ORGANIZATIONAL

PSYCHOLOGY ​1

MODULE 2

PERCEPO
N
Perception: Definition and nature, Factors influencing perception,
Attribution-Theories, Impression formation & Impression management

OBJECTIVE

This module is designed to help

you:

• Understand the concept and process of

perception
• Explore how perception influences
behaviour
• Understand the common perceptual errors and how they can be
reduced
• Explain the process of social
attribution
• Explore the errors of attribution

Perception: Do You See Something in the Middle of the Square? Is

this Real?
 Source: “The Autumn color swamp”. http://www.psy.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/ACswampe.html.
Copyright A.Kitaoka 2000, (c) Akiyoshi Kitaoka “Trick eyes” Tokyo: KANZEN 2002

How individuals perceive different things, situations and people around them and even
themselves, is studied by different disciplines including psychology, sociology, even philosophy.
Organisational studies and management are the relatively recent entries to the phenomenon.
Before we move towards a deeper understanding of the term perception, let us see how it
affects different aspects of organisational outcomes:

• When systems undergo transition, uncertainty and confusion are

created.
• When this transition occurs within organisations, the employees decide whether to support it
or resist it on the basis of their perceptions of ‘what is in it for me’

Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt

Mithun Kumar
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY ​2

• When people in charge of designing an organisation work together, perception plays a crucial
role. The way they select, organise, interrelate and interpret different pieces of information about
their environment will affect important, lasting and costly choices they make about their
organisation which is being born. This perception might be different from the objective reality.
That is why ‘Perception’ is considered one of the theoretical bases for Organisation Theory.
• Customers perceive higher quality of service when the employee work attitudes are positive in
that organisation. Customers tend to be more satisfied when the employees serving them
perceive manageable workload, lower stress, and opportunities for training and development.
• Employee attitudes such as organisational commitment and turnover intentions are influenced
by perceptions.
• Employees who perceive that the reward system in their organisation is fair may be more
committed to the organisation and may show less intention to quit8. Employees who perceive
higher organisational support are more likely to be more engaged in their job and in the
organisation.
• Potential employees make joining decisions based on their perceptions of the value that the
organisation places on them. This finding is relevant where qualified employees are scarce.
• When the interview and experiential data about a candidate is insufficient or too voluminous,
varied or contradictory, managers use their own perception and attribution about a candidate or a
subordinate in deciding important matters such as recruitment and selection, promotion,
appointments and assignments.

We will discuss employee attitudes and motivation in detail in the chapters that follow, but when
we go through the above findings, it is not very difficult to realize that perception plays an
important part in determining behaviour and its consequences are important for organisations at
various levels.

INTRODUCTI
ON

The psychological processes that allow an individual to adjust his behaviour is called
perception. The behaviour of an individual is influenced by his personality, motives and efforts.
The behaviour and performance provides satisfaction to the employee who gets stimulated to
work more and develop his personality and work quality. Behaviour is a victim of the
environment, which is observed in the form of stimuli. The sensory organs perceive the stimuli
as per their learning and personality. The reverse functions are also correct. Perception, if
modified through adequate and qualitative stimuli, helps to develop learning and personality.
Improved behaviour has better performance and rewards which provide more satisfaction to the
employees. A satisfied employee tries to learn and work effectively. An organization grows with
the developed employees. Perception is therefore an important and initial step for developing
an organizational behaviour. It is a cognitive process which selects, organises and interprets the
stimuli. It paves the base for behaviour. Although perception may not be a real-world
presentation, it is an imaginary understanding of the situation. The behaviour of an individual is
guided by perception. People perceive differently as per their learning and personality.
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
Mithun Kumar
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
Mithun Kumar
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY ​3

The perceptual world of a manager is different from the perceptual world of employees. Social
factors also influence the perception process. Employees coming from a poor family have
different perceptions of an organization from those coming from rich families. The levels of
education, family background and political situation have a direct impact on the perception level.

