Portfolio Activity #2 - Pertinent Negative PDF

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The University of the People

Master of Business Administration in Management

BUS5113 Organizational Theory and Behaviour

AY2021-T3

Portfolio Activity #2 Topic: Pertinent Negative

This paper aims to highlight how our perceptions sometimes affects our thoughts and personal behaviours. These perceptions, can sometimes cause us to assess a situation or person narrow-mindedly, missing important details and usually ending with a negative result; this action was termed the pertinent negative by Amy Herman (Burkus, 2016) . During the following paragraphs, one will illustrate the benefits of the pertinent negative, how we can use it to improve relationships with others, how it can be an asset as as a manager to understand employee behaviours and actions and how it can revolutionise your current situation and yielding improvements to one’s attitudes, perceptions and behaviours. Perception is defined as “a) the way you think about something and your idea of what it is like; b) the way you notice things with your senses of sight, hearing etc; c) the natural ability to understand or notice things quickly” (Longman, 2020). These definitions being fully considered; one can easily understand how we as human beings condition ourselves to sometimes see only what we expect to see as highlighted by Amy Herman. The pertinent negative does not exist in an isolated bubble but sustains itself from some of our intricate cognitive attributes. These include but are not limited to, our values and our attitudes. Our values are defined as “basic and fundamental beliefs that guide or motivate attitudes or actions” (Mintz, 2018). Whereby, our attitudes are defined as “evaluation of various aspects of the social world, in essence, they summarise how we feel about pretty much everything” (Olson & Kendrick, 2008; Zanna & Rempel, 1988). The concept of the Pertinent Negative which is a term initially coined for medical use, reinforces the correlation of values and attitudes effecting behaviour, and exemplifies why one must be cognizant of these influences and aim to restrict their effects by always looking for what you cannot see and not only what you can see (Herman, 2016). In human, interaction, the Pertinent Negative gives us the opportunity to provide clearer pictures for assimilation. It forces us to refrain from shallow, superficial assessments of our

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peers and their behaviours, but to indulge in the fine details both available and unavailable to generate better understandings of why some of do things the way we do or say things the way we speak – in essence, it forces us to be more thorough. This thoroughness, gives way to an encompassing broader view of things which if applied to our relationships tactfully, will enhance them. A lot of misunderstandings would be avoided, and persons will definitely learn to be compassionate and have diverse respect for each other. Further, it will always encourage us to be critical of most situations, and this facet will apprehend myopia in its earliest of stages. An organization with leadership unexposed to the concept of the Pertinent Negative, is probably aching at is joints. Whereby, the positive interpersonal relationships that usually exist between colleagues could be extremely tensioned or non-existent. Managers definitely need to apply the Pertinent Negative approach to their management styles to ensure they are accounting for every factor that can affect an employee’s behaviour, whether negative or positive. With this concept of the forefront of interactions with employees, a manager will always seek to ensure they have all the details necessary to boost and maintain communication and co-operation among staff members. Following this study, I am definitely more aware of the need to apply a liberally detailed approach to how I interact with others to ensure I allow them an opportunity to express themselves freely. Instead of applying the maxims preconceived in my mind about others behaviours, I intend to take the time necessary to analyse and account for what details maybe superficially unaccounted for.

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References Burkus, D. (2016, September 14). How to Notice What You Can't See. Retrieved from INC.com: https://www.inc.com/david-burkus/how-to-notice-what-you-cant-see.html Herman, A. (2016, Septemebr 06). Visual Intelligence and The Pertinent Negative. Retrieved from Big Think: https://bigthink.com/videos/amy-herman-on-visual-intelligence-andthe-pertinent-negative Longman. (2020, February 12). Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English . Retrieved from perception|meaning of perception: https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/perception Mintz, S. (2018, August 01). What are values? Retrieved from Ethics Sage: https://www.ethicssage.com/2018/08/what-are-values.html Olson, M. A., & Kendrick, R. V. (2008). Origins of Attitudes. In W. D. Crano, & R. Prislin, Attitudes and Attitude Change (pp. 111-130). New York: Psychology Press. Zanna, M. P., & Rempel, J. K. (1988). Attitudes: A New Look at an Old Concept. In D. BarTal, & A. W. Kruglanski, The Social Psychology of Knowledge (pp. 315-334). Cambridge University Press.

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