The document discusses perception and the factors that influence it. It states that perception is how individuals organize and interpret sensory information to make sense of their environment. Perception differs between people based on their experiences, attitudes, expectations and other factors in the perceiver, the target, and the situation. Attribution theory is discussed as how we make judgments about others based on whether we attribute their behaviors to internal or external causes using the dimensions of distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency. The document provides examples of how these attributions might differ based on the situational factors.

1. PERCEPTION

2. “ WE DON’T SEE THINGS AS THEY ARE,
WE SEE THINGS AS WE ARE.”

3. Perception is a process which individuals
organize and interpret their sensory
impressions in order to give meaning to their
environment.

4.  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.

5.  Perceptions differ from person to person.
 Each individual perceives the same situation
differently.
 Group perceptions can influence one’s perception.
 Individuals organise and interpret things based on
their past experiences and the important values
they consider important.
 Employees tend to behave and act on certain
things on the basis of their perception.

6. FACTORS INFLUENCING
PERCEPTION
 A number of factors operate to shape and
sometimes distort perception. These factors
are-
 1) perceiver
 2) the object or target being perceived
 2) the situation.

7. FACTORS INFLUENCING PERCEPTION
Factors in the perceiver
• Attitudes
• Motives
• Interests
• Experience
• Expectations
Perception
Factors in the Target
• Motion
•Novelty
• Sounds
• Size
• Background
•Similarity
Factors in the situation
• Time
• Work Setting
• Social Setting

8.  Person Perception: Making Judgments
About Others
 Attribution theory- It has been proposed to develop
explanations of the ways in which we judge people
differently, depending on what meaning we attribute
to a given behavior.
 We observe an individuals behavior and attempt to
determine whether it was internally or externally
caused.

9.  Internal versus external attributions of causes of
behavior.
 Internal causes are under the individual’s control.
 External causes are within the person’s environment.

10.  Causation judged through:
 Distinctiveness
 Response/behaviors in different situations.
 There exists a very low distinctiveness if the person reacts
likewise in all or most of the situations.
 However, if a person reacts differently in different situations, it
is said that the uniqueness is high .
 Consensus
 Response is the same as others to same situation.
 This responds to the fact, how people with related stimulus
behave in similar situations.
 If most people behave alike, i.e. their reactions are shared by
many, the agreement is high. But, if no one or only a few
people share the reactions, the consensus is low.

11.  Consistency
 Responds in the same way over time.
 It is the regularity in a person’s actions

12. ATTRIBUTION THEORY
observation Interpretation Attribution of cause
External
Internal
External
Internal
12
Distictinctiveness
Consensus
Consistency
Individual behavior
Internal
External
H
L
H
L
H
L
H –high L- Low

13.  Divya has done poorly in third semester of MBA
course and went and talked to professor.
 2 situations-
 Situation 1.
 Divya does poorly in all other subjects (low
distinctiveness)
 Has done poorly in earlier tests (High consistency)
 No other student has done poorly (low consensus)
 Internal attributions (lack of motivation, bad study
habits)

14.  Situation 2
 Divya does well in other subjects (high
distinctiveness)
 Has performed well in earlier tests of same
subjects(low consistency)
 Other students have also done bad in same
tests(high consensus)
 External causes (professor was strict, wrong
marking etc.)

15. APPLICATIONS IN OB
 Employment Interview
 Performance Expectations
 Performance Evaluation
 Employee Effort

19. PROCESS OF PERCEPTION
Sensation
An
individual’s
ability to
detect stimuli
in the
immediate
environment.
Selection
• The process a
person uses to
eliminate some
of the stimuli
that have been
sensed and to
retain others for
further
processing
Organization
• The process of
placing selected
perceptual
stimuli into a
framework for
“storage.”
Translation
• The stage of the
perceptual
process at which
stimuli are
interpreted and
given meaning.