Effective Perception Management

Effective  Perception Management

 We live in a perceptual world. Almost all our activities are influenced or governed by the process through which we perceive the things in our surroundings.

 It is the perception process through which one acts & interacts with during ones lifetime be it any unit of human being, family, society, religion, culture, work place, country or any other environment.  It is the process through which one associates or disassociates himself with the various factors existing in the society. We make friends, enemies on our perception. We like or dislike almost everything entirely on our perception. We cast our vote to the candidate whom we perceive as our representative. People fall into various habits by virtue to their perception of those habits.

It is our perception which shapes up our vision to exist in the society or in our context, the work place where we work. The entire gamut of human existence is based upon perception. People behave on the basis of the perceived world.

During our study we tried to  learn about the factors which operate to shape up or distort perception. We tried to analyze whether all these factors reside in the perceiver,  in the object being perceived or in the context of the situation in which the perception is made .We also tried to know how to make our perception as accurate as possible and without any bias .

We targeted ourselves & our associates in our workplace & social circle for this study.

We asked ourselves honestly that how we perceive each other and tried to know the perception of each one of us by sharing our perceptions amongst ourselves. In the process we introspected ourselves critically in order to compare ourselves with the perception of the group or individual about us.

 To our surprise most of our perception were either inaccurate or having extreme ends or very casually constructed. We all were behaving with each other in the backdrop of those inaccurate pictures painted by us. We realized the mistakes which one is likely to commit while forming a perception resulting in an inaccurate perception. We also felt that through more accurate perception management our individual or organizational behavior may become more conducive for meeting our role expectations.

  The importance of perception management should be apparent to almost every one who has daily interaction with other human beings. With the ability to construct accurate perception and management of the same we are taking simple to complex decision not only in our personal life but also   in our social or organizational life. This is so because accuracy based perception is central determinants of successful organizational success.

What is perception

Perception is the process by which individuals select, organize, and interpret the input from their  surroundings through their senses to give meaning and order to the world around them. It is the process of attaining awareness and it is also the form of self expression. In our study we revealed the process of forming opinion about others and the role played by perception in that process.

Components of perception

Perceiver

Perceiver is the person trying to interpret some observation that he or she has just made , or the input from his or her senses.

Target

 The target of perceiver is whatever the perceiver is trying to make sense of .In OB terms ,the target of perception is, often another person.

Situation

The situation is the context in which perception take place.

Factors influencing perception

·       The perceiver’s personal characteristics-interest ,biases, attitude, personality, motives , past-experiences and expectation etc. During our exercise we came to know how much these factors contributed in forming the perception. We formed  perceptions on the basis of our personal likes & dislikes.

·       The target characteristics-Distinctiveness, contrast and similarity. We were immensely influenced by these features while making assumptions about each other. We formed a warm perception when we found similarity in our views & we formed a cold perception when we found someone not conforming to our views without even trying to analyze the reasons for the same.  

·       The situation (context) factors like place, time, location draw attention or distract from the target. The time at which an event is observed influence our perception. Situation may not provide the opportunity for the person perceived to demonstrate behaviour relevant to the traits about which perceptions are formed.

Shortcuts used in judging others;

Halo effects

Drawing a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristics like intelligence, elocution, appearance. Many of our political or spiritual leaders are considered suitable on their Halo Effect. Good actors also cast a halo effect and people tend to form perceptions on such characteristics. We also get influenced on account of this effect in our personal or professional life.

Selective perception

People selectively interpret what they see on the basis of their interest, background   ,experience  and attitude. Relevance to one’s need is one the most important determinants of one’s perception. Things which seem to satisfy one’s need get attention automatically.

We found that sometimes in casual situations when we form perception of others, there are more chances to jump to conclusions without probing for adequate evidence.

Contrast effect

Evaluation of a persons characteristics that are affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who ranks higher or lower on the same characteristics.  

