Organizational Behavior - Perception Bias - How we think

Perception is an intellectual process of transforming sensory stimuli to meaningful information. It is the process of interpreting something that we see or hear in our mind and use it later to judge and give a verdict on a situation, person, group etc.

Selective perception is the tendency not to notice and more quickly forget stimuli that cause emotional discomfort and contradict our prior beliefs. For example, a teacher may have a favorite student because they are biased by in group favoritism. The teacher ignores the student's poor attainment. Conversely, they might not notice the progress of their least favorite student.

Example - Selective perception is the process by which individuals perceive what they want to in media messages while ignoring opposing viewpoints. It is a broad term to identify the behavior all people exhibit to tend to "see things" based on their particular  frame of reference. It also describes how we categorize and interpret sensory information in a way that favors one category or interpretation over another. In other words, selective perception is a form of bias because we interpret information in a way that is congruent with our existing values and beliefs. Psychologists believe this process occurs automatically.

It can be divided into six types −

• Of sound − The ability to receive sound by identifying vibrations.

• Of speech − The competence of interpreting and understanding the sounds of language heard.

• Touch − Identifying objects through patterns of its surface by touching it.

• Taste − The ability to receive flavor of substances by tasting it through sensory organs known as taste buds.

• Other senses − They approve perception through body, like balance, acceleration, pain, time, sensation felt in throat and lungs etc.

• Of the social world − It permits people to understand other individuals and groups of their social world. Example − Priya goes to a restaurant and likes their customer service, so she will perceive that it is a good place to hang out and will recommend it to her friends, who may or may not like it. Priya’s perception about the restaurant is good.

Perceptual Process

Perceptual process are the different stages of perception we go through. The different stages are −

• Receiving
• Selecting
• Organizing
• Interpreting

Receiving

Receiving is the first and most important stage in the process of perception. It is the initial stage in which a person collects all information and receives the information through the sense organs.

Selecting

Selecting is the second stage in the process. Here a person doesn’t receive the data randomly but selectively. A person selects some information out of all in accordance with his interest or needs. The selection of data is dominated by various external and internal factors.

• External factors − The factors that influence the perception of an individual externally are intensity, size, contrast, movement, repetition, familiarity, and novelty.

• Internal factors − The factors that influence the perception of an individual internally are psychological requirements, learning, background, experience, self-acceptance, and interest.

Organizing

Keeping things in order or say in a synchronized way is organizing. In order to make sense of the data received, it is important to organize them.

We can organize the data by −

• Grouping them on the basis of their similarity, proximity, closure, continuity.

• Establishing a figure ground is the basic process in perception. Here by figure we mean what is kept as main focus and by ground we mean background stimuli, which are not given attention.

• Perceptual constancy that is the tendency to stabilize perception so that contextual changes don’t affect them.

Interpreting

Finally, we have the process of interpreting which means forming an idea about a particular object depending upon the need or interest. Interpretation means that the information we have sensed and organized, is finally given a meaning by turning it into something that can be categorized. It includes stereotyping, halo effect etc.

Importance of Perception

We need to understand what the role of perception in an organization is. It is very important in establishing different role of perceptions like −

• Understanding the tasks to be performed.
• Understanding associated importance of tasks allotted.
• Understanding preferred behavior to complete respective tasks.
• Clarifying role perceptions.

For example, every member in a group has to be clear regarding the role allotted to them. Programmer writes the code, tester checks it, etc.

Motivation can be described as the internal force that impacts the direction, intensity, and endurance of a person’s voluntary choice of behavior. It consists of −

• Direction − focused by goals.

• Intensity − bulk of effort allocated.

• Persistence − amount of time taken for the effort to be exerted.

Example − A team leader encourages team members to work efficiently.

Features of Motivation

Motivation is an internal feeling, that is, it defines the psychological state of a person. It is a continuous process and we should make sure that it is not disturbed. A person should be encouraged completely.

Motivation consists of three interacting and dependent elements −

• Needs − The requirements or deficiency which is created whenever there is physiological imbalance.

• Drives − The various camps or events organized to motivate the employees and give them new opportunities.

• Incentives − Employees need to be rewarded for their nice work in order to keep them encouraged.

