Workplace perception issues PDF

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Workplace perception issues. When it comes to workplace relations, the two most important factors that contribute to how people relate at the workplace are personality and perception. Every individual has a different way in which he or she perceives the world. Through the process of perception, people gain the ability to make sense of their surroundings. Many people might assume that human behavior originates from them responding to objective reality. However, reality or what people perceive as reality is just a collective hunch. Therefore, even with similar stimuli present in everyone's environment, everyone's reaction will be different because everyone will have different ways of processing those stimuli. This same analogy transgresses to workplace perception. Every individual will react differently to the next individual at work depending on their character and how differently people portray themselves, and this is what results in workplace issues and conflicts as a result of perception differences. Self-concept at work First of all, before an individual gets the chance at trying to understand others, he/or she goes through a process of self-evaluation and the establishment of self-beliefs (McShane & Von Glinow, 2019). Self-evaluation in simple terms refers to getting answers to the questions of "who am I?" and "how do I feel about myself?" These questions generally help individuals by guiding them in decisions they make and actions they take. It is through self-concept that we can establish what is termed as perceived self and ideal self. A perceived self is how we view ourselves, and an ideal self is what we intend to be or what we desire to achieve that people will refer to us using. From the idea of self-concept especially regarding workplace scenarios, rises the issues of self-esteem which can be of great effect on individual performance at the workplace. Many people consider having achievements at their place of work as a morale

booster and a self-esteem driver (NothernCentral University, 2019). Small gestures like being congratulated for doing awesome work by your boss and larger achievements like getting a promotion works well in boosting self-esteem at the workplace. Therefore, every small accomplishment people make at the workplace contribute to the build-up of their self-esteem at work which in turn builds upon how they perceive themselves. High self-esteem at work can be related to better performance, but there are working environments that cannot constantly provide the boost people require to fill up their self-esteem. Current workplace situations combined with shaky economic climates in many organizations make it hard for people to derive their self-esteem from their jobs. This is an issue because it, in turn, affects the performance of individuals who depend on these boosts to fuel their self-esteem and self-drive. Therefore, once the self-esteem of individuals begins to plummet this effect also migrates to their self-perception (NothernCentral University, 2019). Individuals with a negative self-perception towards himself/herself will show significantly reduced levels of performance at their respective workplaces. This means that individuals will have switched from a positive selfconcept to a negative-self concept where their strong sense of identity and the confidence in tackling work challenges changes to pessimism and doubts over one’s potential. Furthermore, having a negative self-concept will eventually impact how people perceive you. People who appear to doubt themselves and lacking in confidence will show it through their body language cues (Mack, 2016). On the other hand, those who exhibit a positive self-concept in terms of showing lots of confidence and the eagerness to tackle new challenges will get positive reactions from their workmates and especially their bosses. Such people are likely to be assigned important tasks and responsibilities because of their confidence levels and belief in themselves which can also lead to them getting promotions faster over people who remain unsure

of themselves. Therefore, self-concept is crucial at the workplace because it defines our work ethic, how people perceive us and how we, in turn, perceive others (Mack, 2016). Lacking proper self-concept can also lead to loss of identity especially for immigrants in organizations or minority groups in organizations such as females working in a male dominated profession and vice versa or working in an organization where people of your race are few. Common workplace perception issues and conflicts Perception and perception issues begin with an individual. the same way we perceive ourselves or the methods we use to try and evaluate ourselves get reflected on how we view other people whether at work or other places. Therefore, workplace issues such as conflict and disputes originate from a preexisting perception problem. Perception problems normally arise as a result of misunderstanding workmates or not liking the way they behave around the workplace which results in conflict (Bigelow, 2015). When it comes to perception problems, often the issue resides in the idea for one person believing his/her interests do not align with the other. The two people end up assuming that they have incompatible interests and thus the creation of the perceived conflict. It is important to note that perceptions can originate from a genuine understanding of someone and how their behaviors and not liking them or the perception could be flawed and inaccurate. When it comes to disputes and conflicts that arise from perception, it is also important to address them before they become serious. An example of one of the common perception conflict issues that arise among colleagues is in the way different people view their professions and how the ideas they have about their professional futures. There are employees who view their professions as just a job and nothing else while there are people who have huge career aspirations in their field. When two people with these different views interact, conflict is bound to occur. For example, employee A is the