DEFINITI
ON

Perception may be defined

as

“A cognitive process by which people attend to incoming stimuli, organise and interpret such
stimuli into behaviour.” Perception can also be defined as “a process by which individuals
organise and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.”

The environment is a stimulus to influence behaviour, because the stimuli are attended,
organised and interpreted to arrive at certain forms of behaviour. The sensory organs, i.e. eyes,
nose, ears, skin and tongue, are used to change the stimuli into behaviour through their
attention, recognition and interpretation processes. The information or stimuli are not accepted
by individuals unless they are evaluated and interpreted by the mental processing system.
Individuals attend to the stimuli, recognise and translate them into meaningful information,
which inspire them to act and perform the job. These processes are known as perpetual
process. When employees get satisfaction through their performance, either by meeting their
physical or mental needs, they perceive the organization in the right perspective. It helps them
understand the functions and achieve satisfaction.

SENSATION: THE MOST BASIC

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESS

We have five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Everything we know about the world
around us comes through those five senses. It is easy to fall under the impression that the mind
is an open window to the world around it. In fact, the sensory information that our minds receive
undergoes a significant degree of processing before it resembles the world as we know it. The
sensory information for sight consists of light particles that travel in waves. Once those light
waves reach our eyes, the information contained in the waves is transformed into electrical
signals carried by the nervous system, a process called transduction. All sensory information is
transduced into electrical signals, the language of the brain. For this reason, the process of
sensation can be defined as the act of receiving physical information from the environment and
the initial transformation of that information into the nervous system. Once sensory information
is transduced into the electrical signals of the nervous system, the perceptual system works to
interpret the sensory information. Perception is the process of identifying and understanding
sensory information. For example, have you ever heard an odd buzzing sound only to realize a
few seconds later that it is the hum of a bee? That is your perceptual system making sense of
the sensory information it is receiving. Most of the time, it works lightning fast; however,
because the sensory information we take in is in such an elementary form, our perceptual
systems have to do a lot of translating work, and every once-in-a-while, we experience a sort of
perceptual hiccup Everyday different stimuli around us will be stimulating our sense organs.
Many of these stimuli are received by our sense organs and are converted in to sensations.
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
 Mithun Kumar
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY ​4

These sensations are transmitted to the concerned parts of brain. In turn the brain will interpret
these sensations. It is only after such interpretation we understand what the stimulus is. Hence
in understanding the world around us, attention occurs first, followed by sensation and finally
interpretation by brain. This process of ‘interpretation of stimulus is known as perception’. So
perception involves two processes: sensation interpretation. But interpretation of any stimulus
requires past experience also. For example, a child who has not seen an elephant earlier either
in photo or directly cannot identify that animal, whereas another child who has seen earlier will
identify the animal easily. Hence, perception may be defined as “a process of interpretation of a
present stimulus on the basis of past experience”. Stephen P. Robbins defines perception as” a
process by which individuals organise and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give
meaning to their environment.” According to B.Von Haller Glimer, “Perception is a process of
becoming aware of situations of adding meaningful associations to sensations “

Perception is not as simple as said here. It is an integrated approach. It is a synthetic process

where different physiological and psychological processes are involved. For example, the
accuracy of sense organs, clarity of sensations, mental set of an individual, etc. Otherwise our
perception may go wrong. In short, ​perception is a process of receiving, selecting,
organising, interpreting and reacting to sensory stimuli or data.
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY ​5

IMPORTANCE OF
PERCEPTION

Perception is a subjective, active and creative process through which we assign meaning to
sensory information to understand ourselves and others. It can be defined as our recognition
and interpretation of sensory information. It also includes how we respond to the information. It
is the process by which an organism detects and interprets information from the external world
by means of the sensory receptors. It is our sensory experience of the world around us and
involves both the recognition of environmental stimuli and actions in response to these stimuli.
Through the perceptual process, we gain information about the properties and elements of the
environment that are critical to our survival.

