“Perception and Individual Decision Making”

“Perception”:
A process by which individuals organize
and interpret their sensory impressions
to give meaning to their environment.
Perception:
“A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory
impressions to give meaning to their environment”.
 Perception is shaped by three main factors:
the perceiver, the target, and the situation.

Target
Perceiver Situation (Context)
Our personal characteristics The features of what or who is
such as attitudes, personality, The setting, timing,
motives, interests, past being observed also shape
and environment also
experiences, and expectations perception.
influence perception.
influence how we see things.
People may perceive the same Novelty, similarity, background,
Example: A messy
situation differently because or group membership may lead
office may lead others
they interpret it through their to biases and stereotypes.
to assume the person
own mindset.
is careless, while team
Example: Attractive loan
norms may strongly
Example: A supervisor who is applicants are more likely to get
shape how members
an early riser may wrongly quick approvals; passionate
view each other’s
assume that employees who entrepreneurs are more likely
arrive early are more dedicated. performance.
to receive funding.
“Attribution Theory ”:
An attempt to explain the ways we judge people differently, depending on
the meaning we attribute to a behavior, such as determining whether an
individual’s behavior is internally or externally caused.

For example, you may think a customer stopped doing business with your company
because they are (1) disloyal to the company (e.g., internal), (2) cutting
expenditures due to hard financial times (e.g., external), or (3) not having a good
relationship with the new employee assigned to their account (e.g., relational).
Cause is internal (because of the person) or external (because of the situation).
This judgment depends on three factors:

[Link]
1. Does the person behave differently in different situations/difference in
behavior pattern across situations.
2. If yes → external cause (situation).
3. If no → internal cause (person).
4. Example: If an employee is late only once, it may be due to traffic
(external). If they are late often, it is likely their own fault (internal).
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1. Do others behave the same way in the same situation?
2. If yes → external cause.
3. If no → internal cause.
4. Example: If many employees are late due to heavy rain, it’s external. If only
one is late, it’s internal.
[Link]
1. Does the person behave the same way over time?
2. If yes → internal cause.
3. If no → external cause.
4. Example: If someone is late every day, it’s internal. If it happens rarely, it
may be external.
Concept Test 1:
Kim, generally performs at about the same level on related tasks as she does on her
current task , other employees frequently perform differently, better or worse than
Kim on that task and Kim’s performance on this current task is consistent over time.

Judge Kim’s work and identify the attribution (internal or external).

Answer:
Consensus: Low → Other employees perform differently (some better or worse than Kim)
Distinctiveness: Low → Kim performs at about the same level on related tasks
Consistency: High → Kim’s performance is consistent over time

When consensus is low, distinctiveness is low, and consistency is high, the cause is usually
attributed to internal factors.
Concept Test 2:
John, who is usually on time for work, has recently been coming in late. Many other
employees are also arriving late these days, but John is punctual in most other
situations, and this change in his timing has only occurred recently.

Judge John’s work and identify the attribution (internal or external).

Fundamental Attribution
Error:
“The tendency to
underestimate
the influence of external
factors and overestimate
the influence of internal
factors when making
judgments about the
behavior of others”.
 “Study Specific Applications of Shortcuts in
Organizations”
People in organizations are always judging each other.

Employment Interview

Research shows we form impressions of others within a tenth of a second, based on

Performance Expectations
People attempt to validate their perceptions of reality even when these are faulty.
The terms self-fulfilling prophecy and Pygmalion effect describe how an individual’s
behavior is determined by others’ expectations. If a manager expects big things from
her people, they’re not likely to let her down. Similarly, if she expects only minimal
performance, they’ll likely meet those low expectations. Expectations become reality
 “Study Specific Applications of Shortcuts in
Organizations”

Performance Evaluation

Although the appraisal can be objective (for example, a sales-person is appraised on how
many dollars of sales he generates in his territory), many jobs are evaluated in subjective
terms. Subjective evaluations, though often necessary, are problematic because all the
errors, we’ve discussed thus far selective perception, contrast effects, halo effects, and
so on affect them. Ironically, sometimes performance ratings say as much about the
evaluator as they do about the employee!