Understanding the perception and its role in successful management of organization

Understanding the Perception and Its
Role in Management of Organization
B P SINGH
Principal Scientist
Division of Extension Education
ICAR- Indian Veterinary Research Institute
Izatnagar-243 122
Email: bpsingh_ext@rediffmail.com

Humans DO NOT usually use bottom-
up processing during perception

Perception
“Perception refers to the interpretation of what we
take in through our senses. In terms of optical
illusions this means our eyes.”
Simply put, our brains are tricked into seeing
something which may or may not be real.

Perception
• Perception (from the Latin perceptio, percipio) is the
organization, identification and interpretation of
sensory information in order to represent and
understand the environment.
• All perception involves signals in the nervous system,
which in turn result from physical stimulation of the
sense organs.
• For example, vision involves light striking the retinas
of the eyes, smell is mediated by odor molecules and
hearing involves pressure waves.

WHAT IS PERCEPTION ?
• Perception Is The Process By Which People
Select, Organize, Interpret and Respond to
Information From The World Around Them.
• It may be described As a
Person’s View Of Reality.

Perception is the interpretation of sensory data by
the brain. Perception may, therefore, be defined as a
process by which sensory input is so interpreted as to
make it meaningful. It is the process of perception,
which makes it possible for us to see, feel, hear, taste
and smell things ( Ghorpade, 1977).
Sanford (1966)- Perception is a process whereby the
organism selects, organizes and interprets sensory
data available to it.
PERCEPTION

Kolassa (1977) defines perception as the
selection and organization of material which
stems from the outside environment at one
time or the other to provide the meaningful
entity we experience. There are two basic
elements in this definition:
1. perception is a process of selection or
screening which prevents us from
processing irrelevant or disruptive
information
2. there is organization implying that the
information which is processed has to be
ordered and classified in some logical
manner which permits us to assign meaning
to the stimulus situations.

Perception is a complex involves a complicated
interaction of selection, organization and
interpretation, feedback and reaction.
1. Perception initiates with the presence of stimulus
situation.
2.Registration/Organization involves the psychological
mechanism including both sensory and neural.
Psychological ability to hear and see determines his
perception.
3. Interpretation. An individual’s interpretation of a
stimulus situation is determined by his motivation,
personality and learning event data

4. Feedback is important for interpreting the
perceptual event data. In work settings, the
psychological feedback which is likely to
affect a subordinate’s perception, may be in
the form of a variation in the tone of voce of a
superior.
5. Perception ends in a reaction or response
which may be in the overt or covert form. As
a consequences of perception, an individual
is likely to work rapidly or slowly or form an
opinion in respect of some aspect in work
settings.

Basic Elements in the Perceptual Process
Environmental
Stimuli
Observation
* Taste * Smell
* Hearing * Sight
* Touch
Perceptual Selection
* External factors
* Internal factors
Interpretation
* Perceptual errors
* Attributions
Response
* Covert
* Overt
Perceptual
Organization
* Perceptual
grouping

FEATURES OF PERCEPTION
Sensory Experience: Perception is our sensory
experience of the world around us and involves both the
recognition of environment stimuli and actions in response to
these stimuli.
Subjective: Perception is a subjective process because
different people may look at the same event from different
angles and interpret the same in multifarious ways.
Filter: Perception serves like a filter through which
information passes before it has an effect on people.

Unique Interpretation: Perception is a unique
interpretation of the situation, not an exact
recording of it.
Seeing Things Differently: is an inevitable
outcome of perception. Because of individual
differences, perception vary among people
and differ from objective reality.
Basis of Human Behavior: There can be no
behavior without perception and perception
lies at the base of every individual behavior.

It is the most outstanding characteristics of
the perception. Every moment we are
affected by hundreds of stimuli from the
environment yet we are able to perceive
only few of these at a given moment.
On whatever object we focus our attention,
we perceive that object very clearly. At the
same time we are vaguely aware of other
objects which are fairly close to our focus.
Attention always divides our perceptual
field into focus and margin.
Selective Phenomena of
Perception:

Attention is always changing or shifting from
one object to another. Psychology have tried
to find out the factors that are responsible for
these shifts in attention, based on their
researches, these shifts may be caused by
two types of factors.
 Stimulus factor- such as the characteristics
of the stimulus itself.
 Subjective factors- which may be the
characteristics of perceiver or the attending
person.

