Download Perception

Organizational Psychology
Lecture 3
Perception and attribution
Perception
Sensory
impressions
Organizing and
interpreting
Ascribing
meaning to the
environment
Why is perception important to OB?
Peoples’ behavior is based on their perception
of what reality is not on reality itself
Factors that influence perception
Factors in the
perceiver
- Attitudes
- Motives
- Interests
- Experience
Factors in the
situation
- Time
- Work setting
- Social setting
- Expectations
Perception
Factors in the target
- Novelty
- Motion
- Sounds
- Size
- Background
- Proximity
- Similarity
Person Perception
Making judgments about thers
Attribution theory
Judgments we
make
Observed behavior of another
person
Meanings we
attribute
We determine the
source of causation
of that behavior
1. Distinctiveness
Internal
2. Consensus
vs
3. Consistency
External causes
Differences between internal vs
external causation
Internally caused behavior
Under the control of the
individual
• Employee is late for work: he
was partying and then
overslept
• Colleague is gaining weight:
he is socializing a lot and
overeating
• Manager is in tensed mood:
he wants to evoke fear in us
purposefully
Externally caused behavior
What the situation forced the
individual to do
• Employee is late for work: must
have run into tied up traffic due
to some accident on the way
• Colleague is gaining weight:
could have some health issues,
maybe thyroid
• Manager is in tensed mood: he
must have been under fire during
yesterday’s board meeting
Three determining factors: (1)
Distinctiveness
Behavior is
unusual
Behavior is
usual
External
attribution
Internal
attribution
Three determining factors: (2)
Consensus
High consensus:
others behav(ed) in
similar fashion
External
attribution
Low consensus:
behavior stands out
from among others in
a similar situation
Internal
attribution
Three determining factors: (3)
Consistency
Does the person
responds in the same
way over time? If not…
External
attribution
If yes
Internal
attribution
Attribution theory
observation
interpretation
Attribution of
cause
Most important finding: fundamental
attribution error
While making judgments about the behavior of
other people
1. We tend to overestimate the effects of
internal factors; e.g. sales dropped recently my sales agents are just lazy
2. We tend to underestimate the effects of the
external factors; sales dropped recently – it
cannot be the innovative product introduced
by the competitor
Most important finding: fundamental
attribution error
While making judgments about our own
behavior
1. We tend to attribute our own success to
internal factors; e.g. ability, effort
2. We tend to blame failure on the external
factors; e.g. bad luck, poor performance of
others
Fundamental attribution error:
cultural differences
• non-Western managers are less likely to use
self-serving bias: tend to assume responsibility
for failure
• Asian cultures: group-based attributions –
more likely to blame institutions or whole
organizations
• Western cultures – individuals should get
blame or praise
Shortcuts in judging others: selective
perception
Other
information
Other
information
Interests
Background
Experience
Attitudes
Shortcuts in judging others: halo
effect
We draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single
characteristic; here: appearance
Shortcuts in judging others: contrast
effect
Our reaction is influenced by other persons we have recently encountered; attention:
job interviews
Shortcuts in judging others: stereotyping
• Less difficult to deal with unmanageable number
of stimuli if we use heuristics
• Problem occurs when we generalize inaccurately
or too much
• We usually stereotype based on:
– Gender
– Age
– Race
– Religion
– Ethnicity
– Weight
Stereotypes operate emotionally and often below the
level of conscious awareness
Specific applications of shortcuts in
Organizations
1. Employment interview
– We form impressions of others within tenth of a
second: first glance
– Good applicant: absence of negative characteristics
2. Performance expectations
– Self-fulfilling prophecy: one’s behavior is determined
by others’ expectations
– Expectations become reality
3. Performance evaluations
– Depend on the perceptual process: subjective
– Some are luckily evaluated objectively: sales people