The individual processes: Perception

(Organisational Behaviour and

Design)
In theoretical studies, perception is described as a cognitive process. People's
individual differences and distinctiveness are mainly the result of the cognitive
processes they use in processing the information they receive and conclusions
they make. Perception is interpretation of the situation by a person and it is
not an exact recording of it. Perception and organizational behaviour has
strong link in smooth process of business operation. It is observed that
perception of an employee regarding factors in an organization greatly affect
the manner in which he or she reacts in the organization. This process of
perceiving events is a complex process that is shaped by individual
preconceived notions regarding certain factors.

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In organizations, perceptions of leaders, managers and employees form the

climate and efficiency of the working environment. Perception is the way
people interpret their experiences. When managers have the right perception,
they become capable for any effective leadership. It is important to recognize
that perception is often showed through communication in any organization.
Many psychologists stated that Perception is significant part of organizational
behaviour. Robbins, Millet, Cacioppe and Marsh (2001) describe perception as
the way individuals process their respective sensory impressions in order to
identify their environment. In an organizational, Robbins and colleagues
(2001) recognized selective perception, stereotyping, contrast effect,
projection and the halo effect, as five frequently used shortcuts, used by
managers, to evaluate employees and other groups associated with business.

Perceptual process: Perception is sensory experience of the world around

people and involves both the recognition of environmental stimuli and actions
in response to these stimuli. Through the perceptual process, people expand
information about properties and elements of the environment that are
significant to survival. Perception creates person’s experience of environment
as well as it allows people to act within same environment. The perceptual
process is the series of psychological steps that a person uses to organize and
interpret information from the outside world. Majority of psychologists
explain three stages of perception in organization setting. The first is sensory
stimulation. Good or bad memories are invoked which may influence ones
reaction in a given situation. The second stage in the perception process is the
organization of that stimulus in brain i.e. developing a positive or negative
cerebral response to the stimulus. This is a process in which people attempt to
organize things in such a way that they make sense to them. The third stage of
the perception process involves interpreting and expressing the thoughts that
have been elicited, often involving an emotional response.

Perceptual Process:

Factor influence perception: A number of factors operate to shape and

deform perception. These factors can exist in the perceiver, in the object or
target being perceived, or in the context of the situation in which the
perception is made.

The Perceiver: When an individual looks at a target and attempts to interpret

what he or she sees, that interpretation is heavily influenced by personal
characteristics of the individual perceiver. Among the more relevant personal
characteristics affecting perception are attitudes, motives, interests, past
experiences and expectations. People with certain attitude towards female
colleagues or those speaking a particular language are likely to perceive
various minor things about members of these groups which may otherwise go
unnoticed. The unsatisfied needs or motives stimulate individuals and may
exert a strong impact on their perceptions. This fact was considerably
established in a research study on hunger as cited by Stephen P. Robbins in his
manual on Organizational Behaviour.

The Target: Characteristics of the target that is being observed can affect what
is perceived. Loud people are more likely to be noticed in a group than are
quiet ones. So are the extremely attractive or unattractive individuals. Motion,
sound, size and other attributes of a target shape the way people see it.

The Situation: The background in which people observe objects or events is

important. Elements in the surrounding environment influence our
perception. People may not notice an operator working on a machine in
company uniform during general shift.

Factor influence Perception

Regardless of innumerable things that tend to influence the way people

perceive things or situations the most relevant are those that are within one
like habit, motivation, learning, specialization and social background.

Habit: Habits are formed slowly and sometimes unconsciously and as the
saying goes ‘habits die hard’ and therefore individuals perceive objects,
situations and conditions differently according to their habits.

Motivation: Motivational factors boost the individual's sensitivity to those

stimuli which he considers as relevant to the satisfaction of his needs in view
of his past experience with them.

It is recognized that the role of learning is more obvious in respect of complex

forms of perception where the symbolic content that is recognizable creeps
into the process. People perceive as per their levels of learning. It is essential
for the organization to make its management well-informed and educated for
their effective performance and behaviour.

Specialization: The modern organizations value specialization. Consequently

the specialty of a person that casts him in a particular organizational role
predisposes him to select certain stimuli and to disregard others. Thus in a
lengthy report a departmental head will first notice the text relating to his
department.

Social background: The worker perceptions are based on social backgrounds.

Socially developed workforce has a more positive attitude towards
development rather than less developed employees.

Theoretical perspective of perception: Attribution theory of perception

propose that when people evaluate human behaviour, it is either internally
caused or it is caused due to external factors as explained above.

