Perception

Meaning of perception:
It is surprising that we receive some objects and reject others. It is equally surprising that an object received is understood differently by different people. Some view a painting as beautiful while others may see the same painting as ugly. The answer is perception, a strong component of human organism.

Definition:
In its simple sense perception is understood as the act of seeing what is there to be seen. But what is seen is influenced by the perceiver, the object, and the environment. The meaning of perception will be complete when all the three aspects are stressed. A few definitions of perception are given below: (i) Perception is the process of becoming aware of situations, of adding meaningful associations to sensations. (ii) Perception can be defined as the process of receiving, selecting, organizing, interpreting, checking, and reacting to sensory stimuli or data. (iii) Perception can be defined as a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environments. (iv) Perception includes all those processes by which an individual receives information about his environment - seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling. The study of these perceptional processes shows that their functioning is affected by three classes of variables - the objects or events being perceived, the environment in which perception occurs, and the individual doing the perceiving. The last definition is comprehensive.

Nature & Importance of Perception:

We often behave on the basis of what we perceive. What we perceive may not always be true. In the darkness, we often mistake a rope for a snake and consequently, we make a hasty retreat or use a stick. No, wonder that half a glass of water is viewed as half empty by some and half full by others. It is nothing but perception wherein one draws relevant information from the environment and attaches meaning to it. There are unique differences in the perceptions of individuals even though the perceived object or environment may be a stable one makes people behave differently. People appraise different aspects of the environment on the basis of their individual experiences and evaluate what they experience in terms of their needs and values. A specific example would be the universal assumption made by managers that subordinates always want promotions, when, in fact, many subordinates really feel psychologically forced to accept a promotion in other words, the perceptual world of the manager is quite different from the perceptual world of the subordinate, and both may be very different from reality.

It is equally surprising that an object received is understood differently by different people. Some view a painting as beautiful while others may see the same painting as ugly. Why these phenomena? The answer is perception, a strong component of human organism. Every person perceives the world and approaches the life problems differently. This factor is very important in understanding human behavior. We buy what we like best and what is best. It is because of perception that a particular job may appear a good job to one and bad to another. If people behave on the basis of their perception then changing behavior in a pre determined direction could be made easier by understanding their present perception of the world. People act as they perceive and different people perceive things differently. Peoples perception is determined by their needs. Perception is an important dynamite for the manager who wants to avoid making errors when dealing with people and events in the work settings. A mangers response to a situation, for example, may be misinterpreted by a subordinate who perceives the situation very differently. In order to deal with subordinates effectively, a manager must understand their perception properly.

Perceptual Process:
Perception process is composed of six processes, viz., receiving, selecting, organizing, interpreting, checking, and reacting to stimuli. These processes are influenced by the perceiver and the situation. Receiving: Perception is a process of receiving and interpreting stimuli. The perceptual process begins when stimuli are received through sensory organs. These stimuli enter our organism through the sensory organs-vision, hearing, smell, touch, taste. We may not be able to report the existence of certain stimuli, but our behaviour reveals that we are often subject to their influence. Stimuli need not be external to us they may be internal also. External stimuli include light waves, sound waves, mechanical energy or pressure, and chemical energy from objects that one can smell and taste. Internal stimuli include energy generated by muscles, food passing through the digestive system, and glands secreting behaviour influencing hormones. II. Perceptional Selectivity (Selecting Stimuli): The process of filtering information received by our senses is called selecting stimuli or selective attention. Several factors influence selective attention. Two sets of factors govern the selection of stimuli: There are (A) External and (B) Internal. (A) External Factors Influencing Selection: The external factors influencing selection are nature, location, intensity, size, contrast, repetition, motion, and novelty and familiarity. (i) Nature: By nature we mean, whether the object is visual or auditory, and whether it involves pictures, people or animals. It is well known that pictures attracts attention more readily than words, that a picture with human beings attracts attention more than a picture of inanimate objects alone, and that a rhyming auditory passage attracts attention more readily than the same passage presented as a narrative.

