PERCEPTIONS

You become what you thinketh

If everyone perceived everything the same way, things would be a lot simpler -Moorhead & Griffin

DEFINITIONS
STEPHEN ROBBINS Perception is a process by which
individuals organise and interpret the sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.

FRED LUTHANS Perception is an important mediating

cognitive process through which persons make interpretations of the stimulus or situation they are forced with.

DEFINITIONS
UDAI PAREEK & OTHERS Perception can be defined as the process of
receiving, selecting, organising, checking and reacting to sensory stimuli or data.

In general, it can be defined as a process

that involves seeing, receiving, selecting, organising, interpreting and giving meaning to the environment.

MEANING
Perceptions differ from person to person. Each individual perceives the same situation
differently. Group perceptions can influence ones 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.

NATURE OF PERCEPTION
1) Perception is the process by which an
individual gives meaning to the environment.

2) It is a cognitive and psychological process.

The manner in which a person perceives the environment affects his behaviour. There can be no behaviour without perception and perception lies at the base of every human action.

3) Peoples action, emotions, thoughts and

feelings are triggered by their perceptions of their surroundings.

 4) Since perception refers to the acquisition

of specific knowledge about objects or events at any particular moment, it occurs whenever stimuli activate the sense organs.

5) Though perception has been defined in a

variety of ways, it basically refers to the manner in which a person experiences the world.

6) Perception is an almost automatic process

and works in much the same way within each individual, yet typically yields different perceptions.

 7) A stimulus that is not perceived has no

effect on behaviour.

8) Perception is a process that operates

constantly between us and reality.

9) Since perception is subjective process,

different people may perceive the same environment differently. So perception is like beauty, that lies in the eyes of the beholder.

 10)Perception involves the creation of

gestalts.

11)Perception is a unique interpretation of

the situation, not an exact recording of the situation.

12)Perception is more complex and much

broader than sensation.

IMPORTANCE OF PERCEPTION
Perception plays a very important role in
shaping the personality of an individual. Perception is central in interpreting the world around us. Perception affects the outcome of our behaviour because we act on the basis of what we see. Managers should be able to distinguish between a perceived world and the reality. An understanding of perception is important to understand and control the human behaviour .

 The importance of perception in managerial

behaviour are :

i) Attitude formation : Perceiving events and

people is critical in attitude formation. Perception creates a basis for our attitudes, opinions, feelings, beliefs and values.

ii) Relationship base : the managers

relationship with others are based on perceptions of their basic natures and motivations. Managers identify the perceptual structures and implicit personality of employees before making work relations.

 iii) Effective communication :Any message

must be received and interpreted before the communication attempt is complete. Communication remains ineffective if it does not accomplish what the source intends.

iv) Employment interview :Interviewers

make perceptual judgments, draw impressions and arrive at conclusions about the applicants. Thus perception is a major input in their decision.

 v) Performance evaluation :An employees

performance appraisal is very much dependent on the perceptual outlook. The evaluator forms a general impression of an employees work. Thus, the perception process significantly influences the appraisal outcome.

vi) Employee effort : In many organisations,

assessment of an employees effort is a subjective judgment which is susceptible to perceptual distortions and bias.

 vii) Employees loyalty :When evaluating an

employees loyalty, a manager is involved with persons perception. This is an important judgement that managers make about employees.

viii) Organisational goals :The interpretation

and accomplishment of organisational goals again depend on the philosophies and ideologies of those who are expected to pursue them.

 ix) Workers rights : The interpretation of

workers rights and responsibilities is also dependent on the ideological motives and beliefs of managers.

x) Employees unions :Perception plays a

vital role in creating a better understanding of unions by management and vice-versa.

PERCEPTUAL PROCESS
Perception is an intellectual process. Perception is the basic cognitive or
psychological process.

Perception is subjective process. Perception consists of several sub-processes.

PERCEPTUAL PROCESS
Perceptual inputs Stimuli Perceptual throughputs Receiving->Selecting->Organising->Interpreting Perceptual Outputs Actions

Simplified process of perception

 Perceptual inputs Objects, Events and

people. All those things in the setting where events occur or contribute to the occurrence of events can be termed as Perceptual inputs. elements viz. selection of stimuli, organisation of stimuli and interpretation of stimuli.

Perceptual Mechanism -involves three

Perceptual outputs Attitudes, Opinions,

Feelings & Values.

BASIC ELEMENTS IN THE PERCEPTUAL STIMULI

ENVIRONMENTAL STIMULI Objects, events or people PERCEPTUAL SELECTION External Factors Internal Factors Size, intensity, Personality Contrast, Motion, Learning Repetition, Novelty Motivation Familiarity Self concept, beliefs etc OBSERVATION (SENSES) Taste, Hearing, Touch, Smell, Sight

PERCEPTUAL ORGANISATION Perceptual Grouping, Continuity Proximity, Closure, Similarity

INTERPRETATION Perceptual defense, Stereotyping, Halo effect, Projection, Expectancy Effects, Internal versus External Causes, Caused for success and failures

RESPONSE Convert, Attitudes, Overt, Motivations, Feelings etc.

