perception kamaldeep malik

8/14/2019 PERCEPTION kamaldeep malik

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INDEX

S.No Title Page No.

1. Introduction

2. Meaning of Perception

3. Sensaation vs Perception

4. Types of Perception

5. Theories of Perception

6. Principles of Perception

7. Process of Perception

8. Relationship Between Perception,Sensation & Attention

9. Case Study


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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure. No. Title Pages

1. Introduction

2. Perception

3. Type of Perception

4 Figuer Ground Perception

5 Organization of Perception

6 Depth of Perception

7 Process of Perception

8 Perceiver

9 Impression

10 Promotion enhancing strategy


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INTRODUCTION


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Meaning of Perception

Perception is a cognitive process wherein an individual collects, organizes,

and interprets data from the environment to obtain a meaning from it. In fact,

perception differs from person to person for the same situation. Each person

interprets the data in their own way and may come up with different

meanings. For instance, when the boss comes to each employees desk, one

employee might think that he/she is trying to be friendly with the employees;

another might think that the boss is keeping an eye on the employees.

It is also possible that peoples perception of events or situations is nowhere

close to reality. People react to situations based upon their perception of

reality rather than the reality itself. Therefore, understanding the variations

in the perceptions of individuals will help in understanding their

organizational behavior better. Similarly, the perception of members in one

organization differs from that of people in another organization. It is these

differences in perception that make some organizations employ strict control

over employees (as they believe that a disciplinarian environment will

ensure success in business), while others encourage team culture and

cooperation to enhance the performance of the organization.


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Sensation vs. Perception

Often confusion arises over the relationship between sensation and

perception. Behavioral theorists believe that individuals interpret situations

based upon their senses and stimulation and that this was how they gained

knowledge of the world. Individuals use their sensory organs to sense for

instance, eyes to see, ears to hear, skin to feel, nose to smell, and tongue to

taste. Therefore, sensation is the basic behavior of individuals caused by

their physiological functions.Perception, on the other hand, involves peoples assimilation of raw data

through their senses, after which they organize and modify the data with the

help of cognitive thinking to form a coherent picture of the situation.


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Type of Perception

There are many different ways of perceiving the world. One of these ways is

by perceptual organization. Perceptual organizations are processes used to

group basic sensory elements together into perceivable objects. The two

basic principles of perceptual organization involves perceiving figures

embedded in a perceptual background and organizing what you see, or what

you perceive, in the simplest form possible. Another type of perception is

depth perception, which is primarily utilized by visual or auditory senses.

The organ used for visual perception is the eye. The eye is an extremely

complex organ. It is composed of multiple of structures

each having its own Specific function or functions (refer to diagram). The

cornea is a clear protective membrane which allows for the passage of light

but blocks the entrance of dust. The lens is just behind the cornea and it

focuses the light entering into the eye.


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The light forms an image which falls on the retina. This image is upside

down and is processed by the brain. The amount of light entering the eye is

controlled by the iris, the colored structure of the eye. The pupil is a black

dot in the center of the eye through which light passes. The retina contains

over 100 million nerve cells known as rods and cones. Cones are

responsible for colored vision and rods are used for black and white vision.

1. Figure-Ground Perception:-

Figure ground perception is

the tendency to discriminate between target and background stimuli. Thestimulus we perceive as being the target is referred to as the figure. The

other stimuli that we do not perceive as the target make up the background,

or ground. The vase seen at right can be perceived in two different ways. If

the black is perceived as the background, you will see a vase. However, if

you perceive the vase as the background, you will see two faces.


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An interesting phenomenon occurs when looking at a square centered overtop of several, closely spaced concentric circles. In the figure at left, all ofthe sides of the square are perfectly straight. Go ahead and check with astraight edge. However, the sides of the square will appear to bend inwardtoward the center of the circles. This is known as background mediatedillusion. The background is responsible for the distortion seen in the figure.

2.Organisation of Preception:-

The Law of Pregnant, also known

as the Law of Simplicity, states that we tend to perceive the world in the

simplest form possible. There are two major parts to this law: closure and

grouping. Closure is the tendency to fill in missing portions from perceptual

array, or to fill in the gaps. Grouping occurs when similar or proximal

stimuli are perceived as belonging together in a group. A common example

used to illustrate closure is the perception of a complete triangle from three

lines. This can be observed at right. If you look closely you can actually see

two triangles in the figure.


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Grouping can be observed by looking at the collection of black dots below.Your brain groups the dots together and allows you to see the figure of adog.

3. Depth of Perception:-

Humans perceive depth in a seemingly

two dimensional world by interpreting binocular visual cues from the

environment. They interpret those stimuli in the brain. Two depth cues that

require both eyes are binocular disparity and convergence. Your eyes are

separated by a space. This allows them to receive two slightly different

images. As distance from your eyes increases the difference between the

two images decreases. Binocular disparity is the depth cue that is based on

the difference between these two images.


