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Organizational Behavior: Solutions for Management
Paul D. Sweeney, University of Central Florida
Dean B. McFarlin, University of Dayton
Organizing Perceptions and Avoiding Biases

Chapter Outline

  1. Organizing Perceptions and Avoiding Biases

    2. Perceptions are important because we act based on how we interpret the events that have or are taking place around us.
    1. Perceptions vary with each individual.
    2. Perception is a vital building block for effective behavior management.
    3. Perception is not an objective process.
    4. Individual perceptions can be selective and must be interpreted.
    5. Perception plays an important part in:
      • job interviewing.
      • performance appraisals.
      • impression formation.
      • performance evaluations.
      • decision-making.
  2. Why Is Perception Important for Managers?
    3. Managers must act as intuitive psychologists when they are engaged in managing.
    1. Perceptions of events can vary greatly depending upon the individual's position and perspective.
  3. How Does Perception Take Place?

    4. Perception can take place by one of two general mechanisms. Perceptions can be formed through external influences or internal process.
    1. External Influences on Perception: Features about the stimuli themselves are called external influences.
      1. Size/intensity
      2. Contrast effect
      3. Figure-ground effect
    2. Internal Influences on Perception:

      3. Forces acting inside of us that help us organize our perceptions are called internal influences.
      1. Self-disclosure
        • Self-presentation can produce inaccurate perceptions.
        • Socially acceptable lying is a major reason why self-disclosure is not a preferred method of perceiving others.
        • It has spurred research on the topic of impression management.
        • Impression management: the efforts of people, groups, and organizations to shape the perceptions others form about them.
    3. Impression Management:
      1. There are many ways to manage impressions:
        • Two types are typically used:
          • Self-enhancing tactics: direct attempts at shaping perceptions
            • Name-dropping
            • Dressing for success
          • Other enhancing: building others up
            • Flattering comments
            • Agreeing with others
      2. How often do we use these techniques?
        • Depends on whose impression we are trying to manage at the time.
        • Other impression management techniques include:
          • Opinion conformity
          • Justifications
          • Excuses
      3. Is impression management effective?
        • In many cases the answer is yes.
        • High self-monitors are best at managing impressions.
      4. Lessons about impression management:
        • Basic suggestions to reduce unwanted impression management:
          • Try to reduce ambiguity.
          • Be aware of how circumstances and status impact your interactions.
          • Be aware of possible ulterior motives.
        • Suggestions to capitalize on impression management when presenting yourself:
          • Remember that looks can be and are important.
          • Avoid using some presentation methods.
          • Rely on more subtle techniques.
      5. Corporate Impression Management:

        • Organizations employ various methods to manage the impression they impart upon individuals.
        • Names and logos
        • Various communication strategies

        • Public relations consultants
        • Artful communications
        • Corporate symbols

        • Slogans/mission statements

        • Annual reports
  4. Watching and Recording: The Preferred Alternative
    5. Being selective is the key when watching and recording the methods or actions of others.
    1. Audience Extraction: Audience extraction refers to the process whereby managers can extract expected or anticipated behavior from those they work with and is sometimes called a self-fulfilling prophecy.
      1. Managers can capitalize on self-fulfilling prophecies even though they are potential roadblocks to accurate perception.
      2. Suggestions for managers to use include:
        • Recognize that most employees are capable of improving.
        • Start new employees off on the right foot.
        • Show all your staff that you have confidence in them.
        • Give more informal feedback to your employees.
    2. Audience Selectivity:
      Audience selectivity refers to our tendency to single out information about people or events that meet our own interests.
      1. Selectivity is related to extraction.
      2. The "cocktail party" effect demonstrates selectivity.
    3. Specific Perceptual Errors:
      The use of common perceptual shortcuts can lead to management errors.
      1. Four common errors:
        • Personal constructs: Our unique understanding of how the work world operates.
        • Halo effect: One trait drives the overall impression of an individual.
        • Stereotypes: One piece of information infers other things that may or may not be true about the individual.
        • Reputations
    4. Overcoming Perceptual Errors:
      1. Managers can take several actions to increase the accuracy of their perceptions:
        • Be more observing
        • Cast a wider observational net
        • Lower your profile
        • Recognize your own biases
        • Evaluate people as much as possible on objective factors
    5. Observing Behavior: Nonverbal behavior is an important signal as to what people might really be like.

      • Manner of dress can make a difference
        • .
  5. Attribution Theory of Behavior
    6. The suggestion of this theory is that we observe the behaviors of others in an attempt to figure them out.
    1. Cultural differences can have an impact on the observations of we make of others.
    2. Attribution issues are encountered daily in the normal course of managing people.
    1. Using Behavior to Assign Cause:
      1. If we conclude that specific behavior is due to the individual, we have made an internal attribution
        2. .
      2. If we conclude that specific behavior is due to something other than the individual, we have made an external attribution. External attributions involve taking away credit or blame and placing it on something else.
      3. In using behavior to assign cause, we collect three key pieces of information about the behavior:
        • How stable the behavior is across time (consistency).
        • How stable the behavior is across other people (consensus).
        • How stable the behavior is across different situations
        (distinctiveness).
      4. We make internal attributions when consistency is high and consensus and distinctiveness are low.
      5. Most other combinations produce external attributions.
      6. Managers utilize attributions anytime they evaluate their employees' performance.
      7. Research has shown that attributions can have important effects on our behavior.
    2. Attribution Errors: People often use shortcuts to make judgments about others and their behavior.

      1. Attribution biases:

        • The actor-observer effect: Tendency of observer to jump to an internal attribution without processing all the information.

        • Self-serving attributions: Tendency to take credit for success and place the blame for failure on external causes.
      2. Suggestions to overcome biases:
        • Whenever possible try to do a full search for information.
        • Keep in mind that external reasons may explain employee behavior.
        • Encourage subordinates to consider internal explanations for their own behavior.
        • Be aware that everyone has a tendency to take credit for success and avoid blame for failure.




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