4

SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

Definition of Sensation and Perception and Differences Between Them

If you read the incident given in Box 4.1 (Dr P) you might wonder what is happening to Dr P. We all know that we have five sensory organs, namely eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin, and whenever some stimuli stimulates these organs, we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel. This is called sensation. However, have you ever felt any sensation while losing balance during a dance or some feeling in your stomach when you are stressed? In addition to the sense organs mentioned above, our joints and viscera also contribute to our sensation. Sensations can be divided into general and special. General sensations are heat, cold, touch, pressure, pain (related to skin), and proprioception (muscle, joint, and visceral sensation). Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling of balance occur because of special organs associated with these and are called special sensation.²

Sensation can be defined as the simulation of sensory organs. Another way to define is: “Sensation is the conscious or subconscious awareness of the internal and external conditions of the body”. Sense organs operate by sensing the internal or external variations through special nerve cells. These nerve cells are called sensory receptors and are different from other nerve cells (for description of nervous system, see chapter on fundamentals of behaviour). Each type of receptors vary in their function; for instance, the way visual receptors work is different from the way olfactory receptors work.

Now look at Figure 4.1. You may read it as ‘THE CAT’ or ‘TAE CHT’. You may also say that the glass is half full or half empty. Without seeing, you could not have said this; yet you could give different meanings to the same thing. It suffices to say that what we see and what we interpret are different. What does this mean? Seeing, or more generally, sensing through our sense organs, is necessary but not sufficient for perceiving. Perceiving involves not only selecting and organising, but also interpreting the meaning of what we sense³. Now revisit the case of Dr ‘P’ to get a better understanding of the impact of agnosia. There is an interpretation mechanism corresponding to each sense organ. Let us study this mechanism in detail.

 

Sensation is the simulation of sensory organs while perception involves selecting, organising and interpreting the sensation.

 

Types of Sensations and Perceptions

Visual Sensation and Perception

Vision is our dominant sense organ. It contributes 50 per cent of our sensation.⁴ When light from an object falls on the retina of our eyes, information is carried to the brain through the optic nerves. The retina is a complex structure and has cells called cons and rods. Cons play a vital role in daylight vision and colour vision. Rods play a vital role in night vision and peripheral vision (vision towards the sides). The eyes have dark adaptation, which is the reason why you can still see when you enter a cinema theatre after a while, and light adaption, which is the reason why you blink for a while when you come out of the theatre.

The information so gained by the rods and cons is processed to the visual cortex of the brain, which plays a major role in interpretation. The cells in the brain respond to lines, edges, and other complicated stimuli much more than to small spots.⁵ Our eyes are trichromatic. In other words, they see only three basic colours, that is, red, green, and blue. It is our brain that mixes these colours and helps us to visualise many colours. This would make it clear that beyond the sensory organ, there is a complex mechanism that selects, organises, and interprets information that leads to perception. Let us have a look at Figure 4.2 to understand this phenomenon better. Image 1 is a block that looks similar to CPU of a computer or a block of wood, but in reality, it is mere shades on a piece of paper. The second image could be a flower vase or two faces. Similarly, the perceptions of other images can also differ from person to person.

The same image being interpreted differently can be explained by two possible theories: feature analysis theory and gestalt principle.

 

The same image being interpreted differently can be explained by two possible theories: feature analysis theory and gestalt principle.

 

Feature analysis theory suggests that we detect specific elements in the visual input and assemble them into a more complex form. Therefore, we start with lines, edges, and corners, and convert them into a car, phone, or computer. Hence, Image 1 in Figure 4.2 could be a CPU for one and a block of wood for another.⁶ You can see several such images in the internet.⁷

Gestalt principle suggests that the ‘whole’ we perceive may have qualities that do not exist in the ‘parts’. For example, a forest is different from its parts, that is, various trees, grass, and flowers. Similarly, rapid succession of still images makes you feel that there is a motion picture, which is referred to as phi phenomenon. Principles of Gestalt phenomenon are as follows:

1. Figure and ground: This refers to the ability to differentiate between the figure and the background. Look at Image 2 of Figure 4.2. If you perceive white as background, then you can see two faces, and if you perceive black as background, then you can see a vase. You can also perceive Image 3 differently depending on what you perceive as the background and image.
2. Proximity (Image 4 of Figure 4.2): We often see students sitting together and conclude that they are of the same category in various aspects such as attitude or behaviour; yet, in reality it may not be so. In other words when people or things remain in close proximity to one another, we tend to conclude that they have similar properties, even though they may not be. This could lead to perceptual bias.
3. Similarity (Image 5 of Figure 4.2): Stimuli that are similar are grouped together and we attribute some meaning to it. Hence, the white colour is grouped and you read it as ‘2’ even though the white coloured circles may have no apparent connection.
4. Continuity (Image 6 of Figure 4.2): People tend to connect lines that are straight or gently curved. If you were travelling on a road similar to the image, then you are likely to perceive your destination along the arrow indicating the gentle curve rather than towards the sharper curve.
5. Closure (Image 7 of Figure 4.2): You are likely to consider this image as ‘one large triangle’ and not as three small ones because you tend to close the gap in between.
6. Simplicity (Image 8 of Figure 4.2): This principle suggests that people tend to group together things that create a good form though it is rather vague. Hence, one tends to perceive it as a circle and a triangle.

Perceptual Hypothesis

While gestalt principles indicate how people organise their visual input, it is insufficient to explain how perception takes place in the real world. If I show you a carom board lying 30 feet away from the place you are sitting, and ask you to look at the carom board and tell me its shape , you are likely to say that is a square without any hesitation. Now take a picture of the same with your smart phone and you will see that the figure you get is that of a trapezium. In fact, the shape that falls in your eyes is also that of a trapezium; yet, you say that it is a square without any hesitation. Now, go closer and take a photograph. The same would be a square. In other words, there is a difference between distal stimuli or stimuli from an object from far and proximal stimuli or stimuli from the object from near. Yet, we do not perceive things differently merely because the image the object creates in our eye from far and near is different.

Perceptual hypothesis attempts to explain this and is defined as the process by which individuals make inferences about what they see by overcoming the difference/gap between distal and proximal stimuli. Perceptual hypothesis posits that we continually make inferences or intelligent guesses about the images that fall on our brain through the eyes. This is an everyday experience. When we see someone walking towards us, we don’t perceive that his face is growing bigger and bigger. Perceptual hypothesis helps us to understand illusion. For instance, look at Image 9 in Figure 4.2. You feel that the right image is longer, though it is not so. There are many such illusionary figures such as ‘ponzo illusion’, impossible figures, which you can check on the internet. A real-life example is ‘moon illusion’ or feeling that the moon that we see in the horizon is larger than the moon that we see overhead, though the size of the moon never changes. Illusions are examples that prove perceptual hypothesis wrong; but in doing so, it reinforces existence of perceptual hypothesis because if perceptual hypothesis did not exist, illusion would also not exist. From OB perspective, it suffices to say that what falls in our eyes and what we actually perceive can be different.

 

We continually make inferences or intelligent guesses about the images that fall on our brain through the eyes.

 

Implications of Visual Perception for Organisations and Management

To understand this better, we have to explore a little more about the abilities of vision and capabilities of visual perception. Tables 4.1 and 4.2 clarify these.

Application in Organisation Visual perception is complex and it affects every aspect of an organisation and management. From productivity perspective, it enables us to identify errors and report them, respond to an unusual sound in a machine, achieve speed and coordination of working with a machine, and make out the bigger picture when we see something.

 

 

Insight from visual perception is widely used in designing a product, packaging, visual marketing and use of visuals in social media, and creating 3-D perception to support e-commerce. It is widely used in branding and marketing communication also.

In human resources management, it affects the way we see other people and their work, interpretation of body language during communication, and interpretation of seeing a person in a group known for its good/mischievous behaviours. The list is endless.

Auditory Sensation and Perception

Try the experiment recommended in Box 4.2. Auditory perception is defined as the ability to identify, interpret, and attach meaning to speech and environmental sound.⁸ Auditory sensation and visual perception have many things in common, as well as many differences. The foremost challenge of auditory perception is that we hear sound at any time of the day or night, from different directions and from different distances. Many different types of sounds also get mixed. We still have to make sense out of this complex mixture.

