© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill Ryerson 3 C H A P T E R: T H R E E Perception and Learning in Organizations

2 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e VIA Rail CEO, Paul Coté VIA Rail CEO Paul Coté keeps his perceptions in focus by wandering around the maintenance centre and hopping on the trains to meet staff and customers. R. Remiorz/CP

3 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Attitudes and Behaviour Organization and Interpretation Selective Attention Perceptual Process Model Feeling Hearing Seeing Smelling Tasting Environmental Stimuli

4 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Selective Attention Characteristics of the object  size, intensity, motion, repetition, novelty Perceptual context Characteristics of the perceiver  attitudes  perceptual defense  expectations -- condition us to expect events

5 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Perceptual Organization/Interpretation Categorical thinking  Mostly unconscious process of organizing people and things  Perceptual grouping principles Closure -- filling in missing pieces Identifying trends Similarity or proximity Mental models  Broad world-views or ‘theories-in-use’  Help us to quickly make sense of situations  May block recognition of new opportunities/perspectives

6 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e An Individual’s Social Identity CIBCEmployee Social Identity Theory Live in Canada University of New Brunswick Graduate Employees at other firms People living in other countries Graduates from other schools

7 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Social Identity Theory Features Categorization process  compare characteristics of our groups with other groups Homogenization process  similar traits within a group; different traits across groups Differentiation process  develop less favourable images of people in groups other than our own

8 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Ottawa Citizen Social Identity & Gender in Engineering Women are underrepresented in engineering partly because:  Social identity --”geek” stereotype of engineers and computer scientists doesn’t fit the self-images that most women want for themselves.  Sex role stereotyping -- women are not encouraged to become engineers because the profession has a male stereotype  Prejudice -- Still some bias against female engineering students

9 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Stereotyping Process of assigning traits to people based on their membership in a social category  Categorical thinking  Strong need to understand and anticipate others’ behaviour  Enhances our self-perception and social identity Ottawa Citizen

10 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Minimizing Stereotyping Biases Diversity awareness training  Educate employees about the benefits of diversity and dispel myths Meaningful interaction  Contact hypothesis Decision-making accountability  Making people accountable for their decisions motivates them to consider objective info rather than stereotypes

11 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Attribution Process Internal Attribution  Perception that person’s behaviour is due to motivation/ability rather than situation or fate External Attribution  Perception that behaviour is due to situation or fate rather than the person

12 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Rules of Attribution External Attribution FrequentlyConsistencySeldom Internal Attribution FrequentlyDistinctivenessSeldom SeldomConsensusFrequently

13 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Attribution Errors Fundamental Attribution Error  attributing own actions to external factors and other’s actions to internal factors Self-Serving Bias  attributing our successes to internal factors and our failures to external factors

14 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Cycle Supervisorformsexpectations Expectations affect supervisor’s behaviour Supervisor’s behaviour affects employee Employee’s behaviour matches expectations

15 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Contingencies Self-fulfilling prophecy effect is strongest 1. At the beginning of the relationship (e.g., employee joins the team) 2. When several people have similar expectations about the person 3. When the employee has low rather than high past achievement

16 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Other Perceptual Errors Primacy  first impressions Recency  most recent information dominates perceptions Halo  one trait forms a general impression Projection  believe other people do the same things or have the same attitudes as you

17 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Improving Perceptions Empathy  Sensitivity to the feelings, thoughts, and situation of others  Cognitive and emotional component Self-awareness  Awareness of your values, beliefs and prejudices  Applying Johari Window

18 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Known to Self Unknown to Self Known to Others Unknown to Others OpenAreaBlindArea UnknownArea HiddenArea Know Yourself (Johari Window) OpenAreaBlindArea HiddenAreaUnknownArea Disclosure Feedback

19 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Definition of Learning A relatively permanent change in behaviour (or behaviour tendency) that occurs as a result of a person’s interaction with the environment

20 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Learning and Behaviour Learning affected behaviour through three MARS model elements:  Ability -- learning increases skills and knowledge  Role perceptions -- learning clarifies roles and priorities  Motivation -- learning is necessary for some need fulfillment

21 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Behaviour Modification We “operate” on the environment  alter behaviour to maximize positive and minimize adverse consequences Learning is viewed as completely dependent on the environment Human thoughts are viewed as unimportant

22 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e A-B-Cs of Behaviour Modification Consequences What happens after behaviour Co-workersthankoperator Example Behaviour What person says or does Machine operator turns off power Antecedents What happens before behaviour Warninglightflashes

23 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Contingencies of Reinforcement Behaviour increases/ maintained Behaviour decreases Consequence is introduced Consequence is removed Punishment Positivereinforcement ExtinctionPunishment Negativereinforcement No consequence

24 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Schedules of Reinforcement behaviours Continuous Fixed ratio Variable ratio Fixed interval Time (Days) Variable interval

25 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Behaviour Modification in Practice Behaviour modification is used in:  every day life to influence behaviour of others  company programs to reduce absenteeism, improve safety, etc. Behaviour modification problems include:  Reward inflation  Ethical concern that variable ratio schedule is a lottery  Behaviourist philosophy vs. learning through mental processes

26 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Social Learning Theory Behavioural modelling  Observing and modelling behaviour of others Learning behaviour consequences  Observing consequences that others experience Self-reinforcement  Reinforcing our own behaviour with consequences within our control

27 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Experiential Learning in Toronto Physicians Jonathan Sherbino and Ivy Chong (bottom right) prepare to amputate the leg of Wesley Bagshaw who is pinned by a fallen beam in this collapsed building. Fortunately, this incident is a mock disaster to help train Toronto’s Heavy Urban Search And Rescue (HUSAR) team. Michael Stuparyk/Toronto Star

28 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Concreteexperience Reflectiveobservation Abstractconceptualization Activeexperimentation Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model

29 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Developing a Learning Orientation Value the generation of new knowledge Reward experimentation Recognize mistakes as part of learning Encourage employees to take reasonable risks

30 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Action Learning Experiential learning in which employees, usually in teams, investigate and apply solutions to a situation that is both real and complex, with immediate relevance to the company  Concrete experience  Learning meetings  Team conceptualizes and applies a solution to a problem

© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill Ryerson 3 C H A P T E R: T H R E E Perception and Learning in Organizations