Intensity and contrast:
The intensity of the stimulus is an important factor
determining what we shall attend to and hence
perceive. Flushing of light, blaring noise from the
loud speaker, intense change in temperature all
caught our attention. Contrast affects are also
attention getting eg., bright light in darkness, a tall
women dancing with short man etc. (gosthi)
STIMULUS FACTORS:

CONTRAST
The External Stimuli Which Stands Out Against
The Background Will Receive More Attention

The shades of red are identical
The difference in the appearance is related to the
influence of the backgrounds.
http://psycharts.com/opt_illus.html
Compare the shades of red…

Change and movement:
Things in change or movement tend to
attract attention. Stimulus change in
any direction will immediately attract
our attention. In a completely still field,
even a slight movement will capture
our attention. ( change in model, policy)

Any movement you see is an illusion!

A repetition of a stimulus is more likely to attract
our attention.
A Repeated Stimuli Is More Attention Drawing
Than a Single One
Eg. When an advertisement is repeated twice in
the same magazine it is more likely to be
noticed than when it appears only once or if we
call name of a person repeatedly he is likely to
hear us. However, if continued, untill it
becomes monotonous, the repeated stimulus
tends to be ignored. ( Advts of polio, AIDs)
Ex: Same Advertisement or Different
Advertisement But For The Same
Product Shown Again & Again.
Repetition:

An Animated Sign Attracts More
Attention Than a Billboard
Motion

Structure , pattern and size:
There is considerable experimental evidence to
show that natural groupings or patterns are
immediately perceived as organized whole. We
perceive objects in continuous arrangement.
Other things being equal, the larger of two
stimuli, will attract more attention.

New, Unfamiliar or Novel stimuli:
Other things being equal, our attention is
drawn to new, unfamiliar or novel things in
our environment. But what is new or novel
depends upon the perceivers past
experiences. (Talk on special issue by a
specific speaker)
A New And Unique Stimulus Will Often Be
perceived More Readily Than Those Observed On
A Regular Basis.
Ex: An Elephant Walking Along A City
Street Is Noticed Instantly.

Hermann Grid
he Hermann grid illusion is an optical
illusion reported by Ludimar Hermann in
1870.[1] The illusion is characterized by
"ghostlike" grey blobs perceived at the
intersections of a white (or light-colored) grid
on a black background. The grey blobs
disappear when looking directly at an
intersection
A grid illusion is any kind of grid that deceives a person's vision. The two most
common types of grid illusions are the Hermann grid illusion and the
scintillating grid illusion.
Grid Illusion

Scintillating Grid It is constructed by
superimposing white
discs on the
intersections of
orthogonal gray bars
on a black
background. Dark dots
seem to appear and
disappear rapidly at
random intersections,
hence the label
"scintillating". When a
person keeps his or
her eyes directly on
a single intersection,
the dark dot does not
appear. The dark
dots disappear if one
is too close to or too
far from the image.

The difference between the Hermann grid illusion and the
scintillating illusion :
is that scintillating illusions have dots already in place at the
intersection, whereas there are no dots already in place at
the intersections of Hermann grid illusions.
Since they are so similar, the two names are commonly
used interchangeably. But the scintillating illusion does not
occur with an isolated intersection, as in the case of the
Hermann grid; observations suggest that a minimum of 3 ×
3 evenly spaced intersections with superimposed discs are
required to produce the effect.
Difference between the Hermann grid
illusion and the scintillating illusion

Motive :
Our motive usually determine what things we should readily attend.
Many advertisement make skillful use of beautiful women which is
a strong motive and a person who is attracted by the picture will
also read the advertisement. Similarly a hungry man looks for a
restaurant.
Interest:
Almost any things in which we have developed an interest may serve
to draw our attention. As for example a botanist and a geologist
going down the same path in forest, will attend to entirely different
things on the way because of their different interest, the botanist
will look for specimen of plants, while the geologist for rocks and
stones. The direction of our attention is often provided by our
short term interests rather than long-term interest. If you are
preoccupied with a personal problem, you may find it hard to be
attentive in class.
SUBJECTIVE FACTORS

PERSONALITY
Personality Also Affects What Is To Be Perceived
Ex: A Person With Positive Self Concept Is Likely
To Notice Positive Attributes In Another Person.
The person who believes they can do something
is probably right....
And who believes they can’t do they can't.

