Perception and Learning in

Organizations
 Regina Peruggi, Back to the Floor

• Regina Peruggi,
president of New
York’s Central Park
Conservancy, got her
perceptions back in
focus by spending a © BBC Photolibrary

week working on the

front line.
Perceptual Process Model
Environmental Stimuli

Feeling Hearing Seeing Smelling Tasting

Selective Attention

Organization and
Interpretation

Emotions and
Behaviors
 Selective Attention
• Characteristics of the object
– size, intensity, motion, repetition,
novelty

• Perceptual context

• Characteristics of the perceiver

– attitudes
– perceptual defense
– expectations -- condition us to expect
events
 Splatter Vision Perception

• Fighter pilots, police

detectives, and truck
drivers use splatter
vision -- scanning
everything and focusing
on nothing. This reduces
the chance of screening
out potentially important
information. © Corel Corp. Used with permission
 Social Identity Theory

IBM
Employee Employees at
other firms

Live in An Individual’s People living

U.S.A. Social Identity in other countries

Graduates from
Univ. of Vermont other schools
Graduate
 Social Identity Theory
Features
• Comparative process
– define ourselves by differences with
others

• Homogenization process
– similar traits within a group; different
traits across groups

• Contrasting process
– develop less favorable images of people
in groups other than our own
 Sex Role Stereotyping in Engineering

• Women are
underrepresented in
engineering partly
because:
– Social identity -- few
women identify with the Ottawa Citizen

“geek” image portrayed of

engineers
– Sex role stereotyping --
women are not
encouraged to become
engineers because the
 Stereotyping
• Process of assigning
traits to people based
on their membership in
a social category
– Categorical thinking
– Strong need to
understand and
anticipate others’ Ottawa Citizen

behavior
– Enhances our self-
perception and social
identity
Minimizing Stereotyping
Biases
• Diversity awareness training
– Educate employees about the
benefits of diversity and dispel
myths

• Meaningful interaction
– Contact hypothesis
• Decision-making accountability
– Use objective criteria in decision-
making
 Attribution Process
• Internal Attribution
– Perception that outcomes are due
to motivation/ability rather than
situation or fate
• External Attribution
– Perception that outcomes are due
to situation or fate rather than the
person
Rules of Attribution
Internal Attribution

Frequently Frequently Seldom

Consistency
Distinctiveness Consensus

Seldom Seldom Frequently

External Attribution
 Attribution Errors
• Fundamental Attribution Error
– attributing own actions to
external factors and other’s
actions to internal factors

• Self-Serving Bias
– attributing our successes to
internal factors and our failures to
external factors
 Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Cycle
Supervisor
forms
expectations

Employee’s Expectations
behavior matches affect supervisor’s
expectations behavior

Supervisor’s
behavior affects
employee
 Other Perceptual Errors
• Primacy
– first impressions
• Recency
– most recent information dominates
perceptions
• Halo
– one trait forms a general impression
• Projection
– believe other people do the same things
or have the same attitudes as you
 Improving Perceptions
• Empathy
– Sensitivity to the feelings, thoughts, and
situation of others
– Cognitive and emotional component
• Self-awareness
– Awareness of your values, beliefs and
prejudices
– Applying Johari Window
 Know Yourself (Johari
Window)
Feedback

Known to Self Unknown to Self

Known
to Others Open
Area Blind
Open Area Blind
Disclosure Area Area

Hidden
Area Unknown
Hidden Unknown
Area
Unknown Area Area
to Others
Definition of Learning

• A relatively permanent
change in behavior (or
behavior tendency) that
occurs as a result of a
person’s interaction with the
environment
 Behavior Modification
• We “operate” on the environment
– alter behavior to maximize positive and
minimize adverse consequences
• Learning is viewed as completely
dependent on the environment
• Human thoughts are viewed as
unimportant
 A-B-Cs of Behavior
Modification
Antecedents Behavior Consequences

What happens What person What happens

before behavior says or does after behavior

Example

Warning Machine Co-workers

light operator turns thank
flashes off power operator
 Contingencies of
Reinforcement
Consequence No Consequence
is introduced consequence is removed

Behavior
increases/ Positive Negative
maintained reinforcement reinforcement

Behavior Punishment Extinction Punishment

decreases
 Schedules of
Reinforcement
Behaviors
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Continuous

Fixed ratio

Variable ratio

Time (Days)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Fixed interval

Variable interval
 Behavior Modification Limitations

• More difficult to apply to conceptual

activities
• Reward inflation
• Ethical concern that variable ratio
schedule is a lottery
• Behaviorist philosophy vs. learning
through mental processes
 Social Learning Theory

• Behavioral modeling
– Observing and modeling behavior
of others

• Learning behavior consequences

– Observing consequences that
others experience
• Self-reinforcement
– Reinforcing our own behavior with
consequences within our control
Experiential Learning in Warwick,
RI

• These Warwick, Rhode

Island, fire department
recruits are recapping
an experiential learning
exercise in which their
task was to control the
fire and save victims
© Bill Murphy/The Providence Journal
(dummies lying on the
ground in this photo).
Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model

Concrete
experience

Active Reflective
experimentation observation

Abstract
conceptualization
 Developing a Learning Orientation

• Value the generation of new

knowledge
• Reward experimentation
• Recognize mistakes as part of
learning
• Encourage employees to take
reasonable risks
 Action Learning
• Experiential learning in which
employees are involved in a ‘real,
complex and stressful problem’,
usually in teams, with immediate
relevance to the company
– Concrete experience
– Learning meetings
– Team conceptualizes and applies a
solution to a problem