Chapter 3: Perception, Attribution and Diversity Flashcards
Perception:
Process of interpreting our sense’s messages to provide meaning and order to the environment. People base their actions on the interpretation their perceptual system provides. It is important how members perceive each other in organizations
Components of Perception:
Perceiver, target, situation.
Perceiver:
Past experiences cause people to develop expectations (most important). Needs unconsciously influence perceptions because we perceive that we want to. Emotions influence perception
Perceptual Defense:
tendency for the perceptual system to defend us against unpleasant emotions
Target:
Ambiguous targets are subject to interpretation. Perceiver does not always use all the information provided by the target to resolve ambiguity
Situation:
Can add information to the target
Social Identity Theory:
People form perceptions of themselves based on characteristics and memberships in social categories. Sense of self is composed of personal identity and social identity
Personal Identity:
unique personal characteristics (abilities, traits, interests)
Social Identity:
perception that we belong to various social groups (race, age, gender). Categorize people to understand the social environment. Once a category is chosen we tend to perceive members of the category as portraying the categories typical attributes (“prototypes”). Define members of a category relative to members of other categories. People perceive members of their own groups as more positive than those from other groups (understanding stereotypes)
Perceptual Process:
- Unfamiliar Target
- Openness to Target Cues (open to information and the situation)
- Familiar Cues Encountered
- Target Categorized
- Cue Selectivity (perceiver searches for clues that confirm the categorization)
- Categorization Strengthened (perceiver ignores cues that counter the categorization)
Three Characteristics of Perceptual Process
Selective, constancy, consistency
Selective:
First characteristic of perceptual process. Perceivers do not use all the available cues so perceptual system can create a constant picture of the target
Constancy:
Second characteristic of perceptual process. tendency for target to be perceived the same way over time and situations
Consistency:
tendency to select, ignore or distort cues to form a homogenous picture of the target (consistency of target)
Biases in Person Perception:
- Primacy Effect
- Recency Effect
- Central Traits
- Implicit Personality Theories
- Projection
- Stereotyping
Primacy Effect
- tendency to rely on early cues and first impressions
Recency Effect:
tendency to rely on recent cues or last impressions
Central Traits:
personal characteristics of the target that are of special interest to a perceiver. Depends on the perceivers interest and the situation. Very powerful influence
Implicit Personality Theories
personal theories people have about which personality characteristics go together. Ex. people of average intelligence and most friendly
Projection:
tendency for perceivers to attribute their own thoughts and feelings to others. People assume others are like themselves
Stereotyping:
- tendency to generalize about people in a certain social category and ignore variations among them. Forms a consistent impression and assuming that have characteristics recognized by the social identity theory. People can produce stereotypes with little information. Most likely to develop when we do not have information about a particular group. Not all stereotypes are inaccurate. Stable unless a major event changes them
Reinforces Stereotypes:
Process information about others quickly and efficiently. Selective perception by look for behaviors that conform to stereotypes
Three Aspects of Stereotyping
- Distinguish a category of people
- Assume all people in that category have certain traits
- Perceive everyone in that category as possess these traits
Attribution:
process where we assign causes or motives to explain people’s behavior. Rewards and punishments are based on judgement of what caused targets to behave a certain way
Dispositional Attributions:
explains behaviors based on the person’s personality or intellectual abilities
Situational Attributions:
explains behaviors based on the person’s external situation
Understanding People’s Motives:
Consistency cues, Concensus cues, Distinctiveness cues
Consistency Cues:
how often a person engages in behavior over time. High consistency leads to distributional attributions. Low consistency leads to situational attributions. Behavior seen regularly shows true motives
Consensus Cues:
how a person’s behavior compares to others. Acts that are not social expectations allow more information. Low-consensus lead to dispositional attributions. Person who acts different from majority show their true motives. People are more likely to act genuinely in a private setting
Distinctiveness Cues:
extent to which a person engages in some behavior across a variety of situations. Behavior that occurs across a variety of situations is dispositional. Highly distinctive behaviors when it only occurs in one situation
Biases in Attribution:
Fundamental Attribution Error, Actor Observer Effect, Self-serving bias.