 

Auditory perception is defined as the ability to identify, interpret, and attach meaning to speech and environmental sound.

 

We hear because of sound waves. They consist of three components, namely wavelength, amplitude, and timbre or purity (See Figure 4.3). The wavelength is described in terms of frequency and measured in cycles per second (Hz). Human beings can hear frequencies between 20 and 20,000 Hz only. But, human ear is best suited only for 1000–5000 Hz range. In addition, sounds at the either end of this limit are harder to hear. Even this depends on the age and other factors. Amplitude is measured in decibels (dB). Higher the decibel, the louder would be the sound. Perceived loudness doubles for every increase of 10 dB.⁹ Decibels greater than 110 to 120 cause pain in the ear.¹⁰ Because of these factors, if two people sit at a place and listen to a sound, they are likely to hear it differently, and hence perceive it differently.

The sound waves that hit our outer ears actually reach as vibrations of air molecules from the source of sound. This is then transferred to the middle ear, which transmits the waves through movable bones. Then these waves reach the inner ear, which is a coiled fluid filled tunnel called cochlea. The cochlea has a membrane called basilar membrane inside it and it is lined with several thousand tiny hairs. The cochlea contains the nerve/neural cells with special properties to receive sound waves. These cells send the information to the auditory cortex of the brain. The auditory cortex has specialised cells, each with special sensitivity to various types of sound.¹¹ The reason for including a little biology is to impress upon you that any biological difference could lead to variations in sensation, and consequently in perception.

Auditory Perception Theories A lot of research has been done on how auditory perception takes place. Two theories dominate this field, namely place theory ¹² and frequency theory.¹³ Place theory suggests that the basilar membrane with minute auditory sensing hairs have specialised areas and these pick up different sound waves. Frequency theory, on the other hand, suggests that there are no specialised areas and the entire basilar membrane vibrates depending on the frequency of sound. Over a century-long research on these theories suggests that sound less than 1000 Hz is transmitted as explained by the frequency theory and those between 1000 and 5000 Hz through a combination of methods suggested by both theories.¹⁴

 

Place theory and Frequency theory explains auditory perception.

 

Phonological Awareness The role of auditory perception in understanding words and making sense out of them makes it indispensable for day-to-day communication, learning, and management. Auditory perception has three key capabilities without which it would be impossible to use any languages. These three key capabilities are as follows:

1. Discrimination capability: We can discriminate among beginning, middle, and end of sounds in words. For example, without this capability, we would not be able to differentiate between ‘bat’ and ‘pat’.
2. Synthesis: This capability enables us to blend sound. For example, we can synthesise the three different sounds such as ‘c’, ‘a’, and ‘t’ for ‘cat’.
3. Analysis: This capability enables us to analyse a sound into its constituent parts; for instance, we can split the sound ‘cat’ into ‘c’, ‘a’, and ‘t’.

Implications of Auditory Perception for Organisations and Management

The incident described in Box 4.2 may not be uncommon. But why does it happen? Whether we are awake or asleep, we use auditory senses and perceptions quite unconsciously. We hear orders, jump up from sleep to answer phone calls, learn by listening to lectures, listen to the flowing music even while we jog, and learn and obey a lot of things merely by using auditory power. Sometimes we even judge people by the sound of their voice(Box 4.3). In work life, its importance is even more, as most work is done by giving and receiving orders and instructions. We stop the machines and check them if we hear a strange sound and respond to a blast merely by hearing the sound. Some of the real-life examples we encounter are s/he whispered something looking at me, s/he sounded insulting, you neglected the unusual noise coming from the machine, and so on. Therefore, the importance of auditory perception needs little emphasis.

Central Auditory Processing (CAP) skills is responsible for auditory perception. This term refers to transmission, analysis, organisation, transformation, elaboration, storage, retrieval, and use of information contained in the audible signals.¹⁵ Sometimes there are problems with this system, which manifest in ways that we cannot detect easily. As a result, people might develop biased perceptions. For example, difficulty in following oral instruction may be interpreted as unwillingness or slowness to learn. Failure to differentiate the unusual noise of a machine from the background noise in a factory floor and attend to it may be interpreted as carelessness/negligence. Lack of phonological awareness could lead to misunderstanding, and we may be easily distracted by one type of sound. We may have poor auditory memory and so, show poor problem-solving skills because we may not have heard the problem being described correctly, and perceived it correctly. We may ask for repeating an order which could irritate a supervisor. We may also show fidgety and restless behaviour because of the uncertainty created due to lack of CAP. These indicate that a lot of problems in the workplace can be caused due to auditory perception.

It is important to differentiate between auditory and visual perception. Visual sensations are more powerful, and there is greater direct connection between the source and the perceiver in visual perceptions. In auditory perception, the perceiver and the origin of the stimulus that creates the sensation are often disconnected; that is, we do not often see the source of the sound. In modern workplace, auditory sensation has to be used more frequently than visual sensation because order giving, listening to comments by others, and receiving feedback—three most important methods used in controlling the workplace—are dependent more on auditory perception than visual perception. In the globalised world with outsourcing and disconnected workplace, auditory perception plays even greater role in customer relationship, client interactions, tutoring, and giving feedback through technology-assisted methods, especially phone calls. Any defects in our CAP can affect auditory perception and can have negative impact in the workplace.

 

Order giving, listening to comments by others, and receiving feedback are the three most important methods used in controlling the workplace. Hence we depend more on auditory perception than on visual perception.

 

Tactile (Touch) Sensation and Perceptions

Other sensory perceptions that affect us are touch, smell, taste, and kinesthetic and vestibular sensations.

Skin is the primary source of touch sensation. It has at least six different types of receptors for pressure, heat, cold, and other sensations.¹⁶ Information from these receptors are transmitted to the somatosensory cortex in the parietal lobe of the brain. Although the entire body is sensitive to touch, the bulk of the somatosensory cortex of the brain is dedicated to processing the sensation from the hands, lips, and tongue. Some cells in the somatosensory cortex function in a similar manner to the feature detector of the visual sensation, which we discussed earlier in this chapter, and enable us to decide specific features of touch, such as, its direction of movement.¹⁷

 

Perception of pain depends on expectations, personality, mood, and other factors.

 

The sensation of pain is generated through the nerve endings in the skin and is transmitted to the brain through a ‘fast pathway’, which gives you the immediate sensation, and a ‘slow pathway’ routed through the limbic system. (see chapters on fundamentals of behaviour for input on limbic system). Although there are two routes, the perception of pain depends on expectations, personality, mood, and other factors.¹⁸

This is the reason why Sujata mentioned in the incident in Box 4.4 was able to react the way she did. It does not mean that everyone would react the same way in this situation or that Sujata will react similarly in another situation. Another example is how some people feel pain when a nurse administers an injection, whereas others don’t even notice it. This suggests that even the perception of pain is highly subjective. The ‘pain gate’ theory suggests that the incoming pain sensation must pass through a ‘gate’ in the spinal cord and that this gate can be closed, thus blocking the pain signals.¹⁹ If you are keen to learn more about it, read about the ‘pain gate theory’ in the work of Melzak.²⁰

Kinesthetic Sense and Perception

Stand a few feet away from a table and try to pick up a pen from the table. How do you do that? You actually move closer and then stretch your hands and pick up the pen. How close to an object you walk or how much you stretch your hands to pick up a pen may look like a routine action; but without your kinesthetic sense, you would not be able to do so. This sensation is created by our tendons and joints, and this allows you to be aware, where your limbs are in the space. For instance, it allows you to perceive where your hands are, when you stretch them to pick up the pen, and hence, you don’t stretch your hands when you are too far from the table. Kinesthetic stimulation is also passed to the brain through the same pathway as the touch sensation, but the type of information it contains is kept separate.²¹ You might now be clear that without this sensation, your hands would be unable to do any meaningful work. This is true for other moving parts of your body too.

