Unit 2

PERCEPTION
Chapter-5 2
Chapter-5 3
Parallel Lines?

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Any movement you see is an illusion!

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 Shimmer
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Chapter-5 9
 Hermann Grid

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 Meaning of Perception

 Perception may be defined as the process by which an

individual selects, organizes and interpret stimuli into a

meaningful and coherent picture of the environment in
which he lives.
The process by which people notice and make sense of

information from the environment”

Factors that influence perception
 Factors in the perceiver
Attitude
Evaluative statements or judgments concerning
objects, people or value.
reflect how we feel about something.
Attitudes: The perceiver’s attitudes affect
perception. For example, suppose Mr. X is
interviewing candidates for a very important
position in his organization – a position that
requires negotiating contracts with
suppliers, most of whom are male. Mr X may
feel that women are not capable of holding
their own in tough negotiations. This attitude
will doubtless affect his perceptions of the
Motives
Unsatisfied needs or motives stimulate individuals
and may exert a strong influence on their
perceptions. For example, in an organizational
context, a boss who is insecure perceives a
subordinate’s efforts to do an outstanding job as a
threat to his or her own position. Personal
insecurity can be translated into the perception
that others are out to "get my job", regardless of
the intention of the subordinates.
Motives also play a role in attention. If you are
riding in a car adn are hungry, you wil notice
restaurants and billboards picturing food. If you
are running low on gas, your attention will shift to
Interest
State that power the force an attitude has towards
manifestation in a persons behaviour .
Interest: The focus of our attention appears to
be influenced by our interests. Because our
individual interests differ considerably, what
one person notices in a situation can differ
from what others perceive.
Expectations
 State that anticipation of a particular
behavior from a person .
Affects what a person perceives.
Finally, expectations can distort your
perceptions in that you will see what you
expect to see.
 Factors in the situation

Time

Time perception is a construction of the brain

that can also be manipulated and studied
through a variety of experiments.
What are the factors that affect your
perception of how time passes?
Level of fatigue
Level of Concentration
Depression & Happiness
Work setting
Social setting(How an individual perceives
other)
“Social perception is that part of
perception that allows people to
understand the other people in their
social world.”

Social perceptions can obviously be

flawed - even skilled observers can
misperceive, misjudge, and reach the
wrong conclusions. Once we form wrong
impressions, they are likely to persist.
 Factors in the target
Try this exercise. Look at each umbrella
image. Is the message of each image
different? If so, what makes the message
different?
Novelty:-
novel or something unique or
a peculiar idea is likely to attract anyone’s
attract attention. white person or a black
person in India catches attention faster.
Motion
People gives more attention to moving
objects than the stationery objects.
Example:
Moving object Stationery object
Sounds
Sound level or noise level is a physical quantity
measured with measuring instruments.
Loudness is a psycho-physical sensation
perceived by the human auditory perception or
the human ear/brain mechanism. That is not the
same.
 Furthermore, for speech, music, and many
other sounds, the physical characteristics of the
sound produce hearing sensations in the
listener. TV advertisement, Radio advertisement
Size
Larger object is more likely to be noticed than
a smaller
Object.

Example:
Which you can read fast?

God is great God is great

background
Proximity
Proximity or geographical proximity is an
important factor for formation of groups.
For the same reason an individual behavior
may be perceived to be group behavior.
But the real is the all ball is not happy but
sad.
Similarity

how items that are similar in some way tend to be grouped

together. On similarities and differences in cultural
perceptions of the environment.
Specific application of perception in organization
Employment interview:
E. I is a major input into who is hired and who is rejected in any
organizations is the employment interview. There are lot of evidences that
an interviewers make perceptual judgment that are often inaccurate.
Interviewers generally draw early impression ( negative or positive) to
accept or reject.

Performance Expectations:
There are lots of evidence which indicates that people attempt to
validate their perceptions of reality, even those perceptions are faulty. For
e.g.: if a managers expects big things from his people, but the subordinate
are not likely to do so. In this situation the manager tend to make negative
perception towards the subordinates and vice versa.
Performance evaluation:
An employees performance appraisal person are very
much dependent on the perceptual process. Although the
factor appraisal can be objective , many jobs are evaluated
in subjective terms. Subjective measures are easier to
implement. They provide managers with greater discretion,
and many jobs do not readily provide themselves to
objective measures.

