Introduction to perception

“Factors that limit and distort our perception and contribute to bias” What can individuals and organizations do to overcome this?

Perception is considered as a thought process of an individual. It is related with the thinking capacity of the people. Therefore, in this paper, proper elaboration will be made of the factors that limit and distort perception of the people and contribute to bias. Perception is a method through which gathering, managing and interpreting of the impressions are taken into consideration. Perception is related with the people and also it has a link with the organizations (Chinchanachokchai, Duff and Sar, 2015).

Perception is related with considering the meaning. The perception has a role in taking judgments. It has been seen that every individual has its own perception and has a power to consider the judgments. The actions which are taken by the people are related with their own perception and thinking. Perception has a linked with the behavior of the people as it has been seen that different individual have different way to react to the situations. The behavior of the people is different towards every situation. It has been analyzed that if two people are asked to take the decision of a specific situation, then the decisions which are taken by them will be different (Block and Block, 2014). Therefore, in this perception has an essential role at the time of considering the decisions.

There are many employees from different background who have different perception of every situation that take place in the workplace. So, the thinking criteria of the people vary from individual to individual. Distortion related with perception focuses on how it is perceived. If perceptual distortion is analyzed then it can be seen that negative affect can be given on the activities of the organizations and employees will also have to face the same.   Distortion also gives impact on the individual behavior. In the workplace if an individual have negative thoughts towards the activities then it is difficult to achieve positive outcome. Biasness is also considered as one of the aspect that take place in the workplace and this just because of the variation in the perception of the individuals (Firestone and Scholl, 2015). For director some employees are good and efficient and some are not, so this variation in thinking pattern is known as perception. There are many people in the workplace who are conducting the same activities but some are friends and some do not interact with each other.  There are many groups in the workplace which are created and by listening to their conversation the mindset of the people changes. For example: if a person has a positive thinking towards other person then the attitude towards that person will be good but if negative thinking is there towards one person then he or she will good job then also negative attitude will be there. This is all because of the perception level which is created in the mind of an individual. An individual think in positive as well as in negative way.  It has been seen that mindset of the people are created according to the environment in which they are living. Experience of the individual has a link with the level of perception. According to experience the perception level of the individual keeps on changing (Hareli, David and Hess, 2016). There are many reasons which are related with perception distortion on which discussion will be made further.

Factors that limit and distort perception

There are various stages which are related to perception and these stages are taken into consideration by the individual when they focus on perceiving something. In the initial stage the focus is given on stimuli in which there are sensory organs of the people that are taken into consideration like vision, touch and also taste. When the focus is given by the people on these sensory organs then the overall process of stimuli take place.  It is essential to focus on stimuli so that meaning can be taken into consideration.  Through hearing the oral presentation is considered and by writing written presentation is considered. Also, the perceiver emphasizes on maintaining the gap with accurate data. It has been analyzed that perceivers focus on making the efforts so that flow of information can be maintained. Proximity is the last stage in which the information is maintained and is considered by majority of people. The process of communication can be affected with perception distortion. It is essential to consider process of communication so that problems can be raised. It has been evaluated that through distortion the communication gap can also take place (Si and Jiang, 2017).

Due to lack of communication there are drawbacks which are analyzed within the employees.  It is important to have proper flow of communication so that positivity can be maintained. It has been seen that employees focus on their targets and also consider the aspects by the perceiver.  The perceiver is influenced through attitude or behavior. It has been seen that behavior is one of the factor through which perception can be judged (Kwiatkowski, 2017).

The perception of the people is also influenced with the mood. Positivity within the people comes from good mood. If the individual is in good mood then they can focus on positive perception. Therefore, it can be seen that perception has a variation in the way of expression. Individual expression changes with the change in perception level. The factors that affect the level of perception are many but some are pre disposition, contrast effect, halo effect, stereotypes, primacy effect, projections, and prejudice. The factor which is related with stereotyping is the notion which is perceived in context to the people by emphasizing on the group of the people. In stereotyping people judge each other not in a right way.  Without analyzing the fact the tag is given by the people and wrong judgment is taken into consideration. Just because of stereotypes it has been seen that the workplace environment is affected. The perception level of the employees is also affected just because of stereotypes. It is essential to minimize stereotyping from the workplace so that it can be easy to manage the operations in an effective manner (Fiske, 2018).

Next factor is related with projection. It is a defense mechanism which emphasizes on securing the overall views and thoughts of the individual. Distortion takes place when an individual focuses on something else according to their wants. In this proper solutions should be taken on the personal level so that others can avail the benefits in an effective manner. It is essential to consider the views of the other individual so that at some point of time improvisation can take place.

Impact of perception on individual behavior

The next factor which is related with perception is “HALO EFFECT”. It takes into consideration perception and the focus is given on the attitude of the individuals. By emphasizing on the behavior the conversion takes place on the general platform. The traits of the people are not visible and the impact is seen on the person characteristics by emphasizing on the expressions (Forgas and Laham, 2016).

Pre disposition is also one of the factors that states that individual analyze the want and they evaluate it without any proper analysis. Primacy effect also gives impact on the level of perception and it can be taken into consideration when an individual focus on the first impression. It has been evaluated that when individual meets a person they create a perception and if positive perception is made then positive response can be given and if negative perception is made then negative perception is made (Fang, Van Kleef and Sauter, 2018). So, this can affect the level of perception of the individual.

