group cohesiveness.

THE PYGMALION EFFECT

What is Pygmalion Effect

The Pygmalion effect, or Rosenthal effect, refers to the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people, often children or students and employees, the better they perform. The effect is named after Pygmalion, a Cypriot sculptor in a narrative by Ovid in Greek mythology, who fell in love with a female statue he had carved out of ivory.

The Pygmalion effect is a form of self-fulfilling prophecy, and, in this respect, people with poor expectations internalize their negative label, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly. Within sociology, the effect is often cited with regards to education and social class.

•Your expectation of people and their expectations in themselves are the key factor in how people perform well at work.

•Pygmalion effect have evolved to characterize the fact that an individual behavior is determined by other people’s expectations.

•This characteristic is particularly relevant when we consider performance expectation on the job. Every manager has expectations from the people who report to him.

•They consciously or unconsciously communicate these expectations. People consciously or unconsciously read and perform in ways that are consistent with the expectations of manager.

Pygmalion in Management • Performance depends on expectations. High expectations means superior performance while low expectations means inferior performance.

•What manager expects of their subordinates and the way they treat them largely determines their performance.

•A unique characteristic of a superior manager is the ability to create high performance expectation that subordinates fulfill.

•Less effective managers fail to develop such expectations and as a consequence the productivity of subordinates fall.

Impossible Dreams• Expectations must pass the test of reality. Expectations should be realistic as unrealistic expectations can easily de-motivate the subordinates

•No motivation or response is aroused when the goal is perceived to be virtually certain or virtually impossible.

•Failure in meeting the unrealistically high expectations leads to high rate of attrition either voluntarily or involuntarily.

• So it is drastically important of managers to examine a goal before it is set in front of the subordinates.

Self motivated performer

High performers, as expected

Low performers, as expected

Under performers

Your expectationsLow High

Pygmalion motivation grid

Quadrant 1

“High performers, as expected”These people meet your expectations and continuously improve their performance. This can be a “virtuous circle”, where high performance is motivated by your high expectations.

Quadrant 2

• “Low performers, as expected”

Here, you have low expectations of people, and they tend to perform and improve less than others. This can be a “vicious circle”, and there’s a risk that these people are demotivated by your lower expectations of them.

Quadrant 3

• “Self Motivated Performers”

Despite your lower expectations of this group, these team members perform well. Perhaps their last three tasks were unusually successful or perhaps you need to adjust your expectations.

Quadrant 4

• “Under performers”

Despite of your high expectations this group are failing to improve their performance.

The Golem Effect•The Golem effect is the negative impact on subordinates' performance that results from low leader expectations toward them.

• The Golem effect is the negative or dark version of Pygmalion: behavior reflecting low or negative supervisory expectations generates negative results in subordinates’ performance

•The Pygmalion effect is a well-documented phenomenon, which describes how high expectations on the part of an authority figure to lead to high performance on the part of a subject. The Golem effect designates the opposite effect whereby low expectations encourage low performance.

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• The Golem effect has been observed in various settings, so we know it exists, but its actual workings are less well documented: in particular, how low expectations are triggered and conveyed.

• So Golem effect is felt in all facets of life. Be is studying in school, college or working is an office.

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These shortcuts allow us to make accurate perceptions rapidly and provide valid data for making predictions.

Five major perceptual errors:StereotypingHalo effectsSelective perceptionProjectionContrast effect

Stereotyping:

Occurs when an individual assigns attributes to another solely on the basis of the other’s membership in a particular social or demographic category.

judging someone on the basis of ones perception of the group to which that person belongs.

Stereotyping leads a person to perceive and respond to others as members of one group or another, ignoring in the process the specific characteristics of individuals.

Profiling: a form of stereotyping in which a group of individuals is singled out– typically on the basis of race ,ethnicity- for intensive inquiry , scrutiny ,or investigation.

This is the tendency to judge specific qualities or traits from an overall impression or knowledge of just one trait.

When a general impression is drawn about an individual on the basis of the single characteristics such as intelligence, sociability, or appearance, a halo effect is operating.

Selective perception: Perpetuates stereotypes or halo effectsThe perceiver singles out information that supports a prior

belief but filters out contrary informationPeople selectively interpret what they see on the basis of

their interests, background, experience, and attitudes

Arises out of a need to protect one’s own self-concept.

People assign to others the characteristics or feelings that they possess themselves.

the tendency to attribute ones own characteristics to other people.

Evolution of a person's characteristic that is affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on same characteristics.

Employment interviewPerformance expectationPerformance evolutionEmployee effort