The concept of perception is very closely related to the personality of a person. we know that people working in an organisation differ in terms of physical characteristics, background characteristics (such as training and education) and personality traits. one of the consequences of such differences is that people do not view the things in the same way. perception is described as a person’s view of reality. every person computer, human beings also are information processors with one basic difference. while all the computer process a piece of information in the identical manner with identical output, human beings may differ because of their differences and uniqueness. people often see the same phenomenon differently both within the organisational context and outside the organisation. in order to understand why people see the same situation differently one has to understand perception and its different aspects.
Perception is the cognitive process. In terms of S-O-B-C model perception is the cognitive process which involves the O (organism) selecting, organizing, and interpreting the S (stimulus). Thus, perception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting or attaching meaning to the events happening in the environment. This input of meaningful information results in decisions and actions. It is the result of a complex interaction of various senses such as feeling, seeing, hearing, thinking and comparing with known aspects of life in order to make some sense of the world around us. The quality or accuracy of a person’s perception is an important factor in determining the quality of the decisions and action.
“Perception can be defined as a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment..” – Stephen P. Robbins
“Perception can be defined as the process of receiving, selecting, organizing, interpreting, checking and reacting to sensory stimuli or data.” - Udai Pareeks
Perception plays a pivotal role in an organization as it influences the following:
Interpersonal work relation.
Selection of employees.
Hence, by the process of perception we make sense of the world around us.
The factors which affect the perception are shown in the figure below:
Perceptual process are the different stages of perception we go through. The different stages are −
Receiving
Selecting
Organizing
Interpreting
Receiving
Receiving is the first and most important stage in the process of perception. It is the initial stage in which a person collects all information and receives the information through the sense organs.
Selecting
Selecting is the second stage in the process. Here a person doesn’t receive the data randomly but selectively. A person selects some information out of all in accordance with his interest or needs. The selection of data is dominated by various external and internal factors.
External factors − The factors that influence the perception of an individual externally are intensity, size, contrast, movement, repetition, familiarity, and novelty.
Internal factors − The factors that influence the perception of an individual internally are psychological requirements, learning, background, experience, self-acceptance, and interest.
Organizing
Keeping things in order or say in a synchronized way is organizing. In order to make sense of the data received, it is important to organize them.
We can organize the data by −
Grouping them on the basis of their similarity, proximity, closure, continuity.
Establishing a figure ground is the basic process in perception. Here by figure we mean what is kept as main focus and by ground we mean background stimuli, which are not given attention.
Perceptual constancy that is the tendency to stabilize perception so that contextual changes don’t affect them.
Interpreting
Finally, we have the process of interpreting which means forming an idea about a particular object depending upon the need or interest. Interpretation means that the information we have sensed and organized, is finally given a meaning by turning it into something that can be categorized. It includes stereotyping, halo effect etc.