Amity Center for e-Learning

Organizational Behavior
Session : 2

Ms. Snigdha Malhotra

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MODULE 3: INDIVIDUAL

• Perception
• Personality and attitude
• Conflict Management
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PERCEPTION
“ The study of perception is concerned with identifying the process
through which we interpret and organize sensory information to
produce our conscious experience of objects and object relationship.”

“ Perception is the process of receiving information about and making

sense of the world around us. It involves deciding which information
to notice, how to categorize this information and how to interpret it
within the framework of existing knowledge.

“ A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory

impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.
THE PERCEPTUAL PROCESS Amity Center for e-Learning

1. Sensation 3. Organization
– An individual’s ability – The process of placing
to detect stimuli in the selected perceptual
immediate stimuli into a
environment. framework for
1. Selection “storage.”
– The process a person 3. Translation
uses to eliminate some – The stage of the
of the stimuli that have perceptual process at
been sensed and to which stimuli are
retain others for further interpreted and given
processing. meaning.
PERCEPTUAL
• PROCESS
Selecting Stimuli
External factors : Nature,
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Location, Size, contrast,
Receiving Stimuli Movement, repetition, similarity
(External & Internal) Internal factors : Learning,
needs, age, Interest,

Organizing
Interpreting
Figure Background ,
Attribution ,Stereotyping,
Perceptual Grouping
Halo Effect, Projection
( similarity, proximity,
closure, continuity)

Response
Covert: Attitudes ,
Motivation,
Feeling
Overt: Behavior
FACTORS INFLUENCING PERCEPTION
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Factors in the perceiver
• Attitudes
• Motives
• Interests
• Experience
• Expectations

Factors in the situation

Perception
• Time
• Work Setting
• Social Setting
Factors in the Target
• Novelty
• Motion
• Sounds
• Size
• Background
• Proximity
• Similarity
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MODEL OF THE PERCEPTION PROCESS
External Frame of
phenomena reference filter
(objective reality)
Past experiences:
Knowledge
Feelings
Phenomenon 1 Analytical process
The five senses Observation & Assignment of
Phenomenon 2 and the mind selection of meaning
focus Present experience: (person's reality)
Phenomenon 3
Knowledge change
Current feelings
New analytical process Behavior of
person
 COMMON PERCEPTUAL DISTORTIONS/
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SHORT CUTS?

Stereotypes or prototypes:
Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the
group to which that persons belongs.
– Combines information based on the category or class to
which a person, situation, or object belongs.
– Strong impact at the organization stage.

– Individual differences are obscured.

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Halo effects:
Drawing a general impressions about an individual on the
basis of a single charecteristics
– Occur when one attribute of a person or situation is used to
develop an overall impression of the individual or
situation.
– Likely to occur in the organization stage.
– Individual differences are obscured.
– Important in the performance appraisal process.
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Selective perception:
People selectively interpret what they see on the basis of their
interests, background, experience and attitudes.
– The tendency to single out those aspects of a situation,
person, or object that are consistent with one’s needs,
values, or attitudes.
– Strongest impact is at the attention stage.
– Perception checking with other persons can help counter
the adverse impact of selective perception.
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Projection:
Attributing one's own characteristics to other people.
– The assignment of one’s personal attributes to other
individuals.
– Especially likely to occur in interpretation stage.
– Projection can be controlled through a high degree of self-
awareness and empathy.
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Contrast effects:

Evaluation of a person’s characteristics that are effected by

comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank
higher or lower on the same characteristics
– Occur when an individual is compared to other people on

the same characteristics on which the others rank higher or

lower.
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Perceptual organization
• It is the process by which we group outside stimuli into
recognizable and identifiable patterns and whole objects.

• Certain factors are considered to be important contributors on

assembling, organizing and categorizing information in the
human brain. These are:
- Figure ground
- Perceptual grouping

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Figure-Ground Illustration
• Field-ground differentiation
– The tendency to distinguish
and focus on a stimulus that
is classified as figure as
opposed to background.

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PERCEPTUAL GROUPING

• Our tendency to group several individual stimuli into a meaningful and

recognizable pattern.

• It is very basic in nature and largely it seems to be inborn.