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Your brain interprets images that are very similar in both eyes as far away,

and images that are different in both eyes as closer.

Another way for you brain to interpret the distance to objects is known as

convergence. This is when your brain interprets the tension in the muscles

that control eye movement. Binocular disparity is used with images that are

farther away, perhaps up to 1000 feet. Convergence is used when the object

is eighty feet away or closer.

An artistic use of the human processing of depth perception is utilized in

stereogram. Have you ever looked at a stereoscopic image, or "magic eye"?

They are two dimensional images, but they can be perceived as three

dimensional images in brain. The feeling of "depth" that you get by looking

at a statue instead of looking at a photo of the same statue is due to the fact

that the human body has two eyes. By having two pictures of the same

object, taken by two different positions, which is the case of the human eyes,

you can get a "three dimensional image." In the same way, the eyes forward

to the brain two slightly different pictures. It is the brain that must

"compute" a 3-D representation of the scene. The brain can make mistakes

in this process of designation of pairs! It is these mistakes which make

possible the 3-D feeling that we get from viewing a stereogram.


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4. Depth of Constancy of Perception:-

Imagine yourself

outside looking up at an airplane high in the sky. You lift up your hand and

see that the plane is smaller than your finger, yet you still know that the

plane is large enough to hold hundreds of people.

Due to the information in your

memory stores, you are still able to

perceive the actual size of the

airplane despite a change in the size

of the retinal image.

This concept is known as size

constancy. Despite the fact that

you know images that are far away

are actually the same size as if they were closer, your brain can be fooled.

An example of this is the moon illusion, in which the moon on the horizonappears larger than one higher in the sky. The moon doesn't actually changes

size, but it's relationship to the horizon can make it seem larger lower in the

sky. This phenomenon can also be explained using the figure below. The

center circles are actually both the same size, yet they appear to different

because of their relationship to the surrounding circles. Our brain perceives

the circle surrounded by larger circles as smaller, because it is smaller in

relation to the surrounding circles. The opposite is true for the circle

surround small circles .


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5.Take a Quiz of Perception:-

The answers are in bold.Back to Quiz.

1. One of items below is not part of the human eye. Which one?

a) 1. One of items below is not part of the human eye. Which one?a) optic chiasm

b) corneac) retinad) lens

2. Which aspect of vision are cones responsible for?a) color

b) black and whitec) focusd) depth perception

3. When the background effects how a figure is perceived, this is called.

a) figure ground perceptionb) size constancyc) depth perception

d) binocular disparity

4. The non-background stimuli is called _____.a) the aimb) the targetc) the objectived) the fovia

5. The Law of Pragnanz is also known as ____ .a) the Law of Duplicity

b) the Phi Phenomenonc) the Law of Simplicityd) the Law of Binocular Disparity
http://academics.tjhsst.edu/psych/oldPsych/perception/quiz.htmlhttp://academics.tjhsst.edu/psych/oldPsych/perception/quiz.html


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6. Which of the following is not a form of the Law of Pragnanz? a) grouping

b) connection

c) closured) followinge) b and d

7. Your brain interpreting the tension in the muscles that control eye

movement in order to judge depth is _______ .

a) convergenceb) binocular disparityc) depth identificationd) three dimensional judgement

8. The depth cue that is based on the difference between two images is

_____ .a) convergenceb) binocular disparityc) depth identificationd) three dimensional judgement

9. Magic Eye can also be referred to as _____ .a) really coolb) a stereogram

c) a three dimensional imaged) a fad

10. When you see an airplane in the sky you know there are many

people on board, despite its fingernail size. This is due to _____ .

a) really small peopleb) size constancy

c) binocular disparityd) convergence

11. Explain the moon illusion. See Size Constancy

12. Size constancy occurs due to ____ .

a) memory stores
http://academics.tjhsst.edu/psych/oldPsych/perception/size.htmlhttp://academics.tjhsst.edu/psych/oldPsych/perception/size.html


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b) retinal image constancyc) confusiond) depth perception

13. We perceive same size circles as being different sizes because of .a) the relationship to the surrounding circles

b) they actually are different sizesc) our left eye judges size better than our right eye and thus the circle on the

right seems largerd) humans are very bad at judging size

14. The iris:a) is the colored part of the eye

b) controls the amount of light that enters the eye

c) is the black dot at the center of the eyed) both a) and b)

15. We perceive the sides of the square centered over top of several

closely spaced concentric circles as being bent inward because of___ .a) size constancy

b) depth perceptionc) background mediated illusion

d) the fact that they actually are bent inward .


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6. Link of Perception:-

The World of Perception is a verycomplex system that allows us to interpret the information that we receivefrom our senses. There is far more to this world than we have presented, butwe have given you a taste. If you desire more information on perception

please refer to the links below in order to truly experience the World.

Encyclopedia of Pscyhologyhttp://ww.psychology.orgA very useful and interesting site, on all aspects of psychology, not just

perception.

