CHAPTER 6
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The process through which people
receive, organize, and interpret
information from their environment.
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Perceptual information is gathered
from:
Sight
Hearing
Touch
Taste
Smell
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Individuals may look at the same thing
but perceive it differently.
How do we explain this fact?
A number of factors shape perception.
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Perceiver is a
person who If you expect police
becomes aware of officers to be
things through the authoritative, you may
senses. perceive him
authoritative no matter
how he behaves.
The time at which
we see an object
can influence our Characteristics of the
attention. target affect what we
perceive. You can
notice loud people
Perceived is the more than quiet ones.
target
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How we make judgements about
others is a topic of person perception.
The key is attribution theory.
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It suggests that when we observe an
individual’s behavior, we attempt to
determine whether it was internally or
externally caused.
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Internal attributes are under the
individual’s control.
External attributes are within the
person’s environment.
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If one of your employees is late for work,
You attribute that to his partying into
the wee hours and then oversleeping.
(Internal attribution)
You attribute lateness to an
automobile accident that tied up
traffic. (External attribution)
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Determination depends on three
factors:
1) distinctiveness
2) consensus Factors influencing
3) consistency attributions
After evaluating these determinants we decide that
the attribution is internally or externally caused.
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Distinctiveness — consistency of a person’s
behavior across situations.
Is the employee who arrives late today
also one who regularly “blows off” his
commitments?
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If distinctiveness among his behaviors is high…
In other words….
Maybe he is late today but in other times he is a
responsible and a good worker.
we are likely to give his behavior an external
attribution.
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High
External
Individual
Distinctiveness
Behavior
Internal
Low
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Consensus — likelihood of others responding
in a similar way.
If all employees who took the same route
were also late today. We can say that the
consensus is high because all the
employees are late today.
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If consensus is high, you would probably give an
external attribution to the employee’s lateness.
If other employers who took the same route
came to work on time, you would attribute his
lateness to an internal cause.
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High
External
Individual
Consensus
Behavior
Internal
Low
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Consistency — whether an individual responds
the same way across time.
Does the person respond the same way over
time?
Does he always late?
Does he late two or three times a week?
The more consistent the behavior, the more we
are inclined to attribute it to internal causes.
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High
Internal
Individual
Consistency
Behavior
External
Low
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As a manager you’re
questioning Kim’s
performance.
You’re not happy
with her performance
and wondering why
she is performing
poorly.
Kim Randolph
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Kim Randolph generally performs at about
the same level on related tasks as she does
on her current task (low distinctiveness),
Other employees frequently perform
differently than Kim on that task (low
consensus),
Kim’s performance on this current task is
consistent over time (high consistency),
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Anyone judging Kim’s work will likely hold
her primarily responsible for her task
performance (internal attribution).
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What we perceive is not always right.
We all interpret individuals or situations with
bias or errors.
1. SELF-SERVING BIAS
2. FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR
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The tendency for individuals to
attribute their own successes to
internal factors while putting the
blame for failures on external factors.
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A student gets a good grade on a test
and tells herself that she studied hard
or is good at the material.
She gets a bad grade on another test
and says the teacher doesn’t like her
or the test was unfair.
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Athletes win a game and attribute
their win to hard work and practice.
When they lose the following week,
they blame the loss on bad calls by
the referees.
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A job applicant believes he’s been
hired because of his achievements,
qualifications, and excellent interview.
For a previous opening he didn’t
receive an offer for, he says the
interviewer didn’t like him.
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The tendency to underestimate the
influence of external factors and
overestimate the influence of internal
factors when making judgements
about the behavior of others.
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When someone cuts us off while driving, we
immediately think the driver has no regard
for anyone on the road. We label the driver
as a bad person.
On the other hand, when we cut someone
off in traffic, we come up with excuses to
validate our actions.
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While we tend to judge the other driver’s
behavior to his personality, we tend to
blame the situational factors for our own
actions.
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Halo effect
Selective Sometimes we use
perception shortcuts in judging
others. They are
perceptual errors.
Contrast effects
Stereotyping
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Drawing a general impression about
an individual on the basis of a single
characteristic.
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Ahmet is a hardworking student in OB class.
If I assume that he is also good in other
classes, but he really isn’t
This is an example when I took the halo
effect shortcut.
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We cannot assimilate all that we observe,
we take in bits and pieces.
We select according to our interests,
background, experience and attitudes.
We filter what we see or hear.
e.g. We’re more likely to notice cars that we
like.
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Ahmet is hardworking, takes high grades,
listen to the lesson carefully, asks
questions…so I know him very well.
I may recognize him easily whenever I see
him.
When you feel hungry, you may easily notice
the logos of fast food restaurants.
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Contrasting between the decision item
and reference item to make a
comparison decision.
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I compare student «A» and student «B»
according to their analytical thinking abilities
and find student «A» much more analytical
than student «B». But If I compare him (student
«A») with student «C» maybe he is not as
analytical as student «C».
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Judging someone on the basis of
one’s perception of the group to
which that person belongs.
“Men aren’t interested in child care.”
“Older workers can’t learn new skills.”
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Central tendency
Recency effects
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You looked at the average results of your
team but didn’t realize that meant that some
did poorly and needed help, while others did
very well and should be praised.
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You recalled only the most recent piece of
information you received. You said to me that
you remembered that the best.
You remembered the last task I presented to
you the best, as it was the last one
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Individuals in organizations make
decisions, choices from among two or
more alternatives.
Thus individual decision making is an
important part of organizational
behavior.
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Individuals make decisions and the
quality of their choices are influenced
by their perceptions.
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Top managers determine their organization’s
goals,
what products or services to offer,
how best to finance operations,
where to locate a new manufacturing plant.
Middle and lower managers
set production schedules,
select new employees,
decide how to allocate pay raises.
Nonmanagerial employees
decide how much effort to put forth at work,
and whether to comply with a boss’s request.
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A decision-making model that describes
how individuals should behave in order
to maximize some outcome.
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STEP 1: Define the problem
STEP 2: Identify alternatives
STEP 3: Evaluate alternatives
STEP 4: Select the best alternative
STEP 5: Implement the chosen
alternative
STEP 6: Following up and evaluating the
results
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STEP 1: Define the problem
Decision making occurs as a reaction to a problem.
A plant manager sees that employee turnover
has increased by 5%.
STEP 2: Identify alternatives
We receive data from multiple sources to
process and interpret.
Increase wages, increase benefits, or change
hiring standards.
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STEP 3: Evaluate alternatives
We need to process and interpret the data.
Which data are relevant to the decision and
which are not?
Increasing benefits may not be feasible.
Increasing wages and changing hiring
standards may satisfy all conditions.
STEP 4: Select the best alternative
Changing hiring standards will take an
extended period of time to cut turnover, so
increase wages.
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STEP 5: Implement the chosen alternative
The plant manager may need permission from
corporate headquarters. The HR department
establishes a new wage structure.
STEP 6: Following up and evaluating the results
The plant manager notes that, six months later,
turnover dropped to its previous level.
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