(ii) Location: The best location of a visual stimulus for attracting attention is directly in the front of the eyes in the centre of a page. When this location is not possible in a newspaper or a magazine, a position in the upper portion of a page is more favorable than one in the lower portions, and the left hand side receives more attention than the right hand side. (iii) Intensity: Stimuli of higher intensity are perceived more than the objects with low intensity. A loud noise, strong odor, or bright light will be noticed more than a soft sound, weak odor, or dim light. Advertisers use intensity to gain customers attention. (iv) Size: Generally, objects of larger size attract more attention than the smaller ones. The maintenance engineering staff may pay more attention to a big machine than to a small one, even though the smaller one costs as much and is as important to the operation. A 6 foot 4 inch, 260-pound supervisor may receive more attention from his subordinates than a 5 foot 10 inch 160-pound supervisor. In advertising, full-page spread attracts more attention than a few lines in the classified section. (v) Contrast: The contrast principle states that external stimuli which stand out against the background, or which are not what people are expecting, will receive their attention.

Figure illustrates this perpetual principle. The black circle on the right appears larger than the one on the left because of the background circles. In fact, both black circles are of the same size. In a similar manner, plant safety signs, which have black lettering on a yellow background or white lettering on a red background, are attention drawing. Training managers utilize this factor in organizing training programmes in places far away from away from work places to create contrast atmosphere. (vi) Movement: The principle of motion states that a moving object receives more attention than an object that is standing still. In a work environment, the attention of a workman will be focused more on a conveyor belt than on painting on walls or illumination. Advertisers capitalize on this principle by creating signs, which incorporate moving parts. (vii) Repetition: The repetition principle states that a repeated external stimulus is more attention drawing than a single one. The same advertisement of a product flashed daily on TV is based on the principle of repetition. This principle also explains why supervisors have to give directions to workers over and over again for even simple tasks.

(viii) Novelty and Familiarity: The novelty and familiarity principle states that either a novel or a familiar external situation can serve as an attention getter. New objects in familiar settings or familiar objects in new settings will draw the attention of the perceiver. Job rotation is an example of this principle. Changing workers jobs form time to time will tend to increase the attention they give to the task (B) Internal factors Influencing Selection: Internal factors influencing selection of stimuli include learning, psychological needs, age differences, interests, ambivalence, and paranoid perception. These factors relate to oneself. (i) Learning: Learning, a cognitive factor, has considerable influence on perception. It creates expectancy in people. People tend to perceive what they want to perceive. A number of illustrations have been used by psychologists to demonstrate the impact of learning on perception. Some are shown below. One tends to read the sentence, because of prior learning in the triangle as turnoff the engine. It takes a few seconds for the reader to realize that there is an extra the in the sentence. This illustration shows that learning creates expectancy in an individual and expectancy makes him see what he wants to see.

TURN OFF THE THE ENGINE

M-A-C-T-A-V-I-S-H M-A-C-D-O-N-A-L-D M-A-C-B-E-T-H M-A-C-H-I-N-E-R-Y

Another illustration is typical. The individual is likely to read the last word as Mac-Hinery instead of machinery. He is caught in what is known as verbal response set. (ii) Psychological Needs: Needs play a significant role in perpetual selectivity. Unreal things often look real because of deprived needs. A thirsty person in a desert, for instance, gets the illusion of water seeing sand from distance. In one experiment, people who were kept hungry for some time were shown some pictures and were asked to describe what they saw in them. Most of them reported more food items in such perceptions. (iii) Age Difference: Different perceptions of old and young executives are due to their age difference. The generation gaps witnessed in recent years definitely contribute to different perceptions. Older senior executives complain about the inability of the new young to take tough decisions concerning terminating or resigning people and paying attention to details and paper work. The young managers in turn complain about the old guards resisting change and using paper and rules as ends in themselves. (iv) Interest: Perception is unconsciously influenced by the interests of the perceiver. An architect will notice many details of buildings that he passes only once. Someone else may pass the same buildings everyday for years without ever observing such details. It has been argued that, in their influence on perception, interests cannot be distinguished from needs. That is, the person with a particular interest has a need to involve himself in activities pertaining to it.