Figure: Attribution Theory of Perception

Perception is strongly related to attitudes. Attribution theory was first

developed by Heidler (1958) as “naive psychology” to explain the behaviours
of others by describing ways in which people make casual explanations for
their actions. Heidler thought that people have two behavioural motives: (1)
the need to understand the world around them; and (2) the need to control
their environment. Heidler proposed that people act on the basis of their
beliefs whether or not these beliefs are valid. Weiner (1979) recommended
that individuals justify their performance decisions by cognitively constructing
their reality in terms of internal-external, controllable-uncontrollable, and
stable-unstable factors. Weiner (1979) stated that when one tries to describe
the processes of explaining events and the relating behaviour, external or
internal attributions can be given. An external attribution assigns causality to
an outside agent or force. An external attribution claims that some outside
force motivated the event. By contrast, an internal attribution assigns causality
to factors within the person. An internal attribution claims that the person was
directly responsible for the event. Controllability refers to whether the person
had the power to exert control over the events of the situation. Finally,
stability of the cause relates to whether the behaviour is consistent over time
because of the individual’s values and beliefs or because of outside elements
such as rules or laws that would govern a person’s behaviour in the various
situations. Fundamental attribution error occurs when the influence of
external factors is underestimated and the influence of internal factors is
overestimated in regard to making judgments about behaviour. Self-serving
bias is the tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal
factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors. When workers
make attributions about a negative event that happened at work, they tend to
underemphasize internal (dispositional) factors such as ability, motivation, or
personality traits and exaggerate (external) situational factors. Managers are
often in a position where they make causal attributions regarding an
employee’s behaviour or work pattern. Kelley’s (1973) model of attribution
theory incorporates three attributions: consensus, consistency, and
uniqueness.

Kelley’s Attribution Theory Mode

Aspect of personality that affects perceptions: Costello, Zalkind (1962) and

Hamacheck (1971) designate relationship between personality factors and
perception. Secure person perceives others as warm individuals. Thoughtful
individuals do not perceive situation in terms of Black and White but
understand that there can be different shades of grey. Hence they do not make
judgments based on single piece of evidence. Self-accepting people perceive
others liking and accepting them. Those who are not self-accepting tend to
distrust others. Self-accepting person also accepts others easily which is not
true of those who are not self-accepting. People tend to perceive others more
accurately when they are more like the ones they perceive than if they are
different from those who are being perceived.

Common Errors While Judging Others

Selective Perception: Individuals selectively construe whatever they observe
based on their thoughts, interest, background and experience. In company,
person might have been chosen for higher post in the visit of CEO and the
appointment may be incidental but people usually perceive appointments as
an effect of CEO’s visit. In an organization, numerous activities occur but
different persons will distinguish one fact in a different way based on
individual’s selectivity in observing which is normally based on his past
experience and approach towards employment. People may make mistakes in
perceiving others in work setting. For accurate perception an individual must
be observed, studied, tried and later perceived without an individual
prejudice.

Similarity error: People are inclined towards those having similar traits, socio-
economic-cultural background.

Race/gender/age bias: People’s perception may be tempered by their

prejudices vis-à-vis race, gender, and age.

First impression error: People may hold a long-term vision about a person or
thing based on first impression.

Halo Effect: Halo effect is another error in perceiving people in work

environment. It is explained as judging an individual based on single
characteristics for example academic ability, sociability and appearance. It
normally occurs during performance appraisal where the manager rates a
worker on the basis of only one trait e.g. intelligence, punctuality,
cooperativeness appearance.

Projection: It is the propensity of seeing one’s own traits in others. It is

commonly found that subordinates do or exhibit the same behaviour as
desired by the boss. Projection, an error that is widespread in any
organization. Projection may be particularly strong for unwanted traits that
the perceivers possess but fail to identify in themselves. People whose
personality traits include stinginess, obstinacy, and disorderliness tend to rate
others higher on these traits than do people who do not have these qualities.

Contrast error: People tend to compare among the available resources and
thus reach at a conclusion that might be far from the objective reality.

Stereotyping: It is the conviction that all members of a particular groups

share similar qualities and behaviour. Most often, a person is put into a
stereotype because the perceiver knows only the overall category to which the
person belongs. However, because each individual is unique, the real traits of
the person are usually quite dissimilar from those that stereotype would
suggest.

Self- Fulfilling Prophecy: It is also recognized as Pygmalion effect in which

the person’s expectation of another (target) has an influence on or is
transferred to the subject in such a way that the subject alters his or her
behaviour in conformity to the expectations. Pygmalion effect models are
developed by researchers (McnNatt, 2000), these models exemplify how
manager’s behaviour results in self expectancy of subordinates, thus motivates
employees which in turn leads to increased performance.

It is established that perceptual biases of raters affect the accuracy of

interviewer’s judgement of applicants. People’s perceptions may often be very
impractical. Many studies have revealed huge errors and biases in perceptions
(Kiesler and Sproull, 1982). With reference to perceptions, studies have
shown that what employees perceive from their work situation influences
their efficiency. Therefore, to influence productivity, it is essential for
managers to assess how workers perceive their jobs. Other factors like
absenteeism, turnover and job satisfaction are important in an employee’s
perception of the job. Those individuals who perceive their jobs as negative
are likely to have increased absenteeism, more frequent turnover and less job
satisfaction. The only way to influence these variables is to recognize how an
employee personally perceives the workplace. It can be said that perception
influences decision-making within an organization.

To summarize, perception in organizational setting is a process by which

employees organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give
meaning to their environment. It can be concluded that perception is the root
of all organization behaviour. Any situation can be analysed in terms of
perceptual connotation. Through perception, people process information
inputs into responses involving feelings and action. Perception is a way of
forming impression about oneself. There are many factors that influence on
perceptual process such as attitude, motives, time work setting, social setting,
novelty, motion, proximity, similarity and others. Attribution theory in
perception denotes that when person observe behaviour, he tries to assess
whether it is externally or internally caused.

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