1. Chapter 4 Perception, Attribution, and the Management of Diversity

2. Perception
What?
The process by which individuals select, organize, and interpret the input from their senses to give meaning and order to the world around them
People think that perception is a simple phenomenon. But the perceptual process does not always yield accurate perceptions.

3. Figure 4.1 Components of Perception
Perceiver
Target
The perceiver is the person trying to interpret some observation that he or she has just made or the input from his or her senses.
The target of perception is whatever the perceiver is trying to make sense of. The target can be another person, a group of people, an event, a situation, an idea, a noise, or anything else the perceiver focuses on.
The situation is the context in which perception takes place – a committee meeting, the hallway, the office coffee maker, and so on.
All three components influence what is actually perceived.
Situation or context in which perception takes place

4. Components of Perception
Perceiver
Situation
Target
There are there components of perception.
Perceiver: person trying to interpret some observation that he or she has just made or the input from his or her senses
Target of Perception: whatever the perceiver is trying to make sense of
Situation: the context in which perception takes place

5. The Accuracy of Perceptions
Implications:
Perceptions are critical for managerial functions
Motivating subordinates
Treating subordinates fairly and equitably
Making ethical decisions
Accurate perceptions are important because perceptions affect motivation and performance, fairness and equity, and the ability to make ethical decisions.

6. The Accuracy of Perceptions
Not always accurate
Accuracy can be improved by understanding
what perceptions are
how they are formed
what influences them
Accurate perceptions are important because perceptions affect motivation and performance, fairness and equity, and the ability to make ethical decisions.

7. Figure 4.2 Characteristics of the Perceiver That Affect Perception
Insert Figure 4.2 here
Perceivers do not passively process information. Their experience or knowledge (schemas), their needs and desires (motivational states), and their feelings (moods) filter information into their perceptions of reality. 3

8. Table 4.1 Factors That Influence Perception
Characteristics of the Perceiver
Characteristics of the Target
Characteristics of the Situation
Schemas
Ambiguity
Additional information
Motivational state
Social status
Salience
Mood
Use of impression management
This table identifies the factors which affect each component of perception. Each factor is described on the following slides.

9. Schemas
What?
Responsible for the organization and interpretation of information about targets of perception
Based on past experiences and knowledge
Resistant to change
People interpret the word around us using limited information. In large part, we rely upon past experience and knowledge we have gathered from a variety of sources to interpret and make sense of any new person or situation we encounter. These past experiences and knowledge are organized into schemas.
Once an individual develops a schema for a target of perception, any new target related to the schema activates it and information about the target is processed in a way consistent with information stored in the schema.
Schemas also influence the sensory input we pay attention to and the input we ignore. Once a schema is activated, we tend to notice information that is consistent with the schema and ignore or discount information that is inconsistent.
Schemas are slow to change and people must encounter a considerable amount of contradictory information before their schemas are altered.

10. Schemas Types: Functional Dysfunctional Adapt to complex environment
Inaccurate perceptions
Ex. Stereotypes
Schemas do help us learn about and adapt to a complex environment but can also result in inaccurate perceptions. We have to guard against the common tendency to jump to incorrect conclusions based on our past experiences.

11. Motivational State and Mood
Motivational State: The needs, values, and desires of a perceiver at the time of perception.
Mood: How a perceiver feels at the time of perception.
The perceiver’s motivational state and mood influence his or her perception of the target. Perceivers see what they want to see, hear what they want to hear, and believe what they want to believe, because of their motivational states and moods.
An experiment illustrates the power of motivational state. Participants are shown a series of meaningless abstract pictures and asked what objects and shapes they perceive in them. The images they see depend on their motivational states. Those who are hungry are motivated to see food.
When people are in a positive mood, they are more likely to perceive targets in a more positive light.

12. Table 4.1 Factors That Influence Perception
Characteristics of the Perceiver
Characteristics of the Target
Characteristics of the Situation
Schemas
Ambiguity
Additional information
Motivational state
Social status
Salience
Mood
Use of impression management
This table identifies the factors which affect each component of perception. Each factor is described on the following slides.

13. Ambiguity A lack of clearness or definiteness
As the ambiguity of a target increases, it becomes increasingly difficult for a perceiver to form an accurate perception
When the nature of the target is clear, different perceivers have little difficulty forming similar perceptions of the target that are close to its real nature. But when a target is ambiguous, the perceiver needs to engage in more interpretation to form a perception of the target. The more ambiguous a target is the more potential there is for errors in perception.

