SAINT LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

COURSE WORK: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Define the term Perception and importance of perception

Describe the Components of perception
Describe the perceptual process
What are the factors that influence perception
Describe the perceptions as information processing

BY KAKULE MUSAMBAGHANI Veridique

MBA/01/010/16

Course taught by Professor Olw or Sunday Nicholas (PhD)

April 2016
Organizational behavior course work / Saint Lawrence University (Prof Nicholas Sunday)
By KAKULE MUSAMBAGHANI Veridique (MBA/01/010/16)

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Question 1.
Whats perception?
Think of all the ways in which you experience the world around you. For example, you recognize your
favorite food by its aroma and the way it looks. You recognize an orange by its round shape, citrus flavor,
and its color. You recognize a song by listening to its melody and the singer's voice. It is through these
sensory experiences that we interact with and interpret things in our world. Recognizing and interpreting
sensory information, such as sound and smells, are all a part of perception.
Perception can be defined as our recognition and interpretation of sensory information. Perception also
includes how we respond to the information. We can think of perception as a process where we take in
sensory information from our environment and use that information in order to interact with our
environment. Perception allows us to take the sensory information in and make it into something
meaningful. (Study Online academy, 2016)
For example, let's look at our perception of words. Each letter of the alphabet is in itself a singular letter.
When we perceive words, we think of them as one singular unit that is made up of smaller parts called
letters. It is through this organization of letters into words that we are able to make something meaningful.
That is, we perceive an entire word, and this word has a specific meaning that can be found in the dictionary.
Perception is also necessary for us to survive in our environment. For example, before parents feed their
babies microwaved food, they taste it in order to make sure that the temperature isn't too hot. This involves
using sensory information (touch and taste) to make sure that the food is not dangerous for the infant.
Before we cross a busy street, we rely on our hearing and sight to make sure a car is not coming. Without
the sensory information, we would not be able to judge which food was too hot or when an appropriate
time to cross the street would be, which could put us and our children in danger.
Importance of perception
In work and in life, people will judge you on how they perceive your words and actions, not your actual
words and actions. From clients to your boss, there are ways to convey your true meaning so that everyone
can be on the same wavelength and so work can get done efficiently, accurately, and with balanced
expectations.
Why is perception important in the study of OB? Simply because peoples 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.
Question 2. Description of the components of Perception (Ashcraft, 1994)
Perception involves several elements (sub processes) which are listed below:
Stimuli: The receipt of information is the stimulus which results in sensation. Knowledge and
behavior depend on senses and their stimulation. These senses are influenced by a larger number of
stimuli. The family, social and the economic environment are important stimuli for the people. The
physiological and psychological functions are impact of these stimuli. The intensive and extensive
forms of stimuli have a greater impact on the sensory organs. The physical work environment, sociocultural environment and other factors have certain stimuli to influence the employee's perception. In
organizational settings, the supervisor may form the stimulus situation for the worker's perceptual
process. Attention: The stimuli that are paid attention depend purely on the people's selection capacity
Organizational behavior course work / Saint Lawrence University (Prof Nicholas Sunday)
By KAKULE MUSAMBAGHANI Veridique (MBA/01/010/16)

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and the intensity of stimuli. Educated employees pay more attention to any stimuli, for example,
announcement of bonus, appeal for efficiency, training, and motivation. The management has to find
out suitable stimuli, which can appeal to the employees at the maximum level. An organization
should be aware of all those factors, which affect the attention of the employees. During the attention
process, sensory and neural mechanisms are affected and the message receiver becomes involved in
understanding the stimuli. Taking employees to the attention stage is essential in an organization for
making them behave in a systematic and required order.
Recognition: The messages or incoming stimuli are recognized before they are transmitted into
behavior. Perception is a two- phase activity, i.e., receiving stimuli and translating the stimuli into
action. The recognition process is dependent on mental acceptability. For example, if a car driver
suddenly sees a child in front of his running car, he stops the car. He recognizes the stimuli, i.e., the
life of the child is in danger. His mental process recognizes the danger after paying attention to the
stimuli. If he does not attention to the stimuli, he cannot recognize the danger. After recognizing the
stimuli, he translates the massage into behavior.
Translation: The management in an organization has to consider the various processes of translating
the message into action. The employees should be assisted to translate the stimuli into action. For
example, the announcement of bonus should be recognized as a stimulus for increasing production.
The employee should translate it into appropriate behavior. In other words, they should be motivated
by the management to increase productivity.
Behavior: Behavior is the outcome of the cognitive process. It is a response to change in sensory
inputs, i.e., stimuli. Perceptual behavior is not influenced be reality, but is a result of the perception
process of the individual, his learning and personality, environmental factors and other internal and
external factors at the workplace. The psychological feedback that may influence the perception of
an employee may be superior behavior, his eye movement, raising of an eyebrow, the tone of voice,
etc. The behavior of employees depends on perception, which is visible in the form of action, reaction
or other behavior. The behavioral termination of perception may be overt or covert. The perception
behavior is the result of the cognitive process of the stimulus which may be a message or an action
situation of management function. Perception is reflected in behavior, which is visible in different
forms of employees' action and motivation.
Performance: Proper behavior learns to higher performance. High performers become a source of
stimuli and motivation to other employees. A performance-reward relationship is established to
motivate people. Satisfaction High performance gives more satisfaction. The level of satisfaction is
calculated with the difference in performance and expectation. If the performance is more than the
expectation, people are delighted, but when performance is equal to expectation, it results in
satisfaction. On the other hand, if performance is less than the expectation, people become frustrated
and this requires a more appealing form of stimulus of developing proper employee work behaviour
and high performance. It is essential to understand the factors that influence the perception process
and mould employees' behavior towards the corporate objectives and self-satisfaction.

