Individuals & Groups in Organizations

Perception and Communication

Attitudes, Values, Ethics, and Emotions

GF4 2004 Frances Jørgensen frances@plan.aau.dk

Agenda

• What is perception? Why is it relevant to us?• What (mis)shapes our perceptions?• Personality & Personality Types• Values at Work• Culturally-based values: Where are the Danes?• Ethics• Emotions• Communication

Defining Perception (and the reason we need to understand it)

• Perception: a process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around us; how we view and interpret what happens around us.

• Peoples’ behavior is based on their perceptions of what reality is, not on reality itself.

How many legs?

Are the black lines parallel?

Optical Illusions: Perceptual “Tricks”

What do YOU see?

Selective Attention/Perception• What are we to do with all of the stimuli

bombarding us all the time?

• We sort out what we will pay attention to/remember according to our own interests, background, experiences, and attitudes as well as characteristics of the stimuli, such as size, intensity, motion, repetition, and novelty of the stimulus.

• Thus, the characteristics of the perceiver, the situation/context, and the target object (stimulus) all factor into what we pay attention to…

Attribution Theory(Kelly, 1973)

• Attributions: the perceived causes of our own behavior or the behavior of others. As humans, we need to be able to understand and explain why we and those around us act the way we do.

• Attributions may be internal (we have some control) or external (forces in the environment for which we can’t control).

Attribution Theory (cont’d)

• Whether we attribute others’ behavior as being caused by internal or external factors is based on 3 factors:– Consensus: was he the only employee late

today?– Distinctiveness: is he known as a slacker or

usually very hard working?– Consistency: is he often late or rarely ever?

Biases or Distortions of Perceptions

• Fundamental attribution error: when making judgments of others behavior, we tend to underestimate the influence of external factors and to overestimate the influence of internal factors.

• Self-serving bias: we tend to attribute our own successes to internal factors and to attribute lack of success to external factors.

Other perceptions gone wrong…

• Primacy– Remember 1st impressions!

• Recency– Gosh it’s hard to remember so far back!

• Halo– One good (or bad) trait is all it takes.

• Projection– If I’m hard-working (lazy, (dis)honest, etc) then you

probably are too!• Stereotyping

– You (Plural) are all alike!

Talk it over

How can perceptions influence

us at work?

• As managers?

• As employees?

• 5.5 min. mini-discussion. I WANT EXAMPLES!!!

(Very) Short overview of Personality

•Relatively stable pattern of behaviors

and consistent internal states that

explain a person's behavioral tendencies

•“Relationship” between personality and

job performance.

•Type A and Type B Personalities: which

are you?

Outgoing, talkative

Courteous, empathic

Caring, dependable

Poised, secure

Sensitive, flexible

Big Five Personality Dimensions

Extroversion

Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Emotional Stability

Openness to Experience

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

• Extroversion versus introversion

• Sensing versus intuition

• Thinking versus feeling

• Judging versus perceiving

Courtesy of Thompson Doyle Hennessey & Everest

What do we mean by values?

•What we generally believe is important in our relationships, work…life.

•Our values help us “know” what is right or wrong and good or bad and serve as the basis for our decisions

•Values come in all shapes and forms, including cultural values, ethical values, and organizational culture values.

JapanJapan

GermanyGermany

UnitedUnitedStatesStates

Collectivism

Individualism

ChinaChina

Individualism- Collectivism

Where is Denmark?

The degree that people value and focus on the individual (“I”) versus focus on the group (“we”)

The degree that people accept an unequal distribution of power in societyJapanJapan

GermanyGermany

UnitedUnitedStatesStates

FranceFrance

High Power Distance

MalaysiaMalaysia

Low Power Distance

Power Distance

Where is Denmark?

High U. A.

Low U. A.

JapanJapan

GermanyGermany

SingaporeSingapore

The degree that people tolerate ambiguity (e.g. less rigid rules) or feel the need for systematic rules and structure.

Uncertainty Avoidance

UnitedUnitedStatesStates

Where is Denmark?

JapanJapan

SouthSouthKoreaKorea

Achievement

Nurturing

SwedenSweden

The degree that people value assertiveness, competitiveness, and achievement (masculine) versus relationships and nurturing for the well-being of others (feminine)

Achievement-Nurturing

UnitedUnitedStatesStates

Where is Denmark?

