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Management Practices and Organisational Behaviour

Notes group were told that they were unlikely to experience seasickness and that, if they did, it
was unlikely to affect their performance at sea. Cadets in the control group were told
about research on seasickness and its prevention. At the end of the five-day cruise, cadets
in the experimental group reported less seasickness and were rated as better performers
by their training officers. These cadets also had higher self-efficacy; that is, they believed
they could perform well at sea despite seasickness.
The pills and patches that physicians often prescribe for seasickness are unpleasant to the
point of deterring their use, are of short-term effectiveness, and have undesirable side
effects. Self-fulfilling prophecy has none of these problems, and it appears to work in
combating seasickness.

Sources: D. Eden and Y. Zuk, “Seasickness as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Raising Self-efficacy to Boost
Performance at Sea, “Journal of Applied Psychology” 80 (1995) page 628–635.
The Pygmalion effect has been observed in work organisations as well. A manager's expectations
of an individual affect both the manager's behaviour toward the individual and the individual's
response. For example, suppose a manager has an initial impression of an employee as having
the potential to move up within the organisation. Chances are that the manager will spend a
great deal of time coaching and counselling the employee, providing challenging assignments
and grooming the individual for success.

10.2.3 Perceptions and its Application in Organisation

People in organisations are always judging each other. Managers must appraise their
subordinate's performance. In many cases, these judgements have important consequences for
the organisations. Let us look at the more obvious applications of perceptions in organisations.
1. Employment Interview: A major input into who is hired and who is rejected in any
organisation is the employment interview. Evidence indicates that interviewers often
make inaccurate perceptual judgements. Interviewers generally draw early impressions
that become very quickly entrenched. If negative information is exposed early in the
interview, it tends to be more heavily weighted than if that same information comes out
later. As a result, information elicited early in the interview carries greater weight than
does information elicited later. A "good applicant" is probably characterized more by the
absence of unfavourable characteristics than by the presence of favourable characteristics.
The employment interview is an important input into the hiring decision and a manager
must recognize that perceptual factors influence who is hired. Therefore, eventually the
quality of an organisation's labour force depends on the perception of the interviewers.
2. Performance Evaluation: An employee's performance appraisal very much depends on
the perceptual process. The performance appraisal represents an assessment of an
employee's work. While this can be objective, many jobs are evaluated in subjective
terms. Subjective measures are, by definition, judgemental. The evaluator forms a general
impression of an employee's work. What the evaluator perceives to be "good" or "bad"
employee characteristics will significantly influence the appraisal outcome. An employee's
future is closely tied to his or her appraisal – promotions, pay raises and continuation of
employment are among the most obvious outcomes.
3. Performance Expectations: A manager's expectations of an individual affect both the
manager's behaviour towards the individual and the individual's response. An impressive
amount of evidence demonstrates that people will attempt to validate their perceptions of
reality, even when these perceptions are faulty. This is particularly relevant when we
consider performance expectations on the job.

The term self-fulfilling prophecy or Pygmalion effect has evolved to characterize the fact
that people's expectations determine their behaviour. Managers can harness the power of

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