14. Social Status
What?
A person’s real or perceived position in society or in an organization.
Targets with relatively high status are perceived to be smarter, more credible, more knowledgeable, and more responsible for their actions than lower-status targets.

15. Impression Management
An attempt to control the perceptions or impressions of others
High
Low
People at all levels of an organization engage in impression management.
Targets are especially likely to use impression management tactics when interacting with perceivers who have power over them and on whom they are dependent for evaluations, raises, and promotions.
Individuals who are high in self-monitoring are more likely than individuals who are low in self-monitoring to engage in impression management tactics.

16. Table 4.2 Impression Management Tactics
Behavioral
Matching
The target of perception matches
his or her behavior to that of the
perceiver.
A subordinate tries to imitate her boss’s
behavior by being modest and soft-spoken
because her boss is modest and soft-spoken.
Self-
Promotion
The target tries to present herself
or himself in as positive a light as
possible.
A worker reminds his boss about his past
accomplishments and associates with co-
workers who are evaluated highly.
These are common impression management tactics.
Appreciating
or Flattering
Others
The target compliments the per-
ceiver. This tactic works best when
flattery is not extreme and when it
involves a dimension important
to the perceiver.
A coworker compliments a manager on his
excellent handling of a troublesome employee.

17. Table 4.1 Factors That Influence Perception
Characteristics of the Perceiver
Characteristics of the Target
Characteristics of the Situation
Schemas
Ambiguity
Additional information
Motivational state
Social status
Salience
Mood
Use of impression management
This table identifies the factors which affect each component of perception. Each factor is described on the following slides.

18. Salience
Extent to which a target of perception stands out in a group of people or things
Causes of salience
Being
novel
A salient individual is very conspicuous and often feels self-conscious and believes that everyone is watching his or her every move. People do pay more attention to the salient person.
The causes of salience are being novel, being figural, and being inconsistent.
The consequences of salience for perception in organizations are extreme evaluations and stereotyping.
Individuals who are salient are often perceived in more extreme terms (positive or negative) than inconspicuous members of a group. They are also en as being especially influential or responsible for what happens to them and to the groups they belong to. Individuals who are salient are often perceived in terms of whatever is causing their salience. In other words, they are stereotyped. Perceivers consider the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of salient individuals to be more consistent with their distinguishing feature than would be the case if they were not salient.
When people who are salient think about stereotypes that are relevant to task performance, their performance might actually be impaired. Performance impairment occurs because salient, stereotyped individuals become concerned that others will perceive them based on the stereotype, which distracts them and diverts some of their attention away from task performance. This phenomenon is called stereotype threat.
Being
figural
Being
inconsistent

19. Table 4.3 Causes of Salience
Being novel
Anything that makes a
target unique in a situation
Examples: Being the only person of a
particular age, sex, or race in a situation
Being
figural
Standing out from the
background
Example: Being in a spotlight, sitting at
the head of the table, wearing bright
clothes
Inconsistent
with other
people’s
expectations
Behaving or looking in a way
that is out of the ordinary
Example: A normally shy person who is
the life of the party
This table describes the causes of salience and provides examples.

20. Table 4.4 Biases and Problems in Perception
Primacy
Effects
The initial pieces of information
that a perceiver has about a target
have an inordinately large effect on
the perceiver’s perception and
evaluation of the target.
Interviewers decide in the first few minutes
of an interview whether or not a job candidate
is a good prospect.
Contrast
Effect
The perceiver’s perceptions of
others influence the perceiver’s
perception of a target.
A manager’s perception of an average
subordinate is likely to be lower if that
subordinate is in a group with very high
performers rather than in a group with very
low performers.
This table describes the biases common in perception and provides examples of these biases.
Halo
Effect
The perceiver’s general impression
of a target influences his or her
perception of the target on specific
dimensions.
A subordinate who has made a good overall
impression on a supervisor is rated as
performing high-quality work and always
meeting deadlines regardless of work that is
full of mistakes and late.

21. Table 4.4 Biases and Problems in Perception
Similar-to-
me Effect
People perceive others who are
similar to themselves more
positively than they perceive those
who are dissimilar.
Supervisors rate subordinates who are similar
to them more positively than they deserve.
Harshness,
Leniency,
Average
Tendency
Some perceivers tend to be overly
harsh in their perceptions, some
overly lenient. Others view most
targets as being about average.
When rating subordinates’ performances, some
supervisors give almost everyone a poor rating,
some give almost everyone a good rating, and
others rate almost everyone as being about
average.
Knowledge
of Predictor
Knowing how a target stands on a
predictor of performance influences
perceptions of the target.
A professor perceives a student more positively
than she deserves because the professor knows
the student had a high score on the SAT.

