Organisational Behaviour: Perception, Bias and Organisational Outcomes

This essay delves into the critical role of perception in organizational behaviour, examining how individuals interpret information and its impact on workplace dynamics. It explores the processes of perception, including selection, organization, and interpretation of stimuli, and how these processes can lead to biases such as stereotyping and selective perception. The essay further investigates attribution theory, explaining how people assign causes to events and the implications of these attributions on employee behaviour and decision-making. It highlights various biases, including confirmation bias, self-serving bias, and belief bias, and their effects on organizational outcomes. The essay also discusses organizational constraints like reward systems and rigid rules that influence perception, and emphasizes the importance of understanding and addressing employee perceptions for organizational success and employee retention. The essay concludes by underscoring the significance of accurate perception in fostering effective decision-making, ethical behaviour, and overall organizational performance, supported by relevant academic references.

Running head: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Organisational Behaviour
Name of Student:
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Author’s Note:

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 process of
interpretation of the messages to the senses in order to provide order and meaning to the
surroundings . Most vital of perceptions impacting organisational behaviour are those which the
company 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” involves the process of
information selection that supports existing belief and ignoring information that is unsuitable or
discomforting. This method is considered as a catalyst to stereotyping. This is because it natural
for people to notice things which favour their ideas and ignore others (Favero and Bullock 2014).
The mindsets of people and their perceptions impact their behaviour in their
organisations. This explains the way in which sensory information is actually organised
interpreted and filtered by the people. The concept of attribution explains the way people act,
thereby determining the way in which people react to the actions of others. Accurate perception
assists the employees in interpreting things they hear and witness in the workplace in an effective

2ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
manner. These also help them in making decisions, complete tasks and also act ethically. Wrong
perceptions lead to issues including stereotyping and cause individuals to make erroneous
assumptions (Denham et al. 2010).
When individuals see themselves in difficult and unfamiliar circumstance they tend to
find it difficult to cope. It is characteristic of successful business professionals to state their
problems as well as the benefits of their ideas to all the prevalent people involved. By the
presentation of a convincing case for their facts they 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 reasoning 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 circumstances based on their feelings regarding what made the
particular event happen. 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 others based on their capacity, endeavour
or individuality. 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).

3ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Perpetual process is the sequence of psychological steps which is utilized by a person in
order to systematize and construe information which is obtained from outside world. A person
observes those objects which are present in the outside world, uses perception for selection of
objects, organises the perception of objects, interprets the perceptions and ultimately the person
responds. The selection, organisation and perception interpretation varies among different
people. Perpetual selection is caused by both internal and external factors including the
personality, motivation and experience. Personality traits impact the way in which a person can
select the perceptions. Conscientious people have a tendency to pick details and external stimuli
to a greater degree. People select the perceptions based on what they require in a particular
moment. Selections likely to help them with their present needs are much more likely to be
favoured and things irrelevant to their needs are likely to be ignored. The patters of occurrences
or association a person has learned in the past affect the present perceptions. The person is likely
to select perceptions in a way which fits their past findings (Heilman 2012).
There are different sorts of biases in human judgement which is applicable in case of
organisations. There is the concept of confirmation bias which highlights the fact that human
beings have a strong tendency to manipulate new information and facts until their own
preconceived notions are matched. The inappropriate confirmation allows for the poor level of
decision making which often ignores the truth of situations (Glöckner and Witteman 2010).
Another common bias is that of self serving nature. In this situation people have the
tendency to take credit for their success and passing their loss on failure. Belief bias is also a
common occurrence where individuals take decisions without themselves having all the facts.
Their confidence in such decisions is based on a logical and rational assessment of the facts.
Framing is also common where individuals ignore relevant facts and consider those only which
are applicable. Human beings by nature also match patters where past events are analysed to
predict future outcomes (Miner‐Rubino and Reed 2010).
The impact of such perceptions and decisions made on the basis of such perceptions lead
to a variety of outcomes. The decisions which are already taken also impact the decision making
in the future. Several outcomes are experienced. Regret, feelings of disappointment,
dissatisfaction with choices is made with any one potential outcome of the decision which has
been taken. In huge organisations it happens that when the people in managerial positions

4ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
particularly take decisions which are biased, they become responsible for any sort of wrong or
negative organisational outcome. In case it is realised later that the decisions connected to the
organisation which have already been made are wrong, their often remains nothing more to it
than regret. In case the decisions made are positive people also feel satisfied with their respective
decisions. Organisational choices often rely on a plethora of managerial decisions which are
made by the impact of the choices of the individual organisers (Joo 2010).
There are several organisational constraints which affect the perception of people
ultimately leading to incorrect decisions. One of the most crucial avenues is that of a reward
system. In case a reward system is not properly managed by the team members or the employees
at large, the overall organisational performance might be affected. Apart from this in case there
are any sort of historical precedents they might largely affect the perception of the individuals in
the work environment. In case the rules and regulations are extremely rigid the organisation
might perceive the management to be highly inflexible and hostile in their approach. In case the
roles and the goals of the organisation are undefined or not clearly explainable it might cause the
individuals to take up soft and comfortable goals thereby resulting in the organisational harm.
Bias towards different religious or social segments of the people might also cause their people to
have a negative idea about the organisation (Hatch 2018).
It is necessary for the managers of today to understand that organisational success is
possible only when the perceptions of the employees are completely understood and well
addressed. This might involve correcting wrong perceptions as well. Consequently the retention
of employees might also reduce and pose a challenge. This clearly shows the importance of
proper perception at the workplace and shows that it can make or break an organisation.

5ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
References:
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resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation
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Heilman, M.E., 2012. Gender stereotypes and workplace bias. Research in organizational
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