JapanJapan

NetherlandsNetherlands

RussiaRussia

Long-Term Orientation

Short-Term Orientation

ChinaChinaThe degree that people save and plan for the future versus living in the here and now.

Long/Short-Term Orientation

UnitedUnitedStatesStates

Where is Denmark?

Factors influencing ethical conduct

• Moral intensity– How much we are guided by deep,

general ethics

• Ethical sensitivity– How aware are we of ethical issues and

how important are they?

• Situational influences

Attitude Feelings

Beliefs

BehavioralIntentions

Behavior

Model of Attitudes and Behavior

Emotional Episodes

Emotions & Attitudes• Emotions = experiences, something we feel, relatively

brief; Attitudes =judgments, something we think, relatively enduring, have strong influence on our behaviors.

• Cognitive Dissonance: We feel tension when do something that goes against our feelings, beliefs or attitudes. To feel better, we generally change our attitude (rather than our behavior).

• Emotional Intelligence: being able to assess own and others’ emotions to direct own behavior; related to personality, but can (partly) be developed.

EmotionalEmotionalIntelligenceIntelligence

Emotional Intelligence Dimensions

Self-Motivation

Self-Awareness

SocialSkill

Empathy

Self-Regulation

Job Satisfaction and Behavior• Job satisfaction is a general attitude toward the

job; high job satisfaction builds loyalty and commitment to the work place, reducing theft, (sometimes) absenteeism, turnover.

• Are satisfied employees good performers?– When rewarded, performance leads to job

satisfaction (not vice versa, at least at the individual level)

– Satisfied workers make for satisfied customers

What does it take to create job satisfaction?

• Mentally challenging work

• Equitable rewards & benefits

• Supportive Work Conditions

• Supportive Colleagues

• Personality-Job Fit

• The right genes (not jeans!)

Communication

• Definition: the transfer and understanding of meaning.

• Poor communication is the #1 source of interpersonal conflict.

• We spend about 70% of our working hours involved in some kind of communication.

Receiver

Decodemessage

Encodefeedback

Formfeedback

Sender

Formmessage

Encodemessage

Decodefeedback

TransmitTransmitMessageMessage

TransmitTransmitFeedbackFeedback

Receiveencodedmessage

Receivefeedback

Noise

Communication Process Model

Nonverbal Communication

• Actions, gestures, facial expressions, etc.

• Emphasizes our verbal communication

• Provides subtle clues to non-spoken messages

• Remember: Actions often speak louder (and more accurately) than words!

Communication Barriers• Perceptions: selective attention, attributions, biases,

errors—were you paying attention?!

• Filtering: Don’t kill the messenger!

• Defensiveness: If I feel threatened, I will create communication barriers

• Language– Jargon (how we show “them” we’re experts)– Ambiguity (harder to pin them down)

• Information Overload

Episodes of information overload

Employee’s information processing

capacity

Time

Information Load

Information Overload

Communication in the workplace

• Old fashioned face-to-face & open designs• Shift meetings• Team meetings• Management “walk arounds”• Email• Newsletters• Intranet• Surveys • The Grapevine

Communicating Through E-mail

Advantages of E-mail–It’s (usually) efficient–“Conversation” can take place at different times–Can purposefully scan and sort–Fewer social status barriers

Problems with E-mail–Information overload–Interpreting emotions–Flaming (no sleep on it strategy)–Lacks empathy or social support

I heard it on the grapevine…• What the research says…

– Information travels quickly in all directions– Few people spread rumors to many– The more alike we are, the more we use the

grapevine– Usually includes more than a grain of truth

• The power of the world wide web– Email becomes the fastest way to spread

rumors– Our rumors know no boundaries– Who’s checked out vault.com???

Cross-Cultural Communication

• Verbal differences– Language: be careful of translations!– Voice intonation– The woes of humor

• Nonverbal differences– Interpreting nonverbal meaning

• Physical distancing (also male/female)

– Importance of verbal versus nonverbal– Silence and conversational overlaps

Active Listening Process and Strategies

ACTIVEACTIVELISTENINGLISTENING

RESPONDING

• Show interest• Clarify the message

SENSING• Postpone evaluation• Avoid interruptions• Maintain interest

EVALUATING

• Empathize• Organize information