VALUES AND BELEIFS
 Information is Remembered which is consistent
with our Values and Attitudes and rest is ignored
which is inconsistent with them.
 Ex: “In spite of all their mistakes, our employees
are doing the best they can”.

Perceptual Set
A mental predisposition to perceive one thing
and not another. What you see in the center
picture is influenced by flanking pictures.
Our attention is attracted by those things which we are
“ set” to receive. The term “ set” refers to specific
factors or process within the individual that
develops as to what he should attend.

The expectancy refers to our readiness to attend to same
things much more easily than to other things. Mental set
or expectancy given as edge to our attention. A set may
be perceptual or mental or may be introduced by verbal
instructions to attend to certain things and not to others.
Expectation can distort your perceptions in that you will
see what you expect to see. If you expect police officer
to be authoritative, young people to be ambitious,
personnel directors to “like people” you may perceive
them this way regardless of their actual traits.
Expectation

LEARNING
 Learning refers to any
relatively permanent
change in behavior
that occurs as a result
of experience.
 Learning plays a big
role in developing
one’s perception.
Turn Off The
The Engine

What one perceives is often
determined by suggestions.
Suggestion may be defined as the
uncritical acceptance of some
motion, ideas or meaning. Leading
question may be answered in the
way the questioner wishes.
Suggestion

• Just as interests narrow one’s focus, so do one’s
past experiences.
• You perceive those things to which you can
relate.
• However, in many instances, your past
experiences will act to nullify an object’s interest.
• Eg. You are more likely to notice a machine that
you have never observed before than a standards
typewriter that exactly like a thousand other you
have previously seen.
Past Experiences

Perceptual Organization Is The Process By
Which People Categorize According To Their
Frame Of Reference, based On Their Past
Learning And Experiences.
Following Principles Are Kept in Mind While
Organising the Information into a Meaningful
One. These are:
❖ Figure Ground
❖ Perceptual Grouping
ON THE BASIS OF TARGET or
Perceptual Organizing:

Figure-Ground Perception:
What we see is dependent on how we separate a figure from
its general background .
 What you see as you read this sentence is black letter on
white page. You do not see funny- shaped patched of black
and white because you recognize thee shapes and organize
the blue shapes against the white background . Figure
dramatizes this effect.

When you look at the figure you will see
either a vase or two faces. If you
continue to look, the figure will appear
to shift to the alternative organization

It is the Tendency to group several individual
stimuli into a meaningful and recognizable
pattern.
Some factors Underlying Grouping are
-Continuity
-Closure
-Proximity
-Similarity
PERCEPTUAL GROUPING

Proximity
Objects that are close to each other will tend to be perceived
together as a result of physical proximity or time proximity, we
often put together objects or events that are unrelated.
❖ Employees in a particular department are seen as a group. If, in a
department of four members, two suddenly resign, we tend to
assume that their departure were related when, in fact they may
be totally unrelated.
❖ Timing may also imply dependence when, for example, a new
sales manager is assigned to a territory and, soon after, sales in
that territory skyrocket. The assignment of a new sales manager
and the increase in sales may not be related- the increase may be
due to an introduction of a new products line or to one of many
other reasons- but there is a tendency to perceive the two
occurrences as related.