• Some factors underlying grouping are

-continuity
-closure
-proximity
-similarity

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Person Perception: Making

Judgments About Others

Organizational Behavior /
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Perception
 Attribution
Theory Amity Center for e-Learning
When individuals observe behavior, they attempt to determine

whether it is internally or externally caused.

observation Interpretation Attribution of cause
H
External
Distictinctiveness
L Internal

H
External
ndividual behavior Consensus
L Internal

H
Internal
Consistency
L
External
Organizational Behavior /
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H –high L- Low Perception
 Consistency
Distictiveness Consensus Amitythis
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person
Does this person Do other person behave
behave in Behave in the in this same
this manner Same manner? manner at other
in other situation times ?

No Yes
YES Low High Internal
Low Consensus Consistency Attribution
Distinctiveness
NO No
Yes Low
External

High High
Attribution

Distinctiveness Consistency
Consensus
Organizational Behavior /
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Perception
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CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
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Organizational Conflict
– The discord that arises when goals,
interests or values of different
individuals or groups are incompatible
and those people block or thwart each
other’s efforts to achieve their
objectives.
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• Organizational Conflict
– Conflict is inevitable given the wide range
of goals for the different stakeholder in the
organization.
• Lack of conflict signals that management
emphasizes conformity and stifles innovation.
• Conflict is good for organizational performance
although excessive conflict causes managers to
spend too much time achieving their own ends.
The Effect of Conflict on Organization
PerformanceAmity Center for e-Learning
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Types of Conflict
 Types of Conflict Amity Center for e-Learning

• Interpersonal Conflict
– Conflict between individuals due to
differences in their goals or values.
• Intragroup Conflict
– Conflict within a
group or team.
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Types of Conflict
• Intergroup Conflict
– Conflict between two or more teams,
groups or departments.
– Managers play a key role in resolution
of this conflict
• Interorganizational Conflict
– Conflict that arises across
organizations.
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Sources of Conflict
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Sources of Conflict
• Different Goals and Time
Horizons
– Different groups have differing goals
and focus.
• Overlapping Authority
– Two or more managers claim authority
for the same activities which leads to
conflict between the managers and
workers.
 Sources of Conflict Amity Center for e-Learning

• Task Interdependencies
– One member of a group or a group fails
to finish a task that another member or
group depends on, causing the waiting
worker or group to fall behind.
• Different Evaluation or Reward
Systems
– A group is rewarded for achieving a
goal, but another interdependent
group is rewarded for achieving a goal
that conflicts with the first group.
 Sources of Conflict Amity Center for e-Learning

• Scarce Resources
– Managers can come into conflict over
the allocation of scare resources.
• Status Inconsistencies
– Some individuals and groups
have a higher organizational
status than others, leading to
conflict with lower status groups.
 Conflict Management
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Strategies
• Functional Conflict Resolution
– Handling conflict by compromise or
collaboration between parties.
 Conflict Management
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Strategies
C
O
N
C
E HIG
R H
N

F
O
LO
R
W
O
T
H HIGH LOW
E
R CONCERN FOR
S SELF
 Conflict Management
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Strategies
• Compromise
– each party is concerned about their goal
accomplishment and is willing to engage in
give-and-take exchange to reach a
reasonable solution.
• Collaboration
– parties try to handle the conflict without
making concessions by coming up with a
new way to resolve their differences that
leaves them both better off.
 Conflict Management
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Strategies
• Accommodation
– one party simply gives in to the other
party
• Avoidance
– two parties try to ignore the problem
and do nothing to resolve the
disagreement
 Conflict Management
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Strategies
• Competition
– each party tries to maximize its own
gain and has little interest in
understanding the other’s position

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Negotiation
• Third-party negotiator
– an impartial individual with expertise
in handling conflicts
– helps parties in conflict reach an
acceptable solution
 Third-party Negotiators Amity Center for e-Learning

• Mediators
– facilitates negotiations but no
authority to impose a solution
• Arbitrator
– can impose what he thinks is a fair
solution to a conflict that both parties
are obligated to abide by
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Distributive Negotiation
• Distributive negotiation
– Parties perceive that they have a “fixed
pie” of resources that they need to
divide
– Take a competitive adversarial stance
– See no need to interact in the future
– Do not care if their interpersonal
relationship is damaged by their
competitive negotiation
 Integrative Bargaining Amity Center for e-Learning

