Perception and Organisational Behaviour

Running head: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Organisational Behaviour
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1ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Every person has a scheme or a collection of ideas, experiences and associations which
are brought to a situation and as human beings every person has the tendency to get accustomed
with the nature which we find to be the most convenient. Perception is actually the procedure of
interpreting the messages to the senses in order to provide order as well as meaning to the
environment. Among the most important of perceptions which influence organisational
behaviour are those which the organisational members have for each other. An individual’s
behaviour in the workplace is based on the perception of people towards the place of their work.
There exist numerous factors that influence the person’s attitudes, motives, interests as well as
the experience and expectations. The associated factors might also involve time, work as well as
the social setting. It cannot always be possible for the perceptions to be accurate. There might be
several existent biases in a person’s perception. These have the power to impact organisational
performance (Alfes et al. 2013).
It is believed that people’s perception is based on their individual outlook of what reality
is rather than the existence of reality itself. It is possible for two people to see the same thing but
interpret it differently. Perception is the basic cognitive process which is responsible for the
transformation of every possible stimuli into meaningful information. In often happens in case of
real life issues that they have multi dimensional aspects and the rational approach is often
entwined with the instinctive feeling. It happens in organisations that perpetual differences exist
and often are the reason for mutual dissatisfaction. There are two cases which are noticed namely
stereotyping and selective perception. Stereotyping is basically a characterisation of individuals
based on the attributes they possess and helps in the creation of a generalized and simplified
belief that does not consider other characteristics. Selective perception is the procedure of
selecting information that supports the pre-existing belief system leading to the elimination of
discomforting information. Selective perception in a way acts as a catalyst to stereotyping as
people tend to notice those things that fit their existing notion and ignore things that do not
(Favero and Bullock 2014).
The mindsets of people and their perceptions impact their behaviour in their
organisations. This describes the way in which people filter, organise and interpret sensory
information. The concept of attribution explains the way people act, thereby determining the way
in which people react to the actions of others. Accurate perception helps the employees to

2ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
interpret the things they see and hear in the workplace in an effective manner. These also help
them in making decisions, complete tasks and also act ethically. Faulty perceptions lead to
problems in the organisation such as stereotyping, causing people to make assumptions
erroneously (Denham et al. 2010).
At times when people find themselves in unfamiliar ambiguous situations they have a
tendency of having a difficulty in coping. Effective business professionals handle objections to
their ideas by clearly stating the benefits of their respective positions to all the existing parties.
By the presentation of a compelling case for their ideas these people get approval for their
proposed strategies even in case it is opposed by any sort of apathy or confrontation. By the
active recognition of the attributions and perceptions, effective leaders build justifications for
their approach and get the required support when they need it (DeConinck 2010).
It is common for people to attribute their success to skill, chance or even luck. It is
common for people to react to situations based on their feelings regarding what caused the
particular event. Just like perceptions can be faulty, there is the chance of attributions being
inaccurate also. Organisations can ensure the fact that people attribute actions much more
effectively by providing diversity in training. This also prevents the faulty attributions by the
individuals in managerial positions. It often happens that managers tend to give work to those
qualified individuals whom they consider to be lucky for the organisational success.
It often happens that people evaluate or judge other people based on their ability, effort or
personality. The difficulty or the luck of a task is attributed to the resultant success or failure.
These attributions make people give different explanations for their own behaviour in the
organisation. Successful workers who succeed at tasks increase their confidence levels after
completion of their training. Those failing have the chance of blaming others or considering
themselves to be unlucky. The understanding of the common cause of behaviour might help
people to react much more appropriately (Tohidinia and Mosakhani 2010).
Minimisation of bias also helps in the effective team work and this is specifically in case
of the reduction of biases which distort attribution. Perceptions, is one particular trait which has
been found to either actively or passively influence other traits (Jehn, Rispens and Thatcher
2010).