Fundamental Attribution Error:
tendency to overemphasize dispositional explanations for behavior at the expense of situational explanations. People often discount strong effects that social roles have on behavior (Ash). Fail to realize behavior is distinctive to particular situations
Actor-Observer Effect:
Actors and observers view the causes for the actor’s behaviors very differently. Actors are sensitive to environmental events and will use situation to explain behavior. Actors are more aware of constraints and advantages in the environment. Actors are aware of their own private thoughts and feelings unknown to observer
Self-Serving Bias:
tendency to take credit for successful outcomes and to deny responsibility for failures. People explain the same behavior differently depending on the events that occur after. Use dispositional explanation when behavior is successful. If behavior has negative consequences, actor might find situational causes for failure.
Workforce Diversity:
difference among employees (gender, race, age). Creates competitive advantages and managing diverse workforce:
- Cost
- Resource-Acquisition:
- Marketing
- Creativity
- Problem Solving
- System Flexibility
Stereotype Threat:
When members of a social group feel they are being judged/treated according to a stereotype causing their behavior to confirm to the stereotype
Successful Diversity Training Programs:
- Build Senior Management Commitment
- Conduct Needs Assessment
- Develop Strategy Tied to Business Results
- Emphasize Team Building and Group Training
- Establish Metrics to Evaluate Effectiveness
Trust:
Psychological state where one is willing to be vulnerable and to take risks with respect to the actions of another party. Trust is positively related to job satisfaction, performance, OCB, organizational commitment
Trust is Based on three distinct perceptions:
- Ability
- Benevolence
- Integrity
Building Trust -> Trust Model
Credibility, fairness, camaraderie, pride, respect
Credibility:
Being reliable and delivering promises. Creating a clear vision for the company
Fairness:
Allowing all employees equal opportunities. Treating and paying all employees fairly regardless age, sex, race…
Camaraderie:
Welcoming employees to a friendly environment where employees can be themselves and care about others (cooperative)
Pride:
Making employees feel like make a contribution at work
Respect:
Showing appreciation for employees’ efforts and seeking employees’ opinions.
Perceived Organizational Support:
Employees general belief that the organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being. Strong POS increases job performance, satisfaction, mood, commitment, involvement. Supervisor support, fairness, rewards and job conditions contribute to POS
Organizational Support Theory:
employees who have strong perceptions of organization support feel an obligation to care about the organizations welfare and achieve its objective. Causes a greater sense of purpose and a strong sense of belonging to the organization. Employees incorporate their organization in their social identity
Perceptions in Employment Interview:
- Many factors threaten the validity of the interview
- Applicants present a favorable impression of themselves (may not be true)
- Interviewers compare the applicant to an ideal applicant (stereotype)
- This is alright only if the stereotype is accurate
- Information the interviewer receives early will have an impact on the decision
- Information obtained before the interview is influence on the interview outcome
- Interviews give less attention to the positive information about theapplicant
- Validity of the interview increases when it is structured
Contrast Effects:
applicant who have been interviewed earlier affect the interviewers perception of the later applicants
Four Dimensions of a Structured Interview
- Evaluation Standardization
- Question Sophistication
- Question Consistency
- Rapport Building
Evaluation Standardization:
Extent to which the interviewer uses standard scoring procedures
Question Sophistication:
Extent to which the interviewer uses job-related behavior and situational questions
Question Consistency:
Extent to which the interviewer asks the same questions in the same order to every candidate
Rapport Building:
Extent to which the interviewer does not ask questions unrelated to the job
Signaling Theory:
Job applicants interpret their recruitment experiences as signals about what it is like to work in an organization. Influences perceptions about the organization and the likelihood of accepting the job. Form positive perceptions of the selection process if it is perceived as fair
Objective and Subjective Measures for performance appraisal:
Difficult to find objective measures of performance. If quantifiable information is found, they are often soiled by situational factors
Rate Errors:
Subjective performance appraisal can be biased due to stereotypes
Leniency:
tendency to perceive performance as especially good
Harshness:
tendency to perceive performance as especially ineffective
Central Tendency:
assigning most rates in a middle-range performance category
Halo Effect:
rating of an individual based on one trait than influences the rating of the other traits (based on traits the rater considers important)
Similar-To-Me Effect:
rater gives favorable evaluations to people who are similar to them (rate error -perceptual bias)