(v) Ambivalence: Another factor in perpetual selection is ambivalence or mixed feelings about a situation. A young man may be ambivalent about his fiances virtues and shortcomings. She may be an attractive, charming, and poised girl with whom he likes to be seen, but she may also be insecure and have a poor self-concept. When she tries to compensate for these feelings by taking control of their relationship, he resents it and is anxious about the wisdom of his choice. But because of his physical attraction to her and because he wants to remain a success in his circle by having a beautiful fiance, he represses awareness of her negative qualities and selectively perceives only those that are favorable. Only after several years of marriage, when the selective perception of courtship has been given way before the all inclusive awareness of daily, intimate and prolonged contact, does he become sharply aware of what he repressed. (vi) Paranoid Perception: It is the characteristic of the emotionally disturbed person that his perceptional field differs from that of most other persons. He is given to excessive repression, projection, general distortion of reality, and personalized interpretation. His self-concept is poor and he is very insecure, as a result of which he behaves in an inflexible manner. III. Perceptional Organization: The perceptional selection related to the discussion of external and internal factors, which helped gain the perceivers attention. The stimuli received must be organized so as to assign some meaning to them. This aspect of forming bits of information into meaningful wholes is called the perpetual organization. There are three dimensions to the perpetual organization, viz., figure ground, perpetual grouping, and perpetual constancy. (i) Figure Ground: The ground principle states that relationship of a target to its background influences perception. In other words, according to the principle, perceived objects stand out as separable from their general background. For example, illustrate the figure ground principle. Figure may at first look like a white vase. However, if white is taken as the background, we see two gray profiles.

We can see figure-ground relationship through senses other than vision. For example, we may hear the song of a bird against a background of outdoor noises or the melody played by the violin against the harmony of the rest of the orchestra.

(ii) Perpetual Grouping: The principles of grouping first defined by gestalt psychologists include similarity proximity closure, and continuity. (a) Similarity: The principle of similarity is exemplified when objects of similar shape, size, or color tend to be grouped together. In an organization, for example, all employees who wear white-collars may be perceived as a common group, when, in reality, each worker is a unique individual.

- - - + + + - - - + + + - - - -

+ + -

- - - + + + - - - + + + - - - -

The signs in the figure are perceived as five rows rather than the seven columns, even though the distances between the rows and columns are equal. (b) Proximity: The principle of proximity underlines the tendency to perceive stimuli, which are near one another as belonging together. For example, several employees in an organization may be identified as a single group because of physical proximity. Similarly, several workers working on a machine are perceived to be one group and the group as a whole is held responsible for any failure in the machine. Figure demonstrates the proximity principle. The eight circles in the figure are seen as pairs of two, three, or four depending on their nearness to one another.

(c) Closures: The principles of closures states that a person has a tendency to perceive a whole when none exists. The persons perpetual process will close the gaps, which are unfilled from sensory inputs. In figure the figures are recognized as a square, triangle, and number.

(d) Continuity: The principle of continuity assumes that an individual tends to perceive continuous lines or patterns. The individual sees only obvious lines but fails to have creative thinking. A new decisions for a product, for example, may be perceived by him as mere lines but the innovative ideas are lost by him. (iii) Perpetual Constancy: A more subtle part of perpetual organization is constancy, our ability to perceive certain characteristics of an object as remaining constant, despite variations in the stimuli that provide us with our information. Such constancy amidst changing stimuli is indispensable if we are to adjust to our world. There are several aspects of constancy. (a) Shape constancy: One of these, shape constancy, is exemplified whenever an object appears to maintain its shape despite marked changed in the retinal image. For example, we see the top of a glass bottle as circular whether we view it from the side or from the top. (b) Size constancy: Another is size constancy, which refers to the fact that as an object is moved farther away we tend to see it as more or less invariant in size. For example, football players on the opposite side of the field do not look appreciably smaller than those closer to you on the field even though their images on the retina are much smaller. (c) Color constancy: Then there is the color constancy, which implies that familiar objects are perceived to be of the same color in varied conditions. For example, the owner of a blue car sees it as blue whether looking at it in bright sunlight, in dim illumination, or under a yellow street light. Constancy gives a person a sense of stability in a changing world. If constancy were not at work the world would be very chaotic and disorganized for the individual. An organizational example would be the worker who must select a piece of material or a tool of the correct size from a wide variety of materials and tools at varying distances from a workstation. Without perpetual constancy, the sizes, and colors of objects would change as the worker moved about and would make the job almost impossible. IV. The Process of Interpreting (Perceptual Errors): After the data have been received and organized, the perceiver interprets or assigns meaning to the information. In fact, perception is said to have taken place only after the data have been interpreted. Several, factors contribute towards the interpretation of data. More important amongst them are perceptual set, attribution, stereotyping, halo effect, perceptual context, perceptual defence, implicit personality theory and projection.