Question 3.Description of the Perceptual Process

The perceptual process is the sequence of psychological steps that a person uses to organize and interpret
information from the outside world (Broadbent, 1987). The steps are:
Objects are present in the world.
A person observes.
The person uses perception to select objects.
Organizational behavior course work / Saint Lawrence University (Prof Nicholas Sunday)
By KAKULE MUSAMBAGHANI Veridique (MBA/01/010/16)

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The person organizes the perception of objects.

The person interprets the perceptions.
The person responds.
The selection, organization, and interpretation of perceptions can differ among different people. Therefore,
when people react differently in a situation, part of their behavior can be explained by examining their
perceptual process, and how their perceptions are leading to their responses.
Perceptual Selection
Perceptual selection is driven by internal and external factors.
Internal factors include:
Personality - Personality traits influence how a person selects perceptions. For instance,
conscientious people tend to select details and external stimuli to a greater degree.
Motivation - People will select perceptions according to what they need in the moment. They will
favor selections that they think will help them with their current needs, and be more likely to ignore
what is irrelevant to their needs.
Experience - The patterns of occurrences or associations one has learned in the past affect current
perceptions. The person will select perceptions in a way that fits with what they found in the past.
External factors include:
Size - A larger size makes it more likely an object will be selected.
Intensity - Greater intensity, in brightness, for example, also increases perceptual selection.
Contrast - When a perception stands clearly out against a background, there is a greater likelihood
of selection.
Motion - A moving perception is more likely to be selected.
Repetition - Repetition increases perceptual selection.
Novelty and familiarity - Both of these increase selection. When a perception is new, it stands out
in a person's experience. When it is familiar, it is likely to be selected because of this familiarity.
Perceptual Organization (Anderson, 2001)
After certain perceptions are selected, they can be organized differently. The following factors are those
that determine perceptual organization:
Figure-ground - Once perceived, objects stand out against their background. This can mean, for
instance, that perceptions of something as new can stand out against the background of everything
of the same type that is old.
Perceptual grouping - Grouping is when perceptions are brought together into a pattern.
Closure - This is the tendency to try to create wholes out of perceived parts. Sometimes this can
result in error, though, when the perceiver fills in unperceived information to complete the whole.
Proximity - Perceptions that are physically close to each other are easier to organize into a pattern
or whole.
Similarity - Similarity between perceptions promotes a tendency to group them together.
Perceptual Constancy - This means that if an object is perceived always to be or act a certain way,
the person will tend to infer that it actually is always that way.
Perceptual Context - People will tend to organize perceptions in relation to other pertinent
perceptions, and create a context out of those connections. Each of these factors influence how the
person perceives their environment , so responses to their environment can be understood by taking
the perceptual process into account.

Organizational behavior course work / Saint Lawrence University (Prof Nicholas Sunday)
By KAKULE MUSAMBAGHANI Veridique (MBA/01/010/16)

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Question 4. Factors that influence perception

Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory perceives in order to give
meaning to their environment. However, what one perceives can be substantially different from objective
reality. There need be, but there is often, disagreement. For example, its possible that all employees in a
firm may view it as great place to work favorable working conditions, interesting job alignments, good
pay, excellent benefits, an understanding and responsible management but, as most of us known, its very
unusual to find such agreement.
How do we explain that individuals may look at the same thing, yet perceive it differently? A number of
factors operate to shape and sometimes distort perception. These factors can reside in the perceiver in the
object or target being perceived, or in the context of the situation in which the perception is made (See
Below):
Factors that influence perception:
Perception
Factors in the perceiver
Attitudes
Motives
Interests
Experience
Expectations

Factors in the situation

Time
Work setting
Social setting
Factors in the target
Novelty
Motion

Sounds
Size
Background
Proximity
Similarity

Question 5. Perception as information processing

An information processing approach to social perceptions, leadership and behavioral measurement is
nowadays oftenly used in many organizations. The perception as information processing uses the social
cognitive literature on person perception to analyze social perceptions in terms of 5 information processing
(IP) steps: selective attention/comprehension, encoding, storage and retention, information retrieval, and
judgment. This IP model is then used to explain leadership perceptions and measurement of leadership
behavior. Suggestions for improving behavioral measurement are offered. The IP model is compared to
classical measurement models, and its implications for attribution theory are discussed (Gibson, J, 1966)
References
Anderson, J. R. (2001). Cognitive Psychology and its implications . New York : Harper Collins college Publishers.
Ashcraft, M. H. (1994). Human Memory and Cognition. New York: Harper Collins College Publishers.
Broadbent, D. E. (1987). Perception and communication . New York : Oxford University Press.
Gibson, J. (1966). The senses Considered as Perceptual Systems. London.
Study Online academy. (2016, 04 12). Study academy Lesson (perception). Rcupr sur Study:
www.study.com/academy/-lesson/-waht-is-perception-in

Organizational behavior course work / Saint Lawrence University (Prof Nicholas Sunday)
By KAKULE MUSAMBAGHANI Veridique (MBA/01/010/16)