 

How close to an object you walk or how much you stretch your hands to pick up the pen may look like a routine action; but without your kinesthetic sense, you would not be able to do so.

 

Vestibular Sensory and Perception System

Try travelling in a bus along a bumpy road and taking a photograph of a beautiful flowering tree. You will struggle to do so as you find the tree is moving up and down and going out of the screen because your body is actually moving up and down. Now, look at the tree with your naked eyes. Though your body is still jolting up and down, you do not feel the same sensation as what you got through the camera. This is because of the vestibular sensation that responds to gravity and informs you about your body’s location in space. This system provides balance by compensating for the changes in the position of the body.²²

Sensory Integration

So far, we had a thorough look at different sensations. The supermarket story (see Box 4.5) is a little different one. There are multiple sensations involved in it such as sight, sound, aroma, and sensation of warmth on a cold day. No matter what is the source of sensation, the information reaches the brain and gets interpreted in an integrated manner. It is this integrated interpretation that converted me to an oats noodles fan. Sensory integration is central to perceiving anything. A sound and flash are not interpreted separately but together. For example, an angry boss shouting at you and slapping you is not interpreted using three different sensations of sight, sound, and touch, but as one integrated entity. A boss seating you comfortably over aromatic coffee, looking into your eyes, and using gentle words to give you vital feedback is not interpreted as different sensation of sight, sound, and aroma, but as one integrated entity. Your perception of the feedback given this way, as against a crisp e-mail, would differ although the content might be the same. These examples would highlight the power of sensory integration. It would also indicate to you, how subjective, stimulus can be and how you can use multiple sensory stimuli to convey what you want in the workplace.

 

Sensory integration is central to perceiving anything.

 

Importance and Scope of Perception

Individual Level The content given in Box 4.6 is a clear indication of how perception can affect an individual. Perception leads to the way we think of ourselves and others. We evaluate the values and attitude of others that impact the way we interact with them. We learn things which we perceive can help us progress in life, we shun others based on our perceptions about them, we perceive what motivates others and direct our behaviour accordingly, we feel stressed because we perceive negatively the actions of other people, we spend time in office and with the family depending on our perception of the importance of work life balance, and we adjust to people from diverse cultures based on our perception of these cultures. It is equally true that we see and fail to see the actions of others according to our perceptions, we judge people based on what we hear about them, and we interpret a touch as loving, friendly, or intrusive. What is more, we even judge a training session on the taste of food served during lunch! We do not hesitate to change our jobs merely on the perception that the other place is a better one to work, without rigorous and factual validation. These examples highlight the importance of perception at individual level.

 

We see and fail to see the actions of others according to our perceptions, we judge people based on what we hear about them, and we interpret a touch as loving, friendly, or intrusive; all because of perception.

 

Group We either cooperate, or refuse to do so, because of our perception about others in a group. We often get into conflicts in the group because we perceive that all work is loaded on us or that reward is not shared equitably and injustice is done to us. We negotiate and resolve conflicts based on our perception about the other party and our perceptions of fairness.

Organisation We create a vision depending on our perception of the future and a strategy based on our perception of threat and opportunities. Our planning is affected by our perception of the resources that we can muster and what our workforce is capable of delivering. The organisational structure we use such as hierarchy or matrix is strongly influenced by our perception of the need to exercise control. Our staff selection system is highly influenced by our perception of a person’s fitness for the job and we coach or mentor people whom we perceive to have high potential, and dump others.

Leadership The entire process of leadership is based on the perception of the ability of a leader to achieve a goal, and the behaviour of the leader towards the followers is based on his/her perception of the ability of the followers to help achieve the goals. The reality can be widely different.

External Environment Interestingly, we have our perception about the external environment also. For instance, we perceive that some political party is pro-growth, some states are better, some economic policies are pro or anti-business, some social environments are better for business, and we even perceive the legal system of a country as just, fast, slow, and so on. These perceptions influence several major business decisions.

Change Management Most managers consider changing the ‘perception’ of people towards change, the most difficult task, and a lot of their effort is directed towards it.

The above discussion will make us appreciate that perception affects every aspect of organisation and management, and it can be considered as one of the most important OB variables that we should understand, assimilate, and apply.

Components of Perception

According to Alan Saks,²³ there are three important components involved in perception—the perceiver, the target, and the situation. The perceiver is the person who interprets the stimuli. The target is the entity (a person, place, thing, event, and so on) about which the perceiver makes an interpretation based on the stimuli generated by the target or a third party. For example, as you were running into the office late for work, your boss was walking out of the door. He, the perceiver in this case, may create a perception about your punctuality and dedication. It is also possible that another person, may be his secretary, tells him that you tend to come late. This too could lead to his creating a perception about you. In both cases, you are the target. The situation also matters in creating the perception as it also acts as a stimulus. Suppose you were running into the office late on a rainy day in a rain coat with water dripping, the boss is likely to perceive your action differently than if you were running into the office on a clear day, looking dry and fresh. This happens because the rainy days and the clear dry days (the environment) also create stimulus.

Basic Model of Perception

Jerome Bruner’s²⁴ model of perception, though a basic one, is very useful to understand perception (See Figure 4.5). This model suggests that when the stimulus from an unfamiliar target reaches the perceiver, the perceiver gets different cues, and he/she tries to collect more cues. This happens till the perceiver gets some familiar cues, which help the perceiver to categorise the target. The moment it happens, the perceiver tends to not only stop the search for more cues, but also tends to reject any new cues. What is worse is that the perceiver even goes to the extent of distorting the new incoming cues to fit the interpretation created by the initial familiar cue.

Perceptual Process

Let us now combine the components given in Figure 4.4 and the basic model given in Figure 4.5, to arrive at Figure 4.6. A stimulus is created by the target or by a third party about the target. The situation also creates a stimulus, as we saw earlier. These stimuli reach the sensory organs of the perceiver after passing through filters such as other noises like background noise, light, lack of light, and so on. The stimulus, which falls on the sensory organs such as eyes or ears is called proximal stimuli. The original stimulus without any filtration is the distal stimuli and we have already seen the difference between these under ‘visual sensation and perception’. The proximal stimuli undergo transduction (change in form to make it suitable for transmission through neurons) and then these are transmitted to the brain. The stimuli generate some cues in the brain of the target. The brain also receives input from the memory based on the cues that the stimuli generate. The brain combines these and quickly interprets them into a percept. Although the perceiver’s brain continues to get stimuli from the target, these are either stopped or distorted to fit the first cue, in order to reinforce the initial percept. The percept that the perceiver creates about the target tends to influence his/her attitude and behaviour towards the target.

Now you might understand why during an interview, the moment you enter the cabin, and spend a few minutes with the interviewers, they make up their mind on selecting you, and all your later effort to showcase your competencies fall on deaf ears. When you become an interviewer, you should ensure that you don’t stop the stream of stimuli coming from the target and don’t allow the brain to distort the incoming cues. Understanding this perceptual model is important because it explains why we perceive something in a particular way, why perceptual biases take place, and how we can try to prevent perceptual biases.

Factors Affecting Perception

There are a number of factors that affect perception. These are as follows:

1. Stimulus: Intensity, longevity, novelty, motion, background, proximity, and multiplicity of the stimulus influence perception. For example, if you see and hear a person talking loud, the effect of perception will be different from only hearing it.
2. Origin: Stimulus created by the target directly tends to have a greater impact than the stimulus created by a third party. For instance, the boss seeing a person coming late would have more impact than the secretary telling the boss about it.
3. Situation: The situation decides how perception is created. Loud talking during lunch break and during working hours creates same stimulus, but not the same perception. Solemnity, seriousness, time, work setting, social setting, nature of work, work tradition, and culture are some of the factors that affect perception in the workplace.
4. Sensory organs: Sensitivity of the sense organ is crucial in perception. For example, seeing an event clearly as against not seeing it clearly because of not wearing your spectacles can create different perceptions.
5. Perceiver: Age, gender, attitude, motive, interest, experience, expectations, self-concept, mood and cognitive structure of the perceiver, and sensitivity of the sense organs are the important factors that affect perception.
6. Cues and memory: If the brain gets a familiar cue, it tends to stop searching for more, and goes on to fit the newer cues to match and reinforce the existing one. Hence, anything that exists in the memory can influence perception. This is important as it also leads to distortions.
7. Mental training: If a perceiver is well trained to suspend judgement and listen or see mindfully, then they will be able to reduce the impact of perceptual bias.