enthusiastic employee who is always anxious to learn, develop and grow in terms of his career and frequently spends extra hours in the office working on extra assignments. Employee B, on the other hand, is the normal employee who only sticks to the normal working time in the office and immediately leaves for home when office hours end. These two employees are different in terms of their work ethic and how they see themselves, and as a result, Employee B may consider employee A as someone who may be trying to make his work look bad. Therefore, employee B will begin to grow resentment towards employee A out of anger and fear that his work will show he is putting far less effort at the organization. Employee A on the other hand, maybe someone who is just happy at getting the chance to do what he loves best and has great ambitions to grow in his career and is not intent on discrediting anyone’s work as employee B may assume. Also, personal problems can influence the way a person gets perceived at a workplace and create issues. There are workers who may experience adverse personal problems some of which they may not feel free talking about with their fellow employees like divorce, death and other personal issues that greatly affect emotions. This type of issues is usually common with new employees or employees coming out of a long period of unemployment who tend to perceive employees going through personal issues as lazy or ungrateful for being employed and able to cater for themselves (Bigelow, 2015). These employees would only get to understand the fellow employees they think are lazy or unappreciative if they get to know the situations they are in and understand them. Another common cause of conflict as a result of workplace perception is cultural differences between employees. Cultural differences are known to create some of the greatest impacts in the workplace environment. An excellent example is in the difference between American, European and Latino cultures. The Latino culture is famous for putting value

in relationships and focuses on protecting healthy relationships at all costs while the American culture is known for how people expect you to always be direct and have proper time management (Bigelow, 2015). Someone from Europe or a Latino who get employment in an American organization will have to adjust to the American way of doing things because ignoring the American way of doing things and sticking to one’s culture will create disharmony at work. Therefore, a Latino might find himself/herself being considered as a rude person in an American organization for not observing time management when that was not the intention. Management styles also have an effect on workplace perception and some of the conflicts that arise in the workplace environment. A common scenario is that of managers who are hands-off and do not engage that much with their employees. Such managers may get considered as not caring enough about their staff and the type of work they do because of having a different style of managing their employees. Other managers can also be detail oriented and keen at going through documents and information which employees may assume that the manager does not trust them when that is not the case (Bigelow, 2015). Both situations may create resentment for the manager or lack of motivation from the employee side which in turn can even create a situation where two employees who were in conflict because of having different perceptions of each other find themselves in agreement on one matter. Common perception errors that can result in workplace issues and conflicts Workplace perception issues and conflicts arise from some of the perception errors that individuals make at work. These errors originate from how different people respond to the stimuli around them which causes them to interpret things differently and behave in ways unique to them. One example of a perception error occurs as a result of the Halo Effect. This type of error is as a result of and people tending to perceive an individual based on one of their traits.

This usually happens when a person’s single trait is more prominent that it sometimes influences his/her other traits. A typical example is when an employee delivers an exemplary work at one time that highly impresses the employer causing the employer to gain high regards towards this employee. As a result, the boss because of how impressed he/she is with the employee finds himself/herself ignorant of other qualities of the employee whether positive or negative because of a single deed. One place such an error gets extended is when it comes to employee performance appraisals where a boss may become biased and rate individual performances as high or low according to the single trait they first established (EDUCBA, 2019). Also, stereotype is yet another error that is common in the workplace environment that influences perception. Stereotyping can be termed as the rapid and automatic attributes we deduce about people different from us by relating to the common attributes associated with a group of people like the person in question. In stereotyping, people tend to attribute others with behaviors, attitudes, and motives similar to the cumulative attributes common to the type of group the person belongs to (EDUCBA, 2019). Stereotyping is a common thing from right from places like high schools where backbenchers were often considered as people who were not devoted to classwork. This misperception extends even to workplace scenarios where you might find managers assuming charismatic, enthusiastic and athletic looking people are good salesmen. Stereotyping at the workplace commonly affect interview processes and can lead to bias during interviews. Another common error that results from an incorrect perception of individuals at the workplace is projection. This is also common when it comes to interviews where one of the people in the panel of interviewers sees a reflection of themselves in the interviewee. This type of error results from the interviewer seeing common traits he sees in himself in the interviewee

and also other things like finding that the interviewee has the same views, likes and dislikes like him causing him to become positively biased towards the interviewee. Such interviewers end up skewing the ratings to favor the employ they see their projection in. Ways of improving workplace perception. The best way of improving perceptions in an organizational setup and avoiding misperceptions is through people understanding how they get perceived because this will give them a chance at dealing with issues that may arise from wrong perceptions. Improving perception is especially important for leaders of a team or managers and any other people who oversee the work of others below them. A team where the leader identifies with the way his subordinates perceive him/her has a chance at functioning at optimum levels because the leader will know how he/she is perceived and will be better equipped to manage the team. One way of improving perception is through authentic communication. Communication is of great importance when it comes to workplace perception because only through proper and effective communication can what you require from your colleagues get well understood. Poor communication can lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretations because poor communication is considered as one of the major causes of improper perceptions in a workplace environment (EDUCBA, 2019). Improper perceptions at a workplace occur mainly due to the manager lacking proper communication skills causing the subordinates to misunderstand the given instructions, and this can create a setback in the organization. Another way of improving perception in the workplace environment is through the use of empathy. Being empathetic allows an individual to process situations from the perspective of others rather than forming conclusions without carefully assessing situations. Managers, therefore, should be empathetic and promote empathy in their organizations. This will

