Understanding Perception in Management

Once a manager allows perception to enter his.her mind, the actual truth becomes distorted. Some managers will meet an applicant or new employee and develop a stereotype based solely on what they perceive. Unfortunately, several employees have experienced situation, where a manager has made a decision based on their perception of the truth. But, perception should not be relied on when making a decision.

Understanding Perception

What is Perception?

"Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment" (Robbins, 2005). "The brain seeks information, mainly by directing an individual to look, listen and sniff."(Freeman, 1991) But, perception can cause disagreements among people, because each person sees things differently. So, it isn't unusual, for two people to see something and perceive it differently. There are many situations that arise that a manager must decide between truth and perception. Basically, a person "knows the object is familiar and whether it is desirable or dangerous" (Freeman, 1991).

Functions in Perceptions

Many factors will aid in influencing the way a manager can view someone or something. Some factors influencing a mangers perception are the person's attitude and motive/ motive, interest, experience, and expectation. The manager will have to delete their own perceptions of what they are seeing and decide on the facts only. Basically, "perception are created by habit" (Howard, Unknown) and they can become a major pitfall. Some "situations" may factor in a person's perception: like "time", "work settings", and "social settings" (Robbins, 2005).

Also, the employee or "target", may have factors, which dominant in the "perceivers" (Robbins, 2005) perception. These factors include "background", "size", "motion", "similarity", and "sounds". So, it is important to look at the "context" (Robbins, 2005) of a situation, before a person makes any type of decision. Therefore, managers tend to evaluate a employee, based on a using themselves, as a "frame of reference" (Howard, Unknown)