FACTORS INFLUENCING PERCEPTION

Perception is influenced by a variety of
individuals and situational factors. Any perceptual event has three components viz. a perceiver, the person perceived and the situational context in which the perception is occurring. Lets explore each of these under following headings : 1. 2. 3. Attributes Attributes Attributes of of of the the the person perceived perceiver and situation.

ATTRIBUTES OF THE PERSON PERCEIVED

The first major influence on perception is of

the target, that is the person perceived. In particular, the following attributes of target can be identified: i) ii) iii) iv) v) Physical appearance Verbal and non verbal communication Status Occupation Personal characteristics

ATTRIBUTES OF THE PERCEIVER

Several attributes unique to our

personalities can affect how we see others. These include the following : i) Self concept ii) Cognitive structure iii) Response salience iv) Previous experiences

ATTRIBUTES OF THE SITUATION

Elements in the surrounding

environment also influence perception process. Some of these are as follows : i) Social context ii) Organisational role iii) Location of event

INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION
In order to function effectively in a complex
human society, we need to perceive the behaviour, current moods and traits of the persons around us. This is known as social perception . It is also called as interpersonal perception . It is concerned with how one individual perceives other individuals.

Zalking and Castello has conducted research

for better understanding of interpersonal perception.

INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION.

The specific characteristics of the perceiver,

according to them are : 1. Knowing oneself makes it easier to see others accurately. 2. Ones own characteristics affect the characteristics one is likely to see in others. 3. People who accept themselves are more likely to be able to see favourable aspects of other people. 4. Accuracy in perceiving others is not a single skill.

INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION.

Similarly the characteristics of the person

who is being perceived are: 1. The status of the person perceived will greatly influence others perception of him. 2. The person being perceived is usually placed into categories to simplify the viewers perceptual activities. Two common categories are status and role. 3. The visible traits of the person perceived will greatly influence the perception of him.

 The above characteristics suggest that the

organisational members must realise that their perceptions of others are greatly influenced by characteristics of themselves and characteristics of the other person. Further is necessary to develop perceptual skills of oneself and others.

DEVELOPING PERCEPTUAL SKILLS

Following attempts can be made to enhance
perceptual skills. 1. Perceiving oneself accurately: One should increase awareness about self. For this, he should obtain information on how others perceive us from as many sources as possible. By knowing. Perceiving and understanding ourselves accurately, we should remove blind spots about self.

DEVELOPING PERCEPTUAL SKILLS.

2. Being empathic :

Empathy means being able to see a situation as it is experienced by others. A manager should be sensitive to the needs of others and perceive situations from their point of view as well.

3. Having positive attitudes :

A manger should see things from a positive angle, should be aware of personal biases ad should try to get rid of any negative feeling he may have of others. This will help to put things in proper perspective.

DEVELOPING PERCEPTUAL SKILLS.

4. Enhancing self concept :

Self-concept or a good self image is a function of how successfully we accomplish the things we attempt to do. When people perform roles where they exhibit their competence and get success, they develop a basic sense of self esteem and have positive self regard.

5. Communication more openly :

Managers should be able to effectively communicate to employees so that misconceptions can be dispelled.

DEVELOPING PERCEPTUAL SKILLS.

6. Avoiding common biases in perceptions :

Managers should try to considerably minimise their perceptual biases. They should consciously raise their level of awareness in their interactions with situations.

7. Avoiding attributions :

Mangers should try to avoid making inappropriate attributions and should obtain as accurate as assessment of the situation as possible so that dysfunctional consequences can be avoided.

LEARNING
You cannot teach a man anything.
You can only help him discover it within himself. - Galileo

You cannot give fish to a man

everyday. But if you teach how to fish, he will have fish everyday.

MEANING / DEFINITIONS
Learning is the single most important concept
in the study of human behaviour.

It is involved in almost everything we do.

Every aspect of human behaviour is responsive to learning experiences knowledge, skills, attitudes, language, value systems and personality traits.

So we see that everything can be learned

through reasoning, thinking, information processing ad perception.

MEANING / DEFINITIONS
Learning can be defined as relatively
permanent change in behaviour the potentiality that results from reinforced practice or experience. - Steers & Porter.

Learning is any relatively permanent

change in behaviour that occurs as a result of experience. - Stephen Robbins.

In simple words, learning is a change in

behaviour acquired through experience.

MEANING / DEFINITIONS
Learning can be defined as a relatively

permanent change in behaviour or potential behaviour as a result of direct or indirect experience.