The Joy of Visual Perception: A Web Bookhttp://www.yorku.ca/eye/An indepth, user friendly, book on the web that has excellent examples andexplanations.

Illusion Workshttp://www.illusionworks.com/"The most comprehensive collection of optical and sensory illusions on theworld-wide web.
http://www.psychology.org/http://www.psychology.org/http://www.yorku.ca/eye/http://www.yorku.ca/eye/http://www.illusionworks.com/http://www.illusionworks.com/http://www.psychology.org/http://www.psychology.org/http://www.yorku.ca/eye/http://www.yorku.ca/eye/http://www.illusionworks.com/http://www.illusionworks.com/


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7. Credits of Perception:-

Bengamin, Ludy T., Jr., Hopkings, J.Roy, Nation, Jack R. Psychology. Macmillan Colleg Publishing Company,

New York. 1994.

We got our original idea for the web page from this, our psychology text. Ithas good simple examples and explanations. It is an excellent starting point.

Luckiesh, M. Visual Illusions. Dover Publications, Inc., New York, NewYork. 1965.

This book contained many in depth explanations of several of the illusions.Although the diagrams are somewhat lacking it is an excellent supplement tothe other books.

Restak, Richard M. M.D. The Brain. Bantam Books, Toronto. 1984.

The Brain provides more in depth physiological explanations of the visualcortex as well as other parts of the brain. It is a relatively complex book andcontains a vast amount of information on how humans process information,

both visual and otherwise.

Rock, Irvin, editor. The Perceptual World - Readings from ScientificAmerican Magazine. W. H.

Freeman and Company, New York. 1990.

A selection of works from many of the top researchers in the field ofperception. This was a source of some graphics and complex explanationsof the eyes as well as the diagram of the eye.


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Simon, Seymour. The Optical Illusion Book. William Morrow andCompany, New York. 1984.

Theories of Perception

Two major classes:

Bottom-up: perception builds up hierarchically from a set of primitive

"features" to our internal representations.

Top-down: perception starts with a set of primitives, but our perceptualexperience is influenced by higher-level processes, such as knowledge and

context.

1. Bottom-up theories

All bottom-up theories rely on the notion that perception builds upwards

from a foundation of primitives to a representation our cognitive system can

use.

This takes place without any influence from higher cognitive processes.

Five main theories:

1. Direct perception

Precursor to behaviorism Perception is a direct result of stimulus energy

affecting receptor cells. No higher cognitive processes or internal

representations are necessary


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2.Template/Exemplar theory

We store examples of all the objects we have seen as exemplars or

templates.

We compare a perceived object to this set of exemplars until we find a

match.

3. Prototype theory

Instead of storing many exemplars or rigid templates, we store a prototype,

which is kind of like the average of an object.

We compare a perceived object to these prototypes until we find the closest

match.

4.Feature theory

Perception starts with the identification of basic features that are put

together into more complex objects, which are put together into more

complex objects, etc. until we identify an object.

Example:Pandemonium


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Neural basis for feature theory

Using single-cell recording (remember that?), Hubel & Wiesel found

neurons in the primary visual cortex (occipital lobe) that respond to visual

features such as lines and corners.

These feature detectors are a result of how the early visual system is wired.

4. Structural description theory

Kind of like a three-dimensional version of feature theory, where rather than

having lines and corners as the basic features, simple geometric shapes,

called geons, are the basic features.

We recognize objects by matching the geons we are looking at to the stored

geons in memory.


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2. Top-down theories

Top-down theories posit varying degrees of influence of highercognitive processes on what we actually perceive.

The primary example of this is the effect of context on perception,

such as in the Word Superiority Effect.


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Principles of perceptionThere are a number of general principles that help us understand the process

of perception. One of the most important is the principle of closure. It tells

us that we have the general tendency to perceive things as complete and

unified. We tend to "fill in" parts that are missing, or parts that conform to a

over all impression. The principle of constancy states that despite changes

that occur in stimulation, we have a strong tendency to perceive objects as

constant in size, shape, colour, and other qualities. For example, an orange

will be perceived with its characteristic colour under different kinds of light.

The opposite of the principle of constancy is also important. Sometimes an

object or pattern of stimulation will remain constant, but the perceived effect

will vary. Look at the grey and black cubes in the illustration on this page.

At one moment you will see three complete cubes, and at another you may

see five. Another important principle relates to perceptual context. The

perception of an object or event dependsin part on the context (surrounding

conditions). Look at the two rectangles containing the words World Book in

the illustration on this page. The words are printed with the same ink. Dothey look the same? Background intensity and colour may affect the colour

and intensity of elements upon it. To most people, grey surrounded by black

appears brighter and somewhat larger. This effect is called visual induction.

Notice, too, that the effect is opposite to that observed with the two grey


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triangles with black and white detail. In this case, the grey with black detail

appears darker rather than bright.