Theories of Perception

When we study perception, we can look at what happens in our body/sensory organs and what happens outside, that is, in the mind/brain and the environment. The former is called ‘proprioception’ and the latter ‘exteroception’. These are integrated in the brain. It is estimated that the brain dedicates at least half its resources for sensation and perception.²⁵ This means sensation and perception are extremely important and complex processes.

There are several theories to explain sensation and perception. Perhaps, the reason why there are many theories is that perception has been studied under various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, and medicine, and each discipline proposed its own theories. Most theories on perception, irrespective of the discipline, can be classified into two approaches: ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ approaches. These approaches are closely linked to proprioception and exteroception.

Bottom-up Approach Bottom-up approach, also called ‘direct approach’, was proposed by Gibson. According to this approach, objects exist whether they are perceived or not; for instance, the door of your house exists whether you perceive it or not, and it retains the properties of a door whether someone perceives it as a door or not. Therefore, the properties of the target are perception-independent. In other words, we perceive the world directly through our sense organs and inferences are not involved. This thinking is also referred to as naive realism or direct realism.²⁶ The strongest argument in favour of this is our ability to perceive something fast and accurately. Gibson’s theory was largely based on his observation of pilots in World War II. Many argue that this was a unique situation and the theory cannot explain several real-life situations. For example, when a door is ajar and only the rectangular frame falls in the eye, we still perceive it as a door through which we can enter and exit. Illusions are another case in point and we have already seen in earlier section that what falls on our sensory organs is not what we perceive.

 

Bottom-up approach suggests that we perceive the world directly through our sense organs and inferences are not involved.

 

Top-down Approach This approach accepts that there are several inputs and intermediary thinking/inferences other than the physical stimuli, which falls on our sensory organs that affect perception. This approach is also called ‘constructivist’ or indirect approach, and Gregory has been its dominant proponent.²⁷ Although this approach sounds very logical, it too faces several inadequacies. For example, if perception is the result of inferences, then how can a new born baby perceive, since a neonate is not capable of inferring? However, a neonate does perceive and show preference for shape constancy²⁸, mother’s voice,²⁹ and normal features rather than scrambled features, even 5 minutes after birth. This makes it difficult to explain perception solely through an indirect approach.

 

Top-down or the constructivist approach suggests that we make inferences from our sensation all the time.

 

Perceptual Cycle From the above discussions, it is clear that neither top-down nor bottom-up approaches can independently explain perception. Furthermore, experiments have shown that increase in clarity of stimulus and amount of context increased the likelihood of correct identification of the object. From this arose, the assumption that the top-down and bottom-up processes interact with each other to produce perception. Neisser’s perceptual cycle attempts to explain this. According to this, a perceiver tends to explore the actual environment using his/her knowledge from past experiences and do not do so in a vacuum. The existence of past experience is, thus, important to start the exploration. This experience may be very rudimentary, say for example, a gut feeling that a problem can be solved in a particular way. Based on this, the perceiver takes some actions.³⁰ The success/failure in the action refines the experience. This iteration goes on and is called perceptual cycle. Because of the iteration, it is only natural that new combinations of actions come up.³¹

 

Perceptual cycle suggests that we explore the actual environment using our knowledge from past experiences and do not do so in a vacuum

 

Evolutionary Psychology Approach Our eyes adapt to the intensity of light, and similarly, we can adapt to the intensity of pain. Bats navigate their way without colliding, using sound waves, whereas most other animals do so by sense of sight. This indicates the existence of an evolutionary process, and the theory suggests that perception evolves through adaptive actions.

Attribution Theory If someone is angry with you, you will attribute it to his/her bad temper, your own mistake, or some external factor that infuriated the person. In other words, we find a cause for the anger. Heider, an eminent psychologist pointed out that people are ‘naive psychologists’ and try to make sense out of social events and create causal relations for any social situation, even when there are none.³³ He extended this idea and suggested that we tend to explain the behaviour of others by attaching ‘internal attribution’ such as envy, lack of grooming, anger of the person, and so on. However, we explain our own behaviour by using external factors such as circumstances and compulsions. This is called external attribution. Formally, the attribution theory deals with how a social perceiver uses information to arrive at causal explanation of events.³⁴

Correspondent Inference Theory Let us take two cases to understand this. A person who has a friendly disposition wishes you warmly. Another person who does not have a friendly disposition also wishes you warmly. It is quite natural that we perceive them differently and attribute different meaning to the same behaviour. This is what correspondence inference theory attempts to explain. Correspondent inference theory was proposed by John Davis and suggests that we attribute behaviour based on the following five different inputs³⁵:

 

Correspondent Inference theory suggests that we interpret behaviour based on choice, intention, social desirability, non-common effect and hedonistic relevance.

 

1. Choice: The first input is whether the employee has a free choice to behave one way or the other. For example, the CEO of a company is addressing all the employees, but attendance is optional.
2. Intention vs unintentional: The second input is whether the behaviour is intentional or unintentional. Let us say that the address by the CEO was compulsory, but just before the address an important customer called to solve some problems. As a result, the employee could not attend the address of the CEO. This would be external attribution. However, if the employee left the office stating that s/he had an important appointment, it would normally be perceived as inability of the employee to plan. This will be a case of internal attribution.
3. Social desirability: If the social norm is that all employees attend the CEO’s address, then even though it may have been announced that the attendance is optional, absence of an employee without due reason would be considered internal attribution.
4. Non-common effect: If a person’s behaviour has important consequence for us, then it would impact the attribution. For example, if the delay in providing adequate information by a person leads to your failure to close a sales deal, then it would be considered internal attribution.
5. Hedonistic relevance: If a person’s behaviour appears to cause us some benefit/harm, then we are likely to give it a personal meaning even if it was due to circumstances. In this case, we tend to make internal attribution.

Kelly’s Covariance Theory This is the best-known theory of attribution. The term covariance signifies that a person has input from multiple observations. According to Kelly, causal information has three components that determine the type of attribution. These are consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency.

 

Causal information has three components that determine the type of attribution. These are consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency.

 

1. Consensus means the extent to which other people behave the same way in a similar situation. For example, if it rains, many employees may come late to office. Hence, on a rainy day, if Mr ‘X’ is late, then the behaviour is likely to receive an external attribution tag.
2. Distinctiveness means the extent to which a person behaves the same way in different situations. For example, Mr ‘X’ comes late for meetings often. If he does so on a rainy day, it is not likely to be attributed to the rain (external attribution); rather to the person’s attitude towards punctuality (internal attribution).
3. Consistency refers to the extent to which a person behaves the same way, every time the same situation arises. Suppose a person comes late whenever it rains, then his coming late on a rainy day is likely to have internal attribution, whereas if s/he does not usually come late even if it rains, then, coming late on a rainy day is likely to have external attribution.

Kelly’s view is that we fall back on past experiences to create attributions and look for either multiple necessary causes or multiple sufficient causes. For example, if we see a student excel in examinations, then, we reason that the student must be intelligent, hardworking, highly skilled, motivated, and trained. All these are necessary to do well in an examination. This way of attributing is called multiple necessary causes. However, often we attribute success in examination to intelligence only. ³⁶ This is called attribution due to ‘multiple sufficient cause’. In other words, we find a way to attribute success to a few causes rather than all the causes.

Last but not the least, Indian philosophical approach to perception has much to teach us (See Box 4.7)

Perception-Based View (PBV)

We all know about rational decision making. However, in real life, decisions are influenced by perceptions, attitudes, and emotions. This view suggests that making decision is a function of perceptions, attitudes, and emotions in addition to rationality. It is called perception-based view (PBV). This answers why people in the same circumstances with same input make different decisions and why people make decisions that seem irrational or contrary to what is propagated by the rational decision theory. In other words, we can reasonably conclude that variations in decisions are attributable to perception.