Similarity
 Persons, objects or events that are similar to each other
also tend to be grouped together.
 The greater the similarity, the greater the probability that
we will tend to perceive them as a common group.
 Women, black or any other group that has clearly
distinguishable characteristics in terms of feature or color
will tend to be perceived as alike in other, unrelated
character as well. ( all Sardar look alike)
“The greater the similarity of the stimuli,
the more they are likely to be perceived
as a common group”

• The tendency
to perceive a
broken figure
as being
complete or
whole
2. Closure

Situation
 The context in which we see objects or events is important
elements in the surrounding environment influence our
perception.
 For example, I may not notice a twenty-five –year old -
female in an evening gown and heavy makeup at a
nightclub on Saturday night.
 Yet the same women, so attired for my Monday morning
management class, would certainly catch my attention (
and that of the rest of the class).
 Neither the perceiver nor the target changed between
Saturday night and Monday morning, but the situation was
different.
 Similarity, you are more likely to notice your employees
goofing off if your boss from head office happens to be in
town.
 Again, the situation effects your perception.

Perceptual Constancy
• The perception of elements like size,
shape, color, brightness and location of an
object remains constant & does not change
from people to people.
• 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 Context
Context provides meaning and value to
objects, events, situation and other
people.
Different contexts convey different
meanings to people.

PERCEPTUAL INTERPRETATION
• After Selecting and Organizing the Stimuli
has to be Interpreted in order to make a
sensible meaning.
• Perceiver cant draw any meaning without
interpretation.
• Perceiver uses his Assumption of People,
Things, Object and Situation

COMMON PERCETUAL ERROR /
DISTORTIONS
Errors in Perceptual Judgement are called
Perceptual Judgement.
Following are Barriers To Perceptual
Accuracy:
Barriers to Perceptual Accuracy
• Stereotyping Halo effect
• Projection Expectancy Effect
• Primacy Effect:First impressions Recency Effect
• Perceptual Defense Attribution

Stereotyping
1. “Generalizing characteristics on the Basis of
Category or Class to which Person Belongs”.
2. The tendency to assign attributes to someone solely on the basis
of the category of people, of which that person is a member
Halo Effect
“Drawing a General Impression About an
Individual on the Basis of a Single
Characteristic”

Projection
1.“ Attribute One’s Own Characteristics to Other
People”
2. It is the tendency for people to see their own traits in
others
Expectancy Effect
 Expectancy Effects are the extent to which prior
expectations bias perceptions of events, objects and
people. Extent to which expectations bias how events, objects, and
people are actually perceived
 Self-fulfilling prophecy (Pygmalion effect): The lower or
higher performance of employees reflects preconceived
leader expectations about employee capabilities.
 Or expecting certain things to happen will shape the behavior of the
perceiver in such a way that the expected is more likely to happen

Primacy Effects: First Impressions
• The common adage that first impressions count is
technically known as the primacy effect.
• Generally, the first impression lasts longer unless
greatly contradicted by information received later.
Recency Effect
A generally Accepted fact that if there
is a time lag between the first piece
of information and the last, then the
last piece of information carries more
weight. This is called Recency Effect.

Perceptual Defense
• Perceptual defense: the tendency for people to
protect themselves against ideas, objects, or
situations that are threatening.
• “Against those stimuli which clash with
their beliefs, values or culture.”
• “People attempt to avoid registering
those stimulus that conflict, threaten or
are unacceptable to them”

ATTRIBUTION THEORY
Attribution is a concept in social
psychology addressing the processes
by which individuals explain the
causes of behavior and events.
Fritz Heider, often described as
the "father of attribution theory”

How do we attach meaning to other's
behavior, or our own? This is called
attribution theory. For example,
someone is angry because they are
bad-tempered or because something
bad happened?
“Attribution theory deals with how the social
perceiver uses information to arrive at causal
explanations for events. It examines what
information is gathered and how it is
combined to form a causal judgment” (Fiske
& Taylor, 1991)

Example: Reason of low performance of employees and the Perception of
Manager of Unit: about this low performance
1.THROUGH SELECTIVE PERCEPTION -
The tendency to single out those aspects of a situation, person, or object
that are consistent with one’s needs, values, or attitudes.
Strongest impact is at the attention stage.
2. THE HALO EFFECT:
3.THROUGH THE CONTRAST EFFECTS: Occur when an individual is
compared to other people on the same characteristics on which the others
rank higher or lower. People must be aware of the impact of contrast effects
in many work settings
4. STEREOTYPING JUDGMENT
5. HOW AN EFFICIENT MANAGERS MAKE HIS JUDGMENT
8. Through Conceptual perspectives.-
9. Through Behavioral Decision Making Style–
10. HOWEVER MANAGERS TEND TO BE BIAS WHEN PERFORMING
JUDGMENT.
11. Confirmation bias-
Example: ATTRIBUTION THEORY

