Organisational
Behaviour
Chapter 3
Perception, Beliefs and Attitudes
Objectives
•
State the importance our perceptions have in the decisions and
judgements we make every day in the workplace
•
Describe a simple model of the perceptual process and how it
enables us to construct our individual view of the world
•
Describe the biases that this can lead to and the problems which
arise from these biases
•
Show how our perceptions beliefs and attitudes are in a dynamic
relationship and influence attitude and behaviour change over
time.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
The perceptual process
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
The perceptual process – giving organisation and
meaning to stimuli
• Sensory thresholds – individuals differ in the sensitivity and
robustness of their senses. All of us experience a decline in
the acuteness of our senses as we age
• Schemata (plural form of schema) – in order to make sense of
the world, we have to organise it. We do this by forming
schemata. These enable us to focus on what is important in
any given context. We develop and modify our schemata over
time
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Influences on the perceptual process
• Culture – our culture tells us
– what is important
– what the key stages of life are
– It forms our morality and value system
– It tells us what behaviour is expected and in what context
– It regulates relations between individuals and groups
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Influences on the perceptual process
Language – is a cornerstone of a person’s culture.
• It is the most important means by which we transmit
and share culture
• It is a means by which we transmit our individual
meaning to the world and through which we are
understood by others
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Influences on the perceptual process
• Perceptual biases:
We have to make judgements about people in many situations.
To make sure these judgements are as fair as possible, we need
to be aware of possible perceptual biases which may skew our
opinions.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Influences on the perceptual process –
perceptual biases
• Stereotyping. This happens when we believe that a certain group of
people have particular characteristics. So we assume that every member
of the group will have those characteristics
• Halo/horns effect. This happens when we have a positive or negative first
impression of someone. Our subsequent judgements of them are
influenced by these and we try to fit what we observe to these first
impressions.
• Primacy and recent effects. Things that happen early or late on in an
interaction tend to stick in our memory, so our judgements are often more
influenced by these than by less well-remembered things
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Influences on the perceptual process –
perceptual biases
• Attribution biases – when we believe we can attribute the
motivation behind another person’s actions.
– Fundamental attribution error – this occurs when we attribute our
own shortcomings to the context of what happens, whilst attributing
others’ failures to a lack of character of conscientiousness or
competence
– Ultimate attribution bias – this explains why we favour people who
share our background and attribute positive outcomes in their
performance to their competence and character
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Working to avoid perceptual bias in the
workplace
There are several things we can do to try to avoid bias:
• Recognise that bias is a strong possibility and consciously try
to eradicate it
• Create formal processes for assessment situations where the
decision-making process is transparent
• Base decisions only on the requirements of the role or task
– Identify the purpose of the assessment
– Be specific as to the levels of performance needed
• Gather evidence against open criteria and judge on the basis
of the evidence
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Beliefs and Attitudes
• Beliefs:
– Essentially probability-based. We develop a set of beliefs about what
happens in a given set of circumstances, and believe that the same will
happen in the future. The more often we are right, the stronger is our
belief that we have got it right.
– However, where our beliefs are strong we have a tendency to hold to
them even if there is evidence that they are incorrect
– Some beliefs (e.g. religious beliefs) are culturally transmitted
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Beliefs and Attitudes
• Attitudes:
– These are learned predispositions to respond in a
particular way, either positively or negatively, towards
things, people, situations, ideas and events. They have
three components:
1.
2.
3.
The affective component, relating to our emotional state
The cognitive component, which engages our though processes
and decision-making
The Behavioural component, refers to the actions we choose to
take
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)
Attitude change
Though it is difficult, attitudes can be changed, especially over a
long period of time. Strategies we can use to change attitudes:
• Reasoned argument
• Fear or threats
• Social pressures, both social sanctions and social acceptance
• Behaviour-led attitude change – where people are required to
behave in a particular way whether they agree with it or not.
Over time we often see attitudes change simply because
people become habituated to doing things in the prescribed
way.
© Mike Maughan, Organisational
Behaviour, Palgrave (2014)