Sub-processes of Perception

The perceptual process of individuals passes through several sub-processes.

They are stimulus or situation, registration, interpretation, feedback,

behavior, and consequence.

Stimulus or situation is the first sub-process in the process of perception.

Here people are confronted with an external or internal stimulus. As a result,

they might experience an immediate sensual stimulation or the confrontation

may take place with the entire physical and socio-cultural environment.

In Registration, the individuals record in their minds the stimulus they have

received from the environment. Physiological mechanisms such as listening,

hearing, etc. play an active role in the perception of individuals.

During Interpretation, people analyze the stimulus they have received. It is a

cognitive process that is influenced by learning, motivation, and personality.

Feedback is the response individuals receive from the stimulus i.e.

environmental situations. Feedback has an impact on the perception of

individuals. For instance, if employees receive appreciation (feedback) from

the manager for their work, then they perceive that the manager is satisfied

with their performance. Registration, interpretation, and feedback occur

within a person and are in response to a given stimulus from the external

environment. These sub-processes lead to a certain behavior by the

individual, which again leads to a certain consequence.


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Individual Perceptual Process

I. Perceptual Selectivity electivity

II. Perceptual organization

III. Social Perception

I. Perceptual Selectivity electivity

People are constantly exposed to various stimuli. However, sometimes the

stimuli may be so understated that they may not even be aware of it. Individualsare prone to select only a few stimuli at a given time. For instance, while reading

the newspaper, individuals who are interested in movies might read only the

supplementary containing movie news. Perceptual selectivity is further

dependent on factors such as external attention factors and internal set factors.


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A) External Attention Factors

The external attention factors are:--

i. Intensity

According to this principle, the intensity of the external stimulus decides the

probability of its being perceived. For instance, a bright light is more likely to be

noticed than a dim one.

ii. Size

According to this principle, a large object is more likely to be noticed than a

smaller one. For instance, a big super market is more easily noticed than a small

grocery store.

iii. Contrast

According to this principle, a stimulus that stands out against the expectations of

people is bound to attract more attention. For instance, employees working at

airports get so used to the noise that they may not notice the sounds made during

the take off and landing of planes. However, if on any day there is some

reduction in air traffic, they will notice the reduction in noise level.

iv. Repetition

According to this principle, a stimulus is more likely to be noticed if it is

repeated

several times.

v. Motion

This principle states that individuals notice objects that are in motion more than

those that are stationary.

vi. Novelty and familiarity

According to this principle, new objects in a familiar situation and familiar

objects in a new situation attract peoples attention more.


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vii. Situations

Situations have a great influence on people's perceptions. A favourable work

environment develops a positive attitude and work culture because the

perception process is easily channelised and rightly directed.

B) Internal Set Factors

The internal set factors are:--

I. Learning and Perception

The process of learning creates some expectations in individuals. As a result,

they tend to perceive things in a particular way. What people see and hear is

influenced by their expectations.

Perceptual set in the workplace: Employees working in an organization for a

certain period tend to interpret situations and events in a similar way. They

might use certain phrases that are unique to their department or organization to

symbolize certain things. However, in general, learning leads to substantial

individual differences. Every employee interprets a particular situation based

upon his/her perception. For example, it has been observed that in general, the

perceptions of the trade union and the management regarding the prevailing

working conditions in an organization differ.


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II. Motivation and perception

Perceptual selectivity is also influenced by motivation. Primary motives such as

hunger and thirst have an impact on the perception of individuals. For instance,

while walking on the road a person who is very thirsty might pay more attention

to a store selling soft drinks.

Secondary motives such as the need for power, affiliation, and achievement also

have a major influence on perceptual selectivity. For instance, employees who

feel that they have the need to attain power, affiliation, and achievement might

be more attentive to the different situations in the organizations, as they are

constantly on the look-out for opportunities. Perception may also have an

influence on motivation. For instance, some employees who are dedicated to

their work might not mind attending office even when sick as they perceive the

work to be more important than their health.

III. Personality and perception

Differences in the personality of individuals due to variances in age, gender,

experience, etc. also might influence the perception of individuals. For instance,

young managers might complain that senior managers are resistant to change in

technology, management practices, etc. Similarly senior managers might

complain that young managers take hasty decisions and implement unnecessary

changes.


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IV. Organizational role and 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.

V. Economic and social background:

The employee perceptions are based on economic and social backgrounds.

Socially and economically developed employees have a more positive attitudetowards development rather than less developed employees.

VI. Habit:

Habits die hard and therefore individuals perceive objects, situations and

conditions differently according to their habits. A Hindu will bow and do

Namaskar when he sees a temple while walking on road, because of his well-

established habit. These are several instances in life settings where individuals

tend to react with the right response to the wrong signals. Thus a retired soldier

may throw himself on the ground when he hears a sudden burst of car tyre.


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Factors Influencing Perception

The factors that help in shaping perception are the perceiver, the target which is

being perceived, and the situation in which perception occurs. Although these

factors help in shaping the perception of individuals, they also sometimes distort

their perceptions.