Attribution theory has been proposed to develop
explanations of how we judge people differently depending
on what meaning we attribute to a given behaviour.
Basically the theory suggests that when we observe an
individual’s behaviour, we attempt to determine whether it
was internally (under the person control) or externally
( caused , that may be the situation.
Behaviour
Internally
Caused
Externally
Caused
OR

Theory of Causal Attributions
Consistency
Does person usually
behave this way in
this situation?
Distinctiveness
Does person behave
differently in different
situations?
Consensus
Do others behave
similarly in this
situation?
No
Internal Attribution
(to person’s disposition)Yes
External Attribution
(to person’s situation)

Factors for Determining
Attribution
1.Distinctiveness: Shows different behaviors in
different situations
It Refers to how different the behavior that is observed is
from other behaviours the individual demonstrates.
Is the employee who arrives late today also the source of
complaints by co-workers for being a “ goofing”?
What we want to know is if this behaviour is unusual or not.
If it is, the observer is likely to give the behaviour an external
attribution. If this action is not unique, it will probably be
judged as internal.

Consensus: Response is the same as others to
same situation
If everyone who is faced with a similar situation responds in
the same way, we can say the behaviour shows
consensus.
Our late employee’s behaviour would meet this criterion if
all employees who took the same route to work were also
late.
From an attribution perspective, if consensus is high you
would be expected to give an external attribution to the
employee tardiness; whereas if other employees who
took the same route made it to work on time, your
conclusion as to causation would be internal.

Consistency: Responds in the same way across
time
Finally, an observer looks for consistency in a person’s
actions.
Does the person respond the same way over time?
Coming in ten minutes late for work is not perceived in the
same way if for one employee it represent an unusual case
(she has not been late for several months), while for
another it is part of a routine pattern ( she is regularly late
two or three times a week).
The more consistent the behaviour, the more the observer is
inclined to attribute to it internal causes.

All similar behaviour are not perceived similarly in an organization.
We look at actions of communicator and judge them within their situational
context.
Eg. If you have a reputation as a good student yet blow on test in a course, the
instructor is more likely to disregard the poor exam. Why? He or she will attribute
the cause of this unusual performances to external conditions.
It may not be your fault. But for the students who has a consistent record of being
a poor performer, it is unlikely the teacher will ignore the low test score.
Similarly, if everyone in class blew the test, the instructor may attribute the
outcome to external causes (may be the question were poorly written, the room
was too warm, students did not have the prerequisites).
Attribution theory becomes extremely relevant when we consider how people
judge others. This theory is important because an individual’s interpretation of
action will contribute to his or her behavioural responses to those actions and
form a basis for the prediction of future events. We look for meaning in the
behaviour of others.

Frequent Attribution Errors
• Fundamental Attribution Error = overestimating the
personal causes for other’s behavior while underestimating the
situational causes
• Self-Serving Bias = attributing personal success to internal
factors and personal failure to external factors

85
➢ Techniques for effectively managing perceptions
and attributions.
– Be self-aware.
– Seek a wide range of differing information.
– Try to see a situation as others would.
– Be aware of different kinds of schemes.
– Be aware of perceptual distortions.
– Be aware of self and impression management.
– Be aware of attribution theory implications.

Role of Perception in
Decision Making Process
 The perception of a situation is central to the
decision making process.
 To make effective decisions a manager must not
only perceive but understand other people.
 The individual decision makers perceptual
process will have a large bearing on the final
outcome.

Perception in Decision-making is
based on a person’s internal
understanding of reality rather than
reality itself.
CONCLUSION

“ If
everyone perceived everything
the same way,things would be a
lot simpler

Understanding the perception and its role in successful management of organization

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