Importance of Perceptual Errors, Attributions, and Biases

This essay delves into the importance of perceptual errors, attributions, and biases in managerial decision-making, comparing contemporary management theories like contingency, systems, and chaos theory with real-world management practices. It highlights the challenges managers face in adapting to cultural differences, managing interrelated departments, and dealing with organizational restructuring. The essay also discusses critical issues such as workplace diversity and employee motivation, referencing the Institutional Theory of Diversity Management and Resource-Based Theory of Diversity Management. It addresses generational differences and the need for strategies like job rotation, feedback sessions, and training programs to mitigate challenges and enhance managerial effectiveness. The study concludes with recommendations for future managers, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning and adaptation to the ever-evolving organizational landscape.

Running head: MANAGING ORGANISATIONS
Managing Organisations
[Discuss how Perceptual Errors, Attributions and Biases are Important in Managerial Decisions]
Name of the student:
Name of the university;
Author note:

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The chosen topic for essay covers the importance of perceptual errors, attributions and
biases in the managerial decisions. It is of primary importance to understand the different terms
as used in the essay topic. Perceptual errors in context to managerial decisions mean making up
the perceptions built upon the information which may or may not be true. However, managers
proceed with such assumptions just to handle the situation appropriately. Attributions are a set of
behaviours which are used to explain an action. Managers use different attributes and prevent
them from making direct comments. Biases express the inclination of managers for or against a
person or group. The way managers follow to be biased may be considered unfair (Reamer
2015). The study answers the essay topic which considers perceptual errors, attributions and
biases as important for contemporary managers for making the decisions. The study compares
the contemporary theories of management with the management practices to identify the needs to
go away from the theoretical beliefs if at all there is any such deviation. Moreover, the study also
recommends a few considerations for future for the managers and the learner being in the
managerial position.
Contemporary theories of management: Contingency theory is one of the contemporary
theories of management that gives or speaks of the insight of managers. The theory governs a
fact that managers must have the qualities to adapt to the different circumstances and make the
decisions accordingly. It means that managers need to exhibit the suitable leadership styles
according to the workforce they are working with (Dickmann, Brewster and Sparrow 2016).
Hence, in the light of the theory, it can be governed that it is advisable to use the autocratic style
while leading employees in China and the Persian Gulf. Participative leadership style for
managers leading a hospital or a hotel should be the highly preferred choice. The theory also

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means that managers must have the capability to adjust to the different situations. Hence, there is
a need for multi-leadership traits in managers.
Systems theory can be defined as the schools of thought that support a multidimensional
approach for managers. The traditional managers had their tendency to be confined to just one
part of the operation while not caring for the others. However, systems theory advocates having
concerns for more than just one part. This means the managerial decisions must not be confined
just to one department but, it should also have an understanding of the interrelated departments
(Liu and Stening 2016). For example, managers must be able to coordinate with the different
HODs and must also understand the area of expertise which each department deals with. In this
way, managers will be able to have an effective understanding of the different departments and
their requirement for resources.
Chaos theory states that system goes towards a much complex stage. The systems
naturally go to the complexity and consequently, produce the more structural changes within the
organization. The structural changes are required also to cope with the increasing complexity at
the organizational level. For example, business needs to consider a structural change while going
for a new venture. This is required because the existing organizational structure may not be
feasible for the new markets. Additionally, the startup of a new venture also means that
‘systems’ is becoming more complex due to the added requirements of resources to support the
new ventures (Pinnington et al. 2015).
Contingency theory when applied to the workplace produces a few very important
managerial behaviours that also include their inability to cope with the cultural differences.
Managers are found as struggling to adapt to the business cultures in the foreign countries. There

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are evident differences among the countries in terms of business cultures as stated by Hofstede,
Lewis and others (Taylor, Doherty and McGraw 2015). Such differences are often the issues for
the expatriate managers when they are sent to a distinguished culture for a significant period of
time. Challenges can be bigger while dealing with a highly contrasting culture such as an
Australian manager being sent to Japan. In Australia, there are no needs for formalities while
interacting with employees as according to Hofstede, the power distance is comparatively low in
Australia. However, managers in Japan must organize a meeting for interacting with employees.
The customs and the work beliefs do also vary in different countries. Australians are very casual
when they are at work whereas Japanese cannot as stated by Hofstede (Cappelli and Keller
2014). These are the few differences which speak of the challenges the expatriate managers can
have. Therefore, many organizational and employee behavior can be outlined based on the
application of contingency theory. Some of the organisational and employee behaviour include
but is not limited to such as work styles, the management-employee relations and others.
Systems theory when applied to the managerial roles, it produces a few important points
like managers must have the capabilities to deal with the interrelated departments. The
contemporary organization is like the systems having interrelated departments. Managers have
an understanding of the different interrelated departments in order to be much more effective.
Managers must have the understanding of the ‘interrelated systems’. However, contemporary
managers do not actually possess the required skills. In some cases, they do not even belong to
the industry which they are currently a part of. They are selected just on the basis of their sheer
experience in some other industries (Vaiman, Haslberger and Vance 2015). For example,
executives being experienced in customer care centers are also sometimes preferred in jobs
where managers are needed to involve a lot in the coordinating activities. They may be suitable

