1.

Define Perception

A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in

order to give meaning to their environment.

Perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting and organizing

sensory information.

2. Why is perception important in OB

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.

People in organisation are always judging other

- Mangers must appraise their employees
- Employment interview
- Performance expectations
- Decision making

-if the manager has good perception in any department of the organization,
the department team will have SAFE SOLUTIONS with RISKY IDEAS.
-to find innovative solutions for the problem.
-to leverage creativity and motivate the higher plateau of thinking.
-with the help of perception, habits and attitudes will get changed.
-with the help of perception, we can find solutions the most difficult problems.

PERCEPTION PLAYS BOTH POSITIVE/ NEGATIVE PART IN MANY ASPEC

TS OF THE ORGANIZATION.

*Employment Interview
Perception can help the manager to recruit the best fit.
Perceptual biases can affect the accuracy of interviewers’ judgments of applicants.

*Performance Expectations
Perception can help the manager to make the most effective judgement
on the expectation.
Self-fulfilling prophecy (Pygmalion effect): The lower or higher performance of
employees reflects preconceived leader expectations about employee capabilities.

*Performance Evaluations
Perception can help the manager to make the most effective performance appraisal
of the employee.
Appraisal can be subjective perceptions of performance.

*Employee Effort
Perception can help the manager to make the right judgement of the employee's
effort.
Assessment of individual effort is a subjective judgement subject to perceptual
distortion and bias.

3. Describe the three set of factors influencing perception

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.

Factors in the perceiver

Attitudes, Motives,
Interests, Experience,
Expectations

Factors in the
situation
Time, Work Setting, Perception
Social Setting

Factors in the Target

Novelty, Motion, Sounds, Size
Background, Proximity, Similarity

4. Explain the model of sub-process of perception

Sensation
An individual’s ability to detect stimuli in the immediate environment.
Selection
The process a person uses to eliminate some of the stimuli that have been sensed and
to retain others for further processing.
Organization
The process of placing selected perceptual stimuli into a framework for “storage.”
Translation
The stage of the perceptual process at which stimuli are interpreted and given
meaning.
 Perceptual Process
Selecting Stimuli
External factors: Nature,
Receiving Stimuli Location, Size, Contrast,
(External & Internal) Movement, Repetition, Similarity
Internal factors: Learning,
Needs, Age, Interest

Organizing
Interpreting
Figure Background,
Attribution, Stereotyping,
Perceptual Grouping
Halo Effect, Projection
(Similarity, proximity,
Closure, continuity)

Response
Covert: Attitudes,
Motivation,
Feeling
Overt: Behavior

5. Describe the personality factors that influence perception - see 3

6. Explain attribution theory

When individuals observe behavior, they attempt to determine whether it is internally
or externally caused.

7. Explain the causation of behaviour depends on what factors

When making a determination between internal and external causes of behavior, the
perceiver must examine the elements of consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus.

Distinctiveness is whether the observed person acts the same way in different types of
situations. If the person being observed exhibits the same behavior in a variety of
contexts, then distinctiveness is low; if they have different behavior depending on the
context, then distinctiveness is high.
Consistency describes whether the person being observed behaves the same way
when faced with the same set of circumstances. If the person being observed acts the
same way in the same type of situation, consistency is high; if they act differently
each time, then consistency is low.

Consensus is the degree to which other people, if in the same situation, would behave
similarly to the person being observed. If the observer sees others acting the same
way that the person being perceived acts, then consensus is high.

However, if others behave differently in the type of situation, then consensus is low.
Consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus are evaluated when observing behavior,
and then a judgment about an internal versus external cause of behavior is made.