Perception not only creates our experience of the world around us; it allows us to act within our
environment.

1. Perception is very important in understanding human behavior because every person perceives
the world and approaches life problems differently. Whatever we see or feel is not necessarily the
same as it really is. When we buy something, it is not because it is the best, but because we take it
to be the best.

2. If people behave on the basis of their perception, we can predict their behavior in the changed
circumstances by understanding their present perception of the environment. One person may be
viewing the facts in one way which may be different from the facts as seen by another viewer.

3. With the help of perception, the needs of various people can be determined, because people’s
perception
is influenced by their
needs.

4. Perception is very important for the manager who wants to avoid making errors when dealing
with people and events in the work setting. This problem is made more complicated by the fact that
different people perceive the same situation differently. In order to deal with the subordinates
effectively, the managers must understand their perceptions properly.

5. Perception can be important because it offers more than objective output; it ingests an
observation and
manufactures an altered reality enriched with previous
experiences.

6. Perception builds character (not necessarily good or bad character) that defines different roles
individuals
fall into the clown, the hypocrite, the self-righteous, the
victim, etc.

7. It is vitally important if we want to get along with others to try to see things from their perspective
or walk in their shoes for a while. If we walk in their shoes we will gain a new perspective about
things and in that understand the other and also can love and help the other more appropriately.

Thus, for understanding human behavior, it is very important to understand their perception,
that is, how they perceive the different situations. People’s behavior is based on their
perceptions of what reality is, not on reality itself. The world as it is perceived is the world that is
important for understanding human behavior.
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
Mithun Kumar
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
Mithun Kumar
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY ​6

PERCEPTION AND
SENSATION

There is a distinction between sensation and perception. Sensation is the response of a

physical sensory organ. The physical senses are vision, hearing, tough, smell and taste. These
senses are bombarded by stimuli and reactions in particular sense organ take place because of
these, e.g., of sensation may be reaction of eye to colour, ear to sound and so on. Sensation
percedes perception. Perception is much more than sensation. Perception depends upon the
sensory raw data. The perceptual process adds to or/and subtracts from the sensory world.
Perception is determined by both physiological and psychological characteristics, of the
organism. However, sensation only activates the organs of the body and is not affected by such
psychological factors as learning and motives. Activation of eyes to see an object is sensation
and the inference what is being seen is perception. For managerial action, it is the latter which
is important.

PERCEPTUAL
PROCESS

Perception is a process of receiving, selecting, organizing, interpreting, checking and reacting

to stimuli. This is like an input-through put-output process in which the stimuli can be
considered as 'inputs' transformation of 'input' through selection, organization and interpretation
as 'through puts' and the ultimate behaviour/action as 'output'. The whole perceptional process
can be presented as follows: These are explained one by one
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
Mithun Kumar
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY ​7

1. Receiving Stimuli: ​The first process in the perception is the presence of stimuli. The stimuli
are received from the various sources. Through the five organs. It is a physiological aspect of
perception process. Stimuli may be external to us (such as sound waves) and inside us (such
as energy generation by muscles).

2. Selection of Stimuli: ​After receiving the stimuli or data, some are selected. Others are
screened out. Two types of factors affect selection of stimuli for processing: external and
internal factors. External factors relate to stimuli such as intensity of stimuli, its size, movement,
repetition, etc. Internal factors, relate to the perceiver such as his/her age, learning, interest,
etc. Normally, he will select the objects which interest him and will avoid that for which he is
indifferent. This is also called 'selective perception'.

