Chapter 3 Perceiving Ourselves and Others in Organizations Changing Perceptions at Camp FFIT - Camp FFIT is part of the Ottawa Fire Service s campaign to recruit more female firefighters - Aligning their self-concept with this job and changing perceptions about women in the profession Self-Concept - An individual s self-beliefs and self-evaluations - Who am I? and How do I feel about myself? - Compare image of the job with our perceived and ideal selves - Model includes o Three self-concept dimensions (3C s) 1. Complexity People have multiple identities that people perceive about themselves Self-concept has low complexity when the individual s most important identities are highly interconnected (all work-related) 2. Consistency Similar personality and values across multiple selves Low consistency: self-perceptions require personal characteristics that conflict with characteristics for other aspects of self 3. Clarity Clearly ad confidently described, internally consistent, and stable across time o Psychological well-being higher when people have: o Multiple selves (complexity) o Well established selves (clarity) o Selves similar to each other and compatible with personal traits (consistency) Four selves processes Self- enhancement Promoting and protecting our positive self-view o Competent, attractive, lucky, ethical, valued Positive self-concept outcomes o Better personal adjustment and mental/physical health o Inflates personal causation and probability of success Negative outcomes o Result in bad decisions Self-verification
Affirming our existing self-concept Stabilizes our self-concept People prefer feedback consistent with their self-concept Self-verification outcomes o More likely to perceive information consistent with our selfconcept o Interact more with those who affirm/reflect our current self-concept Self-evaluation Evaluating ourselves through self-esteem, self-efficacy and locus of control o High self-esteem: less influenced, more persistent/logical Represent a global evaluation Believe that they are connected to and accepted by others Predicts specific thoughts and behaviors o Self-efficacy Belief in one s ability, motivation, role perceptions, and situation to complete a task successfully Have a can-do attitude Possess the energy (motivation), resources (situational factors), understanding the correct course of action (role perceptions), and competencies (ability) General vs. task-specific self-efficacy o One s ability to perform a variety of situations Higher the person s general self-efficacy, higher the overall self-evaluation Locus of control General belief about personal control over life events Higher self-evaluation with internal locus of control (mainly influence life s income) External locus of control are due mainly to fate, luck, or conditions in external environment Social self Personal identity (internal self-concept): attributes that make us unique and distinct from people in the social groups
Social identity theory: defining ourselves in terms of groups to which we belong or have an emotional attachment Identify with groups that support self-enhancement o Everyone wants to balance their personal (uniqueness) and social (relatedness) identities Canadian Resident/ Citizen Potash Corporation Employee An individual's social identity SAIT Graduate Contrasting Groups Employees at other firms People living in other countries Graduates of other schools Perception - The process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around us o Determining which information gets noticed o How to categorize this information o How to interpret information within our existing knowledge framework Selective Attention - Selecting vs. ignoring sensory information - Affected by object and perceiver characteristics - Emotional markers attached to selected information - Perceptual bias o The effect of our assumptions and conscious anticipation of future events o Confirmation bias Information contrary to our beliefs/values is screened out Perceptual Organization/ Interpretation - Categorical thinking o Mostly non-conscious process of organizing people/things into preconceived categories that are stored in our long-term memory - Perceptual grouping principles o Similarity or proximity o Closure filling in missing pieces o Perceiving trends
- Interpreting incoming information o Emotional markers automatically evaluate information Mental Models in Perceptions - Internal representations of the external world - Help make sense of situations o Fill in missing pieces o Help to predict events - Problem with mental models o May block recognition of new opportunities/perspectives - Solution constantly question them for the assumptions we make Stereotyping - Assigning traits to people based on social category membership - Occurs because: o Categorical thinking o Innate drive to understand and anticipate others behavior o Enhances our self-concept - Problems o Overgeneralizes (doesn t represent everyone in the category) o Basis of systemic and intentional discrimination - Solutions o Difficult to prevent stereotype activation o Possible to minimize stereotype application - Social identity and self-enhancement reinforce stereotyping through: o Categorization Categorize people into groups o Homogenization Assign similar traits within a group Different traits to other groups o Differentiation process Assign less favorable attributes to other groups Can escalate into a good guy bad guy contrast when groups are in conflict in each other
Attribution Process Internal Attribution Perception that behavior is caused by person's own motivation or ability External Attribution Perception that behavior is caused by situation or fate beyond person's control Attribution Rules - Internal Attribution o Frequently consistency (How often did this person act this way in the past?) o Frequently distinctiveness (How often does the person act this way in other settings?) o Seldom consensus (How often do other people act this way in similar situations?) - External attribution o Seldom consistency o Seldom distinctiveness o Frequently consensus Attribution Errors - Fundamental attribution error o The tendency to see the person rather than the situation as the main cause of that person s behavior o Attributing own actions to internal and external factors and others actions to internal factors - Self-serving bias o Attributing our successes to internal factors and our failures to external factors Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Cycle - The effect is the strongest... o At the beginning of the relationship (employee joins the team) o When several people have similar expectations about the person o When the employee has low rather than high past achievement - Positive organizational behavior o Focuses on building positive qualities and traits within individuals or institutions as opposed to focusing on what wrong with them Employee's behavior matches expectations Supervisor forms expectations Expectations affect supervisor's behavior Supervisor's behavior affects employee
Other perceptual effects - Halo effect o One trait affects perception of person s other traits o Occurs when concrete information about the perceived target is missing Use the general impression to fill in the missing information - False-consensus effect o Overestimate how many others have similar beliefs or traits like ours - Primacy effect o First impressions o Difficult to change - Recency effect o Most recent information dominates perceptions Strategies to Improve Perceptions - Awareness of perceptual biases - Improving self-awareness o Applying Johari Window (Know Yourself) Open Area Blind Area Hidden Area Unknown Area Known to Self Unknown to Self Open area information about you that is known both to you and to others Blind area information about you that is known to others but not to you Hidden area information known to you but unknown to others Unknown area your values, beliefs, and experiences that aren t known to you or others Objectives o Increase the size of the open area, so both you and colleagues are aware of your perceptual limitations o By reducing the hidden area through disclosure, and increase open area through feedback (reduce the blind area)
- Meaningful interaction o Founded on the contact hypothesis The more we interact with someone, the less prejudiced or perceptually biased we will be against that person o Reduces dependence on stereotype to understand others o Improves empathy toward others Understanding and being sensitive to the feelings, thoughts, and situations of others o Close, frequent interaction toward a shared goal o Equal status o Engaged in a meaningful task Global Mindset - An individual s ability to perceive, know about, and process information across cultures o Awareness of, openness to, and respect for other views and practices in the world o Capacity to empathize and act effectively across cultures o Ability to process complex information about novel environments o Ability to comprehend and reconcile intercultural matters with multiple levels of thinking Developing a Global Mindset 1. Strategies for improving perceptions (awareness, self-awareness, and meaningful interaction) 2. Cross-cultural training 3. Immersion in other cultures