Week 3 Perception, Attribution and Decision Making AWS
Week 3 Perception, Attribution and Decision Making Perception • • •
Process of organizing and interpreting sensory data to make sense of your position Cognitive and emotional responses Social cognition o Our perceptions inform our decisions and actions about how we relate to other people
Limits to Perception • • •
Humans are good at recognizing patterns however the patterns become fixed and there is difficulty seeing anything else Not good at dealing with complexity and ambiguity Also involves background, education and social upbringing which influences perception of ourselves and others
Attribution theory •
•
Self serving nature of attribution erros o Tend to attribute our successes to internal factors and our failures to external factors o Tend to attribute the successes of others to external factors and their failures to internal factors Contrast Effect o To make yourself look better, stand next to someone who looks worse
Bias and other sources of error in decision making • • •
• • •
Confirmation bias o We see what confirms our assumptions and suits our desired course of action Halo Effect o Assume that if someone is good (bad) at one thing, they are good (bad) at everything Anchoring o Using the first piece of information we come across as the yardstick for subsequent experiences Availability o Basing judgements on information readily available to them Escalation of commitment o Increased commitment to previous decision in spite of negative information Non-decision making o Rely on taken for granted conventions to make decisions for us
Organisational impacts of biases •
Recruitment and Selection o Interviews are poor indicator of performance but heavily relied upon for job employment
•
Performance management o Overestimation of above average performers and underestimation of below average performers
Double Curse • • •
Our lack of skill deprives us of the ability to improve on poor performance and also deprives us of the ability to recognize the poor performance The less skilled and knowledgeable we are, the less likely we are to recognize our deficiencies Women tend to underestimate their performance while men overestimated their performance
Bounded Rationality • • • • •
Individuals can ever make truly rational decisions due to limited information processing capabilities Decisions are made on basis of satisficing o Decisions made to satisfy minimum standards Decision making is always a social process Humans are acting on basis of incomplete information that exists in a social context and our biases then further shape our conclusions Decision making is a social process and management decision making is rarely rational
Decision Rules • • • •
Heuristics o Rules of thumb Formal Decision making rules Experiential decision making rules Culturally based decision making rules
Week 4 Values, Attitudes and Behaviour Values Attitudes Behaviour Values • • •
•
Enduring personal beliefs about what is important or valuable Expression of the right way to behave to support a preferred set of social arrangements Characterized in terms of o Intensity ▪ Level of significance o Content ▪ Terminal/Instrumental values Provide the normative basis for attitudes o Criteria against which we judge the person/event and form an attitude about it
Attitudes • • • • • • • •
•
Evaluative statement about a person/event Persistent tendency to feel and behave in a particular way towards the person/event Characterized by persistence, valance and direction Emotional Component o Positive/negative feeling Informational component o Judgements about the object, person, event based on values and beliefs Behavioural Component o Acting consistently in a certain way due to our attitude Helps predict behavior at work o Helps people to adjust to their environment and to express a value Employee attitudes can be changed after solving the barriers such as o Prior commitments o Insufficient information Ways to change attitudes o Involve dissatisfied people to improve the situation o Providing more information
Job Satisfaction • • •
Positive emotional response resulting from appraisal of one’s job or job experience Influenced by personal values Correlated with management practices o Human Relation approach o Training
Process of organizing and interpreting sensory data to make sense of your position Cognitive and emotional responses Social cognition o Our perceptions inform our decisions and actions about how we relate to other people
Limits to Perception • • •
Humans are good at recognizing patterns however the patterns become fixed and there is difficulty seeing anything else Not good at dealing with complexity and ambiguity Also involves background, education and social upbringing which influences perception of ourselves and others
Attribution theory •
•
Self serving nature of attribution erros o Tend to attribute our successes to internal factors and our failures to external factors o Tend to attribute the successes of others to external factors and their failures to internal factors Contrast Effect o To make yourself look better, stand next to someone who looks worse
Bias and other sources of error in decision making • • •
• • •
Confirmation bias o We see what confirms our assumptions and suits our desired course of action Halo Effect o Assume that if someone is good (bad) at one thing, they are good (bad) at everything Anchoring o Using the first piece of information we come across as the yardstick for subsequent experiences Availability o Basing judgements on information readily available to them Escalation of commitment o Increased commitment to previous decision in spite of negative information Non-decision making o Rely on taken for granted conventions to make decisions for us
Organisational impacts of biases •
Recruitment and Selection o Interviews are poor indicator of performance but heavily relied upon for job employment
•
Performance management o Overestimation of above average performers and underestimation of below average performers
Double Curse • • •
Our lack of skill deprives us of the ability to improve on poor performance and also deprives us of the ability to recognize the poor performance The less skilled and knowledgeable we are, the less likely we are to recognize our deficiencies Women tend to underestimate their performance while men overestimated their performance
Bounded Rationality • • • • •
Individuals can ever make truly rational decisions due to limited information processing capabilities Decisions are made on basis of satisficing o Decisions made to satisfy minimum standards Decision making is always a social process Humans are acting on basis of incomplete information that exists in a social context and our biases then further shape our conclusions Decision making is a social process and management decision making is rarely rational
Decision Rules • • • •
Heuristics o Rules of thumb Formal Decision making rules Experiential decision making rules Culturally based decision making rules
Week 4 Values, Attitudes and Behaviour Values Attitudes Behaviour Values • • •
•
Enduring personal beliefs about what is important or valuable Expression of the right way to behave to support a preferred set of social arrangements Characterized in terms of o Intensity ▪ Level of significance o Content ▪ Terminal/Instrumental values Provide the normative basis for attitudes o Criteria against which we judge the person/event and form an attitude about it
Attitudes • • • • • • • •
•
Evaluative statement about a person/event Persistent tendency to feel and behave in a particular way towards the person/event Characterized by persistence, valance and direction Emotional Component o Positive/negative feeling Informational component o Judgements about the object, person, event based on values and beliefs Behavioural Component o Acting consistently in a certain way due to our attitude Helps predict behavior at work o Helps people to adjust to their environment and to express a value Employee attitudes can be changed after solving the barriers such as o Prior commitments o Insufficient information Ways to change attitudes o Involve dissatisfied people to improve the situation o Providing more information
Job Satisfaction • • •
Positive emotional response resulting from appraisal of one’s job or job experience Influenced by personal values Correlated with management practices o Human Relation approach o Training