A. External factors: ​Perception is a selective process. As we cannot assimilate all of the

information coming in, we select a certain amount of information from the total outside
information some of the factors are

• ​Colour and contrast: ​Although a color print or television generally captures greater
attention than one in black and white, it loses impact when seen in the context of other color
advertisements. The principle of contrast suggests that, in a full-color context, a black and
white advertisement is more likely to be noticed. Color perception involves subjective
judgments. While fluorescent colors may gain attention, they may also cause irritation.
Some products seem to have very limited ranges of acceptable color. Our perception of
body cleanliness traditionally demands white or pastel color, although new soap products in
brown and green are gaining acceptance today. Shampoos, on the other hand, have always
come in deep and varied colors. Size large sizes tend to attract greater attention than small,
but the ratio of size increase to attention gained is not a simple one. The larger an object is,
the greater any enlargement must be to be perceived. The amount of size increase needed
for its perception is proportionately related to the initial size of the stimulus.
• ​Intensity: ​Intensity has to do with the strength of a stimulus, for example, the loudness of
sounds or brightness of colors. More attention is usually gained as intensity increases. As
with size, however, doubling the intensity of a stimulus does not double the attention given
to it. There is only a fractional increase in attention.
• ​Position ​is one of the most interesting determinants of sensory perception. When a written
language runs left to right down the page, as English does, the upper half of a page gets
more attention than the lower half, the left-hand side more than the right. However,
languages with different movement such as Arabic or Japanese, give perceptual emphasis
to other portions of page. Isolation centering a small object in a virtually blank page draws
the eye to it immediately. One television advertisement for an antacid began with a tiny
rotating white sphere in a dark space – a dramatic use of the isolation principle.
• ​Movement: ​A moving object receives great attention than an object that is - 66 - standing
still. Advertisers affectively use the principle of “movement” by displaying an object which
incorporates moving ports eg roving billboards.”
• ​Repetition: ​- Repetition of stimuli increases sensitivity & alertness to the object. A stimulus
that is repeated has a better chance of catching us during one of the periods when our
attention to task is waning, Advertisers most frequently use repetition principal by flashing
the same advertisers again and again” on a regular basis catch the attention of prospective
customers. This principle is also referred to as the principle of frequency.
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
Mithun Kumar
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY ​8

• ​Familiarity & novelty: ​This states that if a stimulus in the one that is either familiar or
novel to the perceiver it can serve as a battle attention getter. New objects in a familiar
situation or familiar objects in a new setting are bound to draw more attention to the
perceiver.

B. Internal
Factors:

These are basically related to the psychological make-up of an individual and

include

• ​Personality: ​The Personality of an individual is an internal factor which greatly influences

the perceived behavior. Optimistic people perceive things in favorable terms while
pessimistic people perceive in negative terms. Maslow argues that between these two
extremes there exists a category of people who can see things more objectively and
accurately. Levitt reported on a senior executive whose biggest problem with young
managers was their tendency to avoid making unpleasant decisions. The young managers
paid no heed to disciplining people, to digging through boring and repetitive records, or to
writing unpleasant letters. Obviously, the reason was that these unpleasant activities were
not compatible with the personalities of those young managers, rather than those older
executives because their personality make-up had made them accustomed, over the years.
Similarly, a person who has a pleasant personality can strike a better sales deal. Research
on the effects of an individual personality on perception has revealed interesting facts. –

✓ Self-accepting individuals perceive themselves as liked, wanted and accepted by

others. ✓ Secure individuals tend to perceive others as warm rather than cold. ✓
Persons who accept themselves and have faith in their individuality perceive things
more
favourably than others. ✓ Thoughtful individuals do not expose themselves by
expressing extreme judgments of others.

• ​Learning: ​Learning is another psychological cognitive factor which have its bearing on
perception and probably plays the biggest role in developing perceptual set.
• ​Motivation: ​Our needs play a significant role in perceptual selectivity unreal things
often look real because of deprived needs.

3. Perceptional Organization: ​Organization is the stage in the perception process in which we

mentally arrange stimuli into meaningful and comprehensible patterns. After the brain has
decided which of the millions of stimuli it will attend to, it needs to organize the information that
it has taken in. Organization is the process by which we mentally arrange the information we’ve
just attended to in order to make sense of it; we turn it into meaningful and digestible patterns.
Below is a discussion of some of the different ways we organize stimuli.