Attribution of
Observation Interpretation cause
High External
Distinctiveness
Low Internal

High External
Individual behavior Consensus
Low Internal

High Internal
Consistency
Low External

8. Explain externally caused behaviour with example

Internal causes are attributed to the person being observed; a person's effort
determined the outcome.
Internally caused behavior are those we believe to be under personal control of the
individual eg late to office because of partying and oversleeping

9. Explain internally caused behaviour with example

External causes are attributed to outside factors. Task difficulty and luck are the
external causes of behavior.
Externally caused behavior is what we image the situation forced the individual to do
eg late to office because of traffic jam due to accident at road.

10. Explain errors in perception

Because we perceive only the attributes and not the substantives along with the
attributes, there is a possibility of making an error of judgment in the mind.
In everything that we perceive there is an error. This error is due to inherent biases
that we have.
The fundamental attribution error, also called the correspondence bias, describes the
tendency for observer’s to attribute other people’s behavior to internal or
dispositional factors and to downplay situational causes (external)
Fundamental attribution error - A tendency to overestimate the extent to which a person's
behaviour is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of
situational factors.

Spotlight effect - People tend to assume their features and behaviours are more salient to
others than what they generally are. This is termed the Spotlight effect, the
tendency to believe that other people are paying closer attention to one's
appearance and behaviour than they really are.

Actor/observer difference - Tendency to see other people's actions as internally caused,

while focusing more on the role of situational factors when explaining one's own
actions - even when explaining the same actions. A widespread explanation for
the actor/observer difference is based on similar perceptual-cognitive factors as
that noted for the fundamental attribution error.

Correspondence bias - The correspondence bias is the inclination to conclude that

people's behaviours match their personalities; that is, a bias to not only infer
internal causes for behaviour, but to conclude that those internal causes are stable
personality characteristics of the actor.

Dispositional attributions - Error in attribution involves attributions not to individuals but

to whole groups of individuals. The tendency to make dispositional attributions of
casualty and correspondent inferences with respect to groups of people - leading
to the assumption that whole groups have similar dispositions or personality
characteristics.

For example, the assumption of positive characteristics causing the behaviour of

members in favoured ingroups, and negative characteristics causing the behaviour of
disfavoured outgroups has been labelled the ultimate attribution error.

Self-serving attributions - Self-serving attributions are explanations for one's own

successes that credit internal, dispositional factors and explanations for one's
failures that blame external, situational factors.

11. Explain selective perception

People selectively interpret what they see on the basis of their interests, background,
experience and attitudes.

12. Explain Projection

Attributing one's own characteristics to other people.

13. Explain stereotyping

Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that persons
belongs.
Halo Effect: Drawing a general impressions about an individual on the basis of a single
characteristics.
Contrast Effect: Evaluation of a person’s characteristics that are effected by comparisons
with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same
characteristics.

14. How does learning affect perception

Learning affects our perception because once you learn something it's cataloged in your
brain forever. As your growing up you learn either by doing, figuring out for yourself or
you are taught what you need to know. Learning new things can make you look at the
same object in several different ways. And when you learn something new you never
look at it the same way as you did before hence affecting your perception. Example: If
you always looked at an apple as just a red ball you can eat and someone teaches you that
it is an apple a piece of fruit that can make apple juice, can be eaten and turned into many
things than you will never go back to saying the apple is a red ball you can eat you will
always know it is a piece of fruit that's called an apple because someone told you it was

15. How does motivation affects perception

If you're hungry when driving through a town, you'll notice the restaurants. If you're
running out of gas, you'll notice the gas stations.

16. Explain figure ground principle

The figure-ground principle captures the idea that the visual field is normally divided into
two parts, figure and ground. The figure-ground principle is very much a part of our
everyday experience. If we notice a book on a table, we see the book as a figure and the
table as its ground. The edge that divides the book from the table bounds the book but not
the table. The table is assumed to continue under the book. We would be very surprised
if, when we lifted the book, we discovered a hole in the table the size and shape of the
book.
We might be tempted to view figure and ground as a relationship between just two levels.
However, what serves as ground in one relationship can serve as figure in another. The
table that was ground for the book may also be a figure that has a whole room as its
background. Figure-ground relationships, then, may involve multiple levels. In addition,
the figure-ground effect does not require the viewer to look at already meaningful figures
in order for the phenomenon to operate. It works for meaningless blobs such as clouds as
well as for meaningful objects like traffic signs.
Perceptual organization:
It is the process by which we group outside stimuli into recognizable and identifiable
patterns and whole objects.
Certain factors are considered to be important contributors on assembling, organizing
and categorizing information in the human brain. These are
- Figure ground
- Perceptual grouping

