Role of Perception 2
The Role of Perception in the Decision Making Process
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The Role of Perception in the Decision Making Process
Perception is defined as “the process by which organisms interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world.” (Perception, MSN Encarta, n.d.). Every organism has five sense organs – the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. When any of the sensory receptor of these organs is stimulated, it produces sensation. Further processing of these sensation results to what is known as perception.
In most of the activities done by any individual, perception is utilized in looking at things or activities which helps in the formation of one’s concept on certain objects, events, people, and situations. Perception is used in trying to understand or interpret the behavior of others around. Perception is used in an attempt to give thoughts or ideas on everything around. The same perception is used by any member of any organization. This leads to an implication that perception has so much to do in any organism’s activities including the process of decision making. The person’s perception has great impacts on others.
In any organization, the person’s perception of others has impacts to the organization’s behavior. Any accomplishment of an organization greatly relies on the choices which largely depend on one’s perception. Good choices contribute to success while wrong choices could pull down an organization. The usual scene that takes place in decision making in any organization is a manager heading the process. As an individual, the manager of course develops his own perception on anything. The manager’s perception definitely has impacts on the decision he makes for the organization. Whatever decision is made by the manager helps define the organizational behavior. Whatever decision a manager makes has certain effects on organization’s behavior. That means if the decision made by the manager is seen negatively, such decision will not be able to provide satisfaction to the employees. As an impact of unsatisfied employees, the company productivity will be lessened. In that sense, it is essential for the managers to understand the individual differences. Each individual has biases and most importantly, every individual form their own perception which can be far different from the other’s perception. That clearly shows great impacts of perception to the organizational behavior. Thus, the manager should not be carried strongly by his perceptions in making decisions but should gather as much factual information as possible before making a decision.
Using perceptive shortcuts when judging others have both the positive and negative effects. We make quick judgments based mainly on individual’s physical appearance, age, sex, and nationality. ‘Shortcut’ judgments are usually misleading as they are not based on factual knowledge about the person being judged. Someone’s perception usually leads to judgment of others which is always liable to form wrong judgment. Perceptions are really useful but depend on how it is used. Nevertheless, it still provides positive effects. The first good effect is manifesting respect to a certain individual perceived to be given due respect based on the appearance, and obvious characteristics. For example, when a seemingly respectable person that looks like a doctor appears, it is of course a quick response to show due respect. Another advantage of shortcut in judging perhaps is personal safety. If someone sees someone with appearance that leads to a suspicion of a theft or a rapist, definitely, a person forms bad perception and will be inclined to be ready to take safety measures. On the other hand, perception can be wrong anytime thus causing so much negative effects of quick judgment of other. Stereotyping the halo effect, selective perception, contrast effect and projection are amongst the negative effects. We know how unpleasant the effects can be to the concerned individual. With stereotyping, real qualified individual may not get the proper post because the faulty pre-judgment of the manager based on his perception on the individual who belong to a certain group. With the halo effect, the organization will be on the losing end when a manager hires an individual based on his perception on the individual’s behavior based on one trait. The contrast effect does no good as well when an individual is judged through comparison to others. Projection definitely bas its own disadvantage when a characteristic of a group is used to project the characteristic of an individual. As pointed out, wrong perception can bring demise to an organization. It is therefore imperative to have full understanding of the perception and one should not always rely on the perception alone. Everyone needs an understanding that human behavior is shaped by perceptions and not mainly on facts. If we assume that perception and reasoning solely entail physiological and psychological processes, then that would mean a methodology for understanding and predicting another's behavior would involve entering that person's reality - metamorphic ally approaching that individual as an information processing system. (Social Factors Shaping Perception and Decision Making, n.d.) That is quite impossible to do which means the impossibility to really know each individual’s perception.
Decisions in real world organizations can be perceived as not being straightforward and are more based on bounded rationality. As the usual scene, decision makers of an organization usually develop a rooster of alternatives to certain situation. The options listed are reviewed until best fit solution that is adequate is reached. Decision making is usually culminated with the chosen alternative.
Ethical decision-making however is quite different from the usual decision making on other aspects of the organization. Decision making associated with ethics is usually based on perceptions. There is a conflict on this matter as individuals with background diversity have different perceptions of ethical behavior. So to say, someone may have a perception over a situation as ethical yet others may have a perception over the same situation as unethical. Here, factors such as individual’s religious and cultural affiliation, nationality, beliefs and past experiences may have certain influence on the perception of an individual's ethical behavior. With individual differences, the organizations therefore are in need of training their employees about ethical behavior within the organization to avoid any unwanted unethical behavior that can affect the organization.
Perception is very important but there is something more important than it – and what is important is an understanding of full concept of perception. Only with due understanding that individuals can gain the benefits of perception. With full comprehension of perception, decision-making skills will be improved.
References
Milbourne, E. (2001). Perception and individual decision making. Retrieved August 20, 2007 from http://home.ubalt.edu/ntsbmilb/ob/ob3/tsld001.htm
Perception. Retrieved August 30, 2008 from MSN Encarta Online: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761571997
Social factors shaping perception and decision making. Retrieved August 30, 2008 from http://www.trinity.edu/~mkearl/socpsy-5.html