• ​Gestalt Laws of Grouping: ​The Gestalt laws of grouping is a set of principles in

psychology first proposed by Gestalt psychologists to explain how humans naturally
perceive stimuli as organized patterns and objects. Gestalt psychology tries to understand
the laws of our ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions in an apparently
chaotic world. The central principle of Gestalt psychology is that the mind forms a global
whole with self-organizing tendencies. The gestalt effect is the capability of our brain to
generate whole forms, particularly with respect to the visual recognition of global figures,
instead of just collections of simpler and unrelated elements.
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
Mithun Kumar
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY ​9

Essentially, gestalt psychology says that our brain groups elements together whenever
possible instead of keeping them as separate elements.

A few of these laws of grouping include the laws of proximity, similarity, continuity and closure
and the figure-ground law.

• ​The Law of
Proximity

This law posits that when we perceive a collection of objects we will perceptually group together
objects that are physically close to each other. This allows for the grouping together of elements
into larger sets, and reduces the need to process a larger number of smaller stimuli. For this
reason, people tend to see clusters of dots on a page instead of a large number of individual
dots. The brain groups together the elements instead of processing a large number of smaller
stimuli, allowing us to understand and conceptualize information more quickly.

Gestalt law of proximity: Because of the law of proximity, people tend to see clusters of dots on
a page instead of a large number of individual dots.

The Law of
Similarity

This law states that people will perceive similar elements will be perceptually grouped together.
This allows us to distinguish between adjacent and overlapping objects based on their visual
texture and resemblance.
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
 Mithun Kumar
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY ​10 ​The law of closure

According to the law of closure, things are grouped together if they seem to complete some
entity. Our brains often ignore contradictory information and fill in gaps in information. In the
image above, you probably see the shapes of a circle and rectangle because your brain fills in
the missing gaps in order to create a meaningful image.

The Figure-Ground
Law

A visual field can be separated into two distinct regions: the figures (prominent objects) and the
ground (the objects that recede into the background. Many optical illusions play on this
perceptual tendency.

Constan
cy

Perceptual constancy, also called object constancy, or constancy phenomenon, the tendency of
animals and humans to see familiar objects as having standard shape, size, colour, or location
regardless of changes in the angle of perspective, distance, or lighting.

In the below image, the door casts an increasingly trapezoidal image on our retinas as it opens,
yet we still perceive it as rectangular.
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY

4. Interpretation​: After we have attended to a stimulus, and our brains have received and
organized the information, we interpret it in a way that makes sense using our existing information
about the world Interpretation simply means that we take the information that we have sensed and
organized and turn it into something that we can categorize. By putting different stimuli into
categories, we can better understand and react to the world around us. Perception of others
involves sensing, organizing, and interpreting information about people, and what they say and
do. The sensation is a main characteristic of perception as it relates to outside input. In the
perceptual process, firstly the perceiver should select what will be perceived. Then, the
organization takes place when listeners identify the type of sound and compare it to other sounds
heard in the past.

Interpretation and categorization are generally the most subjective areas of perception, as they
involve decisions about whether listeners like what they hear and want to keep listening. We
make immediate evaluations that cause automatic judgments of positive and negative reactions
toward others, which occur outside of our awareness. The selection, organization, and
interpretation of perceptions can differ among different people. On the basis of these, the
perceptual output that means, values, attitudes, behavior, etc. of the perceiver may differ.
Therefore, when people react differently in a situation, part of their behavior can be explained
by examining their perceptual process, and how their perceptions are leading to their
responses.

