Perception And Decision Making Analysis Essay Example

working environment. A manager could also miss out on hiring the person who best fits the job ability requirements.

Perceptive Shortcuts: Positive and Negative Effects There are a number of shortcuts used by individuals to judge others, in order to make the task more manageable. For example, selective perception, the alo effect, contrast effects, projection, and stereo typing are all types of perceptive shortcuts. Although these many shortcuts can sometimes prove to be helpful, they also can result in negative effects. One perceptive shortcut is selective perception, which allows individuals to speed read others; however, they are at risk of drawing an inaccurate pictures of people. The halo effect is another perception shortcut that like selective perception has negative effects along with the positives.

The halo effect is described as being when we get a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single trait. The problem with this is that a person’s abilities are not based on only one trait but many traits (Robbins, 2005). The tendency to assume other people share the same characteristics as ones self is called projection. This has a negative effect on a manager’s perception of their employees because they compromise their ability to respond to individual differences (Robbins, 2005).This will also negatively effect how team members work together to successfully accomplish their tasks. Another perceptive shortcut, stereotyping, can have advantages as well as many problems.

One advantage of using stereotypes is that they can improve decision making by simplifying the number of individuals to choose from and focusing on a group. The problem with using stereotypes is that they can be inaccurate (Robbins, 2005). Not everyone within the same

group has the same attitudes and beliefs. Decision Making in Real World OrganizationsMost decisions made within real world organizations do not follow the rational modal; instead the acceptable or reasonable solution to the problem is found, rather than the most favorable one (Robbins, 2005). Some ways decisions are made within real world organizations include: bounded rationality, common biases and errors, intuition, individual differences, organizational constraints, and cultural differences. Individuals who operate with in the confines of bounded rationality construct simplified modals that extract the essential features from problems without capturing all their complexity (Robbins, 2005).

In addition to engaging in bounded rationality, decision makers allow biases and errors to influence their judgments. Some examples of biases include overconfidence, anchoring bias, confirmation bias, availability bias, representative bias, and hindsight bias. Some examples of errors include escalation of commitment error, and randomness error (Robbins, 2005). Intuition can be a powerful force in decision making as well.

Intuitive decision making is an unconscious process created out of distilled experience (Robbins, 2005). How our Perceptions Shape Ethical/Moral DecisionsMorality is known as what an individual does to conform to societal norms, while ethical behavior deals with the philosophy behind that morality, which determines the individuals perception of right and wrong (Cotter, J. , & Greif, T. , 2007).

Early childhood ethical understanding seems to be influenced by the examples of parents/guardians, teachers, and organizational leaders, as well as spiritual leaders. Adult relationships such as orinizational superiors, friends, spouses, government officials, parents and spiritual leaders, also play a formative role in influencing ethical decisions.According to Cotter and Greif (2007), consistent behavior, honesty, openness, and the willingness to listen are related to perception of another’s

ethicality and influence (p. 48). In terms of creating and establishing ethical norms within organization, one of the most important things is that the leader is perceived to be a credible, believable and competent individual. Research shows that employees are more likely to behave ethically when they have a leader who is perceived to be ethical or who models ethical behavior (Cotter, and Greif, 2007).

Conclusion

Perception has a key role in the decision making process. For example, it is unlikely that a manager is going to hire a person that they perceive to be lazy and unorganized, no matter what job title they are hiring for. The problem with this is that the manager could be completely inaccurate in their perception of the person, and they could have been they could have been the optimal choice for the position. There are many perceptive shortcuts that could either aid in making good decisions, or decisions that could prove to be problematic. Although the rational modal is great in heory, most real world organizations do not use it when making decision; they tend to find the most reasonable solution while lacking needed creativity.

References

1. Cotter, J., & Greif, T. (2007, September). ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING IN A FAST CHANGING WORLD. International Journal of Business Research, 7(5), 48-68. Retrieved September 8, 2008, from Business Source Complete database, http://search. ebscohost.com. ezproxy. apollolibrary. com/login. aspx? direct=true&db=bth&AN=31521155&site=ehost-live
2. Robbins, Stephen P. (2005). Organizational behavior (11th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.