The Perceiver

Peoples personal characteristics play an important role in the way they perceive

situations, events, objects, people, etc. The various personal characteristics can

be a persons motives, attitudes, past experiences, interests, and expectations.Those who have a positive attitude toward a particular thing or situation might

view it in a completely different way from people having a negative attitude

toward it. Studies conducted in the field of OB have also shown that peoples

perception is greatly influenced by their unfulfilled goals and needs.

It has been observed that people who are engrossed by their personal problems

might not be able to concentrate on their work properly. This shows that

personal interests of individuals also have an

impact on perceptions.Peoples perceptions might also be influenced by their

past experiences. For instance, an employee who has been reprimanded in the

past by his/her superior for a minor mistake might perceive that superior to be a

strict official.

Expectation is another characteristic that has a major impact on the perception of

individuals. For instance, people generally perceive the products sold by reputed

companies to be of good quality. However, expectations might also lead to

distortion of perception. For instance, policemen are perceived as fearless and

authoritative, which might not be true in all cases.


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The Target

The attributes of the target (stimulus) such as motion, sound, size, etc. also affect

perception. For instance, people who are very tall get more attention in a crowd.

Sometimes people might not perceive the target in isolation but associate it with

some other aspects or events similar to it. In doing so, they might group

unrelated objects. This grouping is largely done on the basis of physical

proximity of the objects in consideration. It has also been observed that the

tendency to group objects or events is more if individuals notice a greater

proximity between them.


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The Situation

Situational factors in the environment such as time, location, climate, a persons

state of mind, and other factors play a vital role in shaping the perception of

individuals.

Perceptual Organization

Perceptual organization emphasizes the activities that take place in the

perceptual process subsequent to the stimulus being received.

Figure-Ground

Figure-ground is a type of perceptual organization. In this form of perception,

perceived objects are separated from the general background by the perceivers.

They tend to give more emphasis to the object in the figure than to the other

objects in the background.

Perceptual Grouping

Under perceptual grouping, individuals attempt to group various stimuli together

into an identifiable pattern. This type of perceptual organization may be based

on closure, continuity, proximity, or similarity.

Closure

According to this principle, a person may sometimes perceive a whole where it

does not exist and at times may not be able to perceive a whole although one

exists.


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Continuity

Continuity, unlike closure where the individual fills the missing stimulus, refers

to the process wherein the individual perceives the extension of a missing

stimulus. However, this is limited to obvious, continuous lines or patterns.

Proximity

According to this principle, people perceive stimuli that are physically close to

each other as belonging to one group.

Similarity

According to this principle, stimuli that are similar are grouped together by the

individual.

Perceptual Constancy

Perceptual constancy is one of the advanced forms of perceptual organization.

According to this principle, individuals perception of certain elements in

objects like size, shape, color, brightness, and location is constant and does not

change from person to person. For instance, even though the picture of an apple

is printed in black and white, we still perceive the color of the fruit as red.

Perceptual constancy is enhanced by learning. Learning helps individuals

perceive certain patterns of cues in a similar way and this leads to perceptual

constancy.

Perceptual Context

The context of the situation also plays a major role in shaping the perception of

individuals. Different contexts convey different meanings to people.


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For example, if a manager pats his twoyear-old son, it is considered a sign of

love and affection.

However, if he gives an employee a paton the back, it is considered a sign of

appreciation for the work done by the employee.

Perceptual Defense

When a particular stimulus clashes with the values or culture of individuals, or is

threatening in nature to them, then they develop a defense mechanism against

such a stimulus. Perceptual defense helps in understanding relationships that

exist between union and management, superior and subordinate, etc.

Various researches and studies have also supported the existence of the

perceptual defense mechanism. The following are the results from some of the

relevant studies related to perceptual defense:

People refuse to perceive information which they believe will disturb their

emotions.

People substitute the original perception caused by disturbing stimuli and

information

with favorable perceptions to cope with the situation.

Although some information may actually arouse emotions in an individual,

he/she

may purposely distort and direct the emotion elsewhere.


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II. Social Perception

Social perception is a cognitive process through which other individuals are

perceived by the perceiver. Social perception also involves the study of how an

individual gets to know other individuals. Research has indicated that social

perception is influenced by the characteristics of both the perceiver and the

perceived. Social perception is influenced by the:

Personality of the perceiver

Personal characteristics of the perceiver

Self-esteem of the perceiver

fact that an individual perceives others depending upon many skills and notjust oneSkill.

The characteristics of the person being perceived that influence social

perception:

Status of the individual (of person being perceived)

Role played by an individual in the organization.

The following factors help in understanding the social perceptual process in

organizations better:

Attribution

Attribution is the way in which people explain the causes for their own or

others behavior. With the help of attribution, individuals try to understand the

reasons behind the behavior of one another and also draw conclusions about the

factors that influenced that behavior.