 

Making decision is a function of perceptions, attitudes, and emotions, in addition to rationality.

 

Perception is multidimensional and fluid. This is because people’s perception of the same thing differs depending on circumstances, and so, we can say that time and space have an influence on human perceptions. PBV suggests that: (i) decision makers do not always focus on rational or utilitarian view of the decision, (ii) utility itself differs from one person to another and this variance in the definition of utility could be attributable to perception, (iii) analytical comprehensiveness or the ability to take all factors required for analysis could be impossible, and therefore, perception influences decision making, and (iv) psychosocial factors influence perception and decision making.

PBV is an extremely important concept in OB because it simply means that all our decisions are influenced by our perceptions.

Perceptual Distortion/Perceptual Biases/Perceptual Errors

In the earlier sections, we learnt about perceptual process and attribution. Our perception can vary widely based on the perceptual process and attribution.We have already seen that once the brain gets a few cues, it tends to shun additional cues. All these suggest that there can be severe distortion in perception. Perceptual distortion is also called perceptual biases or perceptual errors. Since attitude and behaviour are influenced by perception, it is important to study about perceptual distortions so that we could avoid these distortions and learn to perceive, as objectively as possible.

 

Since attitude and behaviour are influenced by perception, it is important to study about perceptual distortions so that we could avoid these distortions and learn to perceive as objectively as possible.

 

Stereotypes or Prototypes This is the process of attributing certain characteristics and behaviour to a person by linking the person to a category, even if such linking is arbitrary.³⁷ For example, we link gentleness to women, vulnerability to children, and environmental destruction to business. Such categorisations help to simplify decision making because (i) by grouping many characterestics into one category, there will be fewer characteristics to remember (ii) it accentuates or makes the characteristic of each group more prominent, (iii) it makes it easier to describe something or someone, and (iv) it is flexible as it is possible to create any number of categories as per one’s convenience, even though the parameters used may be arbitrary. However, this simplification leads to distortions and biases in perception.

Halo This occurs when we use cues or indications of one characteristic of a person as a cue for his/her other characteristics or performance. It is also called disambiguation. Cues such as smart dressing, height of a person, show of confidence, regularity of attendance, and so on are often used as cues for performance effectiveness. Halo is a common error in selection of candidates and performance management.³⁸

Selective Perception Often there is a tendency to single out one of the characteristics of a target.³⁹ For example, if you create an ad hoc team consisting of members from different departments for product development, and ask them to state the most important characteristic that the proposed product should have, then, those from the marketing department will say that it is low cost and ease of selling, those from production will say that, it is the ease of production, and those from finance, would say that the margin is the most important feature. This happens because of selective perception. Selective perception can be a result of one’s values, needs, and attitudes.

Projection This happens because we attribute our personal values and attributes to others and feel that others too have similar ones. You may have observed a person/manager with strong task orientation drive other members of the team. His/her behaviour would appear very logical to him/her, but those whom she/he drives may have different values.

Contrast Effects If you look at a red spot against a yellow background, the contrast is very prominent. Similarly, if person ‘A’, who is very aggressive, and person ‘B’, who is very passive, are working alongside, then the aggressiveness of ‘A’ would be more prominent than if ‘A’ was working alongside ‘C’, who is also aggressive. It is most visible when two siblings differ in their capabilities.

Pygmalion and Golem Effects If a manager tells a worker that s/he is very efficient and then gives a task, the chances are that the output will be better. This phenomenon is called Pygmalion effect. Another term for Pygmalion effect is ‘Rosenthal effect’. It is the result of self-fulfilling prophecies.⁴⁰ There are many explanations to this. One is that the person or manager, who places the expectation or prophesies that his subordinate is efficient, tends to evaluate the person higher. Second is that the subordinate works harder to fulfil the expectation of the manager. Similarly, if the expectation is lower, then performance also tends to be lower and this is called Golem effect. ⁴¹ See Box 4.8 and read more about this experiment.

Pygmalion and Golem effects have wide organisational implications. For instance, if stretch goals (goals little more than the estimated capability) are given to employees, the employees usually tend to exceed their capability. Similarly, if easy goals are given, they tend to underperform.

Social Perception

It is common knowledge that we create impressions/opinions about people all the time. We also make inferences about other people’s feelings and emotions. This is called social perception/person perception. We use a plethora of cues for person perception. It can be physical appearance, facial expression, the way of dressing, tone of voice, touch, gaze and so on. As managers, we should be competent to make right person perception, though it is a difficult task. We can do this by training ourselves to observe the emotions, intentions, and desires of other people, learn to infer the inner state of the other people based on their words, behaviour, and expressions, and by adjusting our actions to the inferences we make. Social perception is also applicable in customer relationship, managing the boss, and building interpersonal relationship.

While the theories of perception are applicable to social/personal perception also, implicit personality theory can also help us to understand and manage our person perception. The theory proposes that there are central and peripheral traits. For example, a billing clerk at the checkout of a supermarket may be attractive, intelligent, or rude. At the time of billing, the rudeness that the person exhibits is central, because we expect politeness from the billing staff. However, as we walk away and think of it, the person’s attractiveness and intelligence, which were peripheral at the time of billing, also begin to play a role in our perception of the individual. This happens because we pay attention to a variety of cues such as visual, auditory, and verbal to create a perception of the other person. Additional cues of attractiveness and intelligence are used to fill the information gap to create perception. Understanding this theory would enable us not to create a person perception without seeking more cues. Many organisations insist that we should test any attribute of an individual at least twice before we make a decision to hire the person. This method enables us to create the social/person perception of the individual as accurately as possible.

 

We should test any attribute of an individual at least twice before we make a decision to hire the person. This method enables us to create the social/person perception of the individual as accurately as possible.

 

How can managers limit the impact of perception? A few clues given in Box 4.9 could help.

Perceptual Illusion

Illusions are distortions of sensory perception. They occur in all sensations, though illusions related to visual perception are more common. We have already seen some of these in Section I (Gestalt principle). Research on illusions is important and popular because it helps one to understand how the brain processes information.

 

Illusions are distortions of sensory perception.

 

Visual illusions enable one to understand the adaptations the brain has made to operate in a way so as to transform visual stimuli into perception. Mirage, rainbow, and reflection in a mirror are examples of physical illusion. These occur due to the nature of human anatomy. Blind spots and ‘after images’ are examples of physiological illusions. The various receptors of the eye gather at a point, and then, run to the brain. At this point, there are no photoreceptors; however, we do not feel this because each eye compensates for the blind spot of the other eye. Afterimages occur due to fatigued visual channels.

Cognitive illusion is another type of illusion. It can be ambiguous illusions in which an object seems to change its appearance. This happens in the brain. Necker cube and Rubin’s vase illustrated in Figure 4.7 are examples of this. Another cognitive illusion is paradox illusion. Try making the Penrose Triangle given in Figure 4.7 and you will know that the figure is an illusion. A third type of cognitive illusion is called distorting illusion; for instance, the moon appears larger when on the horizon, than when overhead. Fourth type is fictional illusion or perceiving something that does not exist; for instance, hearing a sound that did not exist. This is often called hallucination. We now know that all that we see and hear may not be real. Knowledge about illusions will help us not to fall into the trap of perceptual distortion/bias resulting from illusions.

Perceptions and Organisation

Can an organisation create stimulus to create the perception that it intends to create much like an individual, and if so, how? This is a question that should be on concern to managers at all levels.

Firstly, when an organisation defines its vision including the values, it is able to influence the perception of the stakeholders. Here, the vision acts as the stimulus, and hence, a written vision statement is one of the tools that an organisation can use to create appropriate perception of it by the target, that is, its stakeholders such as customers, employees, and suppliers in the case of an organisation.

Secondly, strategy, structure, policies, and practices act as stimuli, which create the required perception. For example, the Tata group is perceived as an ethical organisation because their policies and practices act as stimuli to create that perception. Google is perceived as non-hierarchical and innovative because of the structure and practices, and HCL as employee friendly because of the ‘employee first, customer later’ policy. Similarly, some companies are perceived as risk takers, whereas others as risk averse. Therefore, it is evident that organisations also have mechanisms to initiate stimuli that create perception.