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to hospitality industry or the supermarket industry. However, such managers may not necessarily
have the competency which is required to serve as the manager in the hospitality industry. Such
circumstances will not allow managers making the effective decisions as they will depend on the
information provided by the respective departments.
The application of Chaos theory suggests a few findings such as there will be structural
changes in response to the system complexity. System complexity is a natural process which will
always be there in contemporary organizations. Hence, the contemporary managers must have
the capability to deal with organizational restructuring (Jones et al. 2015). However, on a
broader aspect, the contemporary managers sometimes struggle to identify the best feasible
structure to respond to the increased organizational complexity. There are a number of
organizational structures and it is indeed difficult to identify the best feasible and situational
specific structure (Jones et al. 2015).
The contemporary managers face the loads of challenges which can be understood from
the various organizational issues. Some of the critical issues are workplace diversity, employee
motivation and others. The contemporary managers often find these it challenging to effectively
manage these issues. In such cases, the various theoretical perspectives can really help managers
in managing these challenges. Some of these theories are the Institutional theory of Diversity
Management, Resource-Based Theory of Diversity Management and others (Ferlie and Ongaro
2015). Such theories must be effectively implemented to enable the future managers for
managing the various workplace challenges. This will also help the learner in pursuing the role
of a future manager while effectively managing the teams. However, before moving on to find
the best strategies for managers, it is imperative to understand the area which the mentioned

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theories cover. This will help to find the best-recommended strategies for the future managers
and also for the learner.
Institutional Theory of Diversity Management states that it is mandatory for an
organization to understand the diverse organizational behavior, the social work environment
found in the workplace and others. There are certain norms, policies, rules and regulations to
control the wrongdoings and guide the employee to the organisational goals. Such norms,
policies and everything is a must for operation and managers are critical to such practices.
Hence, the theory governs the institutional guidelines for managers and the employees (Van
Dooren, Bouckaert and Halligan 2015). Such guidelines are the collective efforts of the human
resource management who are responsible for the designing. They do it through effectively
adhering to suitable legislative guidelines and principles (Van Dooren, Bouckaert and Halligan
2015).
Resource-Based Theory of Diversity Management governs the presence of four
resources which are integral to organizations. Those resources are human resources, capital
resources, financial resources and corporate capital resources. Every single mentioned resource
is critical to the success. On the other hand, such resources can also be the causes of failures if
not being handled appropriately. Of all the resources, human resources are very critical and other
resources are interrelated with it in some ways. Managers often find this challenging to manage
the human capital (Van Niekerk 2017). This is due to a variety of reasons like the workplace
diversity. The workplace diversity is further due to several of factors such as gender and
generational based differences. Gender-based differences require a cautious attempt of managers,
so that, no biases happen at the workplace. In a similar note, generational differences do also
require a managerial or leadership trait to control the generational based conflicts. This is rather a

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bigger problem than the gender-based differences because at the most basic level there exist the
three different kinds of generations such as Millennials, Boomers and Baby Boomers. The three
different generations have a different way of working and are dissimilar to each other in work
cultures. For example, Baby Boomers in most cases are very prone to change management. They
are sufficient enough to adjust to it. However, Boomers are mainly resistive to such change due
to a fact that they have very limited time left of their service and seem like spending those few
time with no more tensions and hard works. Millennials, on the other hand, are also resistive to
change because they are hardly settled with the job and are in regular hunt of a better
opportunity. Hence, change process appear as meaningless to them (Becton, Walker and Jones‐
Farmer 2014).
Few of the human capital management related issues have been discussed in the aforesaid
sections; hence, it is of significant importance that the future managers or the learner have the
effective measure of strategies to mitigate the challenges. The change process is of immense
importance considering a fact that organizational restructuring is a continuous process for
countering the rising challenges and attaining the required competency (Gambardella, Panico and
Valentini 2015).
Considering the immense challenges for future managers and for the learner, some
recommendation can be effectively beneficial. Managers must consider the rotation of jobs as
this will allow employees acquainting with the different responsibilities. This will also give an
option to managers which they can use in managing the leaves of employees. This means they
will not suffer in absence of employees and will have the sufficient workforce to take care of the
work. Rotation of job also means employees getting opportunities to work at different positions;
hence, in another way, they are getting equipped with the diverse skills. Moreover, such strategy

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as discussed earlier will create the bench strength for managers which will help them during the
times when they are short of sufficient workforce.
Providing the frequent feedback session will also be the key to managerial roles in
future. Feedback sessions are not just confined to escalating the weaknesses but also provide
opportunities for managers and employees to understand each other. Hence, managers will get
sufficient opportunity to understand employees and also be able to diagnose a bests program to
repair any issue, if it is there. The frequent training program will also be a key role of future
managers as such programs are the good opportunities to train employees in the identified areas.
Therefore, in the light of the different theories that have been discussed in this study, it
can be said that future managers will need to find ways to cope with the diverse workforce. They
have challenges in the form of various organizational resources such as the human capital
management. Human capital management is challenging due to gender and generational based
gaps. Such challenges need a strong counter from the future managers. The counter will be the
rotation of jobs, frequent feedback sessions and the training program.

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