1. Valparaiso University
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn
Prepared by
Michael K. McCuddy
Valparaiso University
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

2. Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5
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Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

3. Chapter 5 Perception and Attribution
Study questions.
What is the perceptual process?
What are common perceptual distortions?
How can the perceptual process be managed?
What is attribution theory?
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

4. What is the perceptual process?
Perception.
The process by which people select, organize, interpret, retrieve, and respond to information.
Perceptual information is gathered from:
Sight.
Hearing.
Touch.
Taste.
Smell.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

5. What is the perceptual process?
Factors influencing the perceptual process.
Characteristics of the perceiver.
Characteristics of the setting.
Characteristics of the perceived.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

6. What is the perceptual process?
Characteristics of the perceiver.
The perceptual process is influenced by the perceiver’s:
Past experiences.
Needs or motives.
Personality.
Values and attitudes.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

7. What is the perceptual process?
Characteristics of the setting.
The perceptual process is influenced by the setting’s:
Physical context.
Social context.
Organizational context.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

8. What is the perceptual process?
Characteristics of the perceived.
The perceptual process is influenced by characteristics of the perceived person, object, or event, such as:
Contrast.
Intensity.
Figure-ground separation.
Size.
Motion.
Repetition or novelty.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

9. What is the perceptual process?
Stages of the perceptual process.
Information attention and selection.
Organization of information.
Information interpretation.
Information retrieval.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

10. What is the perceptual process?
Information attention and selection.
Selective screening.
Lets in only a tiny proportion all the information that bombards a person.
Two types of selective screening.
Controlled processing.
Screening without perceiver’s conscious awareness.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

11. What is the perceptual process?
Organization of information.
Schemas.
Cognitive frameworks that represent organized knowledge about a given concept or stimulus developed through experience.
Types of schemas.
Self schemas.
Person schemas.
Script schemas.
Person-in-situation schemas.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

12. What is the perceptual process?
Information interpretation.
Uncovering the reasons behind the ways stimuli are grouped.
People may interpret the same information differently or make different attributions about information.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

13. What is the perceptual process?
Information retrieval.
Attention and selection, organization, and interpretation are part of memory.
Information stored in memory must be retrieved in order to be used.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

14. What is the perceptual process?
Response to the perceptual process.
Thoughts.
Feelings.
Actions.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

15. What are common perceptual distortions?
Common perceptual distortions include:
Stereotypes or prototypes.
Halo effects.
Selective perception.
Projection.
Contrast effects.
Self-fulfilling prophecy.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

16. What are common perceptual distortions?
Stereotypes or prototypes.
Combines information based on the category or class to which a person, situation, or object belongs.
Strong impact at the organization stage.
Individual differences are obscured.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

17. What are common perceptual distortions?
Halo effects.
Occur when one attribute of a person or situation is used to develop an overall impression of the individual or situation.
Likely to occur in the organization stage.
Individual differences are obscured.
Important in the performance appraisal process.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

18. What are common perceptual distortions?
Selective perception.
The tendency to single out those aspects of a situation, person, or object that are consistent with one’s needs, values, or attitudes.
Strongest impact is at the attention stage.
Perception checking with other persons can help counter the adverse impact of selective perception.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

19. What are common perceptual distortions?
Projection.
The assignment of one’s personal attributes to other individuals.
Especially likely to occur in interpretation stage.
Projection can be controlled through a high degree of self-awareness and empathy.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

20. What are common perceptual distortions?
Contrast effects.
Occur when an individual is compared to other people on the same characteristics on which the others rank higher or lower.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

21. What are common perceptual distortions?
Self-fulfilling prophecy.
The tendency to create or find in another situation or individual that which one expected to find.
Also called the “Pygmalion effect.”
Can have either positive or negative outcomes.
Managers should adopt positive and optimistic approaches to people at work.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

22. How can the perceptual process be managed?
Impression management.
A person’s systematic attempt to behave in ways that create and maintain desired impressions in others’ eyes.
Successful managers:
Use impression management to enhance their own images.
Are sensitive to other people’s use of impression management.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

23. How can the perceptual process be managed?
Distortion management.
Managers should:
Balance automatic and controlled information processing at the attention and selection stage.
Broaden their schemas at the organizing stage.
Be attuned to attributions at the interpretation stage.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

24. What is attribution theory?
Attribution theory aids in perceptual interpretation by focusing on how people attempt to:
Understand the causes of a certain event.
Assess responsibility for the outcomes of the event.
Evaluate the personal qualities of the people involved in the event.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

25. What is attribution theory?
Internal versus external attributions of causes of behavior.
Internal causes are under the individual’s control.
External causes are within the person’s environment.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

26. What is attribution theory?
Factors influencing internal and external attributions.
Distinctiveness — consistency of a person’s behavior across situations.
Consensus — likelihood of others responding in a similar way.
Consistency — whether an individual responds the same way across time.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

27. What is attribution theory?
Fundamental attribution error.
Applies to the evaluation of someone’s else behavior.
Attributing success to the influence of situational factors.
Attributing failure to the influence of personal factors.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

28. What is attribution theory?
Self-serving bias.
Applies to the evaluation of our own behavior.
Attributing success to the influence of personal factors.
Attributing failure to the influence of situational factors.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5

29. What is attribution theory?
Attributions across cultures.
The fundamental attribution error and self-serving bias operate differently in different cultures.
Core Concepts of Organizational Behavior: Chapter 5