Perception and Competitiveness

Read the content of Box 4.10 and take a few minutes to reflect on it. Although there can be many perceptions that impact competiveness, here we confine our discussion to perceptions related to risk, innovation, entrepreneurship, and change.

Risk Since risk and return are correlated, several studies have addressed how people and organisations perceive risk. These studies show that risk perception is often exaggerated even though they know that risk leads to better returns.⁴² Psychological studies have shown that people’s risk perception depends on many factors including dread, newness and stigma,⁴³ and emotions.⁴⁴ The valence theory of risk perception explains that positive emotions increase optimistic perception of risk.⁴⁵ Another interesting finding is that though risk and returns are positively correlated (higher the risk, higher the return) in the real world, it is negatively correlated in people’s mind.⁴⁶ In other words, in people’s mind, higher risk means lower return. Many of us believe that additional information helps to reduce risk perception, but this is not substantiated by studies.⁴⁷ Such results are consistent with the perceptual process, which suggests that once a percept is created, additional cues do little to change the percept.

Studies also show that events that can be more easily brought to mind are judged more risky. For example, terrorist attack in Mumbai is likely to be perceived as more risky than Mumbai suburban rail mishaps, though more have died in suburban rail accidents than in terrorist attacks (on an average 5.8 deaths take place in a day on the Mumbai suburban routes).⁴⁸ Similarly, loss due to a major stock market crash is likely to be brought to mind more easily to create a negative perception of the risk, than many small losses that one has faced. This is because people use heuristics to create shortcuts. Although heuristics are useful shortcuts, they also tend to create biases.

Perception and Innovation Similar to risk, innovation is also important for competitiveness. Behavioural theory of the firm suggests that firms begin information search only when performance falls. Hence, the way an organisation perceives its performance has an impact on the alternatives it searches for, and the innovations it adopts.⁵⁰ Research indicates that like individuals, organisations also have both cognition and perceptions. No organisation has perfect information, and therefore, they approximate much like the human brain does. Hence, organisations initiate innovation strategies based on their perception of their need.

Perception and Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurial opportunities have both objective and subjective qualities.⁵¹ As a result, these opportunities are perceived differently by different people. Probability of success, stability in the environment, ease of doing business, legal soundness of a country, terrorism, conflicts and stability of the government are some of the factors based on which entrepreneurship bloom. None of these can be estimated precisely. They are only perceived as conducive or not conducive even when some data is available on these.⁵² It is possible to change perception of entrepreneurship through training.⁵³

Perception and Change There is little need to emphasise the importance of change. Employees’ perceptions about the need for change and their perceptions about the organisational support, participatory decision making, procedural justice, power, status, job security and benefit and growth, from individual and organisational perspective, are some of the well-established perceptions that impact changes.⁵⁴

Implications of Perception for Management Functions/Processes

A deep understanding of perception and perceptual biases would help managers because of the impact perceptions have on management functions. Let us see how perception would impact the management functions/processes.

Planning and Decision Making Any business plan begins with the perception of an opportunity. For example, our perception about ease of doing business shapes our decision to invest in a place. Similarly the decision about layout in a retail store is based on creating a positive impact on the perceptions of the customers.

Organising Perceptions about the nature of employees, interdepartmental relationship, and degree of control required, form the basis for creating structure. For instance, our perception of the degree of control required decides whether the structure should be hierarchical or flat. Structure influences perception of employees about the organisation.⁵⁵ For instance, employees in an organic and mechanistic structure perceive subjectivity in performance evaluation.⁵⁶

Staffing It can be defined as selection, training, and giving charge of job responsibilities to people. Stereotyping people from an institute, region, or gender, halo effect of good grading or achievement in non-related areas, selecting ‘people like me’, or projection are some of the common biases that affect selection. A few poor quality candidates followed by a moderate quality candidate could affect by contrast, leading to selecting the moderate quality candidate, whereas better candidates may have been rejected merely because they faced the interview after a few excellent candidates. Pygmalion and Golem effect also influence staffing decisions. For example, grades or having graduated from a reputed school may influence giving challenging jobs and then evaluating them favourably, when such opportunities may not have been given to another person who may have superior competencies.

Leading It is influenced by the leader’s perception of the opportunities, goals, values, intent, and capabilities of the people one leads. Similarly, follower’s perception of the leader determines the degree of influence the followers permit the leader to have over them. Creating the organisational vision, communication, building trust, involvement, delegation, and styles of leadership are, thus, influenced by perception.⁵⁷

Controlling Control is the process by which we ensure effective execution of plans. We exercise controls through reports and checking. If we perceive our subordinates as robust and efficient, then, we exercise less control, else we tend to have more controls.

How Does Information Age Influence Perception?

We live in an information economy characterised by globalisation, information flow and constant change of images and messages, social and economic networks, and innovation. These become powerful stimuli that influence our perception. Table 4.3 gives an overview of this.

 

Services Business and Perception

Services have some unique characteristics that are strongly influenced by perception. Over 78 per cent of the US GDP, 70 per cent of Japanese, German, French, and British GDP, and over 58 per cent of Indian GDP is contributed by services.⁶¹ It is, therefore, important for us to identify how perception influences this business.

• A service is intangible, and hence, we cannot perceive it as we perceive a product. Therefore, trust is crucial in this business. For example, perceptions of trust and risk have major influence in selecting a bank or type of investment.
• A service is inseparable because the service receiver and giver cannot be separated. For example, it is difficult to separate a doctor and a patient who receives the service. As a result, the perception of the service giver influences the perception of the service itself. This is the reason why one doctor is perceived more efficient than another, even when both of them prescribe the same medicine.
• A service has variability or heterogeneity. Even though coffee chain may make coffee the same way across all its outlets, the location, ambience, the staff who serve the coffee, your own mood, and the company of in which you are having the coffee would result in the difference in your perception of the coffee. This compels the services business to manage the perceptions of the customers on a continuous basis by creating identical ambience, seating, and colour scheme of the outlet and by focusing on the service rendered by the staff.
• Perception of a service is influenced by culture specificity. For example, packages with larger quantity of an item are convenient to handle, and are more economical. Such large packages are not perceived negatively in the West, but in India, the perception of a large majority is not favourable to such packages. Hence, if you have only large packages in your superstore, the customers may not develop a positive perception of the item or the store.

Measuring Perception

If you watch a news program at night, you are often asked to vote or send tweets on your perception of the issue being discussed. This is measuring perception. In fact, we tend to measure perception of virtually everything. Brand, violence in society, job satisfaction, effectiveness of a slimming program, and risk taking capability are a few examples. In most cases, we use a well-designed survey questionnaire for this. Questions measuring perception should differ from questions measuring attitude, behaviour, or knowledge. Let us consider two questions to understand this: (i) how do you rate the incentive plan of your company, (ii) how did you feel when you received your last bonus. The former measures perception, whereas the latter the behaviour. Therefore, perception can be measured even if the individual has not experienced an event, but behaviour can be measured only if he person has experienced the situation/event.⁶² Let us now see some of the popular perception tests.

 

Perception is measured using four methods-limits/staircase, adjustment, constant stimulus and catch trails.

 

• Perception can be measured by giving an experience of something. For example, a blind test conducted on taste of food or drinks is a way of measuring perception of liking the taste. It does not mean that it will lead to purchase behaviour.
• Measuring perception through psychophysical experiments is a popular method. The purpose is to identify how a stimulus is perceived.⁶³ There are four distinct aspects we try to measure: (i) detection, for example, the amount of light or sound required before the stimulus is detected, (ii) identification, for example, we show pictures used in an advertisement without the words and ask people to state what it is, (iii) discrimination, for instance, we make people taste a new and old version of a drink with slight difference in taste and ask them to judge which is better, and (iv) scaling or finding out the magnitude of stimuli required for discrimination.
• We usually use four methods to measure perception. First is the method of limits or staircase method where the magnitude of stimuli is increased progressively in ascending or descending order and the subject is asked to indicate whether they can detect the stimulus. What the ophthalmologist does by changing various lenses and asking you to read lines of different sizes is an example of this method. The second method is the method of adjustment. It is the same as the earlier one except that the subject is asked to adjust the stimulus till it is detected. For example, the doctor tells you to move the lines up or down till you can perceive the letters clearly. Third is the method of constant stimuli (random order). Here, the stimuli are presented by the experimenter, at random. The advantage of this method is that it minimises errors due to adaptation or expectation. Fourth is catch trials, which means no stimulus is given. This is used in tandem with other methods to detect whether the subject is simply guessing.

