BUS 272 Lecture 2: Perception, Personality, and Emotions

Perception definition

• The process with which individuals detect and interpret environmental stimuli

Factors Influencing Perception

• The perceiver

• The target

• The situation

What is the Attribution Theory

• When individuals observe behavior, they attempt to determine whether it is internally or externally caused

• Attributions depend on:

  • distinctiveness

  • consensus

  • consistency

Common errors in attributions

• Fundamental attribution error

  • We blame other people’s behaviour and think it’s internally caused 

• Self-serving bias

  • When something good happens to us then it’s internally caused

    • “I earned it, I did it, etc”

  • If something bad happens, then it’s externally caused

    • If I do bad on the test then the prof is bad

Perceptual Errors

• You pick and choose things that are consistent with how you see the world. Due to this, we miss out on other information. It could result in an error.

• We see what we want to see and sometimes draw unwarranted conclusions from an ambiguous situation

• Halo Effect

  • When we draw a general impression of an individual on the basis of a single characteristic, such as intelligence, likeability, or appearance, a halo effect operates.

  •  Drawing a general impression of an individual on the basis of a single characteristic. 

  • Stereotyping is the opposite way

• Contrast Effects

  • The concept that our reaction to one person is often influenced by other people we have recently encountered.

• Stereotyping 

  • Judging someone on the basis of one's perception of the group to which that person belongs.

Personality definition, determinants, and traits

• Definition: The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others 

• Personality determinants:

  • Nature vs. nurture?

  • Does personality change?

• Personality traits:

  • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator 

  • Big Five Model

The Big Five Model

• Extraversion

• Agreeableness

• Conscientiousness

  • Most important factor in job performance 

• Emotional Stability

• Openness to Experience

Some Additional Personaility Traits Studied in OB

• Self-monitoring

• Proactive personality

• Self-esteem (core self-evaluation)

• The Dark Triad

• Self-monitoring

• What behaviour is needed in what situations

• People with high self-monitoring can adjust well to different situations

• Proactive personality

• Willing to show initiative and find new opportunities

• Companies love this 

• Self-esteem (core self-evaluation)

• How we view ourselves

• What's the relationship between self-esteem and job performance?

  • Positive relationship

  • Can lead to self-fulfilling prophecy

  • A person with high-self esteem is more resilient, whereas someone with low self-esteem is more likely to give up in the face of trouble 

  • A person with higher self-esteem sets higher goals 

• The Dark Triad

• Machiavellianism

  • The ends justifies the means

  • The degree to which an individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and beliews that ends can justify means. 

• Narcissist 

  • Inflated sense of self worth

  • The tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of self importance, require excessive admiration, and have a sense of entitlement. 

• Psychopath

  • You feel little to no empathy

  • The tendency for a lack of concern of others and a lack of guilt or remorse when one's actions cause harm. 

Emotions vs Moods

• Emotions are more intense and directed and last for only a short period of time

• Moods are broader, more diffused, not directed, not sure why we feel it

Emotional Labour

• Emotional labour: 

  • When an employee expresses organizationally desired emotions during interactions (felt vs displayed emotions)

  • You’re feeling something but have to display something different 

    • This leads to stress and burnout

    • The larger the emotional labour, the larger the stress and burnout

      • What can organizations do to help?

        • Mental health programs for support 

• Surface acting

  •  Hiding one's inner feelings to display what is expected. 

• Deep acting

  • Trying to modify one's true inner feelings to match what is expected. 

Emotional Intelligence

• Emotional intelligence: Ability to become more aware of own and other’s emotions

  • Self-awareness

  • Self-management

  • Social awareness

  • Relationship management 

• How well you recognize and manage your own emotions as well as other people’s emotions 

  • More effective leaders tend to have higher emotional intelligence