• Integrative bargaining
– Parties perceive that they might be able
to increase the resource pie by trying to
come up with a creative solution to the
conflict
– View the conflict as a win-win situation
in which both parties can gain
– Handled through collaboration or
compromise

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PERSONALITY AND ATTITUDE

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What is Personality?
When psychologists talk of personality, they mean a dynamic
concept describing the growth and development of a person’s
whole psychological system.
Rather than looking at parts of the person, personality looks
at some aggregate whole that is greater than the sum of the
parts.
What is Personality?
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 Personality Determinants Amity Center for e-Learning

• •Heredity
Heredity
• •Environment
Environment
• •Situation
Situation

Heredity: refers to those factors that were determined at

conception. Physical structure, facial attractiveness,
gender, temperament, energy level etc.
Environment: Among the factors that exert pressures on
our personality formation are the culture in which we are
raised, our early conditioning, the norms among our
family, friends and social groups etc.
Situation: influences the effects of heredity and
environment on personality. An individual’s generally
stable and consistent, does change in different situations.
 Personality Traits
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Sixteen
Primary Traits
 The Myers-Briggs Type
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Indicator
MBTI is one of the most
widely used personality
frameworks which has no
hard evidence as valid
measure of personality.

Personality
PersonalityTypes
Types
• •Extroverted
ExtrovertedororIntroverted
Introverted(E (EororI)I)
• •Sensing
SensingororIntuitive
Intuitive(S
(SororN)
N)
• •Thinking
ThinkingororFeeling
Feeling(T
(TororF)
F)
• •Perceiving
PerceivingororJudging
Judging(P(PororJ)J)
TheAmityBig Five
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Model
Major Personality Amity
Attributes
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Influencing OB
• Locus of control
• Machiavellianism
• Self-esteem
• Self-monitoring
• Propensity for risk taking
• Type A personality
Locus of Control
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Machiavellianism Amity Center for e-Learning

Conditions
ConditionsFavoring
FavoringHigh
HighMachs
Machs
• •Direct
Directinteraction
interaction
• •Minimal
Minimalrules
rulesand
andregulations
regulations
• •Distracting
Distractingemotions
emotions
Self-Esteem and Self-
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Monitoring
 Risk-Taking Amity Center for e-Learning

• High Risk-taking Managers

– Make quicker decisions.
– Use less information to make decisions.
– Operate in smaller and more entrepreneurial organizations.
• Low Risk-taking Managers
– Are slower to make decisions.
– Require more information before making decisions.
– Exist in larger organizations with stable environments.
• Risk Propensity
– Aligning managers’ risk-taking propensity to job
requirements should be beneficial to organizations.
Personality Types
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Personality Types
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Personality Assessment
• How does one measure another’s personality?
Methods include:
– interviews and observation
– projective personality tests
– objective personality tests
• We will now discuss each of these in some depth
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Interviews and Observation

• Interviews consist of dialogue with the person in an effort to
detect their ideas, beliefs, and values
– when you first meet someone you have likely engaged in
this method of personality assessment

• Observation consists of watching the person in various

situations over time in an effort to discern their ideas, beliefs,
values, and behavior patterns
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Projective Personality Tests

• These are based on the belief that the unconscious mind contains the roots
of personality

• They are based on a psychoanalytic view of personality

• Types of projective tests include:

– Rorshach Inkblot test
– Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
– Word- and free-association tests
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Objective Personality Tests

• Objective tests attempt to overcome

the subjectivity of interviews and
projective tests by using paper-pencil
multiple choice tests
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Evaluation of Personality
Tests
• Results of research on personality tests suggest caution in
relying exclusively on the interpretations of personality tests

• Results suggest that personality tests are useful, but that

results from these tests should be used to confirm other data
gathered on a person and not used as the sole assessment tool
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Application of Psychology
• Situational influences on personality in everyday life

– situations in our lives have a powerful influence on our general

behavior
– situations can, if extreme, radically change our general way of
behaving

• would you ever consider eating another human?

• would you ever kill, lie, or commit betrayal?
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THANK YOU