The last factor is related with contrast effect in which it has been seen that bias is analyzed if proper comparison is made with the characteristics of the people and this comparison is made by considering the time. Recency effect is also seen and in this other person takes into consideration the latest information. In this the management focuses on the performance level of the employees only for few months and appraisal is done according to the productivity level (Hennessy,  Jakubowski and Leo, 2016).

The ways that can help to overcome perception distortion are many. First is concerned with the change. The main responsibility of the people is to focus on considering and accepting change. When the decisions are made it is important to consider accurate data so that decisions can take place in the right direction.  It is essential to consider the accurate decisions by focusing on the factual data so that focus can be given on taking into consideration accurate information. By collecting the accurate information it has been seen that positive impact can be considered in proper manner (Firestone and Scholl, 2016). So, it is important to focus on accepting the right data so that accurate decisions can be considered.

Communication is also one of the factors which have a proper linkage with minimizing distortion. It is important to have proper flow of communication so that issues can be minimized in the workplace.  Understanding between the people is important so that views of each other can be understood easily. So, it is important for the people to emphasize on the points which are given by the other person so that clarity of information can take place. It is also important to convince the people so that right decisions can be taken by minimizing the wrong decisions by the people. It can be stated that if there is no convincing power in the employees then it can be difficult for them to remain in the competitive market (Fritsche, Mostert and de Lange, 2017).

Communication and its role in perception

There should be proper interaction between the individuals so that conflicts and perception distortion can be minimized within the people. Without effective communication it is not simple for the people to conduct their routine operations in the right direction. By having proper interaction between the individual it can be easy to evaluate the points which are stated and also it can create positive level of perception in the mind of the other person. Thoughts and views of the other people can be clear stated by having proper process of communication between the people and also it will create positive environment in the workplace (Goodale and Ganel, 2015). So, to minimize the issue related to perception distortion should be reduced by having process of communication in a proper manner and it will also give impact on the business as well as on the individuals.

The errors which are related to perceptual should also be reduced so that people can give their best towards the assigned activities. It has been analyzed that if perceptual errors are reduced then it can be simple for the people to maintain their level of performance in the right way. Also it will give positive impact on the overall operations and revenue of the company.  Through this impact can be seen on the profits and productivity level. If there are errors then negative impact can also be evaluated on the overall process of decision making so it is important to focus on minimizing perceptual errors so that performance can be maintained and also decisions can be taken in the right direction (Maheshwari and Vohra, 2015).

Therefore, by focusing on the entire paper it has been stated that perception has an essential role in the company and also in the life of the individual. It is important to focus on minimizing the perception distortion so that positive working environment can be created. There are various aspects that impact the level of perception like halo effect, pre disposition, contrast effect and stereotyping. These aspects can be managed by focusing on maintain proper communication, focusing on change and also through minimizing the perceptual errors so that it can be easy to conduct the overall activities in the right direction.

References

Block, J. and Block, J.H., 2014. The role of ego-control and ego-resiliency in the organization of behavior. In Development of cognition, affect, and social relations (pp. 49-112). Psychology Press.

Chinchanachokchai, S., Duff, B.R. and Sar, S., 2015. The effect of multitasking on time perception, enjoyment, and ad evaluation. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, pp.185-191.

Fang, X., Van Kleef, G.A. and Sauter, D.A., 2018. Person perception from changing emotional expressions: primacy, recency, or averaging effect?. Cognition and Emotion, pp.1-14.

Firestone, C. and Scholl, B.J., 2015. Can you experience ‘top-down’effects on perception?: The case of race categories and perceived lightness. Psychonomic bulletin & review, Vol. 22, no.3, pp.694-700.

Firestone, C. and Scholl, B.J., 2016. Cognition does not affect perception: Evaluating the evidence for” top-down” effects. Behavioral and brain sciences, Vol.39.

Fiske, S.T., 2018. Controlling other people: The impact of power on stereotyping. In Social Cognition (pp. 101-115). Routledge.

Forgas, J.P. and Laham, S.M., 2016. Halo effects. Cognitive illusions: Intriguing phenomena in judgement, thinking and memory, pp.276-290.

Fritsche, M., Mostert, P. and de Lange, F.P., 2017. Opposite effects of recent history on perception and decision. Current Biology,  Vol. 27, no. 4, pp.590-595.

Goodale, M.A. and Ganel, T., 2015. Different modes of visual organization for perception and for action. Oxford handbook of perceptual organization, Vol. 3, no.1, pp.1-19.

Hareli, S., David, S. and Hess, U., 2016. The role of emotion transition for the perception of social dominance and affiliation. Cognition and Emotion, vol.30, no. 7, pp.1260-1270.

Hennessy, D.A., Jakubowski, R.D. and Leo, B., 2016. The impact of Primacy/Recency Effects and Hazard Monitoring on attributions of other drivers. Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour, vol. 39, pp.43-53.

Kwiatkowski, C., 2017. Effective Communication as a Major Key to Successful Organizational Change. Journal of Quality and Environmental Studies, 7(2), pp.22-29.

Maheshwari, S. and Vohra, V., 2015. Identifying critical HR practices impacting employee perception and commitment during organizational change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 28, no.5, pp.872-894.

Si, K. and Jiang, Y., 2017. Bidirectional contrast effects between taste perception and simulation: A simulation?induced adaptation mechanism. Journal of Consumer Psychology, vol. 27, no. 1, pp.49-58.