Importance of Motivation

We need to motivate employees because of the following reasons −

• Motivated employee are more quality oriented.
• Highly motivated employees are more productive as compared to other employees.
• It helps in achieving three behavior dimension of human resource namely
  • Candidates must be attracted not only to join but also remain in the firm.
  • Employees must perform task in a dependable manner.
  • Employees should be creative, spontaneous and innovative at work.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

This theory was produced in order to answer the question “What motivates an individual”. Every second need comes to force when the first need is satisfied completely. Maslow explained the hierarchy of needs by grouping them into two: deficiency needs and growth needs.

Physiological Needs

Every individual needs to take care of the basic requirements required to sustain. These requirements include food to eat, clothing to wear and shelter to live in. These necessities are relatively independent of each other but are finite.

Safety Needs

Everybody wants to stay in a protected environment with minimal danger so that they can have a peaceful life. Safety needs basically includes protection from physiological danger like accident and having economic security like bank accounts, health insurance

In an enterprise, it includes job security, salary increment, etc. The managerial practice to satisfy this involves offering pension scheme, provident fund, gratuity etc.

Social Needs

We have all heard that man is a social animal, we want to be there with those people where we are loved and we are accepted as we are; nobody wants to be judged. This is a common requirement every human desires.

This theory helps managers to think about encouraging their employees by identifying employee needs. In short, it presents motivation as constantly changing force, expressing itself to the constant need for fulfilment of new and higher levels of needs.

Esteem

Esteem means the typical human desire to be accepted and valued by others. People often involve in a profession or hobby to gain recognition, earn fame and respect. According to Maslow, the needs of humans have strict guidelines - the hierarchies rather than being sharply separated, are interrelated. This means that esteem and the consequent levels are not strictly separated but are closely related.

Self-Actualization

Self-actualization means realizing one’s full potential. Maslow describes this as a desire to complete everything that one can, to become the most that one can be.

Our management style is firmly influenced by our beliefs and assumptions about what encourages members of our team like: If we believe that our team members dislike work, then we tend towards an authoritarian style of management. However, if we assume that employees take pride in doing a good job, we tend to adopt a more participative style.

Douglas McGregor, the eminent social psychologist, divides management style into two contrasting theories −

• Theory X
• Theory Y

Theory X

This theory believes that employees are naturally unmotivated and dislike working, and this encourages an authoritarian style of management. According to this theory, management must firmly intervene to get things done. This style of management concludes that workers −

• Disfavor working.

• Abstain responsibility and the need to be directed.

• Need to be controlled, forced, and warned to deliver what's needed.

• Demand to be supervised at each and every step, with controls put in place.

• Require to be attracted to produce results, else they have no ambition or incentive to work.

McGregor observed that X-type workers are in fact mostly in minority, and yet in mass organizations, such as large scale production environment, X Theory management may be needed and can be unavoidable.

Theory Y

This theory explains a participative style of management, that is, distributive in nature. It concludes that employees are happy to work, are self-motivated and creative, and enjoy working with greater responsibility. It estimates that workers −

• Take responsibility willingly and are encouraged to fulfill the goals they are given.

• Explore and accept responsibility and do not need much guidance.

• Assume work as a natural part of life and solve work issues imaginatively.

In Y-type organizations, people at lower levels are engaged in decision making and have more responsibility.

Comparing Theory X & Theory Y

Let us now compare both the theories −

Motivation

Theory X considers that people dislike work, they want to avoid it and do not take responsibilities willingly.

While, Theory Y considers that people are self-motivated, and sportingly take responsibilities.

Management Style and Control

In Theory X-type organization, management is authoritarian, and centralized control is maintained.

While in Theory Y-type organization, the management style is participative, employees are involved decision making, but the power retains to implement decisions.

Work Organization

Theory X employees are specialized and the same work cycle continues.

In Theory Y, the work tends to be coordinated around wider areas of skill or knowledge. Employees are also motivated to develop expertise, and make suggestions and improvements.

Rewards and Appraisals

Theory X-type organizations work on a ‘carrot and stick’ basis, and performance assessment is part of the overall mechanism of control and compensation.

Coming to Theory Y-type organizations, appraisal is also regular and crucial, but is usually a separate mechanism from organizational controls. Theory Y-type organizations provide employees frequent opportunities for promotion.

Application

Admitting the fact that Theory X management style is widely accepted as inferior to others, it has its place in large scale production procedure and unskilled production-line work.

Many of the principles of Theory Y are widely accepted by different types of organization that value and motivate active participation.

Theory Y-style management is appropriate for knowledge work and licensed services. Licensed service organizations naturally develop Theory Y-type practices by the nature of their work, even high structure knowledge framework, like call center operations, benefit from its principles to motivate knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.