BIASES AFFECTING PERCEPTUAL

INTERPRETATION

1. Perceptual Set: Previously held beliefs about objects influence an individual’s

perceptions of
similar objects. 2. Stereotyping: It is the tendency of judging someone on the basis of our
perception of the
group to which he or she belongs. 3. Halo/Horn effect: It refers to the tendency of
perceiving people in terms of good or bad and
assigning all good qualities to one who is good and bad qualities to one who is bad. 4.
Projection: People project their own feelings, tendencies or motives into their judgment of
others. People tend to see in other person traits that they themselves possess. This
tendency to attribute one’s own characteristics to other people is called projection. 5.
Similarity error: This can happen when a manager rates a subordinate based on the
qualities
and characteristics possessed or not possessed by himself. 6. Contrast error: In this the
manager rates an employee based on comparison with other
employees and not with a previously set benchmark performance. 7. Initial Impression:
This again is a faulty perception when an individual’s first impression on
others forms an opinion about him irrespective of his later behavior or performance. 8.
Recency Effect: Here the supervisor rates the subordinates based on the recent
performance
 (Good or Bad) rather than considering the whole performance period. 9. Central
Tendency: Here the rater evaluates all the employees in the middle of the rating scale,
giving them an average score, to avoid taking responsibility of very high or very low score
10. Selective Perception: Employees tend to perceive things which they would want to
perceive,
though there are varied stimuli in the environment. 11. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: It is the
tendency to deny personal responsibility for performance

problems but to accept personal responsibility for performance success. ​ORGANIZATIONAL

PSYCHOLOGY
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
Mithun Kumar
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
Mithun Kumar
5. Behaviour: ​The perceived outputs are reflected in terms of behaviour of an individual, the
perceivers behaviour, in turn generate responses from the perceived & these again give rise to
a new set of inputs. Thereby the outputs becomes inputs & the process continues.

FACTORS INFLUENCING PERCEPTION IN ORGANIZATIONAL

BEHAVIOUR

A number of factors operate to shape and sometimes distort perception. These

factors are

• In the perceiver
• In the object or target being perceived
or
• In the context of the situation in which the perception is
made.

A. The Perceiver and his

characteristics

• Needs & motives

• Self-concept
• Past experience
• Current psychological
state
• Beliefs and expectations
• Situation
• Cultural upbringing
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
Mithun Kumar
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY ​11

B. The target or the perceived and its

characteristics

Characteristics in the target that is being observed can affect what is perceived. Physical
appearance plays a big role in our perception of others. Extremely attractive or unattractive
individuals are more likely to be noticed in a group than ordinary liking individuals. Motion,
sound, size and other attributes of a target shape the way we see it. Physical appearance plays
a big role in our perception of others. The perceiver will notice the target's physical features like
height, weight, estimated age, race and gender.

Perceivers tend to notice physical appearance characteristics that contrast with the norm, that
are intense, or that are new or unusual. Physical attractiveness often colourour entire
impression of another person. Interviewers rate attractive candidates more favourably and
attractive candidates are awarded higher starting salaries. Verbal communication from targets
also affects our perception of them. We listen to the topics they speak about, their voice tone,
and their accent and make judgements based on this input. Non-verbal communication conveys
a great deal of information about the target. The perceiver deciphers eye contact, facial
expressions, body movements, and posture all in an attempt to form an impression of the
target.

The perceiver, who observes the target's behaviour, infers the intentions of the
target.

For example, if our manager comes to our office door way, we think "oh no! He is going to give
me more work to do". Or we may perceive that his intention is to congratulate us on a recent
success. In any case, the perceiver's interpretation of the target's intentions affects the way the
perceiver views the target. Targets are not looked at in isolation, the relationship of a target to
its background influences perception because of our tendency to group close things and similar
things together. Objects that are close to each other will tend to be perceived together rather
than separately. As a result of physical or time proximity, we often put together objects or
events that are unrelated. For examples, employees in a particular department are seen as a
group. If two employees of a department suddenly resign, we tend to assume their departures
were related when in fact, they might be totally unrelated. People, objects or events that are
similar to each other also tend to be grouped together. The greater the similarity, the greater the
probability we will tend to perceive them as a group.

