"Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressionsin order to give meaning to their environment. However, what we perceive can besubstantially different from objective reality. For example, all employees in a firm may viewit as a great place to work—favourable working conditions, interesting job assignments, goodpay, excellent benefits, understanding and responsible management—but, as most of usknow, it’s very unusual to find such agreement.Why is perception important in the study of OB? Simply because people’s behavior isbased on their perception of what reality is, not on reality.Factors That Influence PerceptionHow do we explain the fact that individuals may look at the same thing yet perceive itdifferently? A number of factors operate to shape and sometimes distort perception. Thesefactors can reside in the perceiver; in the object, or, being perceived; or in the context of thesituation in which the perception is made.When you look at a target and attempt to interpret what you see, your interpretation is heavilyinfluenced by your personal characteristics—your attitudes, personality, motives, interests,past experiences, and expectations. For instance, if you expect police officers to beauthoritative or young people to be lazy, you may perceive them as such, regardless of theiractual traits.Characteristics of the target also affect what we perceive. Loud people are more likely to benoticed in a group than quiet ones. So, too, are extremely attractive or unattractiveindividuals. Because we don’t look at targets in isolation, the relationship of a target to itsbackground also influences perception, as does our tendency to group close things and similarthings together. We often perceive women, men, Whites, African Americans, Asians, or members of any other group that has clearly distinguishable characteristics as alike in other,unrelated ways as well.Context matters too. The time at which we see an object or event can influence our attention,as can location, light, heat, or any number of situational factors. At a nightclub on Saturdaynight, you may not notice a young guest “dressed to the nines.” Yet that same person soattired for your Monday morning management class would certainly catch your attention (andthat of the rest of the class). Neither the perceiver nor the target has changed betweenSaturday night and Monday morning, but the situation is different.perception Factors That Influence Perception• Attitudes• Motives• Interests• Experience• ExpectationsFactors in the perceiverFactors in the target• Novelty• Motion• Sounds• Size• Background• Proximity• Similarity Factors in the situation• Time• Work setting• Social settingAttribution TheoryNonliving objects such as desks, machines, and buildings are subject to the laws of nature,but they have no beliefs, motives, or intentions. People do. That’s why when we observepeople, we attempt to explain why they behave in certain ways. Our perception and judgmentof a person’s actions, therefore, will be significantly influenced by the assumptions we makeabout that person’s internal state.Attribution theory tries to explain the ways in which we judge people differently, dependingon the meaning we attribute to a given behavior. 1 It suggests that when we observe anindividual’s behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused.That determination, however, depends largely on three factors: (1) distinctiveness, (2) consensus, and (3) consistency. First, let’s clarify the differencesbetween internal and external causation, and then we’ll elaborate on each of the threedetermining factors. internally caused behaviors are those we believe to be under the personalcontrol of the individual.externally caused behavior is what we imagine the situation forcedthe individual to do. If one of your employees is late for work, you mmight attribute that tohis partying into the wee hours and then oversleeping.This is an internal attribution. But if you attribute lateness to an automobile accident that tiedup traffic, you are making an external attribution. Now let’s discuss the three determining factors. Distintiveness refers to whether an individualdisplays different behaviors in different situations. Is the employee who arrives late todayalso one who regularly “blows off” commitments?What we want to know is whether this behavior is unusual. If it is, we are likely to give it anexternal attribution. If it’s not, we will probably judge the behavior to be internal.If everyone who faces a similar situation responds in the same way, we can say the behaviorshows consensus. The behavior of our tardy employee meets this criterion if all employeeswho took the same route were also late. From an attribution perspective, if consensus is high,you would probably give an external attribution to the employee’s tardiness, whereas if otheremployees who took the same route made it to work on time, you would attribute his latenessto an internal cause.Finally, an observer looks for consistency in a person’s actions. Does the person respond thesame way over time? Coming in 10 minutes late for work is not perceived in the same wayfor an employee who hasn’t been late for several months as it is for an employee who is latetwo or three times a week. The more consistent the behaviour, the more we are inclined toattribute it to internal causes..Person Perception: Making Judgments About OthersOne of the most interesting findings from attribution theory research is that errors or biasesdistort attributions. When we make judgments about the behaviour of other people, we tendto underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal orpersonal factors. 2 This fundamental attribution error can explain why a sales manager isprone to attribute the poor performance of her sales agents to laziness rather than to theinnovative product line introduced by a competitor. Individuals and organizations also tend to attribute their own successes to internal factors such as ability or effort, while blamingfailure on external factors such as bad luck or unproductive co-workers.People also tend to attribute ambiguous information as relatively flattering and acceptpositive feedback while rejecting negative feedback. This is the self-serving bias . The evidence on cultural differences in perception is mixed, but most suggest there aredifferences across cultures in the attributions people make. 5 One study found Koreanmanagers less likely to use the self-serving bias—they tended to accept responsibility forgroup failure “because I was not a capable leader” instead of attributing failure to groupmembers. 6 On the other hand, Asian managers are more likely to blame institutions or wholeorganizations, whereas Western observers believe individual managers should get blame orpraise. 7 That probably explains why U.S. newspapers prominently report the names ofindividual executives when firms do poorly, whereas Asian media cover how the firm as awhole has failed. This tendency to make group-based attributions also explains whyindividuals from Asian cultures are more likely to make group-based stereotypes. 8Attribution theories was developed largely based attribution theory An attempt to determine whether an individual’s behavior is internally or externallycaused. fundamental attribution error The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate theinfluence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others.Self-serving bias The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors and put theblame for failures on external factors. Attribution Theory on experiments with U.S. and Western European workers. But thesestudies suggest caution in making attribution theory predictions in non-Western societies,especially in countries with strong collectivist traditions.Differences in attribution tendencies don’t mean the basic concepts of attribution and blamecompletely differ across cultures, though. Self-serving biases may be less common in EastAsian cultures, but evidence suggests they still operate across cultures. 9 Recent studiesindicate Chinese managers assess blame for mistakes using the same distinctiveness,consensus, and consistency cues Western managers use. 10 They also become angry andpunish those deemed responsible for failure, a reaction shown in many studies of Westernmanagers. This means the basic process of attribution applies across cultures, but that it takesmore evidence for Asian managers to conclude someone else should be blamed.Common Shortcuts in Judging OthersThe shortcuts we use in judging others are frequently valuable: they allow us to makeaccurate perceptions rapidly and provide valid data for making predictions.However, they are not foolproof. They can and do get us into trouble when they result insignificant distortions.Selective Perception Any characteristic that makes a person, an object, or an event stand outwill increase the probability we will perceive. "