How does the concept of perception apply in organizations?
4 years ago
Organizational Behavior
Application of Perception in Organization
Perception applies in number of aspects in organization. Some of the most common ones are explained briefly:
- Employment interview: Interviewers make perceptual judgements that are often inaccurate. Different interviewers try to see different things in the same candidate and thus, arrive at different perceptions about the same candidate. A good candidate and a bad one may differ Importantly, impression in the mind of interviewer weighs in the final selection of the candidate, Information elicited early in the interview carries greater weight than the information elicited later. That is why a good candidate is characterized more by the absence of unfavorable characteristics than by the presence of favorable characteristics. In this way, it is clear that where interview is an important input into selection decision, the perceptual factors influence the decision that is to be selected. This, in turn, influences the quality of labor forces selected in an organization.
- Performance appraisal: Assessment of an employee's performance very much depends on the perception -of the evaluator about the employee. Promotions, pay raises and continuation of job are the most obvious and common outcomes of the employee's performance. Performance appraisal is both objective and subjective. It may be objective when performance can easily be quantified. For example, a salesman's performance can be assessed based on how many rupees of sales he/she generated in his/her territory during a given period of time. However, many employees' job is evaluated in subjective terms, An impressive amount of evidence demonstrates that subjective measures are more judgmental. And judgement makes one's perception more susceptible to distortions.
- Performance expectation: New employees during their selection process acquire a set of expectations both about the organization and about the job. In case, there is big difference between what expected and what actually acquired, it results in increased employee absenteeism and turnover.
- Employee loyalty: While assessing employees, the managers also make another important decision whether the employees are loyal to organization or not. Like effort, assessment of loyalty is also a subjective aspect susceptible to perceptual distortions and bias. As an example, an employee looking for greener pastures outside the organization may be labelled as disloyal to the organization. As a resultant behavior, the organization may cut off his future advancement opportunities.
Bijay Satyal
Oct 28, 2021