05. Perception - Ch05

8/4/2019 05. Perception - Ch05

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OrganizationalOrganizationalBehavior, 8eBehavior, 8e

Schermerhorn, Hunt, andSchermerhorn, Hunt, and

OsbornOsborn

Prepared by

Michael K. McCuddy

Valparaiso University

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.



Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5 2

Chapter 5

Perception and Attribution

Study questions.

– What is the perceptual process? – What are common perceptual distortions?

– How can the perceptual process be managed?

– What is attribution theory?




What is the perceptual process?

Perception. – The process by which people select, organize,

interpret, retrieve, and respond to information. – Perceptual information is gathered from:

• Sight.

• Hearing.

• Touch.• Taste.

• Smell.





Factors influencing the perceptual process.

– Characteristics of the perceiver.

– Characteristics of the setting.

– Characteristics of the perceived.





Characteristics of the perceiver.

– The perceptual process is influenced by the

perceiver’s:

• Past experiences.

• Needs or motives.

• Personality.

• Values and attitudes.





Characteristics of the setting.

– The perceptual process is influenced by thesetting’s:

• Physical context.

• Social context.

• Organizational context.





Characteristics of the perceived.

– The perceptual process is influenced by characteristics

of the perceived person, object, or event, such as:• Contrast.

• Intensity.

• Figure-ground separation.

• Size.

• Motion.

• Repetition or novelty.





Stages of the perceptual process.

– Information attention and selection. – Organization of information.

– Information interpretation.

– Information retrieval.





Information attention and selection.

– Selective screening.

• Lets in only a tiny proportion all the informationthat bombards a person.

– Two types of selective screening.

• Controlled processing.

• Screening without perceiver’s conscious awareness.





Organization of information.

– Schemas.

• Cognitive frameworks that represent organized knowledgeabout a given concept or stimulus developed through

experience.

– Types of schemas.

• Self schemas.

• Person schemas.

• Script schemas.

• Person-in-situation schemas.





Information interpretation.

– Uncovering the reasons behind the ways stimuli

are grouped.

– People may interpret the same information

differently or make different attributions aboutinformation.





Information retrieval.

– Attention and selection, organization, andinterpretation are part of memory.

– Information stored in memory must be

retrieved in order to be used.





Response to the perceptual process.

– Thoughts.

– Feelings.

– Actions.




What are common

perceptual distortions?Common perceptual distortions include:

– Stereotypes or prototypes.

– Halo effects.

– Selective perception.

– Projection.

– Contrast effects.

– Self-fulfilling prophecy.




What are common

perceptual distortions?

Stereotypes or prototypes.

– Combines information based on the category or class to which a person, situation, or object

belongs.

– Strong impact at the organization stage.

– Individual differences are obscured.




What are common

perceptual distortions?Halo effects.

– Occur when one attribute of a person or

situation is used to develop an overallimpression of the individual or situation.

– Likely to occur in the organization stage.

– Individual differences are obscured. – Important in the performance appraisal process.




What are common

perceptual distortions? Selective perception.

– The tendency to single out those aspects of a

situation, person, or object that are consistentwith one’s needs, values, or attitudes.

– Strongest impact is at the attention stage.

– Perception checking with other persons canhelp counter the adverse impact of selective

perception.




What are common

perceptual distortions?Projection.

– The assignment of one’s personal attributes to

other individuals. – Especially likely to occur in interpretation

stage.

– Projection can be controlled through a highdegree of self-awareness and empathy.




What are common

perceptual distortions?

Contrast effects.

– Occur when an individual is compared to other

people on the same characteristics on which the

others rank higher or lower.




What are common

perceptual distortions?Self-fulfilling prophecy.

– The tendency to create or find in another

situation or individual that which one expectedto find.

– Also called the “Pygmalion effect.”

– Can have either positive or negative outcomes. – Managers should adopt positive and optimistic

approaches to people at work.




How can the perceptual

process be managed? Impression management.

– A person’s systematic attempt to behave in

ways that create and maintain desiredimpressions in others’ eyes.

– Successful managers:

• Use impression management to enhance their own

images.

• Are sensitive to other people’s use of impression

management.




How can the perceptual

process be managed?Distortion management.

– Managers should:

• Balance automatic and controlled information

processing at the attention and selection stage.

• Broaden their schemas at the organizing stage.

• Be attuned to attributions at the interpretation stage.




What is attribution theory?

Attribution theory aids in perceptual

interpretation by focusing on how people

attempt to: – Understand the causes of a certain event.

– Assess responsibility for the outcomes of the

event. – Evaluate the personal qualities of the people

involved in the event.





Internal versus external attributions of

causes of behavior. – Internal causes are under the individual’s

control.

– External causes are within the person’s

environment.





Factors influencing internal and external

attributions.

– Distinctiveness — consistency of a person’s behavior across situations.

– Consensus — likelihood of others responding

in a similar way. – Consistency — whether an individual responds

the same way across time.





Fundamental attribution error.

– Applies to the evaluation of someone’s else

behavior.

– Attributing success to the influence of

situational factors.

– Attributing failure to the influence of personal

factors.





Self-serving bias.

– Applies to the evaluation of our own behavior. – Attributing success to the influence of personal

factors.

– Attributing failure to the influence of

situational factors.





Attributions across cultures.

– The fundamental attribution error and self-

serving bias operate differently in different

cultures.

05. Perception - Ch05

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