There are two types of attributions. They are dispositional attribution and

situational attribution. In dispositional attribution, peoples behavior is explained

with the help of internal factors such as their personality traits, their motivation,

ability, etc.


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Stereotyping

Stereotyping refers to the generalization of the characteristics of all members

belonging to a certain group. People judge others based on the perception they

have about the group to which these individuals belong and do not consider the

unique characteristics of the person in question. For instance, politicians are

considered to be manipulative and corrupt. However, judging a person based

upon the characteristics of a group is unfair because every individual is unique

and different from others. In the organizational context, stereotyping often takes

place based upon gender, race, ethnicity, etc.

The Halo Effect

In the halo effect, the perceiver tends to judge a person depending upon a

dominant trait which can be either positive or negative. The various traits could

be intelligence, sociability, aggressiveness, etc. The halo effect is generally

found in performance appraisal. Often appraisers rate the performance of

employees based on one particular trait rather than by taking all aspects into

consideration.

Halo effect

Is a common error made in performance appraisals

Has two components viz. true and illusory

Emphasizes only a particular trait of an employee and does not take

into account the overall picture.

has negative consequences which have to be avoided.


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Conditions under which halo effect might occur:

when the perceiver is not familiar with certain traits or does not

frequently encounter them.

when the traits are ambiguous and cannot be clearly expressed in

behavioral terms.

when the traits have moral implications.

Impression management

Impression management is also referred to as self-presentation. It is a process

by which people try to manage or control the perceptions formed by others aboutthemselves. Individuals might adopt various management techniques to make an

impact on others.

The Process of Impression Management

Earlier researchers attempted to study the relationship of impression

management with respect to aggression, attitude change, attributions, social

facilitation, and so on. However, in recent times, behavioral theorists have

identified two components of impression management. They are impression

motivation and impression construction.


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Impression motivation:

Impression motivation is usually applicable in organizations where employees

try to control the perception of managers or superiors about themselves.

Impression motivation is affected by the following factors:

relevance that the impression has to the employees in attaining their goals.

value of these goals to the employees.

discrepancy between the desired image and the image which individuals

believe others already have about them in their minds.

Impression construction:

Impression construction refers to the methods and techniques adopted by the

individual in order to create the desired image in the minds of other individuals.

Studies conducted in this field have identified the following five factors which

are considered to be relevant to the type of impression people want to create:

the self-concept

desired and undesired identity images

role constraints

value of the target

current social image of the individual.


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Impression Management Strategies Used by Employees

The following are some of the impression management strategies used by

employees in

organizations:

Demotion-preventative strategy

Employees use this strategy to reduce their responsibilities for a negative

outcome or to stay out of trouble. The characteristics of this strategy are:Accounts:

The employees try to explain a negative outcome by giving excuses.

Apologies:

The employees might seek to apologize to the superior for the negative

outcome.

Disassociation:

The employees might disassociate themselves from the event, if they are not

directly responsible for the outcome.


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Promotion-enhancing Strategy

Employees use this strategy to increase their responsibility for a positive

outcome and try to communicate it to their superiors.

The characteristics of this strategy are:

Entitlements: If the employees feel that they have not been given due credit for

a particular outcome then they might communicate this to their superior through

a formal or informal channel.

Enhancements: It is also possible that sometimes the employees feel that their

contribution has led to a positive outcome that is much higher than the

expectations of

the management. Although the employees are rewarded for such an outcome

they might still find the need for better recognition of their efforts. Thus, they

might convey this to the management.

Obstacle disclosure: Sometimes employees might convey to their superiors the

unavoidable obstacles (personal or organizational) that they had to overcome in

order to achieve the outcome.


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Association: Employees might make a deliberate attempt to be seen with the

right people and in the right time in order to give an impression that they are

associated with successful projects.


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Relationship between

1. PERCEPTION

2. SENSATION

3. ATTENTION

1. PERCEPTION

Perception is a process by which an organism receives certaininformation about the environmen.

The process of creating meaningful patterns from raw sensoryinformation.

2. SENSATION

Sensations are cues, signs, indicator & messages. Sensation is the process by which a stimulus affects a sense-organs

that takes the information to the brain


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3. ATTENTION

Attention is the focus of consciousness.

Attention is the act of fixing or focusing the mind on the object. Attention is the adjustment of the mind to an object.

NATURE OF PERCEPTION

Perception consists in knowing objects in the environment bycombining the sensations.

Perception requires attention, exploration & past experiences. Perception is a complex mental process & consist of sensations &

ideas.

PERCEPTION FORMULA

S + M = P

S: SensationM: MemoryP:Perception


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PERCEPTION PROCESS

Perception is a process by which an organism interprets and evaluatedsensory input so that acquires meaning. This complex process involvesseveral levels of analysis in the nervous system and several sensory system.

It is divide into three process.