i) Perceptual Set: Previously-held beliefs about objects influence an individuals perceptions of similar objects. This is called perceptual set. For example, a manager may have developed general beliefs and attitudes that workers are lazy and shirkers, and that they want to gain whatever is possible from the organization without giving of their best to it. His or Her subsequent perception will be influenced by this set when he or she meets a group of workers. The manager tends to interpret the behaviour of the workers according to his mental set. ii) Attribution: Attribution refers to the process by which the individual assigns causes to the behaviour he or she conceives. People are interested not only in observing behaviour in organization but in determining its causes. Their evaluation of and reactions to others behaviour may be heavily influenced by their perception that the others are responsible for their behaviour. For example, a nurse who drops a tray of medicine will be excused if the incident is perceived as caused by a slippery floor, chastised if it is viewed to be caused by her clumsiness, and perhaps fired if it is viewed as a deliberate act. iii) Stereotyping: It is the tendency to assign attributes to someone solely on the basis of category of people to which that person belongs. The process of stereotyping helps individuals assign meaning to a mass of data. Some examples of common stereotypes are women, doctors, professors, artists, software engineers, executives, workers, and the like. At a broader level, there are Americans, Indians, Britishers, and Africans. Though stereotype is understood as wrong or bad, this is not the case always. It is a useful process that greatly increases ones efficiency in making sense out of his or her environment. Nonetheless, stereotyping can lead to inaccuracies and negative consequences. To the extent that stereotypes create social injustice, result in poor decision-making, stifle innovation, or cause underutilization of human resources, they contribute to ineffectiveness and inefficiency. iv) Halo Effect: The halo effect refers to the tendency of perceiving people in terms of good and bad, and ascribing all good qualities to one who is liked and all bad qualities to another who is disliked. A typical example of the halo effect is a professor awarding more marks to a well-liked student. A common phenomenon in communication is the tendency for a receiver to evaluate information on the basis of its source. Information emanating from a VIP tends to be overrated and the same coming from an ordinary individual is likely to be discounted. Halo effect need not always mean overrating positive characteristics. An individual may be downrated based on the negative evaluation of his or her behaviour. This process is called rusty halo or horn effect. In organizations, the halo effect often occurs when supervisors rate subordinates in a formal appraisal. In this context, a manager evaluating one of his employees on certain dimensions may assume that someone who is good in one dimension must also be good at other things and rate the person highly on other aspects. v) Perceptual Context: The context in which an object is placed influences perception. The organizational culture and structure provide the primary context in which workers and managers do their perceiving. Thus, a verbal order, a memo, a new policy, a suggestion, a raised eyebrow, or a pat on the back takes on special meaning and value when placed in the context of a work situation.

vi) Perceptual Defence: According to the principle of perceptual defense, an individual is likely to put up a defence when confronted with conflicting, unacceptable, or threatening stimuli. The defence mechanisms put up by the perceiver may assume any of four forms: outright denial, modification of the data received, change in perception but refusal to change, and change in perception itself. vii) Implicit Personality Theory: In judging and making inferences about others, an individuals perceptions are influenced by his belief that certain human traits are associated with one another. For example, the trait honestly is associated with hardworking, all industrious people are perceived to be honest. viii) Projection: Under certain conditions, people tend to see in another person traits that they themselves possess. That is, they project their own feelings, tendencies, or motives into their judgment of others. This may be particularly true regarding undesirable traits, which the perceiver possesses but fails to recognize in himself. For example, an individuals who is himself not very energetic may see others as lazy or may explain their lack of achievement as resulting from their unwillingness to work hard. One who is dishonest may be suspicious of others and may perceive dishonest intentions in others where they do not exist. People who are afraid may interpret others behaviour as fearful or anxious. V. The Process of Checking After data have been received and interpreted, the perceiver tends to check whether his interpretations are right or wrong. One way of checking is for the person himself or herself to indulge in introspection. He or she will put a series of questions to himself or herself and the answer will confirm whether his or her perception about an individual or object is correct or otherwise. Another way is to check the veracity about the interpretation with others. VI. The Process of Reacting The last phase in the perception is the reaction. The perceiver will indulge in some action in relation to his or her perception. The action depends on whether the perception is favorable or unfavorable. It is positive when the perception is favorable and negative when the perception is unfavorable. For example, a worker responds favorably to the motivational intentions of a manager provided his or her understanding about his or her boss is favorable. The response is negative when his perception of the managers behaviour is unfavorable. *******