Enhancing Perceptual Skills

In Section II, we learnt about target and perceiver as the key components in perception. Perceptual skill is enhanced by creating some changes in the target or the perceiver. These are:

Physical Measures Wearing spectacles, using a microphone, or having a hearing device are examples of this. Wine tasters wash their mouth before every wine tasting. This is also intended for increasing the stimuli.

Accumulating Data Consider that a manager sees an employee coming late to office one day. The manager can create a perception immediately or seek record or the employee’s attendance before creating a perception. The latter leads to better perception because of accumulation of data.

Concentrating/Focusing Consider a situation where a manager is giving instructions to a group of employees. Some would concentrate and some would not. The ones who concentrate are likely to have a better perception of the work involved because the perceivers, were able to enhance the stimulus through concentration.

Adapting Let us take the case of a demonstration taking place in a noisy environment and two people attending it; one, a person who works in a noisy environment most of the time and another who works in a calm atmosphere. The latter is likely to perceive the situation more negatively and learn less. The advantage that the first person would have is that he/she is better adapted to a noisy environment.

Preventing Filtering Let us take the case of a supervisor reporting to the manager just before he/she was going for an important presentation, that two employees had a minor scuffle. The chances are that this stimulus will get filtered because of the important work the manager has at hand and not get due attention. The manager can ask the supervisor to raise the issue the next day or note it down in his ‘action pending’ list to prevent filtering.

Training/Practice How does a musician learn to differentiate between the fine tone of music or a child learn to identify the differences between the two figures (see Figure 4.8) A child can be trained to look at these two images inch by inch, curve by curve, area by area to enhance the perceptual skills.

Wine tasting, observing a movement in a forest, or observing a suspicious person are all done by training, to pick up the stimuli from the target, item by item.

Increasing Experiences We have already learnt that sensory stimulus and input from the memory are integrated to create perception. It means that perception is dependent a lot on the input from the memory. Input from the memory itself is dependent on own exposure to activities and experiences. This is the reason why people who take part in various activities, travel and talk to people, participate in workshops, or have better background knowledge are able to perceive things better.

Developing Mindful Awareness It is a method of “paying attention to the present moment or experience with openness, curiosity, and willingness to accept things without judgement”.⁶⁴ Mindfulness prevents the first cue from the memory getting attached to the percept, thus blocking more input from getting attached.

Changing Perception

A person (or the perceiver) has perception about almost anything(Targets). A target may be an organisation, processes, systems, people, events, places, risk, or products. Perceptions may be passive. Examples, are a general dislike for change, investment in stocks, using genetically modified products, or ignoring a person in the workplace. It can also be active. For example, using aggressive language towards a colleague or actively propagating against the use of genetically modified products are result of active perception.

Perceptions are like snapshots. The perceiver develops the perceptions almost at the first instance or interaction when she/he receives the stimulus. Thereafter, the perceiver tends to retain and strengthen these perceptions. The reason for this is that the perceiver tends to take the first cue and interpret the meaning of the sensation/stimulus and then actively resists further cues (See perceptual process explained in Section II). Therefore, changing the perception about something involves reducing the impact of the first cue and allowing more cues to influence perception.

We can change perception in two ways: (i) the perceiver changes her/his perception about the target and thereby changes her/his own behaviour towards the target and (ii) the target changes its behaviour so that the perceiver changes the perception of the target.

Perceiver Changing Her/His Own Perception This is important in an organisational context. Resisting change because of our perception about the changed situation is one of the greatest challenges today; more so, when changes have to be frequent. It is also central to interpersonal relationship in workplace. To change our perception, first the perceiver should define the issue at hand, for example ‘I don’t like X’, ‘this office is ridden with politics’, and so on. Then, the perceiver should look for evidence to substantiate these perceptions and preferably record them. Thereafter, evaluate the evidence for its credibility. The perceiver may ask a neutral person to corroborate the evaluation. This would minimise bias and enable the perceiver to gain new insight about the target. Do organisations use this technique effectively? The answer is that organisations with good performance management system use this method. They have KRAs (key result areas) and KPIs (key performance indicators). KPIs are evidence of achieving the KRAs agreed to, at the beginning of the performance evaluation cycle. This leaves little scope for perceptual bias about an individual during performance evaluation. Yet bias takes place.

Target Changing Other’s Perception about Itself We find universal application of target changing the perception in business. A leader intending to change the way followers perceive him/her is an example of target changing others’ perception of himself/herself. A product can also try to change the perception of customers about itself. An example is Tata Nano car trying to change the customer’s perception about itself. Impression management and branding are the terms used to refer to these perception changes.

Role of Communication and Personal Example in Changing Perception Communication is one of the most effective means to change perception. When we communicate frequently and effectively, the message is retained in the brain and the cues that come can be easily converted into a percept. Personal example is a very powerful stimulus that can change perceptions. For example, on October 25, 2014, Barak Obama, the President of the US, hugged the nurse who had been quarantined for Ebola after caring for a US citizen who had died.⁶⁵ This was not done so much to show the country’s gratitude for what she did, as to remove several wrong perceptions about Ebola. Vikram Pandit of Citigroup taking a pay cut during the financial meltdown in 2009 is another example that changed the perception that pay cut during a recession is only for the lower hierarchy.⁶⁶

Perceptual Congruence

Perceptual congruence is defined as the extent to which members of the surveyed group agree on the perceptions of the social structure.⁶⁷ It is applied to predict conflicts in organisations, groups, men and women planning to get married and so on. Organisations often study the congruence of values of their employees with organisational values. Perceptual congruence helps us to live without conflicts. Congruence among couples predict differences that could emerge. Similarly, value congruence in an organisation, predicts possible conflicts that can emerge because of variation in perception of the values by an employee.

Summary

It is estimated that approximately half of our brain is involved in perception. It affects our decisions, our behaviour, and other people’s behaviour towards us. People consider perception as reality though it can be widely different. This leads to perceptual biases. Our sensory organs, which pick up the stimuli, often create illusions, and this adds to perceptual biases. Sensation can be defined as the simulation of sensory organs. Perception involves interpreting the meaning of what we sense. There is an interpretation mechanism corresponding to each sense organ such as eyes or ears.

Vision is one of our predominant sensory organs. There are two important theories that dominate the process of interpreting visual stimuli. One is feature analysis and another is gestalt principle. Feature analysis theory suggests that we detect specific elements or features in the visual input and assemble them into a more complex form. Therefore, we start with lines, edges, and corners, and convert them into a car, phone, or computer. Gestalt principle suggests that the ‘whole’ we perceive may have qualities that do not exist in ‘parts’. These theories are insufficient to explain the complex mechanism of perception. For example, when we see a man walking towards us from far, though the figure we see is small, we do not interpret it as a small boy. Perceptual hypothesis attempts to explain this. Perceptual hypothesis is defined as the process by which individuals make inferences about what they see by overcoming the difference/gap between distal and proximal stimuli. We also have visual abilities. For example, we have ability to look fixedly or intently at something. In addition, we have visual capability. It is the capability to make our body movement in relation to the vision. That is why we can often duck a speeding vehicle.