There are two primary elements in this

definition that must both be present in order to identify the process of learning.

MEANING / DEFINITIONS.

First is the element that the change must be

relatively permanent. This means that after learning our behaviour must be different, either better or worse as compared to our behaviour prior to this experience of learning.

The second aspect of the definition is that

this change must occur due to some kind of experience or practice. This learning is not caused by biological maturation.

CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNING
1) Learning is an inferred process that is
believed to influence behaviour. 2) Learning results in a relatively permanent change in behaviour. Behaviour that is learnt, therefore, is relatively constant over time. 3) Learning involves change, it may be good or bad. 4) Learning comes from some form of experience. Experience may be acquired directly through practice or observation or through reading.

CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNING
5) Learning is source of change in
behaviour and performance. 6) Learning is continuous process. It has the ability to respond adequately to a situation that may or may not have been encountered. It is not restricted to the schooldays but it is a lifelong process. 7) Learning is the outcome of various related factors. The important factors that determine learning are motive, stimuli, response, reinforcement and retention.

THEORIES OF LEARNING
There are five general approaches to learning
that are identified. They are :

i) Classical Conditioning Theory, ii) Instrumental or Operant Conditioning

Theory, iii) Cognitive Learning Theory, iv) Selective Learning Theory and v) Social Learning theory.

i)

Classical Conditioning Theory

credit for developing this theory. He conducted an experiment on dogs and developed a stimulus- response connection. This means that certain responses can be predicted which continuously result from certain induced stimuli. Classical conditioning introduces a simple cause-andeffect relationship between one stimulus and one response.

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist owes

 It also makes the response reflexive or

involuntary after the stimulus-response relationship has been established. This leaves no ground for making choices, which differentiates human beings from dogs. Under certain situations classical conditioning does explain human behaviour.

ii) Instrumental or Operant

Conditioning

Theory

Operant conditioning is concerned with

learning that occurs as a consequence of behaviour. It focuses on the effects of reinforcements or rewards on desired behaviours. This learning is based on the simple fact that the actions we perform often result in some consequences.

 This theory was developed by Watson, a

contemporary of Pavlov. He argued that behaviour was largely influenced by the rewards one received as result of actions. In other words, we now know that people change their behaviour by repeating acts that are rewarded and not repeating acts that the environment fails to reward.

iii) Cognitive Learning Theory

Learning is considered as the outcome of
deliberate thinking about the problem or situation both intuitively and based upon known facts and responding in an objective and goal oriented manner. Cognition, in fact, is the act of knowing an item of information and this knowledge affects the behaviour of the person so that the information provides cognitive cues towards the expected goal.

iv) Selective Learning Theory

Selective learning theory is also cognitively
based but it is more directly aimed at learning. In selective learning the person must not only associate stimulus and response and consequence experiences but must also determine which things to connect in the mind. Under this approach, a person chooses from a wide variety of possible leaning mechanisms.

 It involves a complex interaction among

thinking, emotions, perception and motivation. Thus, there are many cognitions that come into play in selective learning. This theory is also named as insightful learning and perceptual learning. This is applied in relation to complicated learning tasks.

v)

Social Learning theory

It is recognized that learning does not take place

only because of environmental stimuli (classical and operant conditioning) or of individual determinism (cognitive approach) but is a blend of both views. It also emphasizes that people acquire new behaviour by observing or imitating others in a social setting. In addition learning can also be gained by discipline and self-control and an inner desire to acquire knowledge or skills irrespective of the external rewards or consequences. This process of self-control is also partially a reflection of societal and cultural influences on the development and growth of human beings.

 There are many widely recognised principles

of learning that can assist the manager attempting to influence behaviour. Some of these are principles are : i) Reinforcements ii) Punishments iii) Avoidance Learning iv) Extinction v) Knowledge of results vi) Schedules of Positive Reinforcement vii) Acquisition - Learning curves viii) Spontaneous Recovery

PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING

Reinforcements
Reinforcement plays a significant role in the
learning theories. It is defined as any event that alters the probability of occurrence of a response. It is anything that both increases the strength of responses and tends to induce repetitions of the behaviour that preceded the reinforcement. It is the process by which stimuli strengthen behaviour.

Punishments
Punishment is defined presenting an
uncomfortable consequence for a particular behavioural response. It is used to decrease the frequency of undesired behaviour. The difference between punishment and negative reinforcement is that in the former case, a noxious consequence is applied to decrease the frequency of undesired behaviour, whereas in the latter, a noxious consequence is withheld when a desired behaviour is exhibited.

Avoidance Learning
Avoidance learning is the seeking to avoid
an unpleasant condition or outcome by following a desired behaviour. In other words, when behaviour can prevent an uncomfortable stimulus it is called avoidance behaviour. For example, if an employee correctly performs a task so that the supervisor may avoid harassing the employee. Similarly, in order to avoid he discomfort the employee may achieve the group sanctioned level of production.

