Perception

Concept
Perception play very important role in
determination of individual behaviour. It is
simply the process or way to understand
about any object or event. It differs with
individuals. How people ‘see’ things , is
perception. Perception depends
expectation , needs and background as
well.
More clearly , we can say that perception is a
process (cognitive process); it is the base of
every individual’s behaviour ; it differs from
person to person and it does not based on
reality. It plays on crucial part in organizational
life.
 Perceptual Process(Model)

Perception can be understand as process. It has

input processes and output. According to
perceptual output , the people show their
behaviour. It can be learned by the by the
following process.
 Environmental Seeing
Hearing
Stimuli Smelling
Tasting
Feeling

Selection

Organization

Interpretation
 Environmental Stimuli

Perceptual process starts from environmental

stimuli (input) ; environmental stimuli is concern
with five sense of organs i.e. skin , eye ,ear ,
nose and tongue. And they come to us in the
form of feeling , seeing , hearing , smelling and
tasting.
 Selection
At this stage , an individual gives selective
attention to the information receive from the
environment. Many internal and external factor
such as light , movement , size , loud , noise ,
learning , etc affects perceptual selectivity. This
stage is also known as filtering information.
 Organization
In this stage the individual process and classifies
the available information in a logical manner.
This stage is also known as ‘we group’ selected
information
Interpretation :- Finally , the individual
assigns the meaning to the stimuli to make
sense of them. It is highly judgemental. In real
life it may be influenced by many factor. They
are known as perceptual errors.
 Factors affecting Perception
1. Factors in the
perceiver
• Attitude
• Motives
• Interest
• Experience
• Expectation

2. Factors in the target

Perception 3. Factors in the
• Novelty
situation
• Size
• Time
• Background
• Work setting
• Motion
• Social setting
• Sound
 1. Factors in the perceiver

People are unique in nature and differ with each

other in terms of perceptual activity. Several
characteristics of perceiver such as Motives ,
Interest , attitude , experience , emotion and
expectation can affect perception.
a.Attitudes
-It is the sum total belief & way of looking at
things. It has 3 components : cognitive , feeling
and behavior
b. Motives
-It refers to internal state that is goal directed.
Motives and needs highly influence emotion.
c. Interest
-Mental focus that causes us to give more
attention to certain aspects in environment
neglecting others. People give more attention to
things that interest them.
d. Past Experience
-Influences the way people perceive the world. It
shapes our attention, behavior, interest and belief
system.
e. Expectations
It is the estimation of the perceiver. For example
if regularly a particular subject teacher gets
changed and each teacher is very strict then
students expect a new teacher related to that
particular subject will also be strict.
f. Emotion
It is the strong feeling towards someone or
something. The emotion of the perceiver at
particular time affects his perception at that time.
For e.g. if a person is angry then minor things
may irritate him or her
 2. Factors in the target
Target can also affect or influence our perception.
They are outside the people but within the things
that an individual is trying to perceive. They are
the factors which are within the things to be
perceived such as ; physical appearance , Novelty ,
Size , Background , Motion , Sound etc.
a .Physical Appearance
Physically attractive people are readily perceived
and also positive feelings and responses are
received . Physically unattractive are usually
negatively responded.
b. size
Bigger targets are more noticeable than smaller
ones .for eg: a tall building over a shorter one.
c. Motion
Objects in motion are readily perceived. For
example a jumping cat over a sleeping one.
d. Sound
Louder sounds are more easily perceived than
low pitch sound . that is why loud and noisy
people are easily noticed in a group.
e. Novelty
New , unique and distinct characteristics are
easily perceived as they attract our attention
easily . that is why fashion designers try to bring
novelty in their designs.
 3. Factors in the situation
Beyond above two categories of factors
situational factors also influence perception of a
person. They are outside the person and
environment or situational in nature. It means ,
the same object may be perceived in one
situation but not in another situation. Such as ,
time , work setting and social setting.
a.Time
Time also affects the way we perceive the things.
For e.g. the way we perceive the phone call in
day time and at mid-night.
b. Work Setting
Co-operative , hospitable and friendly and team
spirit having group of management are positive .
c. Social Setting
Each society has its own norms, values , ethics
and culture. Anything that deviates from social
norms can be easily noticed. for eg: in rural areas
,wearing of pants are easily noticed.
 Specific Application of
Perception in Organization

Perception is highly used in an organization.

When manager and subordinate talk they are
evaluating each other. In many cases the
judgements have important values in the
organization. Some of the important
applications of perception in organization are:-
 Application of perception in
‘employment interview’

Employment interview is the process that

determines who is hired and who is rejected.
Basically the interviewers develops the
perpetual judgements(positive or negative)
based on interviewees personality , knowledge ,
and behaviour. It is said that the first impression
is last impression.
 Application of perception in
‘performance expectations’

Manager’s perception is affected or influenced

by the his performance expectations from
employee. For example , if a manager expects
big things from his subordinate but the
subordinate are not likely to do so. In this
situation the manager tend to make negative
perception towards the subordinates and vice
versa.
 Application of perception in ‘ethnic
profiling’
It is a form of stereotyping( generalizing or grouping )
in this , the individuals are singled out typically on
the basis of race or ethnicity. Examples are :-
Indian are –Quick tempered ,
American are- Ambitious.
Chinese are – mysterious
Japanese are – industrious,
Muslim ethnic groups are negatively seen by
American after September 11th attack.
 Application of perception in
‘employee effort’

The level of employee effort determines success

of an organization. The employee who
contribute high level of effort perceived as
positively.
Perceptual error means not seeing reality is.
Or
Illusion can be understood as reliable perceptual
error (when the constancy doesn’t hold good)
1. Stereo Typing
2. Horn Effect
3. Selective Perception
4. Halo Effect
5. Recency Effect
6. Primary Effect
7. Similar To Me Effect
8. Self Serving Bias
“Making positive or negative generalizations about a group or
category of people, usually based on inaccurate assumptions
and beliefs and applying these generalizations to an individual
member of the group.”
Based on one NEGATIVE quality, we assumed the person is
BAD. i.e. we perceived the whole person, based on ONE
quality.
Drawing general impression of individual on
the basis of a single characteristic. i.e. if
someone is good at one dimension, he/she is
perceived to be good at other dimensions as
well.
When The Most RECENT Information Influence Our
Judgement, Even Though We Have A Whole Of Other
Information On The Person.
Tendency to form a judgement/opinion quickly based on the
first information we received. (Subsequently, we may
received other information),but based our judgement on
the first information.
We tend to favors/like or give favorable
judgement to those who are similar to us.
The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to
internal factors while putting the blame for failures on
external factors.