MAN212: Analyzing and Overcoming Perception Distortions and Biases

This essay delves into the complexities of perception in organizational behavior, identifying factors that limit and distort it, leading to biases. It examines how individual characteristics, such as attitudes and moods, influence perception, alongside factors like perceptual learning, motives, and wants. The essay further explores common perceptual distortions, including stereotypes, halo effect, projection, selective perception, contrast effect, recency effect, self-fulfilling prophecy, and prejudice. The solution emphasizes strategies for individuals and organizations to overcome these distortions by understanding the perceptual process, improving communication, embracing change, and gathering factual information to enhance overall satisfaction and productivity. Desklib offers a platform for students to access similar solved assignments and study resources.

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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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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is different and also has a different way of expression towards a particular thing (Mittelstädt
and Keim, 2015).
Factors affecting the perception
It has also been analyzed that there are various factors affecting the perception of the
individuals. The factors are perceptual learning. If any special training is given then everyone
acquires some inputs which are sensory. For instance : if a specified person is given training in
a particular field then he or she can perform better as compared to other individuals. It has
been evaluated that experience is the best teacher for these types of skills.
Also, the next factor is related to motive and wants. It has been analyzed that the
motives and wants of the individual give influence on the perception. For example: a person
who is hungry can recognize the food items and also the attention cannot be directed towards
other things until he or she is satisfied. So, perception is also affected by the motive and wants
of an individual. When the wants are not satisfied then perception is also affected by this. Also
if the focus is given on organization it has been seen that boss who is not secure perceives that
their employees should do an outstanding job so that a threat to the position can be reduced.
The personal insecurity can be converted into perception (Kirrane et al., 2017).
Also, it has been seen that there are various factors that have given impact on the
perceptions. It not only give negative impact on understanding the ideas and ideologies but
also prevents to evaluate the behavior of the people that what they really are. One of the
distortions is related to stereotypes. It is has been evaluated that this distortion shades the
characteristics of the individual by tagging with their age, culture, gender and also the ethnic
background. A stereotype is considered one of the factors that have given impact perception.
It has been analyzed in this that people give the tag to the people on the basis of religion and
gender. A stereotype is considered as oversimplified evaluative view or judgment about the
group and this is only for an individual. For instance: it has been seen that when 10 people
stay together in a group then they discuss and create a perception of the individual.
Stereotyping is common in the society and it also gives adverse impact on the people. There
are various negative impacts which can be analyzed in the work relationships. In reference to
stereotyping the impact is seen on the entire productivity level (Hamilton, 2015).
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Organization Behavior
Next is a halo effect that distorts the perception by considering the characteristics of an
individual and convert it into generalization in relation to the behavior. In this way the other
traits of the individual become invisible. Halo effect takes place when one positive
characteristic of an individual is considered to create an overall impression of that person on
others (Walker, Zhang, and Yu, 2016).
Next factor is related to projection. It is considered a defense mechanism which helps
to secure unacceptable thoughts and feelings. Distortion takes place when one individual
focuses on tagging the others according to their own needs and personal point of view. In this,
the characteristics of the individual are shadowed and it is stated that solution that can assist
on the personal level should be also best for the others (Olins, 2017). There are many
individuals who think that other share their same perception in relation to the opinions and
also help to improve the points (Huczynski, Buchanan and Huczynski, 2013).
Selective perception is also one of the factors that give impact on the perception. This
bias focuses on describing a problem. Limited numbers of facts are considered and also the
valuable facts are ignored.
Next factor is related with contrast effect in which the bias takes place when one
compares the characteristics of an individual with other and also in a particular period of time.
Also when this can be considered as a valid way to compare the interpretations will be
different.
Recency effect also takes place when the latest information dominates the others. This
distortion can take place when the HR manager emphasizes the performance of the employees
within the few months.
Also one is related with a self-fulfilling prophecy. It gives impact on the individual
perception by making the expectations that direct and help those expectations to be satisfied in
a proper manner. Through this, it can be possible to get positive and negative outcomes at the
time of interacting with the people and also it depends on the expectations.
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Organization Behavior
Prejudice is also one of the factors which occur when people are prejudging on non-
factual data and emotions. For instance: Individual considers the prejudice views towards
people from a specific race.
Ways to overcome
It has been analyzed that there are various factors related to perception distortion but it
is important for the companies and for the individuals to overcome it so that overall
satisfaction level can be enhanced. By overcoming this it has been seen that positive impact
can be seen in the overall productivity level of the employees and also people will feel
satisfied and happy. Therefore, it is important to minimize it and the ways that can minimize
the overall effects of the perceptual distortions are many. The first way is related to
perceptual process works. It is important to consider this so that errors which are involved in
perception can be minimized. It is important to consider the process of perceptual works so
that it can be reduced. By having a proper understanding of the entire process it can be easy
for the individual to do their job by reducing the overall negative effect (Hoisington, 2015).
One person can have a comparison with the other person if they are from different
backgrounds or training. So, communication is the best way through which it can be easy to
sort out the differences. It is important to have proper communication so that negative feelings
for others can be reduced and also people can do their job in an effective manner. By having
proper interaction between the people it can be simple for them to share their views and
opinions with each other. Also, it is important for the people to know each other or to have a
proper understanding of the view as it can help to evaluate that when one individual is wrong.
It is essential to listen and understand the other individual point of view so that clarity can be
made and perceptions can be accordingly. The people should not try to convince the other
person that you are right or wrong instead of proper interaction and the listening process
should be taken into consideration. By having the proper information it has been seen that
negative impact can be reduced and also people can easily communicate that can give benefit
on the overall outcome of the company (Knies and Leisink, 2014).
The next step on which focus should be given is related to change. It is important for
the people to have the willingness to change them when they see any new information. If an
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individual is taking any decision then it is important not to jump on the conclusion but it is
important to gather proper information before making decisions (Georgalis et al., 2015). It
has been seen that information should be factual so that errors can be avoided and the right
actions can be considered. If there is no proper information then people should not make any
decisions as it can give negative impact and can also result in the overall loss. Gathering of the
right information is important so that proper decisions can be taken without any negative
effect. It is important to consider proper information so that conflicts can also be reduced.
The last step on which focus should be given is related to perceptual errors that can
reduce the overall performance of the employees and can also affect the decision-making
system. It has been seen that the overall effect can also be affected of the company if proper
decisions are not considered. If there are errors then it can also give impact on the decision-
making process of the company and also the decisions which are taken can affect individual
life (Urban and Wood, 2015).
So, to enhance the overall performance and also to motivate the employees it is
important to focus on reducing perceptual errors so that the effectiveness of the company can
be enhanced (Thompson and McHugh, 2009).
Therefore, by analyzing the paper it has been concluded that are many factors that
affect the perception like stereotyping, selective perception and contrast effect. It is important
to minimize these factors so that it can be simple for companies and individuals to achieve
their goals and objectives. To reduce these factors it is important to focus on proper
communication process and also on the minimizing the perpetual errors so that overall
employee's performance can be maintained and satisfaction level of the individual can be
enhanced.
Also, it has been evaluated that through communication process it can be simple for
the employees to get information from each other in the right manner. If employees have the
wrong perception for each other then it can also give a negative impact on the environment. It
is also important for the people to consider proper perceptual process so that negative thoughts
can be reduced and the positive outcome can be achieved. Also, it has been evaluated that
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Organization Behavior
proper information should be considered so that it can be simple to generate ideas and
thoughts.
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References
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