Management and Organization Behavior

Dr. Leigh Stelzer

Reference Guide: Perception, W&N, Chap. 8.

Understand the perceptual process; external world, internal thoughts, perceptual organization.

Understand Attribution: we "attribute cause and effect. See Kelley's model.

Cognitive framework means that knowledge, consideration, or thinking mediates between what we might call the objective environment and the resulting behavior. It is not the objective situation that is controlling, but the person's interpretation of the situation.

COGNITION \

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SITUATION -->---> BEHAVIOR

The social learning framework says behavior can best be explained by the reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental determinants. Each person has his own interpretation of a situation. To influence a person, it is not sufficient to alter the person's environment. You must alter the person's perception of the environment.

Perception is the selection and organization of environmental stimuli.

Three aspects of perception.

1. The world

2. What I see and why I see it.

3. How I organize what I see.

Perceptual Selectivity asks the question why given multiple and conflicting stimuli or noise, people select out (filter out) particular stimuli?

Perceptual Selection factors:

1st. Factors inherent to the stimuli force themselves upon us. The external factors that affect perceptual selection include: intensity, size, motion, contrast and repetition.

2nd. In our head (internal factors). Motivation, prior learning and personality can enhance or dull our perceptions. We learn to receive some messages and to block out others.

Expectations: pay attention to confirming stimuli.

Needs and Interests: Sex, money, ethnic identity.

Perceptual organization is what the mind does with information once it is received.

1. Figure - ground. We choose our figures.

2. Closure. Fill in gaps. Complete an object so perceived as a whole. Forest v. trees.

3. Continuity. See continuous lines - Mind set.

4. Perceptual grouping. Put stimuli into patterns

5. Proximity. You group things that are physically close together.

6. Similarity. You group disparate things that look alike.

What about familiarity and novelty?

Social perception.

Person perception: process by which we attribute characteristics and traits to others. Primacy effect: first impressions dominate. Confirmation bias is to heavily weight information that reaffirms past judgements. Ex. Richard Jewel.

Attribution: How the person explains another's behavior.

Implicit personality theories. We have them in our heads. "NERD" "Looser"

Causal attribution. A search for causes or motives to explain behavior. We attribute cause and effect. Whether we are internals or externals colors our perceptions. If we attribute failure to external forces, then we don't blame the worker, we focus on altering the work situation. How do we become internals/externals? Or is it a role (situational)?

Impression management. You get to choose the image you want to convey.

Reality tests? Harold Kelley (Covariation Model of Attribution) has identified the situations that lead us to judge whether cause is internal or external: consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness, W& N, p. 317-318.

We will attribute cause to external factors and not you, if:

1. Everyone does it (High consensus)(comes late to class)

2. You do not do the same thing every time. (Low consistency) (you are late sometimes but not others.)

If you are late repeatedly (high consistency), supervisor begins to blame you (internal cause).

3. You act differently depending on the people or things interacting with you (High distinctiveness).

If you show low distinctiveness, varying your behavior with each situation, then your supervisor is more likely to attribute your performance to internal factors. Ex. A level work with one teacher but not another, it’s the teacher.

Do C level work with each teacher, you are a C student.

Internal attribution: low distinctiveness, high consistency, low consensus.

Note the key role of the perceiver in attribution based on information, beliefs, and motivation.

Was the behavior of Milgram's subjects internally or externally caused? What are the implications for managers?

Generally, effort is evaluated higher than ability. Generally, we attribute our own failures to external forces. Is this self-serving bias or knowledge of reality? Fundamental attribution error is underestimating the impact of the situation and overestimating impact of the person. This is an error we make about others= behavior.

Modern society tends to make the reverse error. Nobody is responsible for his/her own behavior. (The devil made me do it.) I am convinced of the power of the situation. This, however, does not reduce the responsibility of the individual. It only helps us to understand why people in groups sometimes do things they would never do if alone.

Stereotyping. To perceive an individual as a member of a group and thus having group attributes. You attribute group characteristics to the individual who you identify with the group. Stereotyping is the opposite of generalization. With generalization you go from the individual to the group.

Perceptual defense - Protect your psyche and resist change.

Halo effect - gain an impression on the basis of one thing, a characteristic or event, performance. Generalize from one trait to many. "Deaf and dumb." A single impression influences future evaluations. Others' perceptions of the Seton Hall athletic success and failure inform their impression of you. Are you a winner or do you fade at the crucial moment? Halo factor may explain why unexpected success tends to be over-evaluated. When people succeed despite handicaps, we evaluate them more favorably. Obviously, they made up in effort what they lacked in ability. Note, we tend to rate effort higher than ability.

Connect Halo with expectancy effects and self-fulfilling prophecy.

Projection: Seeing (attributing) your own traits in other people.

Cognitive dissonance

Job Satisfaction. Check out Job Satisfaction. P. 331. Fig 8.9. Job satisfaction is not directly related to better performance. Is the happy worker the good worker? NO. W&N introduce a variety of other factors that can explain satisfaction and performance. Introduction of other factors can eliminate the need for satisfaction. Studies have shown a stronger link between organizational commitment and productivity. Why isn=t this in figure?

Cognitive dissonance. When we hold two attitudes or values that conflict, we feel psychological discomfort. See Balance Theory