Employee effort:
An individual’s future in an organization is usually not
dependent on perception alone. It also depends on their level
of efforts. The judgment susceptible to perceptual distortions
and bias.
Common shortcuts in judging others
Selective perception
People selectively interpret what they see
on the basis of their interests, background, experience
and attitudes.
Halo effect
Tendency to draw a general impression
about an individual on the basis of a
single characteristic.
• Halo effect is just like 1st impression is
Last impression
• Like people having good quality and
dislike those who have bad qualities.
People may be judged by their work not
by their dress
• People may be judged by their result not
by their attendance
Contrast effect Evaluation of a
person’s characteristic that is affected by
comparisons with other people recently
encountered who rank higher or lower on the
same characteristic.
Stereotyping
Judging someone on the basis of one’s
perception of
The group to which that person belongs.
Projection
Attributing’ one’s own characteristic to other
people
Attribution Theory
Attribution theory is important for organizations because it can
help managers understand some of the causes of employee
behavior and can assist employees in understanding their
thinking about their own behaviors. If you can understand why
you behave a certain way, and why others around you do so, then
you have a better understanding of yourself, others, and your
organization. The perception of the causes of a certain behavior
may affect the judgment and actions of both managers and
employees. It may also play a significant role in motivation.
Fritz Heider put forward his theories of attribution in his 1958
book The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. Heider
was interested in examining how individuals determine whether
another person's behavior is internally caused or externally
caused.
Attribution theory attempts to explain some of the causes of our
behavior. According to the theory, you want to be able to
understand the reason for the actions you take and understand the
reasons behind the actions other people take. You want to
attribute causes to these behaviors, which should give you some
felling of control over your own behaviors and related situations.
 Internal cause: Internal causes are those factors that are
attributed to the person being observed. Internal causes are
usually controllable. For example, a co-worker just received
a promotion. You believe the reason for her promotion was
her hard work, dedication, and skills. You have thus
attributed internal causes to her promotion.

External cause: External causes are attributed to factors

outside of the person being observed. External causes are
often not controllable, such as luck. For example, let's say
your co-worker just received a promotion. You believe she
received her promotion because the owner of the company
is her father. You have attributed an external factor as the
cause of her promotion
 Distinctiveness refers to whether an individual displays
different behaviors in different situations. Incase, the
behaviour is distinct every time, probably, it is internal,
however, incase it is not, the same is due to external
factors.
Consensus means everyone who faces a similar situation
would have reacted in a similar manner. Incase everyone
reacts the same manner, it is said to externally driven if
not, then its internally driven.
Consistency means there is a pattern of consistency in the
behavior. Incase the consistency is high, it is attributed to
internal factors, if not, the same is attributed to external
factors.
 For example, let's imagine that you've never eaten cheese pizza before, and are trying to
figure out why your friend Sally likes cheese pizza so much:
All of your other friends also like pizza (high consensus)
Sally doesn't like many other foods with cheese (high distinctiveness)
Sally likes every pizza she's ever tried (high consistency)
Taken together, this information suggests that Sally's behavior (liking pizza) is the result
of a specific circumstance or situation (pizza tastes good and is a nearly universally
enjoyed dish), rather than some inherent characteristic of Sally's.

When there are low levels of consensus and distinctiveness, but high consistency, we’re
more likely to decide the behavior is due to something about the person. For example,
let's imagine that you’re trying to figure out why your friend Carly likes to go sky-diving:
None of your other friends likes to go sky-diving (low consensus)
Carly likes many other high-adrenaline activities (low distinctiveness)
Carly has been sky-diving many times and she's always had a great time (high
consistency)
Taken together, this information suggests that Carly's behavior (her love of sky-diving) is
the result of an inherent characteristic of Carly's (being a thrill-seeker), rather than a
situational aspect of the act of sky-diving.
Attribution Errors
Fundamental attribution error is best defined as the tendency of a
person to overestimate the influence of personal factors and
underestimate the influence of situational or environmental factors
when assessing an individual’s behavior. In specific, when observing
behavior, a supervisor is more likely to assume that a worker’s behavior
is primarily caused by the individual and not by the situation. This error
causes managers to assume that an employees’ poor performance is due
to a lack of ability or effort rather than to task difficulty, luck, or other
external factors.
self-serving bias is the tendency of an individual to
attribute positive outcomes with internal factors and
negative outcomes with external factors. For example, an
employee may attribute a promotion to effort and
dedication, thus internal factors of the employee. But in
contrast, the same employee may attribute failure to meet
a deadline with unreasonable time frames, understaffing,
or failure of other team members to work hard (Trevino,
1999).
Other perpetual Error
 Selective perception
 Halo effect
 Contrast effect
 Stereotyping
 Projection
 Primacy and regency effect