1. Organizational Behavior
Chapter 3: Perception and Learning in
Organization

2. Prepared by:
Nur Aisyah Binti Mahbob
(2010312861)
Prepared for:
Miss Syahrina „Adliana

3. Table of Content
1. Case Summary
2. Question
3. Introduction
4. Body
I. Check the perception
II. Awareness of Perception Biases
III. Self-awareness
IV. Interaction and Communication
5. Conclusion
6. References

4. Case Summary
Salmah, an 3 years employee in ABS Corp. A careful,
hardworking, disciplined, ideas contributor employee in the
company. She expected good pay, feedback and next
promotion from her top management. However, the one who
get promoted is Ahmad who is being a good friend to her
boss. She believed Ahmad‟s promotion is not based on his
performance and skill as Salmah believes that his skill and
performance is not as high as hers. Salmah makes a
perception where her boss being discriminate her based on
sexism by letting Ahmad get promoted. Salmah began to
change from positive to negative attitude as her perception
towards Ahmad and her boss becomes negative.

5. Question
With reference to the case,
Salmah may have made wrong
perception towards her boss‟s
decision. Discuss the possible
decision that Salmah could
take in order to provide her
with more accurate perception.

6. Introduction
 “We don‟t see things as they are;
we see things as we are.” Anais
Nin
 Starting with a simple different
process of perception. (Carley, C.)

7. a maple tree, it insect, it’s a meal.
To an is
Toa street cleaner it’sa To a photographer, it is a
To
source of life. To Canadian,life. a nation
still it’s
rubbish.
symbol.

8. Definition of Perception.
Perception can be defined as a process of
receiving information about and making sense of
the world around us. (McShane). It came from a
Latin word, percepio, defined as an organization
or interpretation of the information received to
understand the environment.(Schacter).

9. From the definition, it clearly stated that
perception is a process of making a
statement or perception based on the
information received. Most of the time,
perception could be far away than perfect
because it is processed through
information received which some of them
is not a fact.

10. ELEMENTS RESULTS

11. The information is received by the 5
human senses from the environment and
result in perception and behavior towards
the condition. The Model of Perceptual
Process shows clearly how the
information received can result in
perception, behavior and attitude towards
particular condition and situation.

12. Model of the Perceptual
Process
Environmental Stimuli
Feeling Hearing Seeing Smelling Tasting
Selective attention and emotional marker response
Perceptual organization and enterpretation
Attitude and behavior.

13. The 5 elements plays an important role to
result in perception made by someone. In this
case, Salmah:
1. Feel that her boss do not want any woman
to be top in the company.
2. Hear that promotion she believed she
deserve being given to someone else.
3. See that Ahmad is always with her boss
even during weekend.

14. So, with the elements, it has influenced
Salmah to create a negative perception
toward her boss‟s decision in promoting
Ahmad instead of her. The perception
that created by Salmah may be wrong
and to increase the accuracy of Salmah‟s
perception, the method is:

15. I. Check the perception
II. Awareness of Perception Biases
III. Improving Self-awareness
IV. Interaction and Communication

16. Check the Perception Made.
Checking the perception made is an
important method in increasing the accuracy
of the perception made. (Carly,C.) It includes
the checking the information received that
led to the making od the perception. Analyze
can be defined as a study or determine
something in detail and interpret it. (Oxford
Dictionary). As example, the information that
is received from the stimulus being checked
to avoid wrong result in perception, attitude
and behavior.

17. By checking the early information received, it could
increase the accuracy of perception towards someone
or something. In Salmah‟s case, what she „believed‟ is
more than what she really „know‟. She believed that
her skill and performance is higher than Ahmad‟s skill
and performance. This situation could led to negative
perception towards her boss‟s decision as she
regarded herself is more valuable than Ahmad.
Checking the information on Ahmad‟s skill and
performance could increase the accuracy of her
perception towards her boss‟s decision.

18. Awareness perceptual biases
Perceptual biases occur when perceiver‟s
beliefs influenced their evaluation. Such
example, if an employer has a beliefs that
man employee can perform well than
woman employee, a perceptual biases has
occur. By acknowledge this biases occur,
the perceiver‟s need to minimize the errors
of perceiving. There are 6 types of
perceptual errors.

19. The Errors Are?
Attribution Errors
Self-Fulfilling
Prophecies
Halo-effect Error
Primary Effect Error
Recency Effect
Error
Self-consensus Effect
Error

20.  Attribution Error.
 Two types of attribution error:
Fundamental • Occurs when the perceiver sees the person rather than the
situation that result in that person‟s behavior
• It occurs when the perceiver can not see clearly the external
Attribution factor or causes that led to that person‟s behavior.
• Example: A employer belief that Q is a hardworking employee,
Errors suddenly, the employees performance decrease.
• The tendency to credit our success to our internal factor and
Self-serving our failure to the external factors.
• Example: An employer take credit for the successful in getting
bias a tender for himself or blaming his employee in failure of
getting the tender.

21.  Self-fulfilling prophecies.
A strong influence situation based on how we
view and label things and consistent with the
perceptions. Self-fulfilling prophecies has the
strong effect in influencing the perception from
the reality. It affect stronger in the beginning of
relationship, when people has the same
expectation and with people who has low past
achievement. The are 4 steps in completing this
error.

22. Make a
prediction
Act as if the
Prediction is
prediction is
confirmed
true.
Because you
act as if true,
it becomes
true.

23.  Other Errors:
 Halo-effect
Occurs when one trait of a person forms a general
impression towards that person. Such example, an
employer perception changed because for only one
thing done by an employer.
 Primary effect
Occurs when first impression based on the first
information the perceiver‟s received about that
person. Example, negative impression occur when
an employer heard about an employee who always
comes late to office.

