Organizational Behaviour
The Individual:
Perceptions, Attributions, and
Behaviour
Perception
• The process of interpreting messages of
our senses to provide order and meaning
to the environment
– helps to sort out and organize input
– helps to interpret
Perception: What is
perceived?
• Selective attention is a function of :
– The characteristics of the perceiver (e.g. past
experiences, motivational state, emotional
state)
• Perceptual Defense - We protect ourselves
against threatening information
– The characteristics of the target (salience)
• ambiguity
– The characteristics of the situation (salience)
• Bruner’s
Perceptual
Process Model
– In unfamiliar
situations cues are
used to categorize
the target.
Once initial perceptions are created:
• Selective: ignore other available cues
• Constancy: tend to perceive the target in
the same way over time and across
situations (initial impressions)
• Consistency: tend to select, ignore and
distort cues so to create a homogeneous
picture
Perceptual Biases
• Reliance on Central Traits: personal characteristics
• Implicit Personality Theory: which personality
characteristics go together
• Primacy and Recency: early memory and recent memory
• Projection: assume others are like ourselves
• Stereotyping: assume characteristics by virtue of the
category that they fall into
Social Identity Theory and Diversity
Perceptions
• How we define ourselves
– Using a continuum from personal identity to social
identity
– People adopt degrees of personal and social
identity to define themselves depending upon the
situation (what is salient)
• Explains how we categorize/perceive others
– We compare > define ourselves according to our
differences We homogenize > define others
according to their group/category (e.g. race,
culture, gender)
Question
• While dancing, Ralph trips over Joan’s
feet. Ralph trips over almost all other girl’s
feet. Ralph almost always trips over
Joan’s feet. Almost everyone else trips
over Joan’s feet.
– Whose fault is it: Ralph’s? Joan’s? The
circumstances?
– How likely is Ralph to trip on an icy sidewalk?
• Smith, Jones, and Kelly were absent
from work today. To what do you
attribute the cause?
– Smith is absent a lot, his peers are seldom
absent, and he was absent a lot in his
previous job.
– Jones is absent a lot, her peers are also
absent a lot, but she was almost never
absent in her previous job.
– Kelley is seldom absent, his co-workers
are seldom absent, and he was seldom
absent in his previous job.
Attribution Theory
• If target responds in X fashion to situation A…
…3 information types are used to attribute
the cause:
– Distinctiveness information: occur across a variety of situations
(does target respond in X fashion generally or only in situation A)
– Consistency information: occur regularly (does target respond in
X fashion at all times or only occasionally).
– Consensus information: act the same as the majority of people
(Do most others respond in X fashion).
• (used or underused???)
• Attribution of cause will depend on the answers (what are our
choices?).
Attribution
Consistency
Consensus
Distinctiveness
Likely Attribution
Smith
High
Low
Low
Disposition
Jones
High
High
High
Situation
Kelley
Low
High
Low
Temporary
Situation
Attribution Biases
• Fundamental Attribution Error: Tendency to
underestimate situational factors & overestimate
dispositional factors in controlling behaviour
• Self-Serving Bias: Tendency to attribute success to
your own efforts, ability, & character, and to attribute
failure to external factors such as luck, task difficulty,
etc.
• Actor-Observer Effect: Tendency to be more sensitive
to the situational events that effect your behaviour
while others will be more likely to make dispositional
attributions
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• When our expectations about another person cause
that person to act in a way that is consistent with our
expectations. Steps:
– Expectations formed about future performance
– Behaviour toward the person is consistent with our
expectations
– Effects are produced on the person’s beliefs (selfefficacy), motivations and performance
– Behaviour fulfills expectations and reinforces
original perceptions