The Source of the Perceptual Errors - Case Study Example

1. The managers in organizations should be aware of perceptual errors. To explain clearly why it is important, let us see what the source of the perceptual errors is and who is prone to them. William James said: “The essence of genius is to know what to overlook”. The truth is that most of people live making constant perceptual errors. Meanwhile, right perception is a key to human relations. Our perception is always based on our previous experience. Gathering information from the outside world we always give our own interpretation to it, attributing meaning, motives and intentions to other people’s actions. Each of us sees the world through the prism of own background. This prism is made of categories – concepts and mental structures – handed down by our families, cultures, friends and social institutions. As a result, we see what we are conditioned to see and not the real picture and there are no two humans with entirely identical perceptual categories. So this prism, or filter of individual’s perception, made of values, needs, goals, interests, beliefs, attitudes, wants, expectations, knowledge, feelings, education and language, provides us with a distorted pictures of the reality. Our human experience is coded in our nervous system. This makes us act and react automatically, repeating once learnt reactions again and again. The prism of individual’s perceptions makes us perceive only selected information. We see what we are focused on, registering positive comments on those we like, negative comments on those we dislike and ignoring the rest. Further, we organize and interpret information following the usual scheme. This automatic perception leads to a number of perceptual errors. Stereotyping is a common perceptual error. As a rule, we classify people we meet into a set of categories, forgetting that each individual is unique. People are very different, and their motives are different, and their behaviour is conditioned by the context. Moreover, people are constantly changing. It is impossible to enter the same water twice. Stereotypes prevent from clear vision of the reality and damage human relationships. Unaware of stereotyping a manager can overlook effective human resources, or be unable to understand HR needs and motives. Stereotypes cause another common mistake – self-fulfilling prophecy or prediction. We tend to predict and then act as if it is true. For instance, you do not trust someone. You will look for the evidences of your mistrust in his behaviour, and will spoil the relationships. Halo-effect takes place when the attitude to a person is built on one general impression. As a result, the manager may see qualities that are not there and ignore some bad or really beneficial qualities of a personality. We often tend to attribute qualities that do not correspond to the real personality, because we do not know the context and his or her individual history. Sometimes a person seems different from different distances: the better you learn him or her, the more good traits you discover. Finally, people play different roles and behave differently in those roles. This means, that a manager should always make judgements in the context and perceive each individual anew each time (Falikowski 2002). Besides, people perceive the world through three sensory systems: visual, audial and kinaesthetic. Each of us uses only some of the systems to check the reality. It means, that even people speaking the same national language, speak quite different languages indeed. An audial would prefer to listen to information, while a visual would like to see it. This may cause serious misunderstandings between people; they would not be able to find a common language. Knowledge of this peculiarity helps to be effective in communication with people, while a manager can understand and speak the language of his interlocutor. As we can see perceptual errors are the common reality of our life. Meanwhile, a manager should communicate with people. To be effective in communication, it is necessary to be aware of the current condition of the interlocutor. This helps to motivate people and get what you want from them, no matter whether they are your subordinates or partners, customers or stockholders. Being aware of other people’s needs and conditions, a manager is able to avoid misunderstanding and predict potential reactions before they occur. However, not to make perceptual errors one is to be aware of others each moment. 2. Reinforcement as part of learning theory was developed by B.F. Skinner within the frames of behaviourist school of psychology. Reinforcement theory views behaviour as conditioned by its consequences. This means that people act this or that way, because they know what is going to follow, and depending on the type of consequence, they prefer to produce or avoid certain behaviours. There are three principles of the theory. First, consequences giving rewards usually increase the desirable behaviour. Second, consequences entailing punishment decrease the undesirable behaviour. Third, when consequences provide neither reward nor punishment, the behaviour ceases. This means that if you want to increase some behaviour, making it more frequent and intense, provide a reward consequence. If you want to decrease some behaviour, fix some punishment. If you want some behaviour to disappear, simply ignore it. The problem is, however, what can serve as a reward or a punishment. To understand what is a reward and what is a punishment, you should see how the consequences of people’s behaviour influence them. If the behaviour doesn’t decrease or increase the way you want it, then you have to re-examine your reward-punishment system. There is a three step (When-Do-Get) sequence defining the process. It goes like the following: Step 1 – When in some situation, Step 2 – Do some behaviour, Step 3 – Get some consequences. So employees know that if they work efficiently they get some reward (bonuses, promotion, higher salaries), and if they break the rules, they are punished (fined, or even fired). However, such consequences occur only within some particular organization, and may be absent in another organization. People have different motives for work and thus they may perceive different things as punishment or rewards. This is especially evident from various researches in IHRM. For instance, one comparative study of Chinese and German workforce within one enterprise revealed that employees in two national setting had different important work-related goals, motivators and revealed preferences for different management styles. The Chinese employees underlined such values as earning, training, fringe benefits, recognition, physical relationships