perception and learning in organisations

© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill Ryerson

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C H A P T E R:C H A P T E R: T H R E E T H R E E

Perception and Learning in Organizations

2 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e

Perception

Why different people perceive the same object and event differently?

Perception is a cognitive factor of behavior. There can be no behavior with out perception.

Perception means giving meaning to the environment around us.


Perception-Definition

Perception can be defined as the process of receiving, selecting ,organizing, interpreting,checking and reacting to sensory stimuli or data.(Udai Pareek).

“A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.”

Perception is an important meditating cognitive process through which persons make interpretations of the stimulus or situation they are forced with”.


PerceptionPerception is the process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around us.

Perceptual process is the dynamics of selecting , organizing and interpreting external stimuli.

•It involves deciding which information to notice

•How to categorize the information

•How to interpret it within the frame work of existing knowledge.

•Perception vary from person to person

•Employee tend to behave and act on certain things on the basis of their perception

•Perceptual Process: Organizational behavior processes influenced by our personality.


Attitudes andAttitudes andBehaviourBehaviour

Organization andOrganization andInterpretationInterpretation

Selective AttentionSelective Attention

Perceptual Process Model

Feeling Hearing Seeing Smelling TastingFeeling Hearing Seeing Smelling Tasting

Environmental StimuliEnvironmental Stimuli


Selective Attention

Selective Attention:Filtering information received by our sense is called selective attention.

Characteristics of the object size, intensity, motion, repetition.

Perceptual context: eg- An employee working in an organization sees the important areas of his work other unnecessary things ignoring.

Characteristics of the perceiver attitudes perceptual defense expectations -- condition us to expect events


Perceptual Organization/Interpretation

Categorical thinking Mostly unconscious process of organizing people and

things Perceptual grouping principles: Process of placing

people and objects into recognisable and manageable patterns or categories.

Occurs when we make assumptions about people based on their similarity.

• Closure -- filling in missing pieces• Identifying trends• Similarity or proximity

Mental models Broad world-views or ‘theories-in-use’ Help us to quickly make sense of situations May block recognition of new opportunities/perspectives


An Individual’sAn Individual’sSocial IdentitySocial Identity

AllianceAllianceStudentStudent

Social Identity Theory- A model that explains

self perception and social perception in terms of persons unique

characteristics and membership in various social groups.

Live inLive inIndiaIndia

University ofUniversity ofNew BrunswickNew Brunswick

GraduateGraduate

Employees atEmployees atother firmsother firms

People livingPeople livingin other countriesin other countries

Graduates fromGraduates fromother schoolsother schools


Social Identity Theory Features

Categorization process compare characteristics of our groups with other

groups

Homogenization process similar traits within a group; different traits across

groups

Differentiation process develop less favourable images of people in

groups other than our own


Ottawa Citizen

Social Identity & Gender in Engineering

Women are underrepresented in engineering partly because:

Social identity --”geek” stereotype of engineers and computer scientists doesn’t fit the self-images that most women want for themselves.

Sex role stereotyping -- women are not encouraged to become engineers because the profession has a male stereotype

Prejudice -- Still some bias against female engineering students

(Prejudice-Unfounded negative emotions towards people belonging to a particular stereotyped group.)


Stereotyping

Process of assigning traits to people based on their membership in a social category Categorical thinking

Strong need to understand and anticipate others’ behaviour

Enhances our self-perception and social identity

Ottawa Citizen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5s5WTis3nU


Minimizing Stereotyping Biases

Diversity awareness training Educate employees about the benefits of diversity

and myths

Decision-making accountability Making people accountable for their decisions

motivates them to consider objective information rather than stereotypes


Attribution Process

Internal Attribution Perception that person’s behaviour is due to

motivation/ability rather than situation or fate

External Attribution Perception that behaviour is due to situation or

fate rather than the person


Rules of Attribution

External AttributionExternal Attribution

FrequentlyFrequently

ConsistencyConsistency

(Past behaviour)(Past behaviour)SeldomSeldom

Internal AttributionInternal Attribution((behaviour attributed tobehaviour attributed to

the internal factorsthe internal factors))


DistinctivenessDistinctiveness(Behaviour in (Behaviour in other setting)other setting)

SeldomSeldom

SeldomSeldom

ConsensusConsensus(Behaviour in (Behaviour in

similar situationssimilar situations))



Attribution Errors

Fundamental Attribution Error attributing own actions to external factors and

other’s actions to internal factors

Self-Serving Bias attributing our successes to internal factors and

our failures to external factors


Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Cycle

SupervisorSupervisorformsforms

expectationsexpectations

ExpectationsExpectationsaffect supervisor’saffect supervisor’s

behaviourbehaviour

Supervisor’sSupervisor’sbehaviour affectsbehaviour affects

employeeemployee

Employee’sEmployee’sbehaviour matchesbehaviour matches

expectationsexpectations


Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Contingencies

Self-fulfilling prophecy effect is strongest: Expectations about other person cause that person to act in a way that is consistent with those expectations.