Social Perception
Social perception consists of those processes by which we perceive other people. It is the processes of interpreting information about other people. We often appraise performance of others on the basis of how we perceive their behaviors. It is on the basis of accurate social or interpersonal perception that managers can cultivate effective and meaningful relationships with their peers, supervisors, as well as subordinates. The factors influencing social perception are, in a general sense, the same as those that influence perceptional selection, that is, both external and internal factors. However, when a human being perceives another human being, the factors may be categorized as follows: 1. Characteristics of the perceiver 2. Characteristics of the perceived 3. Characteristics of the situation or context 1. Characteristics of the Perceiver: (a) Self-Concept: A person with a positive self-concept tends to notice positive attributes in another person. The converse happens with a person with negative self-concept. A manager with a strong sense of insecurity is likely to perceive his subordinates efforts to do an excellent job as a threat to his own position or importance. A greater understanding of self allows a person to have more accurate perception of others. Often we tend to perceive those characteristics in others, which are present in us. People who are power-seekers are more likely to notice power-related stimuli. Socially oriented individuals are more likely to pay attention towards the interpersonal characteristics of others. (b) Cognitive Structure: An individuals pattern of thinking also affects social perception. Some people have a tendency to perceive physical traits such as appearance, height, or weight, whereas some others tend to focus more on central traits, or personality depositions. Those who have more than complex cognitive structure and are able to use multiple criteria are able to make more accurate perception of others. The same person may be described as short stature, friendly, honest, but aggressive and hardworking. (c) Attitude/Mood: Our attitudes often color our perception. A lean guy may be rejected for a job that calls for strong persons, on the assumption that lean people are weak. Similarly, female candidates are likely to be rejected in jobs calling for tough negotiators. In a happy mood, we are likely to perceive positive things, whereas in a negative mood, we tend to evaluate others unfavorably. (d) Familiarity with Others: When we are familiar with a person, we have multiple observations upon which to base our impression of him/her. If the information we have gathered during these observations is accurate, we may have an accurate perception of the other person. However, familiarity does not always mean accuracy. Sometimes, when we know a person well, there is a danger that we screen out information that is inconsistent with what we believe the person is like. When an employee has consistently received poor performance evaluations, a marked improvement in performances may go unnoticed because the manager continues to think of the individual as a poor performer. Too much familiarity is believed to breed contempt. When we know a person for long, we also come to know his weakness and for our own reasons, start perceiving his actions in that light.

2. Characteristics of the Perceived: (a) Physical Appearance: Physical appearance plays a significant role in our perception of others. We often notice height, weight, age, race, gender, clothing, shoes, and overall appearance of a person-how he or she looks. People dressed in business suits are generally thought to be professionals. An assertive goal oriented confident and articulate person is often thought as a natural leader. We are more accurate in judging people who like us than people who dislike us. (b) Verbal Communication: Verbal communication tells many a thing about the person being perceived. The topic we chose to speak about, voice tone, accent, and so on, constitute important inputs for forming impressions of others. What one says as well as how one says it, both are important. The precision with which one uses language may indicate cultural sophistication or education. An accent may provide clues about a persons geographic and social background. The tone of voice may provide clues about a speakers state of mind. The topic chosen to converse about may provide clues about what is on the persons mind. (c) Nonverbal Cues: Perceptions are also influenced by non-verbal cues, that is, how people behave. People say, Face is the index of the mind. Facial expressions provide enough clues about the personality of the person being perceived. People who consistently smile are often thought to have positive attitudes. The way people express their inner feelings sub-consciously through physical actions-sitting up straight or sitting relaxed, looking straight in the eyes or looking away provides information to the perceiver concerning how approachable they are, how confident they are, or how sociable they are. Eye contact, facial expressions, body movements, and posture are all deciphered by the perceiver in an attempt to form an impression of the other. (d) Ascribed Attributes: Sometimes we ascribe certain attributes to people before or at the beginning of an encounter; these attributes influence how we perceive a person. When two persons enter the bus from the front door, we ascribe different reasons for doing so if we happen to know their status. A high status person might have done so in a hurry, whereas the low status person might have done the same thing to avoid purchasing a ticket. Research has consistently shown that people attribute different motives to people they believe to be high or low in status, even when these people behave in an identical fashion. Similarly, occupations also play an important role in how we perceive people. Describing people as salesmen, accountants, civil servants, doctor, engineer, and so on, creates distinct pictures of these people. Of course, we also form an impression of a person at the first sight by looking at ones personal characteristics. (e) Intentions: The perceiver also tries to figure out the intentions of the perceived by looking at his behavior. On the basis of the perceived intentions, the perceiver forms an impression of the perceived. When a person visits ones place after a long time and goes back without talking about anything significant, one often wonders: why did he come? Depending upon our reading of his intentions, we start explaining his behavior.