significantly help in improving how people perceive one another at the workplace and therefore promote cohesion and increase organizational performance (EDUCBA, 2019). Good listening skills go hand in hand with the ability to empathize with colleagues at a workplace; therefore having good listening skills also plays a crucial role when it comes to perception. Furthermore, having a positive attitude in the workplace environment also plays a major role in improving perception. In this case, a scenario where an employee constantly keeps producing inadequate work performances that are lower than the expectations of their superiors will get viewed as a failure. But if the individual chooses to maintain a positive attitude and continues to work hard in order to prove himself/herself to the superiors, he/she is most likely to change the way superiors perceive him/her. The individual will get perceived by most people as a hard worker and not a failure like before. Finally, the last way in which perception can be improved in the workplace environment is through cultural influences. The way people perceive others is greatly influenced by their upbringing. Even though it can be difficult to change one’s perception because of their cultural background people should try to be flexible when it comes to accommodating others (EDUCBA, 2019). Doing so will help in shaping their perceptions of others and also improve workplace cohesion. Individuals should also try and learn about different cultures especially in organizations with high degrees of diversity in order to better understand and accommodate people of other cultures. Organizational constraints that commonly affect workplace perception There are also certain organizational constraints that can affect perception and cause incorrect decision making in organizations. The first one is the reward system in different organizations. Reward systems differ from organization to organization, and there are times when workers or team members fail to properly perceive the system. Reward systems are only

effective when workers properly perceive them and understand the system in depth. There are common cases where individuals or teams fail to properly perform because of incorrect perception of the type of reward system in an organization. Sometimes this can be as a result of improper communication which creates the wrong perception making employees lack motivation to accomplish what is required of them. It is important for organizations to clearly clarify their reward or incentive systems so that employees get the chance to fully understand what the reward system entails and requires the employees to do (EDUCBA, 2019). In the absence of a properly set reward system, an organization risks incurring poor employee performances even if they have lucrative rewarding and incentive schemes. Therefore, managers should take their time to properly communicate with employees and ensure they understand the various reward schemes of the company or organization in question. Historical precedents also play a part in influencing perceptions of workers in their organizations. An excellent example can be observed from employees who had an authoritarian boss who never really got personally involved in his/her employee affairs and constantly focused on the type of work the employees delivered. Such employees usually create a bitter opinion of their boss because of the experiences they go through with such a type of management, and this creates a certain perception that they carry around about bosses (EDUCBA, 2019). In the event, the current boss leaves and gets replaced by a new boss, the employees might maintain the same sentiments they had towards the previous boss even is the new boss has a more considerate approach than the earlier one. The perception of these employees can be difficult to change even if the new boss is different because of their past experiences. During such an event, the efficiency and overall output of a team can remain degraded for a long period because the new

manager will find it hard to bring back the motivation of his team members by trying to show them that he is different. One other constraint that can lead to perception issues is rigid rules and regulations in an organization. Rigid rules and regulations in an organization automatically create a certain atmosphere where employees consider the management of an organization as inflexible and inconsiderate because of this kind of approach. Such a situation may affect an organization in multiple ways with most of the employees developing a different image of the company that they can spread to other people and also, prospect employees losing interest in joining the organization because of the way it is run (EDUCBA, 2019). As a result, this type of perception creates a chain reaction that spreads and can cause the brand image of the company to get tarnished because of improper perception. In the event that the company brand also gets tarnished, recruitment of top talent by this company may become almost impossible. This is because most of the top talent would have gotten negative information caused by the incorrect perception and these people would choose not to join the organization. Another organizational constraint that affects perception can be found in organizations that exhibit unclear roles and undefined goals. Role clarity is of utmost importance in organizations because employees require a deep understanding of the roles they play in any organization. This mistake generally arises from an HR department that hires employees without clearly defining the roles they would be playing in the organization (EDUCBA, 2019). Such employees end up working in a state of confusion if this situation never gets solves. A scenario of employees having overlapping roles may result because of this type of confusion, and this would generally paint a negative perception of the organizations in the newly recruited employees. Similarly, lack of undefined goals can create a number of issues in an organization that alter the...