Understanding Organizational Behaviour

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Perception and Learning

CHAPTER

Understanding Organizational Behaviour

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Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will:

Understand what perception is and why it is important.

Explain the perceptual process.
Identify common perceptual distortions.
Demonstrate specific applications in organizations.
Understand what learning is.
Learn about the brain and learning.
Explore how operant conditioning work.
Learn how to reinforce learning.

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2.1 What is Perception?

Perception is the process of classifying,
interpreting and understanding an event or
individual.

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2.1 What is Perception?

Individual

Classification

Interpretation

Understanding

Sarjit

-Senior staff (10 years)

-Experienced (worked in
many department)
-Appointed as Financial
Manager

-Hard worker
-Wants to be a
-Wants to show her good
capability as
manager/officer
supervisor

Salmah

-Senior staff (more than 20

years)
-Reaching retirement age
-Nonchalant/ abrasive attitude
-Poor rapport with co-workers
and customers
-Complains about everything

-Senior worker
-Does not like
change
-Has attitude
problem
-Does not respect
her supervisor, coworkers and
customers

-Does not like

changes
-Does not want to
change her attitude

-Want to learn
something new

-Young but willing

to learn
-Need guidance

Razmah

-New staff
-Interested to learn the new
system
-Does not know much
Understanding
Organizational
Behaviour
-Dependent
on manager
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2.2 Kelleys Theory of Causal

Attribution
People will believe others actions to be caused
by internal or external factors based on three
types of information: consensus, consistency
and distinctiveness.
Consensus: Information regarding the extent to which
other people behave in the same manner as the person
being judged.
Consistency: Information regarding the extent to which
the person being judged acts the same way at other
times.
Distinctiveness: Information regarding the extent to
which a person behaves in the same manner in other
contexts.
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2.3 Misperceptions and

Biases

Are our perceptions without error or bias?

We run the risk of biasness in our perceptual
process, therefore it would be good to be aware
of such biases:
Fundamental attribution
error
Self-serving bias
Selective perception
Halo effect
Understanding Organizational Behaviour
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Contrast effect
Similar-to-me effect
Projection
Stereotyping
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2.3.1 Fundamental Attribution

Error
Making erroneous judgement about the
behaviour of others.
Tendency to underestimate and ignore the
importance of external factors that may
influence ones behaviour, or vice versa to
attribute ones actions to internal factors.
E.g line manager attributes that his operators
are lazy (internal) when they sit around idle
when the machine is down (external)
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2.3.2

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency of attributing certain events

to themselves (internal) and blaming others
(external) for particular events or incidents.
Assigning success to internal factors and
blaming failures as external factors.
E.g someone take credit over his team
work performance (internal) and blaming
other parties who are not engage
(external).
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2.3.3

Selective Perception

The tendency to focus on a particular aspect

and ignoring others when encountering another
person or situation.
Selective perception may have positive or
negative impact on the person being perceived
depending on what the perceiver is focused on.
E.g in an interview setting, the interviewer may
be looking at certain criteria only and disregard
the other positive aspect of the candidates.

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2.3.4

Halo Effect

The tendency to draw a general impression

based on a single characteristic, e.g.
appearance, intelligence, etc.
Evaluate an individual based on one
characteristic that overshadows other
characteristic he or she has.
E.g Manager giving a high grades in
performance appraisal to his favorably
employee who is cooperative.
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2.3.5

Contrast Effect

Making comparisons with other people who

performed either better or worse than the
one you are evaluating.
E.g Manager tend to compare the quality of
work of his new employee with the prior
one.

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2.3.6

Similar-to-me Effect

The tendency to gravitate to those similar

to us or see them in a more positive light
compared to those who are different.
E.g People tend to be more comfort with
someone who has similar interest to us.

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2.3.7

Projection

The tendency to perceive or evaluate other

individuals based on our assessment of
ourselves.
E.g Supervisor expecting his subordinate
should stay late at work like he does.