Stereotyping

Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that person belongs. Many unverified qualities are assigned to people because such group membership. We all are aware how much damage it can cause if an erroneous perception about some group is formed on the basis of activities of the members of that group.

Projection

We often tend to judge others assuming that they are similar to us. This tendency to attribute ones own characteristic to other people can distort perception. When we engage ourselves in projection then we are likely to compromise on our ability to respond to individual differences.  We tend to see people more homogeneous than they actually are. We found this factor as a major one towards perception distortion.

Ambiguity in the person

Ambiguity refers to lack of clearness or definiteness. The more ambiguous a human being is, the more potential there is for errors in perception.

Impression management

Impression management is an attempt to control the perception or impressions of others. Those who are likely to use impression management tactics may distort perception. There are smart people in the organization who are recognized and valued because of their impression management tactics and not because of their contribution. They are always able to distort perception.

 Attribution Error

What people do that they over attribute internal factors in  others behavior than external factors. This makes individual bias about others behavior.

They take credit of success and blame others for   failure.

Why accuracy of perception is so critical for mangers?

·       Understanding of perception can help managers better understand individual behavior i.e employee productivity, absenteeism, turnover, organizational citizenship, job satisfaction etc.

·       Motivating subordinates

·       Treating subordinates fairly and equitable.

·       Making ethical decisions

·       Increase productivity of subordinates

·       Win commitment and support of subordinates.

·       For strategic alignment of subordinates with organizational objectives.

·       Perceptual error will affect individual motivation which subsequently affect his effectiveness in terms of his productivity.

Specific application of perceptual error/shortcut/ attributional errors in the organization

       Employee Interview

·       Perceptual biases affect the accuracy of interviewer’s  judgment of individuals

      Performance Expectations

·       Self fulfilling prophecy( Pygmellion effect):The lower or higher performance of employees reflect preconceived managers expectation about employees capabilities.

      Performance Evaluations

·       It normally happens when you find appraisals are subjective perception of performance. It is not based on the facts which leads to dissatisfaction to employees due to subjective assessment leaving scope for perceptual bias.

       Employee effort

·       Assessment of individual effort is a subjective judgment subject to perceptual distortion and bias.

Recommendation for effective perception management in the organization

·       Knowing one self makes it easier to see others more accurately. When some body is aware of what his own personal characteristics are, he makes fewer mistakes in perceiving others. People with insight are less likely to misperceive the world and give extreme judgment about others.

·       Be careful not to jump to conclusions about co-workers, superiors and subordinates simply because they appear to fit one of your pre existing schemas. Wait to form your opinion until you have gathered enough information to make a fair judgment.

·       Make sure your perceptions of workers are based on their skills, capabilities, accomplishment, or the job behavior and level of performance.

·       Do not allow your perceptions to be influenced by characteristics of a person(such as gender, race, age etc)

·       Be careful not to let your first impression have too strong an effect on your perception of others .Avoid categorizing colleagues, unless you have sufficient information to form an accurate perception.

·       When interviewing or evaluating a series of individuals, do not let your evaluations of preceding individuals influence your rating of those that follow.

·       Be careful not to be lenient in your perception of people who are similar to you and overly harsh to those who are dissimilar to you.

·       If you tend to rate most of your subordinates very negatively, or very positively, or just about average stop and think whether each individual rightly deserves the rating he or she received.

·       Consider external factor that may be responsible for other people behavior, such as inadequate resources or supplies, or exceptionally difficult task.

·       Consider internal factors that may be responsible for your own behavior, such as your personality, your strength and weaknesses and your level of motivation.

·       Be wary of the tendency in yourself and in others to take credit for success and avoid blame others for errors.

As a manager one has to be continually aware of the intricacies of the perceptual process and always to be on guard against arbitrary and hurried conclusions. Common sense judgments suggest that accurate perception of others facilitates smooth and effective interpersonal adjustments. If we try to effect some change in the behaviour of someone then it is important to understand the perception process and the environment  if one has to understand the circumstances under which his or her behaviour may change.