22. Perception, Attribution, Management of Diversity

23. Attribution Theory Describes how people explain the causes of behavior
Focuses on why people behave the way they do
Attributions can be made about the self or another person
A person’s explanation of his or her own or another person’s behavior is an attribution.

24. Figure 4.3 Types of Attributions
Insert Figure 4.3 here
People generally attribute someone’s behavior to internal and external causes. An internal attribution assigns the cause of behavior to some characteristic of the target and assigns credit or blame to the individual actor. External attributions assign the cause of behavior to factors outside the individual.
Attributions may be inaccurate because of certain biases. 3

25. Attributional Biases Fundamental attribution error
Internal causes to behavior
Actor-observer effect
Internal to others and external to self
Self-serving attribution
Credit for success
Despite the fact that external factors do affect behavior, people have a strong tendency to attribute other people’s behavior to internal factors. For instance, if a student is late to class, the instructor will tend to blame the student (internal) rather than traffic problems occurring that day (external). This is an example of the fundamental attribution error.
However, people tend to attribute one’s own behavior to external causes. For instance, if a professor is late to class, he or she may blame problems with parking. This is an example of the actor-observer effect.
We also tend to blame failures on the external environment and take credit for successes. For instance, if a student gets a great internship, he or she will tend to think that the success is due to his or her work and effort. However, if he or she did not get the internship, he or she will attribute the failure to some other reason such as the number of applicants. This is an example of the self-serving attribution.

26. Perception, Attribution, Management of Diversity

27. Objectives of Diversity Programs
Making explicit and breaking down organizational member’ stereotypes
Result in inaccurate perceptions and attributions
Making members aware of different kinds of backgrounds, experiences, and values
These are examples of objectives that might be set for a company’s diversity training program.

28. Objectives of Diversity Programs
Showing members how to deal effectively with diversity-related conflicts and tensions
Generally improving members’ understanding of each other
These are examples of objectives that might be set for a company’s diversity training program.

29. Diversity Training Role-playing Self-awareness activities
Education
Mentoring
Formal
Informal
Diversity training programs can last hours or days and can be run by consultants or existing members of an organization with expertise in diversity. Small organizations are more likely to rely on consultants while larger organizations will have diversity managers.
Diversity programs may be successful but may not change the ways that people perceive and treat each other. It is most likely to be successful when it is ongoing or repeated, when there are follow-up activities, and when it is supplemented by other diversity-related activities in an organization.
Mentoring is a process through which an experienced member of an organization (the mentor) provides advice and guidance to a less experienced member and helps the less experienced person learn the ropes and do the right things to advance in the organization.
A recent study of minority executives found that more than 70% of the executives had informal mentors and generally believed that the mentors helped them in their careers.

30. Sexual Harassment Hostile Work Quid Pro Quo Environment
Research suggests that sexual harassment continues to occur in a wide variety of organizations and has adverse effects on victims’ job satisfaction, stress levels, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being.
There are two types of sexual harassment: quid pro quo and hostile work environment.
Quid pro quo occurs when the harasser requests or forces an employee to perform sexual favors in order to receive some opportunity
Hostile work environment occurs when organizational members are faced with a work environment that is offensive, intimidating, or hostile
Organizations have a legal and ethical obligation to eliminate and prevent sexual harassment.

31. Examples of Hostile Work Environment Sexual harassment
Pornographic pictures
Sexual jokes
Lewd comments
Sexually-oriented comments
Displays of sexually-oriented objects

32. Steps to Combat Sexual Harassment
Develop a sexual harassment policy
Clearly communicate the organization’s sexual harassment policy
A fair complaint procedure 1) is handled by a neutral third party, 2) deals with complaints promptly and thoroughly, 3) protects victims and treats them fairly, ad 4) treats alleged harassers fairly.

33. Steps to Combat Sexual Harassment
Investigate charges of sexual harassment
Take corrective action
Provide sexual harassment training and education
A fair complaint procedure 1) is handled by a neutral third party, 2) deals with complaints promptly and thoroughly, 3) protects victims and treats them fairly, ad 4) treats alleged harassers fairly.