1. Perception and Decision
Making in Organizations
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Perceptual Process Model
Environmental Stimuli
Feeling
Hearing
Seeing
Smelling
Tasting
Perception
Organization and
Interpretation
Emotions and
Behavior
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

3. Perception
A process by which individuals organize and
interpret their sensory impressions in order to
give meaning to their environment.
The way in which individuals analyze and
interpret incoming information and make
sense of it.
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

4. Perceptual Organization/Interpretation
Factors in the perceiver
 Attitude, motives. interests, experience,
expectations
Factors in the situations
Time, work setting, social setting
Factors in the target
 Novelty. Motion, Sound, Size,
Background, Proximity, Similarity
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

5. Social perception and social identity
Social perception,
The process of combining integrating, and interpreting
information about others to gain an accurate
understanding of them.
Social Identity
Who a person is, as define in term
of his or her membership in various social group.
Person identity
© AFP/Corbis
The characteristics that define a particular individual.
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

6. Social identity Theory
A conceptualization recognizing that the
way we perceive others and ourselves is
based on both our unique characteristics
(personal identity) and our membership in
various groups (social identity).
According to this theory the people
compare themselves to other individuals
and groups to help define who they are,
both to themselves and others.
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

7. Stereotype
Judging someone on the basis of one’s
perception of the group to which that person
belongs.
We can also say that
Stereotype belief that members of specific
groups tend to share similar traits and
behaviors.
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

8. The Stereotyping Process
Develop categories
and assign traits
Managers are
absent-minded
Assign person to category
based on observable info
Our instructor
is a Manager
Assign category’s traits
to the person
Our instructor is
absent-minded
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

9. How Accurate are Stereotypes?
Some accuracy, but also distortion and error
 Traits don’t describe everyone in the group
 We screen out inconsistent information
Stereotypes are less accurate when:
 Little interaction with people in that group
 Experience conflict with members of that group
 Stereotypes enhance our own social identity
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

10. Attribution Process
Internal Attribution
 Perception that outcomes are due to
motivation/ability rather than situation or fate
External Attribution
 Perception that outcomes are due to situation or
fate rather than the person
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

11. Rules of Attribution
Internal Attribution
High
LOW
LOW
Consistent
with past
Distinctive
from other
situations
Low
High
Consensus
(Other people
are similar
High
External Attribution
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

12. Attribution Errors
Fundamental Attribution Error
 Attributing behavior of other people to internal
factors (their motivation/ability)
Self-Serving Bias
 Attributing our successes to internal factors and
our failures to external factors
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

13. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Cycle
Supervisor
forms
expectations
Employee’s
behavior matches
expectations
Expectations
affect supervisor’s
behavior
Supervisor’s
behavior affects
employee
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

14. Dealing with Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Awareness training
 Leaders learn effects of negative perceptions
 Problem is that awareness doesn’t prevent selffulfilling prophecy
Emerging three-prong strategy
 Support a learning orientation
 Engage in contingency leadership styles
 Increase employee self-efficacy
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

15. Other Perceptual Errors
Primacy
 First impressions
Recency
 Most recent information dominates perceptions
Halo Effect
 One trait forms a general impression
Projection
 Believing other people are similar to you
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

16. Selective Perception
The tendency to selectively interpret what
one sees on the basis of one’s
background, experience and attitude.
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

17. Improving Perceptual Accuracy
Diversity
Initiatives
Know
Yourself
Compare
Perceptions
With Others
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Improving
Perceptual
Accuracy
Empathize
With Others
Postpone
Impression
Formation
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

18. Decision making Individual Differences
Personality
Gender
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

19. Individual Decision Making
We offer four suggestions to improve their
decision making.
First analyze the situation.
Second, be aware of biases.
Third combine rational analysis with intuition
Finally, try to enhance your creativity.
McShane/ Von Glinow 2/e
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.