Perception and Decision Making

Organizations heavily rely on the choices made for their accomplishments. The right choices can bring victory and negative choices can cause disaster. Perception plays a vital role in the choices humans make. People make decisions every day, every hour and every minute based on the perceptions they construe. Each individual perceives situations, places, people and so forth with one's own five senses. However, what one perceives is not always accurate. People's perceptions can be misleading and can cause negative effects. Perception can cause numerous people to make the wrong choices based on non-factual information. In organizations wrong decisions can cause a tremendous amount of negative effects. Therefore, it is extremely important to understand perception; how one's perception of others impacts an organizations behavior; the positive and negative effects of using perceptive "shortcuts" when judging others; how decisions in real world organizations are made; and how perceptions shape one's ethical decisions.

Perception

Perception as defined, by Stephen P. Robbins, "...Is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment" (2005, p.134). Humans habitually interpret what they see, hear, touch, taste, and smell into something that makes logical sense. Each individual sees, hears, touches and smells things differently. Thus, people vary in perception. People see what they want to see; hear what they want to hear; smell what they want to smell; feel what they want to feel; and taste what they want to taste not what is, in fact, there. Human behavior is shaped by their perceptions not on facts. There are also multiple factors that influence one's perceptions.

Perception can be influenced by the time, environment, mind-set, personality, intentions, and history of the perceiver. Perception can be influenced by the appearance, personality, attitude, and situation of the person, place, or object being perceived. There are numerous details that one can notice or dismiss in the perception process. One's perception of individuals effects the decisions of organizations.

One's perceptions of others effects organization behavior

Humans automatically perceive the world around them. One vital perception in the functionality of an organization is the management's perception on employees. Management has essential roles within each organization. They are the ones that take control and make vital decisions. Management is required to attain goals with the assistance of a team. Managers control the organization's behavior. Thus, managers are required to make the best possible decisions to profit their organization. In order to make the best decisions managers need, "To avoid the many problems associated with "percept" distortions, managers must consciously and reflectively withhold evaluative judgments as long as feasible while they set about trying to obtain additional sensory data" (Baron Research Group, 2003, p.3). Managers must gather as much factual information as they can before making a decision. Every decision a manager makes effects organization behavior. If a manager makes negative decisions the employees will not be satisfied. Unsatisfied employees equal less company productivity. Managers must acknowledge that every person has biases. Managers must also understand people invent their own perception. The perception of others often leads to judging others.

The positive and negative effects of using "shortcuts" when judging others

When one comes to even the slightest contact with another person one can perceive that person and generalizes a quick judgment. Quick judgments are based on one's appearance, age, sex, and nationality. Shortcut in judging others are not based on factual knowledge of the person(s) being judged. The majority of the information one quickly construes of another person is erroneous. Quick judgment of others can be positive as well as negative.

The positive effects of shortcuts when judging others occurs when one comes in contact with another one can show respect to the other person based on how the person appears; the age of the person; the gender of the person; and the nationality of that person. For example when one comes in contact with a priest one can assume that the priest will find profanity; using God's name in vain; sexual behavior; and so forth disturbing and disrespectful. Thus, the person can be careful not to use profanity; use the Lord's name in vain; show sexual intentions; and so forth in the presence of a priest. Another positive effect of quickly judging another person is personal safety. When one comes in contact with another person whom has a lethal weapon one can assume that the person can be dangerous. Thus, when a mugger, rapist, or murderer is near one will know to flee. However, not all shortcuts in the judgment of others are positive.

The negative effects of quick judgment of others are stereotyping; the halo effect; selective perception; contrast effect and projection. Stereotyping occurs when one judges another according to the group one belongs to. For example, a construction manager does not hire a woman for hard labor claiming all women cannot work hard labor. The halo effect occurs when one perceives an individual's behavior based on one trait. For example, a manager hires only attractive people claiming attractive people work more productively. The contrast effect occurs when one judges another by comparing one to others. For example, a manager fires an employees because compared to everyone else he is the only employees that dresses differently. Projection occurs when one projects a characteristic of one person to a group of people. For example, management gives all his employees a suspension in pay because one employee is caught embezzling business revenue (Eugene Milbourne, 2001, p. 1).

How decisions in real world organizations are made

Decisions in real world organizations are made on bounded rationality. According to Stephen Robbins, "Because the capacity of the human mind for formulating and solving complex problems is far too small to meet the requirements for full rationality, individuals operate within the confines of bounded rationality" (2005, p.148). Organizational decision-makers will develop a manageable list of alternatives to the situation. Then they will review the list until they find a best fit solution that is adequate. Organizational decision-makers settle with the chosen alternative rather than continuing to search for the best possible option. Ethical decision-making is based on perceptions.

How perceptions shape one's ethical decisions

Numerous people of divergent backgrounds hold perceptions of ethical behavior differently. People who perceive one situation as ethical may have others who perceive the same situation as unethical. Religion, culture, nationality, and history influence the perception of an individual's ethical behavior. Thus, organizations need to train their employees about ethical behavior. When an organization emphasis what is ethical employees are more likely to avoid unethical behavior. The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), at Walden University, implemented discussions for nurses on ethical behavior; "Such social change within the NICU environment directly impacts NICU patients, patient families, and staff through ethically improved care and outcomes" (Clarence Shumaker, 2007, p.1)

Understanding perception is vital. Understanding perception will benefit numerous people. The comprehension of perception can give one improved decision-making skills; increased understanding of others; and leadership skills.

References

Barron Research Group. (Fall 2003). Perception and Organization. Management for Science and

Engineering. Retrieved August 20, 2007 from Rice University

Milbourne, E. (2001). Perception and Individual Decision Making. Retrieved August 20, 2007

from http://home.ubalt.edu/ntsbmilb/ob/ob3/tsld001.htm

Robbins, S. (2005). Organizational Behavior, Eleventh Edition. Prentice Hall: Pearson Education