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2.3.8

Stereotyping

Beliefs that all members of a specific group

have similar characteristics and tend to
behave in the same way.
E.g Gender stereotyping whereby female
leader are perceived as difficult to please,
emotional, fussy and perfectionist.

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2.4 How to Overcome

Misperceptions or Biases
We need to identify our stereotypes and hold
them in check when dealing with different
individuals.
In evaluating people, it should be based on
objective factors and not just one or two criteria.
We also have to avoid making rash judgements
without considering all relevant factors.
Being aware of our biases help us to understand
the shortcomings of our misperceptions.
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2.5 Learning
When we make perceptions about others, it is
one of the many ways of learning from and
about the environment around us.
Learning help us make sense of the behaviours
as well as acquire new knowledge in the
organization, and we subsequently emulate or
adopt these behaviours.
Learning is a relatively permanent change in
behaviour.
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2.6 The Brain and Learning

The human brain is located
in the skull.
It is a white greyish matter.
It weighs about 3 pounds.
It is full of creases.
It is divided into two
hemispheres.
Each hemisphere or
cerebrum is divided into four
lobes, namely, occipital,
frontal, parietal and temporal
lobes.
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2.6.1

The Four Lobes

The frontal lobe is involved in
purposeful acts like judgement,
creativity, problem-solving and
planning.
The parietal lobe is involved in
processing higher sensory and
language functions.
The left and right temporal lobes are
responsible for hearing, memory,
meaning and language.
The occipital lobe is involved in vision.
There are some overlaps in functions
between lobes.
http:www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/3d/index.html

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2.6.2 Left- and Right-Brain

Learning Model
Left-brain dominant
learners

Prefer things in sequence

Learn best from parts to
wholes

Right-brain dominant
learners

More comfortable with

randomness
Learn best from wholes to
parts

Prefer a phonetic reading

system

Prefer a whole-language
reading system

Like words, symbols and

letters

Like pictures, graphs and

charts

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2.6.2 Left- and Right-Brain

Learning Model (cont.)
Left-brain dominant
learners

Right-brain dominant
learners

Rather read about a

subject first

Rather see it or experience

a subject first

Want to gather related

factual information

Want to gather information

about relationships among
things

Prefer detailed orderly

instructions

Prefer spontaneous, go
with the flow, learning
environments

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2.6.2 Left- and Right-Brain

Learning Model (cont.)
Left-brain dominant
learners

Experience more internal

focus
Want structure and
predictability

Right-brain dominant
learners

Experience more external

focus
Want open-ended
approaches, novelty and
surprises

Source: Jensen, E (2000), Brain-Based Learning: The New Science of

Teaching and Training, San Diego, CA: The Brain Store.
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2.9 Reinforcement Theory

Outcomes or
Desired
Consequences

Undesired

Extinction

Positive
Reinforcement

Punishment

Negative
Reinforcement

Undesired

Desired
Behaviour

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2.9.1

Using Reinforcement

According to the reinforcement theory, we can

reinforce learning either by making people sustain,
reduce or stop certain behaviours. There are four
ways of reinforcing learning:
Positive reinforcement: People learn to perform behaviours
that lead to the presentation of desired outcomes.
Negative reinforcement: People learn to perform acts that
lead to the removal of undesired events.
Punishment: It decreases undesirable behaviour by following
it with undesirable consequences.
Extinction, whereby responses that are no longer reinforced
tend to gradually diminish in strength.
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2.9.2

How to Use Reinforcement

As managers, we need to know when and what

reinforcement strategy to use in encouraging
our subordinates to perform and to reinforce or
shape their learning.
Organization behaviour modification (OBM)
employ positive reinforcement to shape the
behaviour of individuals as they learn the
appropriate or desired behaviours.
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2.10

Revision Questions

1. What is perception?
2. What are the factors that influence perception?
3. How do you use Kellys attribution theory to
explain perception?
4. What are common misperceptions?
5. What parts of the brain control learning?
6. How does operant conditioning work?
7. How do you reinforce learning?
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