C. The
 situation

The situation in which the interaction between the perceiver and the target takes place has an
influence on the perceiver's impression of the target. For example, a person may not notice her
colleague in a casual wear at the movies. Yet she will notice the same colleague if she comes
to the office in a casual wear. In the same way, meeting a manager in his or her office affects
your impression in a certain way that may contrast with the impression you would form had you
met the manager in a restaurant.

The strength of the situational cues also affects social perception. Some situations provide
strong cues as to appropriate behaviour. In these situations, we assume that the individual's
behaviour can be accounted for by the situation, and that it may not reflect the individual's
disposition. This is the discounting principle in social perception. For example, you may
encounter an automobile sales person who has a warm and personable manner, asks you
about your work and hobbies, and seems genuinely interested in your taste in cars. Can you
assume that this behaviour reflects the sales person's personality? You probably cannot,
because of the influence of the situation. This person is trying to sell you a car, and in this
particular situation he probably treats all customers in this manner.
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
Mithun Kumar
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY ​12

ATTRIBUTIO
NS

A major influence on how people behave is the way they interpret the events around them.
People who feel they have control over what happens to them are more likely to accept
responsibility for their actions than those who feel control of events is out of their hands. The
cognitive process by which people interpret the reasons or causes for their behavior is
described by attribution theory. Specifically, “attribution theory concerns the process by which
an individual interprets events as being caused by a particular part of a relatively stable
environment.” Attribution theory is based largely on the work of Fritz Heider. Heider argues that
behavior is determined by a combination of internal forces (e.g., abilities or effort) and external
forces (e.g., task difficulty or luck). Following the cognitive approach of Lewin and Tolman, he
emphasizes that it is perceived determinants, rather than actual ones, that influence behavior.
Hence, if employees perceive that their success is a function of their own abilities and efforts,
they can be expected to behave differently than they would if they believed job success was
due to chance. ​13

Internal and External Causes of

Behavior

Building upon the work of Heider, Harold Kelley attempted to identify the major antecedents of
internal and external attributions. He examined how people determine—or, rather, how they
actually perceive— whether the behavior of another person results from internal or external
causes. Internal causes include ability and effort, whereas external causes include luck and
task ease or difficulty. Kelley’s conclusion, illustrated is that people actually focus on three
factors when making causal attributions:
1. ​Consensus. The extent to which you believe that the person being observed is behaving
in a manner that is consistent with the behavior of his or her peers. High consensus exists
when the person’s actions reflect or are similar to the actions of the group; low consensus
exists when the person’s actions do not.
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
Mithun Kumar
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY ​14

2. ​Consistency. The extent to which you believe that the person being observed behaves
consistently—in a similar fashion—when confronted on other occasions with the same or
similar situations. High consistency exists when the person repeatedly acts in the same way
when faced with similar stimuli. 3​ . ​Distinctiveness. The extent to which you believe that the
person being observed would behave consistently when faced with different situations. Low
distinctiveness exists when the person acts in a similar manner in response to different
stimuli; high distinctiveness exists when the person varies his or her response to different
situations.

IMPORTANCE OF PERCEPTION FOR AN

ORGANIZATION

• Employees behave based on the perception of reality, not by reality

itself.

• Helps us to adapt to complex and dynamic work situation by perceptual constancy. (Size, shape
and brightness constancy)

• Perception is used in advertising to draw attention of prospective customers, hoardings of

advertisements are made keeping in mind the principles of shape, size and brightness so that
they catch the attention of prospective buyers.

• Perception is used in ensuring safety. Perception principles are used while making messages of
warning.

• Managing performance. It is understood that people start behaving the way you expect them to
behave. Expectation becomes reality.

• Building relationships, positive perception forges good relationship among team

members.

• Impression management. If a positive impression is created during an interview, candidate is

perceived to be a suitable candidate.
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
Mithun Kumar
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY ​15

IMPRESSION
MANAGEMENT

We know that people have an ongoing interest in how others perceive and
evaluate them.