Extinction
Extinction is non-reinforcement that leads to
an extinction of undesired behaviour. When the positive reinforcement for a learned response is withheld, the undesired behaviour decreases and will eventually disappear. Thus, the decline in response rate as a result of a lack of positive reinforcement is called extinction.

For example, if an employee is consistently

late, the supervisor may withhold praise. Thus , the employee may realise that being late is not leading to desired outcomes and may try to be punctual.

Knowledge of results
Human behaviour is always a goal-directed
behaviour. Knowing goals and their results leads to learning and behaviour modification. Employees who have no idea o whether they are doing an acceptable job have little chance to improve their performances. The knowledge of correct behaviour is reinforcing and strengthens the preceding behaviour. Edwin Locke found in his research studies that feedback affects performance only to the extent to which employees set higher performance goals in response to such feedback. Thus, goals can be achieved when employees are provided with accurate feedback on performance.

Schedules of Positive Reinforcement

There are number of ways in which
reinforcements can be scheduled. A continuous schedule is one in which reinforcement occurs after every acceptable behaviour. But this is not feasible. Bass and Vaughn have concluded that learning is more permanent when correct behaviour is rewarded only part of the time. Fester and Skinner have presented four types of reinforcements schedules for operant learning situations.

Acquisition - Learning curves

These curves apply mainly to classical
conditioning. This principle shows that there is a gradually increasing strength of response for each repeated trial. Psychologist have shown the practical significance of these curves to the learning in the following ways : a) The more unfamiliar the task to be learned, the more likely it is that progress will be slow at the start and will then increase.

 b) In most learning of complicated skills,

there is at least one period, short or long. In which each new trial produces an improvement o equal size.

c) As we approach the ultimate limit of

learning, progress slows down and it takes many trials to produce even a small amount of improvement..

Spontaneous Recovery
Again this principle is related to classical
conditioning concept. This indicates that if people experience a sequence of non reinforced conditioned responses and then take a rest, immediately thereafter they will return to a more intense level of conditioned response even though no reinforcement has taken place. This jump in response strength following rest is known as the notion of spontaneous recovery. This principle explains that the conditioned response does not completely disappear during extinction, but remains suppressed .

LEARNING PRINCIPLES
i) ii)
All human beings can learn. An individual must be motivated to learn. iii) Learning is active but not passive. iv) Learners acquire knowledge more rapidly with guidance. v) Time must be provided to practice learning. vi) Learning methods should be varied. vii) Standards of performance should be set for the learners.

LEARNING PRINCIPLES

viii) ix) x) Different levels of learning exist. Learning is a cumulative process. Learning is closely related to attention and concentration. xi) Trainees learn better when they learn at their own place. xii) Make the learning meaningful by using familiar examples and summaries. xiii) When the learner has made the correct responses to the learning process, he has learned.-G.S.Sudha.

DETERMINANTS OF LEARNING
The important factors that determine learning
are: i) Motive or drive ii) Stimuli :- a) Generalisation b) Discrimination iii) Responses iv) Reinforcements v) Retention.

Motive or drive
Motives refer to certain goals that the
individual attempts to achieve. They are primary energisers of behaviour. Motives prompt people to action. They are largely subjective and represent the mental feelings of human beings. They are the ways o behaviour and main springs of action. Motive arises continuously and determines the general direction of an individuals behaviour.

Stimuli
Stimuli exists in the environment in which a
person lives. Stimuli increase the probability of extracting a specific response from a person. Stimuli may be two types : a) Generalisation b) Discrimination.

 GENERALISATION takes place when the

similar stimulus repeats in the environment. When two stimuli are exactly the same, they will have the probability to extract a specific response.

DISCRIMINATION has wide applications in

organisational behaviour in view of individuals differences. In discrimination, responses of the individuals vary according to different stimuli. For example. A supervisor may respond to a high producing worker in a positive manner, but in a different manner to one producing very less.

Responses
The stimulus generates response. The

response may be in the physical form or in terms of attitudes or perception. However, the responses need to be operationally defined and preferably physically observable. The response of the individuals is termed as behaviour . The response may be either positive or negative.

Reinforcements
Reinforcement is a primary condition of
learning. Reinforcement is, anything that increases the strength of response and tends to induce repetitions of the behaviour that precede the reinforcement. Without reinforcement no quantifiable alteration of behaviour will take place. Reinforcement helps in the repetition of any behaviour. For example. If an employee is rewarded for his hard work, he repeats his behaviour, i.e. he works harder to get the reward again.

Retention
The learned behaviour should be retrieved
according to the needs. Retention means remembrance of learned behaviour over time. Learning which is forgotten over time is called extinction. When response behaviour returns without any intervening reinforcement, it is called spontaneous recovery.