Factors Influencing Selective Perception, Theories Supporting Selective Perception in decision Making - Essay Example

Executive Summary Human beings encounter various situations in daily life where decision has to be taken based on different factors which influence their process. This factor has an influence on decision making and sometimes makes the decision to be biased as it is based on certain perceptions and experience. Selective perception is a situation where the decision of a manager gets influenced due to his perception making the decision to be biased. The report looks into the manner selective perception influences the decision making of individuals and managers. It presents the manner selective perception get influenced by other factors like halo effect. It also looks into the manner the decision gets altered by drawing references from various studies and research which highlights the manner in which the selective perception influence decision making. The paper thereby dwells on various theories like attribution theory supporting the view points by finally drawing findings based on it. Thus, the report presents the manner in which selective perception influences decision making. Contents Introduction 3 Purpose of the report 3 Key Terms 3 Selective Perception 4 Literature Review 4 Factors influencing selective perception 5 Theories supporting selective perception in decision making 7 Influence of selective perception on decision making 8 Findings 9 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction Human beings encounter numerous situations when decisions have to be made. The decision taken gets influenced by the macro and micro factors which affects human thinking process. This sometimes results in the decision to be biased and also leading to a situation where the final verdict is wrong. One way in which the decision making gets hampered is through selective perception. This affects the thinking process as a person creates a perception of the person based on experience thereby hampering the decision making process. The paper hereby looks into the manner selective perception affects decision making. Purpose of the report To identify the manner in which selective perception affects decision making thereby affecting the decision making process. Key Terms Decision Making: It is a process where people select an alternative among various alternatives based on certain process and projections. Selective Perception: It is the tendency to perceive a thing according to our thought process and act accordingly. (Syque, 2010) Halo Effect: Judging a situation, person or place based on a single experience that has been encountered previously (Perception, 2010) Selective Perception Selective perception is a stage in the learning process where managers take decision by removing certain factors which they don’t consider relevant. (Learning, 2011) This makes the decision to be biased as selective perception results in certain traits to dominate the decision making process. For example people consider certain traits to be always good like women are more cooperative. This results in decision being biased when decision related to the same has to be taken. Literature Review There have been many studies which highlights that selective perception affects decision making. Various studies have been conducted which shows that selective perception affects decision making in different manner like self perception, halo effect, stereotyping etc. A study conducted in this direction shows that selective perception affects decision making by managers to a certain extent. (Beyer, Chattopadhyay, George, Glick & Pugliese, 1997) This also helps managers to solve certain complex problems but at the same time also influence decision making to be biased. Another study in the same direction highlights that self perception has an effect on decision making as seen in the case of selecting a candidate in elections. (Sherrod, 1991) The voters gets influenced by the candidate past experience and cast their vote accordingly. Thus, the decision making gets influenced due to selective perception as the voters’ judges the candidate based on the past experience. This theory was substantiated from a finding which supports that listeners of radio get influenced due to selective perception by listening to the announcers’ voice. (McGuire, 2002) Selective perception plays a role as the past experience and perception of the listener results in shaping the behaviour and influencing the decision of the listener. Factors influencing selective perception Self perception gets influenced by a number of factors which makes people take decision on certain assumptions and facts. This makes the decision gets biased as seen in the following Self Perception: Decision making gets biased in the process of selective perception due to self perception. This happens when an individual rates himself much higher than his capabilities and considers others less important. (John & Robins, 1994) This makes the decision gets biased as the self perception affects decision making leading to a situation where the past experience influence the decision making. For example people who have high self perception doesn’t understand the reason for not getting promoted. These results in the decision to be biased as such person takes decision based on their perception of things and not based on facts. Stereotyping: Decision making process also gets hampered due to stereotyping. It is a situation where the person behaves in a particular manner based on a particular behaviour. (Synder, Tanke & Berschied, 2007) This has an effect on the decision making as based on those traits the decision taken results in selective perception. For example, some people tend to believe that women are more cooperative. These results in selective perception as when a job needs to be assigned to a woman the person believes that the job will be better accomplished. This affects the decision making process making it to be biased. Halo effect: Decision making gets influenced due to halo effect as the person making a decision gets influenced by a certain trait of an individual which influences decision making. (Halo effect, 2011) This trait of an individual dominates in the decision making process resulting in the decision to be biased. For example, when a managers feels that Mr A is hardworking so irrespective of the fact whether Mr A works on not decision related to Mr A will