C H A P T E R: T H R E E
3
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
McGraw-Hill Ryerson

VIA Rail CEO Paul Cot é keeps his perceptions in focus by wandering around the maintenance centre and hopping on the trains to meet staff and customers .
R. Remiorz/CP
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 2

Environmental Stimuli
Feeling Hearing Seeing Smelling Tasting
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e
Selective Attention
Organization and
Interpretation
Attitudes and
Behaviour
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
3

Characteristics of the object
 size, intensity, motion, repetition, novelty
Perceptual context
Characteristics of the perceiver
 attitudes
 perceptual defense
 expectations -- condition us to expect events
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 4

Perceptual Organization/Interpretation
Categorical thinking

Mostly unconscious process of organizing people and things

Perceptual grouping principles
• Closure -- filling in missing pieces
• Identifying trends
• Similarity or proximity
Mental models

Broad worldviews or ‘theories-in-use’

Help us to quickly make sense of situations

May block recognition of new opportunities/perspectives
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 5

Live in
Canada
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e
CIBC
Employee
An Individual’s
Social Identity
University of
New Brunswick
Graduate
6
Employees at other firms
People living in other countries
Graduates from other schools
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Categorization process
 compare characteristics of our groups with other groups
Homogenization process
 similar traits within a group; different traits across groups
Differentiation process
 develop less favourable images of people in groups other than our own
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 7

Social Identity & Gender in Engineering
Women are underrepresented in engineering partly because:

Social identity -”geek” stereotype of engineers and computer scientists doesn ’t fit the self-images that most women want for themselves.

Sex role stereotyping -- women are not encouraged to become engineers because the profession has a male stereotype

Prejudice -- Still some bias against female engineering students
Ottawa Citizen
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 8

Process of assigning traits to people based on their membership in a social category

Categorical thinking

Strong need to understand and anticipate others’ behaviour

Enhances our self-perception and social identity
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 9
Ottawa Citizen
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Diversity awareness training

Educate employees about the benefits of diversity and dispel myths
Meaningful interaction

Contact hypothesis
Decision-making accountability

Making people accountable for their decisions motivates them to consider objective info rather than stereotypes
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 10

Internal Attribution

Perception that person’s behaviour is due to motivation/ability rather than situation or fate
External Attribution

Perception that behaviour is due to situation or fate rather than the person
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 11
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Internal Attribution
Frequently
Consistency
Seldom
Frequently
Distinctiveness
Seldom
Seldom
Consensus
Frequently
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e
External Attribution
12
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Fundamental Attribution Error
 attributing own actions to external factors and other’s actions to internal factors
Self-Serving Bias
 attributing our successes to internal factors and our failures to external factors
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 13
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Supervisor forms expectations
Employee’s behaviour matches expectations
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e
Expectations affect supervisor’s behaviour
Supervisor’s behaviour affects employee
14
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Contingencies
Self-fulfilling prophecy effect is strongest
1.
At the beginning of the relationship (e.g., employee joins the team)
2.
When several people have similar expectations about the person
3.
When the employee has low rather than high past achievement
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 15
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Primacy
 first impressions
Recency
 most recent information dominates perceptions
Halo
 one trait forms a general impression
Projection
 believe other people do the same things or have the same attitudes as you
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 16

Empathy

Sensitivity to the feelings, thoughts, and situation of others

Cognitive and emotional component
Self-awareness

Awareness of your values, beliefs and prejudices

Applying Johari Window
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 17
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Known to Others
Disclosure
Feedback
Known to Self Unknown to Self
Open
Area
Open
Area
Blind
Area
Blind
Area
Hidden
Unknown to Others
Area
Unknown
Area
Area
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 18
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

A relatively permanent change in behaviour (or behaviour tendency) that occurs as a result of a person’s interaction with the environment
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 19
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning affected behaviour through three
MARS model elements:

Ability -- learning increases skills and knowledge

Role perceptions -- learning clarifies roles and priorities

Motivation -- learning is necessary for some need fulfillment
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 20
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

We “operate” on the environment
 alter behaviour to maximize positive and minimize adverse consequences
Learning is viewed as completely dependent on the environment
Human thoughts are viewed as unimportant
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 21
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Antecedents
What happens before behaviour
Example
Warning light flashes
Behaviour
What person says or does
Machine operator turns off power
Consequences
What happens after behaviour
Co-workers thank operator
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 22

Consequence is introduced
Behaviour increases/ maintained
Positive reinforcement
No consequence
Consequence is removed
Negative reinforcement
Behaviour decreases
Punishment Extinction Punishment
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 23
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

behaviours
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Continuous
Fixed ratio
Variable ratio
Fixed interval
Time (Days)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Variable interval
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 24

Behaviour modification is used in:
 every day life to influence behaviour of others
 company programs to reduce absenteeism, improve safety, etc.
Behaviour modification problems include:

Reward inflation

Ethical concern that variable ratio schedule is a lottery

Behaviourist philosophy vs. learning through mental processes
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 25

Social Learning Theory
Behavioural modelling

Observing and modelling behaviour of others
Learning behaviour consequences

Observing consequences that others experience
Self-reinforcement

Reinforcing our own behaviour with consequences within our control
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 26

Experiential Learning in Toronto
Physicians Jonathan Sherbino and
Ivy Chong (bottom right) prepare to amputate the leg of Wesley
Bagshaw who is pinned by a fallen beam in this collapsed building.
Fortunately, this incident is a mock disaster to help train Toronto’s
Heavy Urban Search And Rescue
(HUSAR) team.
Michael Stuparyk/Toronto Star
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 27

Concrete experience
Active experimentation
Reflective observation
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e
Abstract conceptualization
28
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

• Value the generation of new knowledge
• Reward experimentation
• Recognize mistakes as part of learning
• Encourage employees to take reasonable risks
McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 29
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Experiential learning in which employees, usually in teams, investigate and apply solutions to a situation that is both real and complex, with immediate relevance to the company

Concrete experience

Learning meetings

Team conceptualizes and applies a solution to a problem
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e 30

C H A P T E R: T H R E E
3
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
McGraw-Hill Ryerson