Chapter 3: Perception, Attribution, and Diversity Learning Objectives: 1 ...
Chapter 3: Perception, Attribution, and Diversity Learning Objectives: 1. Define perception and discuss some of the general factors that influence perception a. Perception: process of interpreting the messages of our senses to provide order and meaning to the environment b. Factors: i. Perceiver: experience expectations, emotions 1. Perceptual defence: tendency for the percetual system to defend the perceiver against unpleasant emotions ii. Target being perceived: interpretation, meaning iii. Situational context for perception 2. Explain social identity theory and Bruner’s model of the perceptual process a. Social identity theory: people form perceptions of themselves based on their characteristics and memberships in social categories (i.e. gender, nationality, religion, occupation) b. Personal identity: personal characteristics interests, abilities, traits c. Perceptual Process Model (Bruner): i. Model: unfamiliar target encountered openness to target cues familiar cues encountered target categorized cue selectivity categorization strengthened 1. Perception is selective: do not use all available cues 2. Perceptual constancy: tendency for target to be perceived in same way over time or across situations 3. Perceptual consistency: tendency to select, ignore, distort cues in manner that they form homogenous picture of target 3. Describe the main biases in person perception a. Primacy effect: tendency for perceiver to rely on early cues or first impressions b. Recency effect: tendency for a perceiver to rely on recent cues or last impressions c. Central traits: personal characteristics of a target person that are of particular interest to a perceiver d. Implicit personality theories: personal theories that people have about which personality characteristics go together e. Projection: tendency for perceivers to attribute their own thoughts and feelings to others f. Stereotyping: tendency to generalize about people in a certain social category and ignore variations among them i. Distinguish category ii. Assume certain traits iii. Perceive everyone in category with these traits 4. Describe how people form attributions about the causes of behaviour
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a. Attribution: process by which causes or motives are assigned to explain people’s behaviour b. Dispositional attribution: explanations for behaviour based on an actor’s personality or intellect c. Situational attributions: explanations for behaviour based on an actor’s external situation or environment d. Consistency cues: attribution cues that reflect how consistently a person engages in a behaviour over time e. Consensus cues: attribution cues that reflect how a person’s behaviour compares with that of others f. Distinctiveness cues: attribution cues that reflect the extent to which a person engages in some behaviour across a variety of situations Discuss various biases in attribution a. Fundamental attribution error: tendency to overemphasize dispositional explanations for behaviour at the expense of situational explanations b. Actor-observer effect: propensity for actos and observers to view the causes of the actor’s behaviour differently c. Self-serving bias: tendency to take credit for successful outcomes and to deny responsibility for failures Discuss the concepts of workforce diversity and valuing diversity a. Workforce diversity: differences among recruits and employees in characteristics such as gender, race, age, religion, cultural background, physical ability, or sexual orientation i. Valuing diversity 1. Improved problem solving, creativity, recruiting, marketing Discuss how racial, ethnic, gender, and age stereotypes affect organizational behaviour and what organizations can do to manage diversity a. Stereotype threat: members of a social group feel they might be judged or treated according to a stereotype and that their behaviour or performance will confirm the stereotype i. Racial, ethnic stereotypes ii. Gender stereotypes iii. Age stereotypes b. Manage diversity: i. Build senior management commitment and accountability ii. Conduct thorough needs assessment iii. Develop well-defined strategy tied to business results iv. Emphasize team building and group process training v. Establish metrics and evaluate effectiveness of diversity initiatives Define trust perceptions and perceived organizational support and describe organizational support theory a. Trust: psychological state in which one has a willingness to be vulnerable and to take risks with respect to the actions of another party