3. Characteristics of the Situation: (a) Context of Interaction: The situation in which interaction takes place between the perceiver and the perceived has an influence on the perceivers impression of the other. Even timing of the event plays an important role. In an unhappy situation, even a happy event may be viewed differently to the extent we may even charge a person doing so of laughing at us in our distress. The purpose of interpersonal perception also has group context. When people are given an opportunity to interact in a friendly atmosphere, they tend to see others as similar to themselves. Perceptions are also more influenced by relatively unfamiliar people in the group than by those who are closer to us because we always give more credit to strangers for processing knowledge. (b) Strength of Situational Cues: Sometimes some situations provide strong cues as to appropriate behavior. We may even discount the behavior by saying that the behavior is accounted for by the situation and it does not reflect the individuals disposition. If a student has noted certain material on his arm before he enters the examination hall, he is likely to copy it on to the answer sheet if warranted by the situation. (c) Organizational Role: The place in the organizational hierarchy can influence perceptions. Often in organizations, people identify problems on the basis of their departmental affiliations. Perceptions of people also vary according to their levels in the hierarchy, that is, whether they belong to management or unions, or superiors or subordinates. Numerous studies have shown that perceptions of supervisors or subordinates about the same situation are rarely similar. If this were not so, hierarchical conflict would never have developed. (d) Location of Event: Where the event occurs influences the interpretation of the event. Putting legs up on the table may be indicative of a relaxed mood at home, but not in the office. The context in which the perceptual activity takes places is important. The characteristics of the perceiver, the perceived and the situation put together determine the impression we form of others and that others form of us. Consequently, the importance of understanding the perpetual process as well as factors that contribute to it is apparent for managers. A better understanding of ourselves and careful attention to others leads to more accurate perceptions. It would be wonderful if all of us had accurate social perception skills. Unfortunately, some barriers often prevent us from perceiving others accurately.

Attribution Theory
This theory suggests that we observe behaviour and then attribute causes to it; that is, we attempt to explain why people behave as they do. The process of attribution is based on perceptions of reality and these perceptions may vary widely among individuals. The theory posits that the behaviour of others can be examined on the basis of its distinctiveness, consistency, and consensus. Distinctiveness is the degree to which a person behaves similarly in different situations. Consistency is the degree to which a person engages in the same behaviour at different times. Consensus is the degree to which other people are engaging in the same behaviour. As a result of various combinations of consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness, we form impressions of our attributions to the causes of behaviour. We may believe that behaviour is caused informally (by force within a person, for example, ability) or externally (by forces in the persons environment, for example, task). Under conditions of high consistency, high distinctiveness, and high consensus, the perceiver will tend to attribute the behaviour of the perceived person to external causes. When distinctiveness and consensus are low, the perceiver will tend to attribute the behaviour to internal causes. Of course, other combinations of high and low consistency, distinctiveness and consensus are possible. Some combinations, however, may not provide the perceiver with a clear choice between internal and external causes. Attribution theory has important implications for managers. If the manager attributes poor performance to internal factors, he or she can adopt certain strategies to improve those factors. On the other hand, if the manager attributes poor performance to external factors, he or she can take relevant steps to improve performance. One can make attribution to oneself. If one attribute a pay raise to hard work, he or she continues to work hard. Instead, if poor performance is attributed to external factors (such as boss friendliness), he or she may put more effort into cementing that friendship.