be influenced by personality trait. This will make the decision biased as in selective perception where a trait influences the decision. This will make the decisions to be biased and will influence the working environment in the long run. Projection: Decision making gets influenced due to projection as the person attributes his own characteristics to other people. (Projections, 2011) This has an influence on selective perception as the decision making gets influenced due to the personal traits. This results in a situation where the managers uses his own traits while judging others thereby influencing decision making. Theories supporting selective perception in decision making There are numerous theory which supports the manner decision making gets influenced through selective perception. The theories which influence decision making through the process of selective perception are as follows Attribution theory: These theories suggest that a decision taken by a manager gets influenced due to individual behaviour which a manager observes and makes the decision based on it. (Attribution, 2011) This theory shows that a manager who has to take decision gets influenced by the behaviour and past experiences. He bases his decision based on it which results in his perception to determine the situation thereby resulting in selective perception. This theory also puts forth a view that this factor gets influenced due to internal and external circumstances thereby influencing the decision making by managers. Self Fulfilling Prophecy: These theories suggest that a decision taken by an individual whether true or false becomes true due to different behaviour which evokes a similar situation. (Dobson, 2010) The manager who takes decision based on certain perception and experience makes that situation seem true by evoking a behaviour which results in the decision to be biased. Thus the theory supports the fact the taking decision based on certain perceptions becomes true in the future when the manager evokes a behaviour which makes the situation correct. Influence of selective perception on decision making Decision making is a process where an individual takes decision based on certain traits and behaviour along with certain facts. Selective perception influences decision making because certain behaviour of an individual dominates the decision making process. These traits make the individual take decision based on past experiences and traits and not look into the current situation. This might help in certain situation which is complex but using the same traits and behaviour influences the decision making them biased. The decision based on certain traits influence the surroundings as past experience dominates. For example, suppose a person fails every time in every work assigned to him. So based on the past experience and perception the person will find it difficult to be promoted even if he works and achieves the task. Thus, past experience and perception affects decision making. This influences decision to such an extent that in the long term business have to bear the brunt as it leads to concentration of decision power thereby affecting the long term growth potential of the firm. Selective perception thus has an influence on decision making and affects the process to arrive at a decision. Findings The report thus presents the manner in which selective perception influences decision making. The process of decision making gets biased due to the difference in perception a person has. This has a long term repercussion as it creates a situation where certain traits start to dominate the decision making process. The support of various research and theories which shows that perception influences decision making highlights the fact the managers are irrational in the decision making process and gets influenced due to various factors. This brings forth a point that managers are helped in certain situation due to their past experiences and perceptions but basing the decision on it affects the long term potential and influences the decision. Conclusion The report thus supports the view point that selective perception influences decision making. It brings forth the fact by drawing support from various research and findings which shows that selective perception helps to a certain extent but using it on a continuous basis brings a change in decision due to certain behavioural traits. The report thus presents various theories supporting the findings of different research on selective perception and highlighting the manner in which selective perception influences decision making. References Attribution, “Attribution Theory”, 2011, retrieved on January 5, 2011, from http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/attribution_theory.htm Beyer J, Chattopadhyay P, George E, Glick W & Pugliese D, “The selective perception of managers revisited”, Academy of management Journal, Volume 40, Number 3, p. 716-737, 1997 Dobson M, “Self Fulfilling Prophecy”, Cognitive Biasness, Sidewise thinking, 2010 John P & Robins W, “Accuracy and bias in self perception”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 66, p. 206-219, 1994 Halo effect, “The Halo Effect”, retrieved on January 5, 2011 from http://www.envisionsoftware.com/articles/Halo_Effect.html Learning, “Selective Perception”, Phases of Learning, retrieved on January 5, 2011 from http://education.calumet.purdue.edu/vockell/study/SELECT~1.HTM McGuire J, “Selective perception and its impact on the evaluation of radio sports play by play announcers”, 2002, retrieved on January 5, 2011 from http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/jradstud9&div=11&id=&page= Perception, “Selective Perception”, retrieved on January 5, 2011 from htp://lilt.ilstu.edu/rrpope/rrpopepwd/articles/tperception3.html Projection, “Organizational Behaviour”, 2011, retrieved on January 5, 2011 from http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/19773.html Synder M, Tanke E & Berschied E, “Social perception and interpersonal behaviour: On the self fulfilling nature of social stereotypes”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 35, p. 656-666, 2007 Syque, “Selective Perception”, 2010, retrieved on January 5, 2011 from http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/selective_perception.htm Sherrod D, “Selective perception of political candidates”, American Association of Public Opinion Research, Volume 35, Issue 4, p. 554-562, 1991 Read More