Organisational Behaviour

1. PERCEPTION
“ WE DON’T SEE THINGS AS THEY ARE,
WE SEE THINGS AS WE ARE.”
Submitted By:
Ajay Karwasra
NIFT
MFM- 2nd SEM

2. For some of us the glass is half empty but for the rest
the glass is half full.
Perception is unique to every individual and is
simply one's interpretation of reality.

3. 3
 Factors influencing Perception
Factors in the perceiver
• Attitudes
• Motives
• Interests
• Experience
• Expectations
Perception
Factors in the Target
• Motion
• Sounds
• Size
• Background
• Proximity
• Similarity
Factors in the situation
• Time
• Work
• Social

4. CASE SUMMARY : Perception and Reality of Muslim Americans
After the terrorist attack of 9/11 on World Trade Centre, Americans
had a very strong negative perception of Muslims and Arabs even for
the Muslims who were working in U.S.
• Judging all Muslim community as a terrorist was the perceivers
perception because of the situation.
• Whereas 59% of Muslim-American holds a college degree and are well
settled when compare of American of which 28% population only
holds a degree.

5. - A rental car company employee was told a muslim American employee could
not wear head scarf during Ramadan and then was fired for complaining .
- Hotel Muslim American Employee were cursed at and nick named Osama and
Taliban . Among the many ramifications of September 11, 2001 terrorist attack
are heightened the negative perception of Muslims and Arabs , including
those living in United states. Even when the muslim American were well
qualified but still were facing problems to get a job in America because of
there religion.
- More than 6 years after the attack 4 out of 10 U.S adults admitted they still
harboured negative feelings or prejudices against Muslims living in the United
states . A poll of Muslim Americans revealed that 53% perceived that life has
been more difficult for them since 09/11 attacks.
There are positive signs as well , there was a significant spike in the
discrimination claims by Muslims in the year after 9/11 attacks though it has
slowed considerably and declined in frequency. However still according to a
recent survey 75% of US Hr professional thought negative attitude toward
Muslims employee have stayed the same since 09/11.

6. Impact of Negative Perception on Muslim Americans
 They were cursed and nicknamed as “Osama” and “Taliban” .
 In spite of being well educated and qualified they were not
given jobs .
 Men were asked to do clean shave .
 Men were not allowed to wear skullcap (Kufi) .
 Women were not given jobs as they were not able to maintain
the dress code as they denied to wear sports shirts and pants .
 Women were not allowed to wear head scarf (Hijab) .

7. CASE ANALYSIS ON MUSLIM AMERICAN:
PERCEPTION AND REALITY
The case study is based on how even after 14 years of 9/11 there
are Perceptual biases, ethnic stereotyping and profiling of American
Muslims.
Perceptual Biases occurs when perceivers belief influence their
evaluation. Some of the perceptual biases which are relevant to
the case study are
1. Halo effect
2. Stereotyping
3. Profiling

8.  HALO EFFECT is the tendency to draw a general impression
about an individual on the basis of single characteristics. Here a
general impression was made for Muslim American as terrorist
and evil part of the society.
 STEREOTYPING is when we judge someone on basis of our
perception of the group to which he or she belongs For ex as in
the case even after 14 years of 9/11 just because of the few
terrorist who happen to belong to a particular ethnicity race ,
religion the whole community has been stereotyped as
terrorist.
 Since 9/11 ethnic PROFILING has become a matter of debate
where just because someone belong to a particular ethnicity or
race have been singled out For instance in the present case
study there is a reference how muslims have been nicknamed
Osama or Taliban .

9. CASE 2- Highlights
 Navjeevan hospital is one of the known hospitals in
Mumbai for well educated and experienced doctors. The
hospital treats all kinds of diseases.
 The hospital had separate wards for each illness and also
had a special canteen where all employees use to enjoy
refreshments during their break.
 Neha who recently joined Navjeevan Hospital as a head of
Cancer treatment ward ,realized that due to some or the
other reason Cancer treatment ward had a negative
impression among other departments.

10. Reasons for Negative Impression
 Some of the observations were they don’t sit with other
departments for lunch / snacks.
 They did not participate in any of internal events.
 As the Cancer treatment ward is very critical department in
the hospital and they also have expert people working in the
department and hence they don’t consider any other
department at par with them.

11. ACTUAL REASONS FOR LACK OF PARTICIPATION
 Cancer treatment ward has less 50% staff than needed.
 Management never paid attention to their demand of increasing the
staff which resulted into extra work and no time to relax and interact
with colleagues .
 They had to reduce 1 hour of lunch to 15 minutes.
 Due to the ignorance of management, department took decision not to
participate in any of the activities.
 The Cancer treatment ward never wanted to share their problems with
other employees and as a result other staff had a misconception about
them.

12. EXPLANATION THROUGH ATTRIBUTION THEORY
All the departments made a negative perception about the Cancer
treatment department based on their consistent lack of participation
and interaction with other departments. In this case high consensus
and consistency of the cancer treatment department was attributed
as an internal reason for their lack of interaction.

13. PERCEPTION BIASES EVIDENT IN THE CASE
STEREOTYPE - In the present case as the
Cancer treatment ward which is
considered a very critical department in
the hospital , with expert people working
in the department, rest of the department
had a perception that one of the reason
for non interaction was that they don’t
consider other departments at par with
them.
HALO EFFECT – A general impression was
drawn about the whole department on
the basis of single characteristics without
knowing the reality.

14. CORRECT APPROACH TO HANDLE THE SITUATION
 Cancer treatment ward should have made a constant effort to bring the issue
of lack of staff to the management rather than becoming aloof from rest of
the hospital.
 The people from the cancer department could have spoken to Neha (New
Head of the department) as evident from the case she had a concern about
the department, she might have taken the issue further with the management
and had made the situation better.
 I think that there was constant lack of communication between the
departments.
 Time management and spending qualitative time with the colleagues would
have helped them.
 I think that collectively all the departments would have raised this issue to the
management as cancer department was very critical for the well being of the
patients.

15. References:
Case study from Stephen P. Robbins :Organisational Behaviour
Case-Study, Perception, retrieved from
https://todaysupdates.wordpress.com (Sep ,2015)
Thank You