Hearing/auditory sensation is another important aspect of perception. In organisations, we listen to orders and feedbacks and adjust our behaviour and actions. Hence, auditory perception is important in the organisational context. Because of tactile perception, we interpret a tap on our cheek as loving and friendly or aggressive and offensive. Kinaesthetic sensation and perception enable us to move our body in a coordinated manner. Without this perception, you will find it hard to pick up a glass of water from the table. Vestibular sensation keeps our body in balance, which is the reason why we do not find the houses and trees jumping up and down even when the vehicle in which we are travelling may be doing so. Perception can integrate multiple sensations, and that helps us to take decisions and actions.

The basic model of perception has three elements: the perceiver, the target, and the situation. The basic process of perception is that the perceiver gets the cues from the target, adds more cues from the memory, and then perceives. There are several factors that affect the perceptual process. Stimulus, origin, situation, sensory organs and their sensitivity, the perceiver, cues and memories, and our mental training affect our perception. In other words, we can mentally train to change our perception, and this is good news for all managers.

There are several theories related to perception, Kelly’s Covariance theory being the most important as it explains the logic behind many organisational decisions. Perceptual bias is a common problem in an organisation. Some of the common perceptual biases are stereotyping, halo effect, selective perception, projection, contrast effect, and Pygmalion and golem effect. Perceiving people from a particular religious or social group in a particular way is an example of stereotyping. Considering a good student as also honest is an example of halo, whereas singling out one of the characteristics of the target rather than looking at the person holistically is called selective perception. Perception influences a number of organisational behaviours such as risk taking, competitiveness, customer delight, decision making, controls used in an organisation, and so on. The methods to enhance one’s perceptual skills and also to change perception are discussed in this chapter, in detail.

In sum, this chapter will help any person, and particularly a manager, to make more objective decisions. It also gives the managers know-how to enhance perceptual skills and to change own perception of others and others’ perceptions about us. Hence, this chapter has a special place in the study of OB.

Test Your Understanding

1. Perceiving involves three important steps. Select the right three steps from the following:
   1. Selection, organising, and taking action
   2. Stimulation, selection, and taking action
   3. Stimulation, organising, and taking action
   4. None of these
2. Look at the figure carefully. Which of the gestalt principles does this figure represent?
   
   1. Proximity
   2. Similarity
   3. Closure
   4. Figure and ground
3. Perceptual hypothesis suggests that:
   1. People take into consideration all stimuli that reach them.
   2. People tend to overcome the gap between proximal and distal stimuli.
   3. People tend to exaggerate the gap between proximal and distal stimuli and thereby make wrong perceptions.
   4. The greater the stimuli, the better the perception.
4. Many years back, teachers used to cane children at school. A teacher walking around the class suddenly caned a child quite unexpectedly for talking to the child sitting next to it. The child stated that it was asking the other person not to disturb it. Then, the teacher called the child that was causing the disturbance and caned it too. Everything else being equal, which of the following is the most appropriate statement?
   1. The first child is likely to feel more pain.
   2. The second child is likely to feel more pain.
   3. Both would feel the same pain.
   4. None of the above is plausible.
5. Fill in the blanks

   Components of perception are __________ , ________ and __________.

6. Which of the following is the most appropriate statement in relation to factors affecting perception?
   1. Intensity of the stimulus rather than longevity has an impact on perception.
   2. Novelty of the stimulus rather than motion has an impact on perception.
   3. Both (a) and (b) are true.
   4. Neither (a) nor (b) is true.
7. You and your friend were travelling together in a train. She had a reservation, whereas you did not have one. At last you managed to bribe the train ticket examiner and got a seat. She grumbled how corrupt you are, and you retorted, “Had the boss not given me such a short notice, I would not have to do this”. The theory that explains this is:
   1. Causality theory
   2. Exchange theory
   3. Attribution theory
   4. None of these
8. Perception-based view (PBV) of the employees suggest that:
   1. Decision makers always do not focus on rational or utilitarian view of the decision.
   2. Utility itself differs from one person to another.
   3. Both (a) and (b) together explains PBV better.
   4. Neither (a) nor (b) explains PBV.
9. Fill in the blank

   Mr A remarked, “I did not know that his father is a politician. No wonder cheating comes to him quite naturally”. This statement is an example of___________.

10. Which of the following statements is the most appropriate?
    1. Illusion is a phenomenon seen equally in all sensations.
    2. Illusion is a unique phenomenon seen in optical sensation.
    3. Optical illusion is more common than other types of illusions.
    4. Blind spots and after images are not illusions.
11. Which of the following is the most appropriate statement?
    1. Additional information does not necessarily reduce risk perception.
    2. Risk perception is influenced by emotions.
    3. Neither (a) nor (b) is right.
    4. Both (a) and (b) together would be the most appropriate statement.
12. State whether true or false.

    You are working in an organic and mechanistic organisational structure, whereas your friend is working in a flat structure. Everything else being equal, compared to you, your friend is likely to feel that pleasing the boss is important to get a good performance rating.

13. Which of the following is the most appropriate statement?
    1. Staircase method is used to measure perception.
    2. Adjustment method is used to measure perception.
    3. Catch trials is a method used to measure perception.
    4. All the above are methods used to measure perception.
14. Fill in the blank

    A wine taster rolls the wine in his mouth. This is an example of enhancing perception through_________ measure.

15. Which of the following is the most appropriate statement?

    Organisations use 360 degree appraisal method. The main purpose of this is to:

    1. Enable the target (the manager) changing other’s perception about itself.
    2. Perceiver (the employees) changing the perception about the target.
    3. A symbol for creating perception of humility among the employees.
    4. None of the above fully explains this.

Need some help with this? Go to Answers to Test Your Understanding given at the end of the book.

Assimilation Questions

1. ‘If sensation and perception were identical, the world would have been a better place to live’. Take a position on this statement and justify your position.
2. Explain gestalt phenomenon, with examples.
3. What are the implications of perceptual hypothesis theory? Why does this theory matter in understanding perception?
4. Explain the perceptual process using a diagram and explain how one of the processes can be enhanced for better perception.
5. Summarise and critique the top-down and bottom-up theories of perception.
6. Shyam and Shakuntala are office friends. They share so much in common. However, Shyam, unlike Shakuntala, often comes late to the office. One day Shakuntala requested Shyam to help her take her sick child to the doctor, before office. He obliged, and got late for office. ‘As usual!’, the boss thought, and let him off. Shakuntala was also late. However, the boss was surprised and decided to enquire. Explain this situation using Kelly’s covariance theory.
7. Women were not permitted to join the Armed Forces in India for many years. The avenue opened for them only in the 1990s. Why do you think this happened? Discuss your case using concepts from perception.
8. Comment on risk perception and its impact on organisations.
9. How can perception affect staffing? Suggest remedial measures.
10. Discuss how the information age has impacted perception, using suitable examples.
11. Business has two broad variants, namely manufacturing and services. Which of these do you think is more influenced by perception? Justify your position.
12. Explain staircase method of measuring perception, with an example.
13. Explain with examples how you can enhance perceptual skills?
14. How will you go about changing people’s perception about you? Explain with an example.
15. What is perceptual congruence? How can we achieve it?

Need some help with this? Go to Clues to Answer Assimilation Questions given at the end of the book.

Application Challenges

1. Select one or two pictures from https://www.google.co.in/search?q=TAT+images&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Ob9RVNbEOMLEmQWCuYLwAw&ved=0CBsQsAQ.1 and then ask the students to write a story on each in 5 minutes (per picture). Discuss some stories and then ask the students why the stories varied though they all saw the same.
2. Show the film 12 Angry Men. You can use a sub-titled one which can be downloaded easily. You can reach the site through a simple Google search or get it from http://www.yifysubtitles.com/movie/12-angry-men-1957. Generate a discussion on various aspects of perception.

Approach to Teaching/Learning

For Lecture-driven Teaching Those institutions which use lecture method can follow the standard pattern of lecture and quizzes. Thereafter, they can go to the experiential learning mode by attempting the application challenges.

For Case-driven Teaching Perception is best taught using visuals than cases. Institutions that follow case method (participant-centred learning) may use the film 12 Angry Men referred to in Application Challenge 2 and/or use the film National Geographic: Test Your Brain Episode 2. You can access the film through http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xq1rfl_national-geographic-test-your-brain-episode-2-perception_shortfilms