Perception

Perception and
and Individual
Individual Decision
Decision
Making
Making
Chapter
Chapter Objectives
Objectives
• Upon completion of this chapter you will be able to:
– Demonstrate the importance of interpersonal skills in the
workplace.
– Describe the manager’s functions, roles, and skills.
– Define organizational behavior (OB).
– Show the value to OB of systematic study.
– Identify the major behavioral science disciplines that
contribute to OB.
– Demonstrate why there are few absolutes in OB.
– Identify the challenges and opportunities managers have in
applying OB concepts.
– Compare the three levels of analysis in this book’s OB
model.
What
What isis Perception?
Perception?
 A process by which individuals organize and interpret
their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to
their environment.
 People’s behavior is based on their perception of what
reality is, not on reality itself.
 The world as it is perceived is the world that is
behaviorally important.
 For factors that influence perception
Attribution
Attribution Theory:
Theory: Judging
Judging Others
Others
 Our perception and judgment of others are
significantly influenced by our assumptions of the
other people’s internal states.
– When individuals observe behavior, they attempt to
determine whether it is internally or externally caused.
• Internal causes are under that person’s control.
• External causes are not – person forced to act in that way.
 Causation judged through:
– Distinctiveness
• Shows different behaviors in different situations.
– Consensus
• Response is the same as others to same situation.
– Consistency
• Responds in the same way over time.
Errors
Errors and
and Biases
Biases in
in Attributions
Attributions
 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
– We blame people first, not the situation
 Self-Serving Bias
– The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes
to internal factors while putting the blame for failures on
external factors
– It is “our” success but “their” failure
Frequently
Frequently Used
Used Shortcuts
Shortcuts in
in Judging
Judging Others
Others
 Selective Perception
– People selectively interpret what they see on the basis of
their interests, background, experience, and attitudes.
 Halo Effect
– Drawing a general impression about an individual on the
basis of a single characteristic
 Contrast Effects
– Evaluation of a person’s characteristics that are affected by
comparisons with other people recently encountered who
rank higher or lower on the same characteristics
Another
Another Shortcut:
Shortcut: Stereotyping
Stereotyping
Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the
group to which that person belongs – a prevalent and
often useful, if not always accurate, generalization

Profiling
– A form of stereotyping in which members of a group are
singled out for intense scrutiny based on a single, often
racial, trait.
Specific
SpecificShortcut
ShortcutApplications
Applicationsin
inOrganizations
Organizations
 Employment Interviews
– Perceptual biases of raters affect the accuracy of
interviewers’ judgments of applicants.
– Formed in a single glance – 1/10 of a second!
 Performance Expectations
– Self-fulfilling prophecy (Pygmalion effect): The lower or
higher performance of employees reflects preconceived
leader expectations about employee capabilities.
 Performance Evaluations
– Appraisals are often the subjective (judgmental) perceptions
of appraisers of another employee’s job performance.
– Critical impact on employees.
Perceptions
Perceptions and
and Individual
Individual Decision
Decision Making
Making
 Problem
– A perceived discrepancy between the current state of affairs
and a desired state
 Decisions
– Choices made from among alternatives developed from data
 Perception Linkage:
– All elements of problem identification and the decision
making process are influenced by perception.
• Problems must be recognized
• Data must be selected and evaluated
Decision-Making
Decision-Making Models
Models in
in Organizations
Organizations
 Rational Decision-Making
– The “perfect world” model: assumes complete information,
all options known, and maximum payoff
– Six-step decision-making process
 Bounded Reality
– The “real world” model: seeks satisfactory and sufficient
solutions from limited data and alternatives
 Intuition
– A non-conscious process created from distilled experience
that results in quick decisions
• Relies on holistic associations
• Affectively charged – engaging the emotions
See Exhibit 5-3
Common
CommonBiases
Biasesand
andErrors
Errorsin
inDecision-Making
Decision-Making
 Overconfidence Bias
– Believing too much in our own ability to make good
decisions – especially when outside of own expertise
 Anchoring Bias
– Using early, first received information as the basis for
making subsequent judgments
 Confirmation Bias
– Selecting and using only facts that support our decision
 Availability Bias
– Emphasizing information that is most readily at hand
• Recent
• Vivid
More
More Common
Common Decision-Making
Decision-Making Errors
Errors
 Escalation of Commitment
– Increasing commitment to a decision in spite of
evidence that it is wrong – especially if responsible for
the decision!
 Randomness Error
– Creating meaning out of random events - superstitions
 Hindsight Bias
– After an outcome is already known, believing it could
have been accurately predicted beforehand
Individual
Individual Differences
Differences in
in Decision-Making
Decision-Making
 Personality
– Conscientiousness may effect escalation of
commitment
• Achievement strivers are likely to increase commitment
• Dutiful people are less likely to have this bias
– Self-Esteem
• High self-esteem people are susceptible to self-serving
bias
 Gender
 Women analyze decisions more than men –
rumination
 Women are twice as likely to develop depression
 Differences develop early
Organizational
Organizational Constraints
Constraints
 Performance Evaluation
– Managerial evaluation criteria influence actions
 Reward Systems
– Managers will make the decision with the greatest personal
payoff for them
 Formal Regulations
– Limit the alternative choices of decision makers
 System-imposed Time Constraints
– Restrict ability to gather or evaluate information
 Historical Precedents
– Past decisions influence current decisions
Ethics
Ethics in
in Decision
Decision Making
Making
 Ethical Decision Criteria
– Utilitarianism
• Decisions made based solely on the outcome
• Seeking the greatest good for the greatest number
• Dominant method for businesspeople
– Rights
• Decisions consistent with fundamental liberties and privileges
• Respecting and protecting basic rights of individuals such as
whistleblowers
– Justice
• Imposing and enforcing rules fairly and impartially
• Equitable distribution of benefits and costs
Ethical
Ethical Decision-Making
Decision-Making Criteria
Criteria Assessed
Assessed
 Utilitarianism
– Pro: Promotes efficiency and productivity
– Con: Can ignore individual rights, especially
minorities
 Rights
– Pro: Protects individuals from harm, preserves rights
– Con: Creates an overly legalistic work environment
 Justice
– Pro: Protects the interests of weaker members
– Con: Encourages a sense of entitlement
Improving
Improving Creativity
Creativity in
in Decision
Decision Making
Making
 Creativity
– The ability to produce novel and useful ideas
 Who has the greatest creative potential?
– Those who score high in Openness to Experience
– People who are intelligent, independent, self-confident, risk-
taking, have an internal locus-of-control, tolerant of
ambiguity, low need for structure, and who persevere in the
face of frustration
The
The Three-Component
Three-Component Model
Model of
of
Creativity
Creativity

Proposition that individual creativity results from a