1. Perceptual Selectivity2. Perceptual Organization

3. Interpretation

NATURE OF SENSATION

A sensation is the simplest form of cognition.

It is a simple impression produced in the mind by astimulus.

Sensations are integral elements in perception.

They are simple awareness of qualities e.g. colour, sound,taste, smells etc.


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TYPES OF SENSATION

1. Organic Sensations

2. Special Sensations

1. ORGANIC SENSATIONS

Organic sensation of hunger, thirst, fatigue,headacheetc are produced bychanged conditions of the organism.

They have no special sense-organs.

They are not produced by external stimulus.

They are due to physiological conditions.

2. SPECIAL SENSATIONS

Sensations of colours, sounds, taste, smells,temperature etc are specialsensations.

They are produced by external stimulus They give us knowledge of the qualities of external objects


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NATURE OF ATTENTION

There is powerful effect of attention on perception. Individual see and

hear only those stimuli to which he/she pays attention.

Attention is selective.

Attention has two aspect, positive & negative.

Focus of mind is positive & withdrawal of mind is negative.

Attention convert from one stimuli to an other.

FACTORS INFLUENCE ON ATTENTION

1.Internal Factors:

Internal factors are related to the state of the individual.

Psychological Factors intelligence

personality learning motivation ability training past experiences interest expectation

2. External Factors:

It refers to the nature & characteristics of the stimuli. There is usually atendency to give more attention to stimuli which are,

Bright Sharp Large Moving Loud Intense Colorful Repeated Familiar Contrasted


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ATTRIBUTION

Attribution is the process by which people interpret the perceived causes ofbehaviour.Behaviour is determined by a combination of perceived internalforces & external forces.

1. Internal Forces:

relates to the personal attribution such asability, skills, amount of effort or fatigue.

2. External Factors:

relate to environment such as rules &policies, supervision, weather.

CLASSIFICATION OF ATTRIBUTION

Stable factors are ability, or difficulty of the task. Unstable factors are the exertion of effort, or luck.

The combination of internal & external attribution , stable & unstablecharacteristics, results in four possible interpretations of a persons task

performance. Internal attribution External attribution

Stable factors Ability Task difficulty

Unstable factors Effort Luck


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PERCEPTION CASE STUDY

Mr. K.P Bakophaid,69, a high profile investor who during his lifetime hadaccumulated millions in investments, particularly in the Microsoft shares inthe 80s and then in a repeat of his talent to spot the gold brought Googleshares cheap at $1 a share with now the shares quoting $563\share and hislong time friend Mr. j k sinha,65 just retired CEO of the famed PELIANCEgroup had been for a while contemplating for a move to establish a start upin IT sector as both the gentlemen were very bullish about the sector in theIndian space.

Their thoughts were put down to work as with favorable developments at themacro economic level both pledged their funds together to start a IT start upMACROHARD INDIA LTD, a BPO firm having primary applications inthe back office jobs of banking and investment banking sector of the US andEUROPE.

With this they appointed Mr. Rajiv Negad, 39 an IIM-A pass out. He had tillthat time established himself as an expert in system analysis with a primeacumen of business networks having earlier worked with Goldman sacs inits Hong Kong division. He jumped at the opportunity to be the CEO of thestart up.

I YEAR LATER

MACROHARD had notched up a reasonable success in its limited space andwere looking like they were heading in the right directions.

In the mean time they hired Ms Neha Kakkar , an attractive 25 year old whowas also like the CEO, a pass out of IIM-A .She was a hard working

employee and a really bright prospect who had the right ideas andconfidence. Also her most important asset was her ability to gel with hercolleges well.

Over time there developed good professional repot between Mr. Rajiv andneha as it was evident with the fact that Mr. Rajiv was really impressed withthe work ethics of his new employee. In the company there also worked


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adebayour, a hard working employee. Originally from Nigeria he also was agood disciplined worker who did his job well. Neha kakkar was really risingthrough the ranks of her job fast.

Once neha had this really bright idea of taking the company to the next levelwith her idea of venturing into the credit card processing in the US and alsoshe was quick to spot a potential threat in the form of a competitor takingaway their business and for that she wanted to discuss with Rajiv, her boss,for which he asked her to come to the canteen to discuss this issue over acup of coffee.

This wasnt taken well by her co workers who thought that she was ratherusing her good looks in making Rajiv do as she wished. This was apparently

being discussed and spread around as rumors by 3 people in particular nitin,

venkat, and karan who were spreading all sorts of rumors around. There wasthis further issue that adebayor an equally hard working candidate wasnt

promoted when neha was.

There was now an open talk that Rajiv was showing favoritism toward nehaand everyone wasnt being treated well. Initially Rajiv ignored this talk.Being a proud manager who thought that since he was not actually doinganything wrong, that should be enoughpeople will recognize it. Or sincehe wasnt actually guilty, he believed that he just doesnt need to defendhimself further. Lastly, he also thought that since he was the boss peoplewill anyway come to respect his decisions.

