Factors that limit and distort our perception and contribute to bias

Running head: Organization Behavior
Organization behavior

Organization Behavior
Table of Contents
Perception..................................................................................................................1
Steps related to perceptual.........................................................................................2
Factors that operate to shape and distort perception.................................................2
Factors affecting the perception................................................................................3
Ways to overcome.....................................................................................................5
References.................................................................................................................8
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Organization Behavior
Discuss the factors that limit and distort our perception
and contribute to bias. What can individuals and
organizations do to overcome this?
Perception
Perception is a method of collecting, organizing and interpreting the overall sensory
impressions in context of the world. It has been seen that people give meaning by focusing on
the perception. In the workplace, perception plays a great role as it gives impact on the
individuals. Perception is related with the subjective judgment of the individual. For example:
there are many employees in the workplace. Some of them can be satisfied and some cannot
be satisfied. So, in this case, different people have different perception towards their jobs.
Perception is also related with the behavior of the individuals as different people have
different approach to solve the issue or to deal with a particular situation (Greasley et al.,
2005).
In context to perceptual distortion, it has been seen that it varies from how it is
perceived generally. If Perceptual distortion exists in the organization then negatively give
impact on the overall performance and behavior of the employees. The impact can also be
analyzed on the overall productivity level of the employees. In an organization, it has also
been analyzed that biases take place just because of perception (Afsar and Badir, 2015).
Different people have a different mindset towards people which lead to a different image of an
individual. Biases only take place because every individual thinks different for other
individuals. Some people have a positive attitude and mindset towards an individual and on
the same time, one can have a negative attitude towards the same person. So, these all the
factors depend on the perception. It has been seen that perception is not only linked to the
experience of the world but it helps to act according to the environment (Lee, Park and Koo,
2015).
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Organization Behavior
Steps related to perceptual
This first step is related to stimuli. It has been seen that each person have five sensory
organs like vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. It has been seen that through this stimuli
are received. It has been seen that written data is received through seeing and oral information
is received by hearing (Pomerantz, 2017). Through this the information is received and also
interpretation starts with the process of communication. The next step is related to the
selection of stimuli. In this many stimuli are received but only that stimuli is selected which
make some sense. To fill the gap is the third step in which the perceiver will try to fill the gaps
by supplementing it with information. The efforts are also made by the perceiver to maintain
proper flow of information. The last step is related with proximity. In which it has been seen
that it is related to the closeness of data that should be perceived by the whole (Kenyon and
Sen, 2015).
Distortion in perception can result in making a communication gap. It is considered as
one of the serious issue and a reason for the failure of communication. It has been analyzed
that communication can fail because the way of communication is different which is received
by the other people.
Factors that operate to shape and distort perception
There are many factors that operate to shape and distort perception. These factors can
be seen in the perceiver, in an object or in a particular situation. The characteristics of the
perceiver can give an impact on perception. When a person focuses on the target and attempts
to interpret what he or stands for then it has been seen that interpretation is influenced by a
personal factor of the individual perceiver (Scott, 2015). There are many characteristics of the
perceiver which influence the perception like attitudes. The attitude of the perceiver gives
impact on the perception. Next characteristic is related with moods which influence the
perception of someone. It has been analyzed that people think in a different way when they are
in good mood and when they are depressed they think in a different manner. If a person is in a
positive mood then positive impression can be formed for others. But if a person is in a
negative mood then the impression can be negative. Therefore, the perception of an individual
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