24.  Other Errors:
 Recency-effect
Occurs when the latest information about a person overlooked
our overall perception towards that person. Such example, an
employer is pleased when he heard that his new employee is
a successful worker in the past companies.
 False-consensus effect
Occurs when the perceiver overestimate the extent to which
others have beliefs and characteristics similar to our own.
Such example, when an employee do not like his boss, he
believe that large percentage of workers inside the
organization has the same thought as his.

25. Based on the case, Salmah may has the wrong perceptions
toward her boss‟s decision in promoting Ahmad instead of
her. It can relate to the error of halo-effect in making
perception towards Ahmad. Ahmad‟s one trait that his skill
and performance is regarded as lower than her makes
Salmah think negatively about her boss letting Ahmad being
promoted. The one trait that form a general conclusion that
led to negative perception of Salmah towards her boss‟s
decision. In increasing the accuracy of Salmah‟s perception,
Salmah has to change the perception that influence by her
beliefs in resulting negative perception towards her boss‟s
decision and change the beliefs that Ahmad is not entitled
from being promoted based on his skill.

26. Improve Self-Awareness
More powerful to improve and increase accuracy of
perception is by self-awareness. It help people to
become more aware in detecting the biases in he
perception made. Most of the wrong perception is
influenced by the mindset, own beliefs and
environmental factors. In order to reduce the error,
the perceiver must aware of the factor contributed
to the wrong perception. Generally, getting know
ourselves is the way to reduce the wrong
perception and unknowingly increase the accuracy
of the perception made towards others.

27. In 1955, Johari Window model developed by Joseph Luft
and Harrington Ingham in the United states. (Luft, J. &
Ingham, H.) It often used to understand the relationship with
self and others and helps to improve the mutual
understanding between co-workers. Has 4 segments or
„window‟ which called as blind, open, hidden and unknown.
Each segment shows how our personalities known by others
and ourselves. Its include the information about a person
that is known by that person or others or both or it is
completely hidden by both the person and others. The
following diagram shows how the Johari Window works in
understanding self and others.

28. FEEDBACK
Known to Self Unknown to Self
Known
DISCLOSURE
to Others Open Area Blind Area
Ex: Hardworking Ex: Negative traits
Hidden Area Unknown Area
Unknown
to Others
Ex: Secret Ex: ??

29. Based on the case, Salmah regarded Ahmad‟s skill and
performance are lower than hers that make her thinks
negatively about her boss‟s decision. However, she do
not really know her actual performance and skills that
regarded higher than Ahmad‟s. To increase the accuracy
that led to creation of negative perception towards her
boss‟s decision, Salmah should get to know herself by
getting feedback from friends or colleagues before
making a conclusion of something. By applying Johari
Window model could make Salmah better know about
herself and others and avoid creating wrong perception.

30. Interaction and
communication
The last method to improve as well as increase the
accuracy of the perception made, interaction or
communication between the perceiver and other is a must.
Feedback is one of the example of communication and
interaction as it gives effect in someone‟s values and
performance as well as it can interact as a medium of
communication between people. By interacting and
communicating, perception biases can be reduced and it
can increase the accuracy of the perception. However, it
applies the „contact hypothesis‟ where the effect is stronger
when people has close relationship and frequent interact
with each other to work on and achieve the same goal.

31. How do you think about You’re doing just well, just
my performance? add a little improvements
and you’ll be success.
This is an example of
feedback which could
be a motivation or
demotivation to an
employee as well as
knowing our traits.

32. Based on the case, Salmah did not interact or communicate
with Ahmad. She did communicate and interact with her boss
but she received a little feedback from her boss. No
interaction or communication with Ahmad makes Salmah
creates a wrong perception on how Ahmad perform in the
organization. This led to perceptual biases where she
regarded that Ahmad‟s performance is lower than her.
Furthermore, she perceived that Ahmad is being her boss‟s
best friend and that is the reason why Ahmad get the
promotion instead of her. Salmah should interact and
communicate with Ahmad to know Ahmad better rather than
making a general assumption about Ahmad and her boss.
This will result in accurate perception made towards Ahmad

33. Conclusion
In conclusion, in order to increase the accuracy of the
perception that Salmah‟s made towards her boss‟s
decision, she should check the perception, aware of the
perceptual biases, improving self-awareness and
communicate and interact with others. Changing the
misperception made towards her boss and Ahmad could
change her attitude that has changed to the negative as
she start to come late for works, stop contributing ideas
and take unwarranted sick leaves. She should avoid the
misperception and maintain her role as the employee
and continuously contribute to the organization.

34. Reference
 Smith , A. E., Jussim, L., Eccles, J., VanNoy, M.,
Madon, S., & Palumbo, P. (1998). Self-fulfilling
Prophecies, Perceptual Biases, Accuracy at the
individual and Group Level. Experimental Social
Psychology, 531-533.
 Perception. (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2012, from
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception
 Interaction. (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2012, from
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interaction
 Chapter 3: Perception and Learning Organization.
Retrieved October 30, 2012, from salisbury.edu:
faculty.salisbury.edu/~whdecker/.../Chap003.ppt

35.  McShane, & Glinow, V. (2010). Organizational Behavior:
Emerging knowledge and practice for the real world (5th
ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.
 Carley, C. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2012, from
Southwestern Oklahoma State University:
faculty.swosu.edu/.../PowerPoints.../Unit06_Perception_2_
2_03.ppt
 Schacter, Daniel. (2011). Psychology. Worth Publishers
 Luft, J.; Ingham, H. (1950). "The Johari window, a graphic
model of interpersonal awareness". Proceedings of the
western training laboratory in group development (Los
Angeles: UCLA).

36. Perception Question
Are the letters straight or tilted?