17. Explain principle of grouping

The principles of grouping include MECE (mutually exclusive and collectively
exhaustive), levels of abstraction and horizontal and vertical congruence
Gestaltism is that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."
Gestalt is a psychology term which means "unified whole". It refers to theories of visual
perception developed by German psychologists in the 1920s. These theories attempt to
describe how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes when
certain principles are applied.

Our tendency to group several individual stimuli into a meaningful and recognizable
pattern. It is very basic in nature and largely it seems to be inborn.
Some factors underlying grouping are
-continuity
-closure
-proximity
-similarity

18. Explain principle of closure

Closure occurs when an object is incomplete or a space is not completely enclosed. If

enough of the shape is indicated, people perceive the whole by filling in the missing
information.
Although the panda above is not complete, enough is present for the eye to complete the
shape. When the viewer's perception completes a shape, closure occurs.

19. Explain limitation of principle of continuity

Continuation occurs when the eye is compelled to move through one object and continue
to another object.

Continuation occurs in the example above, because the viewer's eye will naturally follow
a line or curve. The smooth flowing crossbar of the "H" leads the eye directly to the
maple leaf.

The continuity principle stipulates that through all stages of disaster, management and
treatment should aim at preserving and restoring functional, historical, and interpersonal
continuities, at the individual, family, organization, and community levels. Two
misconceptions work against this principle and lead to decisional errors: the “abnormalcy
bias” which results in underestimating victims' ability to cope with disaster, and the
“normalcy bias” which results in underestimating the probability or extent of expected
disruption.

20. Explain the principle of proximity

Elements that are relatively close to each other group together.
Proximity occurs when elements are placed close together. They tend to be perceived as a
group.

The nine squares above are placed without proximity. They are perceived as separate
shapes.

When the squares are given close proximity, unity occurs. While they continue to be
separate shapes, they are now perceived as one group.

The fifteen figures above form a unified whole (the shape of a tree) because of their
proximity.

21. Explain principle of similarity

Elements that are similar to each other in some way group together.
Similarity occurs when objects look similar to one another. People often perceive them as
a group or pattern.

The example above (containing 11 distinct objects) appears as as single unit because all
of the shapes have similarity.
Unity occurs because the triangular shapes at the bottom of the eagle symbol look similar
to the shapes that form the sunburst.

When similarity occurs, an object can be emphasised if it is dissimilar to the others. This
is called anomally.

The figure on the far right becomes a focal point because it is dissimilar to the other
shapes.

22. Explain perceptual defense

A term used to refer to the fact that the perception of some stimuli requires a longer
exposure than perception of other stimuli. In other words, the thresholds for recognition
of certain stimuli are higher than the thresholds of recognition for other stimuli.
Refers to motivational factors that inhibit perception of potentially threatening stimuli.
Research in the 1950s gathered evidence for the effects of motivation on perception of
subliminal stimuli
 23. Explain social perception
Social perception is the process of forming impressions of individuals. The resulting
impressions that we form are based off of information available in the environment, our
previous attitudes about relevant stimuli, and our current mood. Humans tend to operate
under certain biases when forming impression of other individuals. For example, we are
more like to perceive a beautiful person as being good (i.e. possessing desirable
personality traits such as kindness, sociability, intelligence) than less attractive people.
This particular bias is often called the halo effect.
Another perception bias we tend to make is called in-group bias or in-group favoritism.
In other words, we tend to favor members of our in-group over those we perceive as out-
group members

