What is Perception?

 A process by which individuals organize

and interpret their sensory impressions
in order to give meaning to their
environment.

Why Is it Important?
 Because people’s behavior is based on
their perception of what reality is, not
on reality itself.
 The world that is perceived is the world
that is behaviorally important.
The Perceiver

The Target

The Situation
 Factors
Factorsininthe
thePerceiver
Perceiver
••Attitudes
Attitudes
••Motives
Motives
••Interests
Interests
••Experience
Experience
••Expectations
Expectations

Factors
Factorsininthe
thesituation
situation
••Time
Time
••Work
Worksetting Perception
••Social
setting Perception
Socialsetting
setting

Factors
Factorsininthe
thetarget
target
••Novelty
Novelty
••Motion
Motion
••Sounds
Sounds
••Size
Size
••Background
Background
••Proximity
Proximity
Attribution Theory

Basically attempts to explain what

meaning we attribute to a given
behavior
 When individuals observe behavior,
they attempt to determine whether it is
internally or externally caused.

 This analysis is dependent on

Distinctiveness – diff. behavior diff.
situation
Consensus – All in same Situation –
same
behavior
Consistency - same behavior display over
time
Observation Interpretation Attribution
of cause

High
External
External
Distinctiveness
Distinctiveness Low
Internal
Internal
Individual

High
behavior

External
External
Consensus
Consensus Low
Internal
Internal

High
Internal
Internal
Consistency
Consistency
Low
External
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.

 Self-Serving Bias – The tendency

for individuals to attribute their
own successes to internal factors
while putting the blame for
failures on external factors.
 Selective Perception
 People selectively interpret what they see on
the basis of their interest, background,
experience, and attitudes.
 Halo Effect
 Drawing a general impression about an
individual on the basis of a single
characteristic.

 Contrast Effects
Evaluations of a person’s characteristics that are
affected by comparisons with other people
recently encountered who rank higher or lower on
the same characteristics.

 Projection - Attributing one’s own

characteristics to other people.

 Stereotyping
 Judging someone on the basis of one’s
perception of the group to which that person
belongs.
Interview

Performance expectation –
Pygmalion effect

Ethnic Profiling

Performance evaluation –
Recency effect
Define the Problem.
Identify the Decision
Criteria.
Allocate Weights to
the Criteria.
Develop the
Alternatives.
Evaluate the
Alternatives.
Select the Best
Alternative
 Problem Clarity-
 The problem is clear and unambiguous.
 Known Options-
 The decision-maker can identify all
relevant criteria and viable alternatives.
 Clear Preferences-
 Rationality assumes that the criteria and
alternatives can be ranked and weighted.
 Constant Preferences-
 Specific decision criteria are constant and
that the weights assigned to them are
stable over time.
 No Time or Cost Constraints-
 Full information is available because
there are no time or cost constraints.
 Maximum Payoff-
 The choice alternative will yield the
highest perceived value.
Fast Vs Slow

Risk Vs Risk Averse

Empirical Vs Intuitive

Rules Vs Rule Breaking

People Vs Things

Individual Vs Group effort

Bounded Rationality
Individuals make decisions
by constructing simplified
models that extract the
essential features from
problems without capturing
all their complexity.

Intuitive Decision
Making
An unconscious process
created out of detailed
experience
 Problems that are visible tend to have a
higher probability of being selected than
ones that are important. Why?

 It is easier to recognize visible problems.

 Decision-Makers want to appear

competent and “on-top of problems.”

 Decision-Makers self-interest affects

problem selection because it is usually in
the Decision-Maker’s best interest to
address problems of high visibility and
high payoff. This demonstrates an ability
to perceive and attack problems.
Decision makers rarely seek optimum
solutions but satisfying ones.
 Efforts made are simple and confined to
the familiar.
 Efforts are incremental rather than
comprehensive.
 Many successive limited comparisons
rather than calculating value for each
alternative.
 This approach makes it unnecessary for
the decision maker to thoroughly
examine an alternative and its
consequences.
 Thus the decision makers steps are small
and limited to comparisons of the current
or familiar options.
Many decision makers rely on
heuristics or judgmental shortcuts
in decision making. There are two
common categories of heuristics --
 Availability Heuristic --or the
tendency of people to base their
judgments on information readily
available to them.
 Representative Heuristic -- The
tendency to assess the likelihood of an
occurrence by trying to match it with a
preexisting category.
 Escalation of Commitment --an
increased commitment to a previous
decision in spite of negative
information, all too often creeps into
decision making
Research on decision styles has
identified four different
individual approaches to
making decisions.
 Directive Style -- people using this
style have a low tolerance for
ambiguity and seek rationality.
 Analytic Style -- people using this
style have a much greater
tolerance for ambiguity than do
directive decision makers.
 Conceptual Style -- people tend to
be very broad in their outlook and
consider many alternatives
 Behavioral Style -- people who
tend to work well with others.
 High
Tolerance for Ambiguity

Analytical Conceptual

Directive Behavioral

Low

Rational Intuitive

Way of Thinking
Performance Evaluations
decision makers take decision based on the criteria
they are evaluated

Reward Systems
What the org reward system is influences Decision
making

Formal Regulations
Rules that constrict decision making

System-Imposed Time
Constraints
Deadlines effect Decision making

Historical Precedents
Past experience influences decision making
An individual can use three
different criteria in framing or
making ethical choices.

 Utilitarian criterion -- Decisions are

made solely on the basis of their
outcomes or consequences.

 Rights criterion -- Decisions consistent

with fundamental liberties

 Justice criterion -- Decisions that

impose and enforce rules fairly and
impartially so there is an equitable
distribution of benefits and costs.
Stage of moral
development

Ethical
Organizational
decision-making
environment
behavior

Locus of
control
 Perception
 Individuals behave based not on the way their
external environment actually is but, rather, on
what they see or believe it to be.
 Evidence suggests that what individuals perceive
from their work situation will influence their
productivity more than will the situation itself.
 Absenteeism, turnover, and job satisfaction are
also reactions to the individual’s perceptions.
 Individual Decision Making
 Individuals think and reason before they act.
 Under some decision situations, people follow the
rational decision-making model.
 What can managers do to improve their decision
making?
 Analyze the situation.
 Be aware of biases.
 Combine rational analysis with intuition.
 Don’t assume that your specific decision style is
appropriate for every job.
 Use creativity-stimulation techniques.