and full use of skills and abilities, while German employees found retirement plan more motivating than Chinese employees and emphasised such values as work-life balance and living area. The authors of the study concluded that knowledge of the importance of work-related goals, management-style preferences and performance-reward preferences are three factors playing a crucial role in the establishment of sustainable IHRM practices (Rehu, Lusk & Wolff 2006). This means that rewards are different for different people, and it is rather useful to learn them before designing a reward system. It is important to use all the possible sources of rewards. Punishment becomes effective only in case four requirements are fulfilled. The research shows that effective punishment must be: 1) immediate; 2) intense; 3) unavoidable; and 4) consistent. If all the four conditioned aren’t delivered, the punishment is likely to fail. Another limitation is that too much punishment may decrease HR effectiveness. If people are restricted on all sides they may lose interest to work and show no initiative. Finally, sometimes it is difficult to control the whole group of people, while together they stop being afraid and may express their protest openly. The reinforcement theory sounds rather simple and is widely applicable. Yet, it has its limitations. There are several conditions to be observed to make the model work for you. First, the source of reinforcement should be well-trained in the theory and practice of reinforcement. Second, a manager should have complete control of all the important reinforces for all receivers. Third, a manager should have complete control of each receiver, and know what and when the receiver does, and what other receivers are. Fourth, a manager should have a detailed and consistent plan of reinforcement, preferably, fixed on paper. Fifth, reinforces should always be delivered under the same conditions to each different receiver (SBB 1996). 3. As everything in this world, social attitudes must be examined in the context. Certainly attitudes do change as time passes. For instance, in the times of matriarchate females dominated males and were treated as goddesses. With the change of epochs the situation has changed dramatically. Now females became subordinate and suppressed, while masculinity was marked by such features as aggression and dominance. However, during the last decades this social attitude also started changing. At first, with the rise of feminism, women got back their rights and freedoms. Today ever more is written and spoken upon the false image of masculinity promoted in the Western world. Psychologists cry about men’s right for vulnerability and weakness, feelings and emotions, - in a word, the right to be themselves without posing and keeping everything inside. With the spread of internet and high cultural and ethnic diversity in most of western countries, the society has been learning tolerance towards other people’s worldviews and opinions, cultural and religious backgrounds. So the society has almost agreed to treat homosexuals as normal people. The changes in the society seem to be rapid and rather radical. Mass media seems to run the ball and dictate the rules of the game. Yet, many authors suggest that the inertia is high. For instance, let us take the issue of female sexuality. On the one hand, mass media widely exploits the image of an emancipated and sexual young girl. On the other, every girl striving for her identity and sexuality feels immediate pressure, condemnation and protest of her surrounding. Our society is deeply pedophilic indeed. It is easy to understand as you look at the advertising around you or watch music channels for half an hour. Nobody seems to protest against it much. Yet, if your daughter or an acquaintance behaves just like the girls from ads and TV, you cannot help feeling a strong protest. The fact is that we can easily accept things that do not touch us personally. We are tolerant towards homosexuals until we see them on the screen. Then we are compassionate and friendly. Yet, as soon as they appear in the vicinity, we tend to turn away or even reveal aggression. So attitudes do change, but it always takes time, especially when it goes about some fundamental cultural positions, supported by numerous generations. On the other hand, mass media and PR technologists have really acquired great power over people’s minds. As you observe any political pre-elective races you see how social attitudes are changed, turning from highly positive to strongly negative and back again. There are small and simple secrets of influencing public attitudes. For instance, I have noticed that if a person has been perceived as perfect, having no faults and drawback, a slightest mistake may lead to failure in the eyes of the public. Meanwhile, it often happens that someone known as “profoundly spoilt” is suddenly presented from the other side, his merits and good deeds being highlighted for the public, so that soon social attitude changes to positive and such a candidate is very likely to win the race. This principle works while people tend to run to extremities in their attitudes. People fail to keep to golden measure and preserve balance in their attitudes and reactions. Moreover, the majority tends to influence those resistant. It often happens that you have just had one point of view on something, and the next moment you change it to the opposite one, just because you have been told by someone that this new position has been proved to be closer to the reality. There are several conclusions to be made out of all the said. First of all, one is not to be afraid of bad reputation, while people tend to forget and change their minds as soon as you do something good. Secondly, it is sometimes more beneficial to be a “bad guy” – then you cannot spoil your reputation, but only improve it. Third, it is still necessary to remember that people are very inert in changing their basic beliefs and values. This is a useful thing to be remembered when you work in a cross-cultural environment: you cannot impose your attitudes, you should wait until people adapt the new views. On the other hand, the truth is that the first impression lasts long. So if you want to be liked, at first you are to reveal your best points. References: Falikowski, A. Mastering Human Relations, 3rd Edition, Pearson Education, 2002. Rehu, M., Lusk E. J. and Wolff, B. Sustainable human resource management in China: a study of a German multinational corporation. World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development. 2006, vol. 2, no.1/2, pp.57-72. SBB. Reinforcement Theory. Updated September 15, 1996. March 12, 2008. URL: www.as.wvu.edu/~sbb/comm221/chapters/rf.htm - 18k Read More