§ Primary Effect: A perceptual error in which we quickly form an opinion of people based on the first information we receive about them.

At the beginning of the relationship: (e.g., employee joins the team)

1. When several people have similar expectations about the person

2. When the employee has low rather than high past achievement

§ Recent Effect: Most recent information dominates our perception of others.


Other Perceptual Errors

Primacy first impressions

Recency most recent information dominates perceptions

Halo Error: A perceptual error where by our general impression of a person , usually based on one prominent characteristics, color our perception of other characteristics of that person one trait forms a general impression

Projection believe other people do the same things or have the same

attitudes as you


Improving Perceptions

Empathy Sensitivity to the feelings, thoughts, and situation

of others

Cognitive and emotional component

Self-awareness Awareness of your values, beliefs and prejudices

Applying Johari Window


Known to Self Unknown to Self

Knownto Others

Unknownto Others

OpenOpenAreaArea BlindBlind

AreaArea

UnknownUnknownAreaArea

HiddenHiddenAreaArea

Know Yourself (Johari Window)

OpenOpenAreaArea

BlindBlindAreaArea

HiddenHiddenAreaArea

UnknownUnknownAreaArea

DisclosureDisclosure

FeedbackFeedback


Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others

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 person belongs.


Definition of Learning

A relatively permanent change in

behaviour (or behaviour tendency) that

occurs as a result of a person’s

interaction with the environment


Learning and Behaviour

Learning affected behaviour through three MARS model elements: Ability -- learning increases skills and knowledge

Role perceptions -- learning clarifies roles and priorities

Motivation -- learning is necessary for some need fulfillment


Behaviour Modification

We “operate” on the environment alter behaviour to maximize positive and minimize

adverse consequences

Learning is viewed as completely dependent on the environment

Human thoughts are viewed as unimportant


A-B-Cs of Behaviour Modification

ConsequencesConsequences

What happensWhat happensafter behaviourafter behaviour

Co-workersCo-workersthank thank

operatoroperator

ExampleExample

BehaviourBehaviour

What personWhat personsays or doessays or does

Machine Machine operator turnsoperator turns

off poweroff power

AntecedentsAntecedents

What happensWhat happensbefore behaviourbefore behaviour

WarningWarninglightlight

flashesflashes


Contingencies of Reinforcement

Behaviourincreases/maintained

Behaviourdecreases

Consequenceis introduced

Consequenceis removed

PunishmentPunishment

PositivePositivereinforcementreinforcement

ExtinctionExtinction PunishmentPunishment

NegativeNegativereinforcementreinforcement

Noconsequence


Behaviour Modification in Practice

Behaviour modification is used in: every day life to influence behaviour of others company programs to reduce absenteeism,

improve safety, etc.

Behaviour modification problems include: Reward Ethical concern Behaviorist philosophy vs. learning through

mental processes


Social Learning Theory

Behavioural modelling Observing and modelling behaviour of others

Learning behaviour consequences Observing consequences that others

experience

Self-reinforcement Reinforcing our own behaviour with

consequences within our control


ConcreteConcreteexperienceexperience

ReflectiveReflectiveobservationobservation

AbstractAbstractconceptualizationconceptualization

ActiveActiveexperimentationexperimentation

Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model


Developing a Learning Orientation

• Value the generation of new knowledge

• Reward experimentation

• Recognize mistakes as part of learning

• Encourage employees to take reasonable risks


Action Learning

Experiential learning in which employees, usually in teams, investigate and apply solutions to a situation that is both real and complex, with immediate relevance to the company Concrete experience

Learning

Team conceptualizes and applies a solution to a problem


Employment Interview Perceptual biases of raters affect the accuracy of

interviewers’ judgments of applicants.

Performance Expectations Self-fulfilling prophecy (Pygmalion effect): The lower or

higher performance of employees reflects preconceived leader expectations about employee capabilities.

Ethnic Profiling A form of stereotyping in which a group of individuals is

singled out—typically on the basis of race or ethnicity—for intensive inquiry or investigation.

Specific Applications in OrganizationsSpecific Applications in Organizations


Specific Applications in Organizations (cont’d)

Performance Evaluations Appraisals are often subjective (judgmental)

perceptions of appraisers of another employee’s job performance.

Employee Effort Assessment of individual effort is a subjective

judgment subject to perceptual distortion and bias.

perception and learning in organisations

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