24. Explain impression management

It is a goal-directed conscious or unconscious attempt to influence the perceptions of

other people about a person, object or event by regulating and controlling information
in social interaction.
within three seconds of seeing a person for the first time we decide their:
social status
politics
education
religion
sexuality
friendliness / approachability
first impressions: the 93%
rule

55% 38% tone,

appearance pitch &
& body pace of
language your voice

7% what
you say
• doing a good job accounts for 10% of the impression you give
 • 90% of the impression you give of being capable is based on perception
– presentation of work
– presentation of self
– being seen to be ‘doing a good job’
Integrity
Manners
Personality
Appearance
Communication
Thrill
Two Types of Impression Management
Constructive -- helps in the formation of self identity
Strategic -- helps in the attainment of some interpersonal goal

Universal agreement about standard ingratiation tactics

These include.. Showing an interest in the person
Smiling
Eye contact
Agreeing
Flattery

5 things you need to face the world

Confidence
preparation, preparation, preparation
know your stuff – and know you know your stuff!!
find opportunities to practice ‘presenting’ your stuff – get involved
ALWAYS be positive
NEVER be a one-track pony

a personal brand (what do you want the world to think of you)

who you are?????
what you are?????
what are your personal / professional ethics????

an ‘elevator pitch’
• Do
– speak!
– make small talk
– ask open questions
• Don’t
– ignore him / her
– talk about the weather
 – get too personal
– moan!

a winning image
appropriate
balanced
professional – not powerful
modern
clean

transferable skills / experience

Interact
get involved
ask questions
volunteer
don’t wait to be asked
don’t sit back
Four Motive of Poor Impression
Avoidance
Obtain
Exit
Power

Unfavorable Upward Impression Management Tactics

Decreasing Performance
Not Working to Potential
Withdrawing
Displaying a Bad Attitude
Broadcasting Limitations

25. Explain impression construction and impression motivation

It refers to the methods adopted by a person to create the specific impression that he
wants. The impression may be related to various factors such as personal
characteristics, attitudes, interests and values. Research studies in this field have
indicated that there are five factors that are particularly relevant to the type of
impressions people want to create – the self-concept, desired and undesired identity
images, role constraints, and the value of the target and the current social image of the
individual. Though researchers have done considerable research in this field, they are
unable to determine how people select a particular way to manage their impression on
others and how the above factors influence the process.

Intrinsic motivation is your own personal motivation that comes from inside you. It is
self motivation personal gain, satisfaction, or enjoyment. Extrinsic motivation is from
external sources, money, coercion, fame, fortune, recognition, or punishment.
Impression Management is sometimes referred to as self-presentation. It is the process by
which people try to manage or control the perceptions formed by other people about
themselves. Often people like to present themselves in a socially desirable way and
impress others.

Like other cognitive processes, impression management also includes many conceptual
dimensions. Many researches have been conducted on impression management to study
its relation to aggression, attitude change, attribution, social facilitation and so on.
However, behavioral scientists have recently identified two new components of
impression management – impression motivation and impression construction.
Impression motivation is particularly applicable in organizations where employees try to
control the perceptions of their superiors about them. The extent to which an individual is
motivated to manage her/his impression depends on the following factors.

a. Relevance of these impressions in helping the individual attains her/his goals.

b. The value of the goals to the individual
c. The discrepancy between the images would like to create of her/him in the other’s
mind and the image s/he believes others already have about her/him.

The other important component of impression is impression construction. It refers to the

methods adopted by a person to create the specific impression that he wants. The
impression may be related to various factors such as personal characteristics, attitudes,
interests and values. Research studies in this field have indicated that there are five
factors that are particularly relevant to the type of impressions people want to create – the
self-concept, desired and undesired identity images, role constraints, and the value of the
target and the current social image of the individual. Though researchers have done
considerable research in this field, they are unable to determine how people select a
particular way to manage their impression on others and how the above factors influence
the process.