Impression Management
O late, impression management has become a fascinating subject of study; though at all times people must have attempted to create favorable impressions on others and engaged in damaged-control exercise. That is, people must have followed a two-pronged strategy of not only preventing unfavorable impression from being created but also of having a positive impact on the perceivers mind. As there is a rat race in organizations and every individuals has an upward focus to climb up the organizational ladder where opportunities are scarce, the subject has acquired new significance from the organizational behaviour point of view. We will therefore, look at how people avoid bad impression and how they create good impression. The process of impression management has, according to Leary and Lowalski, two components; Impression motivation and Impression construction. Impression motivation refers to the reason why an individual wants to, create an impression. The degree of impression motivation depends on factors like how relevant it is for the individuals goals, the value of these goals the discrepancy he perceives between the image he likes to build and the image that he believes presently exists. The other component of impression construction is concerned with the type of impression one wants to create and the way one does it. For the purpose, they identify five factors: self-concept, desired and undesired identity images, role constraints, targets values, and current social image. From the foregoing discussion, it can be made out that one can possibly use two types of strategies: preventive strategy and enhancing strategy. To avoid negative impression, one may find excuses, or apologies with apparent sincerity or even dissociate oneself with the wrong events. This is preventive strategy. On the other hand, in order to improve image, one may register it with those who matter that more credit is due to him, or that he is happy his efforts have borne fruit, or that despite serious obstacles, he has made things possible, or that he moves in a company that suggests that he has the right connections for getting things done. In the process of impression management, there is a possibility that a subordinate presents himself as a person he is not. A deliberate attempt at manipulating superiors perceptions for credit that is not due to him is not in the organizations interest. At any rate, one can make a fool of some one for some time. Reality is bitter when there is revelation. One will get exposed very soon. However, it is observed that some people are able to manage their career advancements from one stage to another through sheer manipulation either because by the time their true color is known, they are able to move to the next stage where they have a new superior or because ostensibly they have connections with bigwigs. Evaluation of a subordinate is a real test of a superiors powers of judgment.

Managing the Perception Process

Successful managers understand the importance of perception as an influencing factor on behaviour and they act accordingly. They are aware of perceptual distortions and also know that perceptual differences are likely to exist in any situation. As a result, they try to make decisions and take action with a true understanding of the work situation as it is viewed by all persons concerned. A manager who is skilled in the perception process will: 1. Have a high level of self-awareness: Individual needs, experience, and expectations can all affect perceptions. The successful manager knows this and is able to identify when he or she is inappropriately distorting a situation because of such perceptual tendencies. 2. Seek information from various sources to confirm or disconfirm personal impressions of a decision situation: The successful manager minimizes the biases of personal perceptions by seeking out the viewpoints of others. These insights are used to gain additional perspective on situations and the problems or opportunities they represent. 3. Be empathetic-that is, be able to see a situation as it is perceived by other people: Different people will define the same situation somewhat differently. The successful manager rises above personal impressions to understand problems are seen by other people. 4. Influence perceptions of other people when they are drawing incorrect or incomplete impressions of events in the work setting: People act in terms of their perceptions. The successful manager is able to influence the perceptions of others so that work events and situations are interpreted as accurately as possible and to the advantage of all concerned. 5. Avoid common perceptual distortions that bias our views of people and situations: These distortions include the use of stereotypes and halo effects, as well as selective perception and projection. Successful managers are self-disciplined and sufficiently self-aware so that the adverse impacts of these distortions are minimized. 6. Avoid inappropriate attributions: Everyone has a tendency to try and explain why events happened the way they did or why people behaved as they did. The successful manager is careful to establish the real reasons why things happen and avoid quick or inappropriate attributions of casualty. 7. Diversity management programmes: As firms globalize themselves, diversity management assumes greater relevance. The challenge for corporate executives is to leverage the benefits of this diversity while minimizing the perceptual and behavioral problems that tend to accompany heterogeneity. OB experts have designed diversity management programmes. Typically, these training programmes serve two purposes. First, they communicate the value of diversity. Second, these programmes help participants become aware of their personal biases and give them more accurate information about people with different backgrounds, thus avoiding perceptual distortions. 8. Know yourself: Apply the Johari window to know the real self. A powerful way to minimize perceptual biases is to know and become more aware of ones values, beliefs, and prejudice.

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References: Robbins, P, Stephens, (2003), Organizational Behavior, New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India Pvt. Ltd. Aswathappa, K. (2005), Organizational Behavior, New Delhi: Himalaya Publishing House. **********