Shortcuts in judging others in an organization PDF

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Summary

In perceiving the stimuli in our environment, people are likely to make so many errors and ended up with poor results. Some of those errors are stereotyping, halo effects, selective perception, distortions, attributions, projections etc. Each of these errors is dysfunctional for good decision making...

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Frequently used shortcuts in judging others: short-cut methods which are frequently used by the individuals: 1. Selective Perception 2. Projection 3. Stereotyping 4. Halo Effect 5. Contrast Effect

i) Selective Perception It is a tendency to observe people selectively and accordingly interpret based on their interest, background, experience and attitudes. For example, a production manager is always likely to identify the need to strengthen the production system; the marketing manager will focus only on the marketing research and sales promotions activities. In general, we tend to notice things which are similar to us. For instance, we are more likely to notice the type of cars which are similar to ours. The simplest way of avoiding hasty or wrong decision being made due to selective perception is to seek other people’s perceptions of “reality” in the same situation in order to make a better assessment of the situation. ii) Projection It is a tendency to assign one’s own personal attributes to others. For instance, a manager who is corrupt will tend to project that all others are also corrupt like him. Similarly, a manager who loves challenging work might project that all others like challenging work. Many times, this is not true, and the manager who tries to enrich all the jobs as challenging might be leading to wrong motivational technique for other employees. When managers engage in projection, they compromise their ability to respond to individual differences. They tend to see people as more homogeneous than they really are. Thus, managers should guard themselves against perceptual biases through projection. iii) Stereotyping: It is a tendency to judge people based on the perception of the group to which he belongs. We tend to attribute favorable or unfavorable characteristics to the individual based on upon widely held generalization about the group. For instance, we perceive that Japanese in general are hard working, quality conscious and industrious, and based on that we generalize that all Japanese are like that, but in reality it may not be so. There are some Japanese who may not possess the above mentioned characteristics. Similarly we assume that women in general are soft, kind, caring, affectionate, considerate, gentle, but there are some women who may not possess these characteristics. Similarly, we may assume older people are traditional, conservative, and cranky, but not every elderly person fits into this mould and hence we are likely to make errors of judgment. Sex-role stereotypes and agestereotypes adversely affect recruitment, pay, job placement, and promotion decisions. As a result of which, organizations frequently lose good employees.

iv) Halo Effect: It is tendency to draw a general overall impression about an individual based on single striking characteristics. For instance, if a person speaks English fluently, we tend to assume that that person is very knowledgeable, intelligent, smart, clever etc. hard working, smart etc. Similarly, if a man is abrasive, he may also be perceived as bad, awful, unkind, aggressive, harmful, deceitful and wicked. Halo effect, whether it is positive or negative, will distort our perception and block us from actually perceiving the trait that is being judged. This phenomenon frequently occurs when students appraise their university lecturer. v) Contrast Effect: It is tendency to evaluate a person’s characteristics by just comparing with other people who happened to acquire higher or lower position on the same characteristics. For instance, while comparing the presentation of students, a good presentation made by one student just before you will probably make you feel that you won’t be as good as you probably are. This contrast effect can distort our perception. In general, a person will be evaluated in isolation. But our reaction to one person is often influenced by other people or events in which we have recently encountered. In interview situation, a job applicant is likely to receive a more favorable evaluation if preceded by mediocre applicants and a less favorable evaluation if preceded by strong applicants....