i. Ability, benevolence, integrity b. Perceived organizational support: employees’ general belief that their organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being c. Organizational support theory: employees who have strong perceptions of organizational support feel an obligation to care about the organization’s welfare and to help the organization achieve its objectives i. Job satisfaction, organizational commitment, positive mood, performance, reduced strains, reduced turnover and absenteeism 9. Discuss person perception and perceptual biases in human resources a. Perceptions in employment interview i. Contrast effects: previously interviewed job applicants affect an interview’s perception of a current applicant, leading to an exaggeration of differences between applicants ii. Structured interview: evaluation standardization, question sophistication, question consistency, rapport building b. Perceptions of recruitment and selection i. Signalling theory: job applicants interpret their recruitment experiences as cues or signals about what it is like to work in an organization c. Perception and the performance appraisal i. Objective and subjective measures ii. Rater errors 1. Leniency: tendency to perceive the job performance of rates as especially good 2. Harshness: tendency to perceive job performance of rates as especially ineffective 3. Central tendency: tendency to assign more rates to middle-range job performance categories 4. Halo effect: rating of an individual on one trait or characteristic tends to colour ratings on other traits or characteristics 5. Similar-to-me effect: rater gives more favourable evaluations to people who are similar to the rater in terms of background or attitudes
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a. Attribution: process by which causes or motives are assigned to explain people’s behaviour b. Dispositional attribution: explanations for behaviour based on an actor’s personality or intellect c. Situational attributions: explanations for behaviour based on an actor’s external situation or environment d. Consistency cues: attribution cues that reflect how consistently a person engages in a behaviour over time e. Consensus cues: attribution cues that reflect how a person’s behaviour compares with that of others f. Distinctiveness cues: attribution cues that reflect the extent to which a person engages in some behaviour across a variety of situations Discuss various biases in attribution a. Fundamental attribution error: tendency to overemphasize dispositional explanations for behaviour at the expense of situational explanations b. Actor-observer effect: propensity for actos and observers to view the causes of the actor’s behaviour differently c. Self-serving bias: tendency to take credit for successful outcomes and to deny responsibility for failures Discuss the concepts of workforce diversity and valuing diversity a. Workforce diversity: differences among recruits and employees in characteristics such as gender, race, age, religion, cultural background, physical ability, or sexual orientation i. Valuing diversity 1. Improved problem solving, creativity, recruiting, marketing Discuss how racial, ethnic, gender, and age stereotypes affect organizational behaviour and what organizations can do to manage diversity a. Stereotype threat: members of a social group feel they might be judged or treated according to a stereotype and that their behaviour or performance will confirm the stereotype i. Racial, ethnic stereotypes ii. Gender stereotypes iii. Age stereotypes b. Manage diversity: i. Build senior management commitment and accountability ii. Conduct thorough needs assessment iii. Develop well-defined strategy tied to business results iv. Emphasize team building and group process training v. Establish metrics and evaluate effectiveness of diversity initiatives Define trust perceptions and perceived organizational support and describe organizational support theory a. Trust: psychological state in which one has a willingness to be vulnerable and to take risks with respect to the actions of another party
i. Ability, benevolence, integrity b. Perceived organizational support: employees’ general belief that their organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being c. Organizational support theory: employees who have strong perceptions of organizational support feel an obligation to care about the organization’s welfare and to help the organization achieve its objectives i. Job satisfaction, organizational commitment, positive mood, performance, reduced strains, reduced turnover and absenteeism 9. Discuss person perception and perceptual biases in human resources a. Perceptions in employment interview i. Contrast effects: previously interviewed job applicants affect an interview’s perception of a current applicant, leading to an exaggeration of differences between applicants ii. Structured interview: evaluation standardization, question sophistication, question consistency, rapport building b. Perceptions of recruitment and selection i. Signalling theory: job applicants interpret their recruitment experiences as cues or signals about what it is like to work in an organization c. Perception and the performance appraisal i. Objective and subjective measures ii. Rater errors 1. Leniency: tendency to perceive the job performance of rates as especially good 2. Harshness: tendency to perceive job performance of rates as especially ineffective 3. Central tendency: tendency to assign more rates to middle-range job performance categories 4. Halo effect: rating of an individual on one trait or characteristic tends to colour ratings on other traits or characteristics 5. Similar-to-me effect: rater gives more favourable evaluations to people who are similar to the rater in terms of background or attitudes