For example, North Americans spend billions of dollars on diets, health club memberships,
cosmetics, and plastic surgery – all intended to make them more attractive to others. Being
perceived positively by others should have benefits for people in the organization. It might, for
instance, help them initially to get the jobs they want in an organization and, once hired, to get
favorable evaluations, superior salary increases, and more rapid promotions. In a political
context, it might help sway the distribution of advantages in their favor. The process by which
individuals attempt to control the impression others form of them is called impression
management. It’s a subject that has gained the attention of OB researchers only recently.

Keep in mind that Impression Management does not imply that impressions people convey are
necessarily false. Excuses may be offered with sincerity. But misrepresentation can have a high
cost. If the image claimed is false, you may be discredited.

Impression Management Techniques

are;

• Conformity.
• Excuses.
• Apologies.
• Self-promotion.
• Flattery.
• Favors.
• Association.

The following table provides some examples of Impression Management

Techniques;

Conformity Agreeing with someone else’s opinion in order to gain his or her
approval.

Example: A manager tells his boss, “You are absolutely right on your reorganization
plan for the western regional office. I couldn’t agree with you more.
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
 Mithun Kumar
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY ​16

Excuses Explanations of a predicament-creating event aimed at minimizing the apparent severity

of the
predicamen
t.

Examples: Sales manager to the boss, “we failed to get the ad in the paper on time,
but no one responds to those ads anyway.”

Apologies Admitting responsibility for an undesirable event and simultaneously seeking to get a
pardon for
the
action.

Example: Employee to the boss, “I’m sorry I made a mistake on the report. Please
forgive me.”

Self-
promotio Example: A salesperson tells his boss, “Matt w
n try to get the account. I sewed it up in six week
ualities, downplaying one’s deficits, and calling attention has”.

Flattery Complimenting others about their virtues in an effort to make oneself appear perceptive
and
likable
.

Example: New sales trainee to peer, “You handled that client’s complaint so
tactfully! I could never have handled that as well as you did.”

Favors Doing something nice for someone to gain that person’s

approval.

Example: Sales person to a prospective client, “I’ve got two tickets to the theatre
tonight that I can’t use. Take them. Consider it a thank–you for taking the time to talk
with me.”
Association Enhancing or protecting one’s image by managing information about people and
things with
which one is
associated.

Example: A job applicant says to an interviewer, “What a coincidence. Your boss

and I Were roommates in college.”

QUESTIO
NS

1. Define Perception. 2. What is

Figure-ground principle? 3. What
is perceptual constancy? 4. What
is perceptual defense? 5. What is
Stereotyping? 6. What is meant
by Halo effect?
Strictly for Private Circulation ​- ​Shruthi Bekal Nikitha Dutt
Mithun Kumar
ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY ​17

7. What is self- Presentation? 8. What is Attribution? 9. What is repetition? Give an

example? 10. What is perceptual grouping? 11. Explain the terms Closure and
continuity? 12. What is proximity? 13. What is perceptual set? 14. What is projection? 15.
What is similarity error? 16. What is contrast error? 17. Give an example of initial
impression error? 18. Mention any 2 importance of perception for an organization? 19.
Explain the process of perception. 20. What is impression management? Explain the
promotion enhancing and demotion prevention
strategies’ generally adapted by employees. 21. What is perception and what are the
factors related to the perceiver, the perceived and the
situation that influence perception. 22. Briefly, explain the attribution theory with examples?
23. Selection of stimuli depends on various internal and external factors. Explain them. 24.
Explain in detail the importance of correct perception for an organization. 25. What are the
biases affecting perception? Explain. 26. The way we see things affects how we deal with
it. Explain the perception process in the light of
the above statement. 27. Managing how people see you is important as it affects the way
they deal with you. Explain the
strategies people use to manage how others see them. 28. What is attribution? Explain
Kelly’s co-variation model of attribution. 29. What are the various 3 factors people take
into account when making attribution. Explain with
example
s.