Organizational Behavior:

Perception

Gholipour A. 2006.
Organizational Behavior.
University of Tehran.
 Food Survey
Last month, a world-wide survey was conducted by the UN.
The only question asked was... : "Would you please give your honest
opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the
world?"
The survey was a huge failure because...:
1. In Africa they didn't know what "food" means.
2. In Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest"
means.
3. In Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage"
means.
4. In China they didn't know what "opinion" means.
5. In the Middle East they didn't know what "solution"
means.
6. In South America they didn't know what "please"
means.
7. In the USA they didn't know what "the rest Organizational
of the world"
Gholipour A. 2006.
Behavior.
means University of Tehran.
 What Is Perception, and Why Is
It Important?
Perception
A process by which
••People’s
People’s behavior
behavior isis
individuals organize and based
based on on their
their
interpret their sensory perception
perception of of what
what
impressions in order to reality
reality is,is, not
not onon
give meaning to their reality
reality itself.
itself.
environment.
••The
The world
world as as itit isis
perceived
perceived isis the the worldworld
that
that isis behaviorally
behaviorally
important.
important.
© 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All
5–3 rights reserved.
“ WE DON’T SEE THINGS AS THEY

ARE, WE SEE THINGS AS WE ARE.”

Perceptual Process Model
Environmental Stimuli

Feeling Hearing Seeing Smelling Tasting

Selective Attention

Organization and
Interpretation

Emotions and
Behavior Gholipour A. 2006.
Organizational Behavior.
University of Tehran.
 Perception

“ The study of perception is concerned with identifying the process

through which we interpret and organize sensory information to
produce our conscious experience of objects and object relationship.”

“ Perception is the process of receiving information about and making

sense of the world around us. It involves deciding which information
to notice, how to categorize this information and how to interpret it
within the framework of existing knowledge.

“ A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory

impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.

Organizational Behavior / Perception 6

The Perceptual Process

1. Sensation
 An individual’s ability to
detect stimuli in the
immediate environment.
2. Selection
 The process a person
uses to eliminate some
of the stimuli that have
been sensed and to
retain others for further
processing.
3.Organization
 The process of placing
selected perceptual
stimuli into a framework
for “storage.”
4.Translation
 The stage of the
perceptual process at
which stimuli are
interpreted and given
meaning.

Organizational Behavior / Perception 7

 Perception: A Social
Information Processing Model

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4

Selective Attention/ Encoding
Storage and Retrieval
Comprehension and Simplification
Retention and Response
A
Competing
B A
environmental C
stimuli: Interpretation C Judgments
* People
D and Memory C and
* Events E categorization F decisions
* Objects
F
Gholipour A. 2006.
Organizational Behavior.
University of Tehran.
 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

Organizational Behavior / Perception 9

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.

Organizational Behavior / Perception 10

Factors influencing Perception
Factors in the perceiver
• Attitudes
• Motives
• Interests
• Experience
• Expectations

Factors in the situation

Perception
• Time
• Work Setting
• Social Setting
Factors in the Target
• Novelty
• Motion
• Sounds
• Size
• Background
• Proximity
• Similarity
Organizational Behavior / Perception 11
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

Organizational Behavior / Perception 12

Exhibit 2-1 Figure-Ground
Illustrations
Figure-Ground Illustration

Field-ground differentiation
 The tendency to distinguish
and focus on a stimulus that
is classified as figure as
opposed to background.

Organizational Behavior / Perception 14

PERCEPTUAL GROUPING

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

Organizational Behavior / Perception 15

Shortcuts in judging others
Selective Perception :

People selectively interpret what they see on the basis of their

interests, background, experience and attitudes.

Halo Effect :

Drawing a general impressions about an individual on the basis of a

single charecteristics.

Organizational Behavior / Perception 16

 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.

Projection :

Attributing one's own characteristics to other people.

Stereotyping :

Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which

that persons belongs.

Organizational Behavior / Perception 17

Organizational Behavior / Perception 18
Organizational Behavior / Perception 19
Organizational Behavior / Perception 20
Organizational Behavior / Perception 21
Organizational Behavior / Perception 22
Organizational Behavior / Perception 23
Organizational Behavior / Perception 24
Organizational Behavior / Perception 25
Organizational Behavior / Perception 26
Organizational Behavior / Perception 27
Organizational Behavior / Perception 28