Page 221 - DMGT402_MANAGEMENT_PRACTICES_AND_ORGANIZATIONAL_BEHAVIOUR

Management Practices and Organisational Behaviour

Notes factors lead us to form inaccurate impressions of others. These barriers to perception are inaccurate
impressions of others. These barriers to perception are:
1. Selective Perception: We receive a vast amount of information. Therefore, it is impossible
for us to assimilate everything we see – only certain stimuli can be taken note of. That is
why, the boss may reprimand some employees for doing something that – when done by
another employee goes unnoticed. Since we can't observe everything going on about us,
we engage in selective perception.

Selective perception is also our tendency to choose information that supports our
viewpoints; individuals often ignore information that makes them feel uncomfortable or
threatens their viewpoints.
Selective perception allows us to "speed-read" others, but not without the risk of drawing
an inaccurate picture. Because we see what we want to see, we can draw unwarranted
conclusions from an ambiguous situation. Our perception tends to be influenced more by
an individual's attitudes, interests, and background than by the stimulus itself.

2. Stereotype: A stereotype is a generalization about a group of people. When we judge
someone on the basis of our perception of the group to which he or she belongs, we are
using the shortcut called stereotyping. Stereotypes reduce information about other people
to a workable level, and they are efficient for compiling and using information. It is a
means of simplifying a complex world and it permits us to maintain consistency. It is less
difficult to deal with an unmanageable number of stimuli if we use stereotypes. Stereotypes
can be accurate, and when they are accurate, they can be useful perceptual guidelines.
However, most of the time, stereotypes are inaccurate.
Attractiveness is a powerful stereotype. We assume that attractive individuals are also
warm, kind, sensitive, poised, sociable, outgoing, independent, and strong. Are attractive
people always warm, kind, intelligent, sociable, outgoing, independent, and strong? Are
attractive people really like this? Certainly all of them are not.
In organisations, we frequently hear comments that represent stereotypes based on gender,
age, nationality, etc. From a perceptual standpoint, if people expect to see this stereotype,
that is what they will perceive, whether it's accurate or not.
3. Halo Effect: The halo error in perception is very similar to stereotyping. Whereas in
stereotyping the person is perceived according to a single category, under the halo effect
the person is perceived on the basis of one trait.

When we draw a general impression about an individual based on a single characteristic,
such as intelligence, sociability or appearance, a halo effect is operating. The propensity
for the halo effect to operate is not random. Research suggests it is likely to be most
extreme when the traits to be perceived are ambiguous in behavioural terms, when the
traits have moral overtones, and when the perceiver is judging traits with which he or she
has limited experience. Example of halo effect is the extremely attractive secretary who is
perceived by her male boss as being intelligent, and a good performer, when, in fact, she
is a poor typist.
4. First-impression error: Individuals place a good deal of importance on first impressions.
First impressions are lasting impressions. We tend to remember what we perceive first
about a person, and sometimes we are quite reluctant to change our initial impressions.
First-impression error means the tendency to form lasting opinions about an individual
based on initial perceptions. Primacy effects can be particularly dangerous in interviews,
given that we form first impressions quickly and that these impressions may be the basis
for long-term employment relationships.

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