human perception

covers human perception, which helps explain how we make attributions about others’ behaviors. Why is this important for managers to study? How can a working knowledge of attribution, correspondent inferences, and perceptual biases help managers or leaders deal with challenges that organizations are facing today?

Human perception and attributions about others’ behaviors is extremely important as it relates to any organization and its employees for many reasons. Managers should study attribution to insure that fair judgments are being made on behalf of others, rather than making an assumption based upon certain personality traits they may possess at a given time. According to Chapter 4 of our text, social perception (Neck, 2017; page xxx) is key in any environment, as how you perceive others and how they perceive you could determine promotions, performance appraisals and how you are viewed as an individual. (Note here the citation of the text and reference to a specific page number.) 

The problem is how one perceives (human perception) you may not necessarily be the real you. In our quest to find others out, we must be very cognizant of how we perceive others not only in a work setting, but in many cases you must get to know the individual in order to see their “true colors” so to speak. This is very important as it relates to management, as they must be careful not to allow preconceived notions and perceptions get in the way of not promoting others, based upon how we perceive them, but rather, get to know the real person. We must keep in mind that just because someone’s behavior is different or has changed, it could be due to underlying causes of which we are not aware.

A working knowledge of attribution, correspondent inferences, and perceptual biases can help managers and leaders deal with challenges that organizations are facing today, as attributes tell a story about an individual to a certain degree. Correspondent inferences are judgments about people’s dispositions, their traits and characteristics that correspond to what we have observed of their actions (Neck, 2017; page xxx). (In place of citing the text, you could reference a newspaper, magazine, or journal article. It is also appropriate to cite a news story from television, print, or online media to support your statement.) According to our text, correspondent inferences may not be altogether accurate because people on the job, in some cases, conceal some of their traits that may come across as negative. One way to make accurate correspondent inferences is to focus on others’ behaviors that may not be required to behave in a pleasant manner. When one isn’t expected to behave pleasantly, this could reveal a great deal about the persons traits and motives they may have. According to Kelley’s Theory of Causal Attribution (Neck 2017; page xxx) judgments are based on internal and external causality with respect to 3 types of information.

• Consensus-people behaving in like manner as the person they’re judging • Consistency-the person being judged acts the same way at other times • Distinctiveness-person behaves the same in other contexts,

In terms of perceptual biases management should have some knowledge of fundamental attribution error, (Neck, 2017; page xxx). For example, one of the examples given in our text was, if someone shows up late for work, may not necessarily be due to the person being lazy or unconcerned, but could stem from being caught in a traffic jam, albeit construction or an accident. The halo effect is another perception management should be familiar with when a formal performance appraisal form is being used. Just because initially, a positive impression of an individual or subordinate, it doesn’t necessarily mean the employee is good at their job.