Perception and Decision Making Sharon P

Perception and Decision Making

Sharon P

The controller introduced the office to the new employee; I had a feeling that she would not last a month in her new position. She was confident about her skills but she seemed overwhelmed by how we function in the office.

When meeting new people within an organization you begin to watch, listen and learn how they are going to function. Working in a big company just by word of mouth you get a feel of the people that are going to be around you on a daily basis. Making quick judgments or selective perception of people could possibly bring down the morale of an organization. You not only hinder the ability of all people to work together, but because you already have bad feelings toward a person (s), you fail to work together and instead hinder yourself from being a better employee or co-worker.

If we use the halo effect of perception one bad characteristic of a person could also cloud the way we work together. At the time of the first meeting, that person could have had outside factors that have either made them seem distant or even uptight. Now if the person seems to be the happiest person in the world on the first meeting and you think that they will be the best person to work with could also side swipe you when you find out that they actually have a really bad attitude when they do not get there way.

The contrast effect would probably be one of the worst perception shortcuts that we could ever use in an organization. When we let a person influence, us on how we think the next person is going to be because of the way they reacted or worked would bring down an organization quickly. We all react differently to different situations and you can hold anything against one person.

Would we all like everyone to be like us? When we use projective perception, we are projecting our own attributes onto that person. This could also hinder an organization. We are all our own person and when we try make others view someone as being just like us (robots) and they fail this task they not only disappoint themselves but they can also disappoint those around them. Disappointment brings lack of moral and this could lead to other things failing within and organization.

The most detrimental perception in an organization is stereotyping. This is a factor that can bring down an company as fast as it was made. We all do this one perception no matter if it is in business or our personal life. That is why all companies have a ratio of what type of employees they need to hire. In an organization if we stereotype one race or ethical background of being more superior to another we can place that group of people in the outer circle. If we do not get to know that person as an individual and keep them in that specific