But then in the mean time situations worsened. There was a gradual loss of productivity. Resentment built quickly with favoritism being suspected.Resentment quickly become bitterness and bitterness lead to all sorts of

behavior which created problems for company.

Rajiv now really disturbed with the recent developments in the company,quickly sought advice from his HR manager Mr. Sachin tendulkar to get the

situation back to normal as quickly as possible as In the highly competitiveIT industry he didnt want his company to miss out on potentialopportunities just because of a simple perception problem.

As a HR manager what advice and steps will you follow to solve this

problem? Whats a manager to do to avoid the PERCEPTION of

favoritism, which can be just as damaging as actual favoritism?


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CASE ANALYSIS

To begin with this is the common problem of Workplace Favoritism. It's amajor topic in HR circles. But regardless of how little formal attention itgets, this is an important issue that exists in nearly every workplace, largeand small. While it's not something that gets addressed in managementmeetings, it can have as much effect on a company as most "high profile"management topics.

Favoritism is part of human nature. No two people interact similarly to anyother two, so it's impossible for all workplace relationships to be "equal". It'sonly natural to gravitate to people that you share common interests with, andwith whom you have an easy rapport. And of course, there's nothing wrong

with any of this, on the surface. The problems surface when one of threedistinct things occurs:

1. When a good rapport and shared interests lead to a PERCEPTION that anemployee is getting favored treatment from a manager2. When a manager ACTUALLY PROVIDES unfair preferential treatmentfor one employee at the expense of others3. Nepotism.

To begin with, Mr. Rajiv, through there isnt any logical fault on his side;He commits some silly errors that you would probably expect with acomputer engineer who hasnt exactly probed into the human side of the

business.

Even though neha is in fact a very bright employee and to be frank afront runner among her colleagues still Rajiv committed the silly errorin being too close to her and apparently not giving enoughconsideration of its impact on the psyche of the other employees.

He was also a bit too rude to deal with adebayor, an employee whowas quite popular in the circles as one of the hardest workingemployees. Even though rajiv was quite right in assessing the

personality of adebayor that he wasnt a very daring employee and


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that there was still time for him to develop fully into the leadershipmode that is required in the highly competitive IT sector .

Clearly there has been a serious perception problem on the part of theemployees in that they had started to wrongly deduce that neha is getting

promoted due to favoritism. This is a big problem but not that big also if themanagement decides to follow some simple steps and understand some basicthings about this wrong perception thing.

There are many people in the workplace who are extremely sensitive,and are looking around every corner for perceived slights andinjustices.

There are also many under-performers who look at other'srelationships, in an attempt to convince themselves that it's somethingother than their own shortcomings that is preventing them fromgetting ahead. Like in this example the clique of nitin, valsat, andkaran shows a lot of characteristics of this behavior.

People who perform well should be rewarded. And a single managementstyle doesn't work equally well with all employees. Some people need moreattention to fulfill their potential, while others excel with less attention andmore autonomy. Also it is the PERCEPTION of favoritism that does the

damage. If there is actual favoritism, you can argue that management is justgetting what they deserve.

Here are some steps to avoid the problem to tackle the problem initially:

An open door policy is the right beginning. Further, communicationchannels have to be well-established and two-way flow of informationis to be encouraged and maintained.

A further step in the right direction would be to convey the reasoningof various managerial decisions through formal and more informalcommunication systems for persons at the ground level to appreciatethe managerial constraints and thinking process. That would helpemployees strive for right perception even when decisions areunexplained.

By experience, everyone is aware of the perception people have whena male boss frequently appreciates a particular female staff. One is


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keen in such cases to modify behavior and language suitably to avoidwrong perceptions.

After that the management must take the following measures to ensure thatno such perception problems arise in the future.

1. The management should do everything within their power toinsure that advancement, perks, and compensation are basedstrictly upon objective performance measures

2. they must Strive to treat everyone fairly, if not necessarily thesame

3. .they must Create an environment where any employee feelscomfortable discussing a perceived injustice with managementthis enables managers to nip misconceptions in the bud

4. they should Practice an open door policythis also contributesto a culture of trust, which can sooth ruffled feathers before hurtfeelings can fester and turn a situation far sourer

5. .the top management should also learn to Manage potential perceptions of favoritism proactivelyit's much easier toprevent the perception up front, than it is to "put out the fire"once it's raging

While a HR manager need not get bogged down with all possible andimaginative perceptions of people, his focus should be to establish an openwork environment and exercise control over the information systemmechanics. A well-established and trusted system would induce people toask for reasons behind an action or a decision, than to jump to wrong

perceptions.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY


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SEARCH ENGINES:

S.NO TITLE

1 www.Scribd.com

2 www.Ask.com

3 www.Msn.com

4 www.Whereisdoc.com

5 www.Khoj.com

6 www.Skillscpe.com

7 www.Google.com

8 www.Yahoo.com

perception kamaldeep malik

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