Organizational behavior core concepts by kinicki chapter2

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Organizational Behavior
core concepts

Perception and Diversity:
Why Viewpoints Differ
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McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Organizational Behavior, Core Concepts

Copyright © 2008 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.


Learning Objectives
• Describe perception in terms of the social
information processing model
• Give examples of how social perception affects
organizational behavior
• Explain how individuals formulate causal
attributions
• Discuss why diversity is important in today’s
organizations
• Summarize organizational practices for
managing diversity
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Social Perception: A Social
Information Processing Model

Figure 4-1

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Figure 2-1


A Social Information Processing
Model of Perception
• Perception
– the process of interpreting one’s
environment.

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A Social Information Processing
Model of Perception
Social perception involves a four-stage
information processing sequence
1. Selective attention/comprehension
2. Encoding and simplification
3. Storage and retention
4. Retrieval and response

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Stage 1: Selective

Attention/Comprehension
• Attention
– being consciously aware of
something or someone
• Salient
– something that stands out from context

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Stage 2: Encoding and
Simplification
• Cognitive categories
– mental depositories for storing information
• Schema
– mental picture of an event or object

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Question?
What is a belief about the characteristics of a
group?
A. Consensus
B. Stereotype
C. Personality
D. Trait

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Stage 2: Encoding and
Simplification
• Stereotype
– belief about the characteristics of a group
• Not always negative
• May or may
not be accurate

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Stage 2: Encoding and
Simplification
• Stereotypes
– Can lead to poor decisions
– Can create barriers for older individuals,
people of color, and people with disabilities
– Can undermine loyalty and job satisfaction

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Stereotyping Process
1. Categorize people into groups according to
various criteria
2. Infer that all people within a category possess
the same traits
3. Form expectations of others and interpret
their behavior according to our stereotypes

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Stereotyping Process
4. Stereotypes are maintained by:
• Overestimating the frequency of
stereotypic behavior exhibited by others
• Incorrectly explaining expected and
unexpected behaviors
• Differentiating minority individuals from
oneself

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Common Perceptual Errors

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Stage 3: Storage and Retention
• Event memory
– information about both specific and general
events
• Semantic memory
– general knowledge about the world, mental
dictionary of concepts
• Person memory
– information about a single individual or

groups of people
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Stage 4: Retrieval and Response
• Decisions are based:
– On the process of drawing on, interpreting,
and integrating categorical information
stored in long-term memory
– Retrieving a summary judgment that was
already made

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Cultural Influences:
Perceptions of Time
• Monochronic time
– preference for doing one thing at a time
because time is limited, precisely
segmented, and schedule driven
• Polychronic time
– preference for doing more than one thing at
a time because time is flexible and
multidimensional
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Managerial Implications: Hiring
• Interviewers make hiring decisions based on

their impression of how an applicant fits the
perceived requirements of a job
• Inaccurate impressions
in either direction
produce poor hiring
decisions

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Managerial Implications:
Performance Appraisal
• Important for managers to accurately identify
the behavioral characteristics and results
indicative of good performance
• Characteristics serve as the benchmarks for
evaluating employee performance

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Managerial Implications:
Leadership
Good leaders exhibit the following behaviors:
– Assigning specific tasks to group members
– Telling others they had done well
– Setting specific goals for the group
– Letting other group members make
decisions
– Trying to get the group to work as a team

– Maintaining definite standards of
performance
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Managerial Implications:
Leadership
• Poor leaders exhibit the following behaviors:
– Telling others they had performed poorly
– Insisting on having their own way
– Doing things without explaining themselves
– Expressing worry over the group members
suggestions
– Frequently changing plans
– Letting the details of the task become
overwhelming
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Causal Attributions
• Causal Attributions
– suspected or inferred causes of
behavior

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Kelley’s Model of Attribution
• Internal factors
– personal characteristics that cause behavior

• External factors
– environmental characteristics that cause
behavior

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Question?
What involves comparing a person’s behavior on
one task with the behavior from other tasks?
A. Consensus
B. Distinctiveness
C. Consistency
D. Personality

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Kelley’s Model of Attribution
• Consensus
– involves a comparison of an individual’s
behavior with that of his peers.
• Distinctiveness
– involves comparing a person’s behavior on
one task with the behavior from other tasks.
• Consistency
– determined by judging if the individual’s
performance on a given task is consistent
over time.
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