Shanghai Jiao Tong University

ORGNIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Chapter 3: Communication and perception

Tang Weijun (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

2006-4-10 © 2006 Tang Weijun http://www.drtang.org

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Contact

Tang Weijun
Shanghai Jiao Tong University

E-mail:

URL:
http://www.drtang.org/

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Concepts and learning objectives

Key concepts:
The communication process
Non-verbal behaviour or body language
Perception
Selective attention
Perceptual set or perceptual expectation
Halo effect

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Concepts and learning objectives

Key concepts:
Coding and decoding
Impression management
Habituation
Perceptual organization
Perceptual world
Stereotyping
Attribution

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Concepts and learning objectives

Learning objectives
Explain the main components of the interpersonal
communication process.
Identify the main sources of error in interpersonal
communication.
Explain the significance of non-verbal behaviour and
impression management.

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Concepts and learning objectives

Learning objectives
Identify the main features of the process of perception.
Give examples of how behaviour is influenced by our
perceptions.
Explain and illustrate the main processes and problems
in person perception.

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Perception

Perception is perhaps the one which most directly

set social science apart from natural science.
The incoming raw data are processed and
interpreted in the light of our past experiences, in
terms of our current needs and interests, in terms
of our knowledge, expectations, beliefs and
motives.
The human beings have almost the same sensory
equipment, but we have different social and
physical backgrounds.

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Perception

The perceptual process goes to work on those

incoming messages, to interpret or decode them.
Interpersonal communication is an error-prone
process.
We perceive and interpret the communications from
others in the manner they intended.
They in turn interpret our communications with a similar
level of accuracy.
We can manage through the interpersonal
communications process the perceptions that
others have of us, and use this to our advantage.

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Interpersonal communication: code and decode

Conversation: a competitive sport in which the first

person to draw breath is declared the listener.
The interpersonal communication process involves
the transmission of information, and the exchange
of meaning.
It is critical to understand organizational behaviour.
It involves more than the transmission of information
between two (or more) people.
D figure in page 43.

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Interpersonal communication: code and decode

Coding refers to the manner in which a transmitter

chooses to word and express a message.
Decoding concerns the way in which the receiver
interprets the message.
To be successful, therefore, both the transmitters
and receivers in the communication process need
to share a common “codebook”, and also need to
use that “codebook” consistently.

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Interpersonal communication: code and decode

The communication process is further complicated by the

“perceptual filters” which affect what we want and are willing
to say, and which in turn affect what we hear and how we
hear it.
Our physical and social settings influence a number of factors,
which in turn influence our communications.
“noise”: anything which interferes with a communications
process, it is a barrier to effective communication.
Feedback is also important.
Careless coders and lazy listeners.

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Some general advices for communications

Face to face…
Reality checks…
Time and place…
The “you” attitude…

D form in page 46.

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Selectivity and organization in perception

Perception is the dynamic psychological process

responsible for attending to, organizing and
interpreting sensory data.
Our perceptual processing is normally carried out without
much conscious deliberation or effort.
Perception, as an information-processing activity, is a
dynamic process.

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Selectivity and organization in perception

Selective attention is the ability (often exercised

unconsciously) to choose from the stream of
sensory data, to concentrate on particular elements,
and to ignore others.
Our senses can not detect all forms of energy.
The constraints imposed by our sensory apparatus can
be modified in certain ways by experience.

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Selectivity and organization in perception

Our sensory apparatus has design limitations

which filter or screen some information.
Selective attention allows us to concentrate on the
important and significant, and to ignore the
insignificant and trivial.
There is simply too much information available at
any one time for us to pay adequate attention to all
of it.

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Selectivity and organization in perception

The internal and external factors which affect

selective attention are illustrated in the figure of
page 48.
The external factors affecting selective attention
concern stimulus factors and context factors.
Stimulus factors: speak louder to make yourself heard.
Context factors: “fire!” a naval commander vs. the cook.

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Selectivity and organization in perception

The internal factors affecting perception include

motivation, learning and personality.
Much of perception can be described as classification or
categorization.
Problems arise when we act as if our culture had a
monopoly on “right thinking” on such issues.

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Selectivity and organization in perception

Perceptual organization is the process through

which incoming stimuli are organized or patterned
in systematic and meaningful ways.
The “proximity principle” notes that we tend to
group together or classify stimuli that are physically
close to each other and which thus appear to
“belong” together.
The “similarity principle” notes that we classify or
group together stimuli that resemble each other in
appearance in some respect.

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The significance of non-verbal communication

Non-verbal communication is the process of coding

meaning through behaviours that do not involve the
use of words.
We are not only constantly sending and receiving
messages through spoken and written language,
but also when interacting face to face through the
signs, gestures, postures and vocal mannerisms
that we seem to adopt unconsciously.
Non-verbal behaviours is better than body language.

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The significance of non-verbal communication

Non-verbal behaviours is better than body

language.
Non-verbal behaviours is extremely rich and varid.
Body language implies that particular gestures have
particular meanings.

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The significance of non-verbal communication

Non-verbal behaviour is rich and varied.

It could be extremely powerful, we can decode
agree or disagree with the help of non-verbal
cluster.
There are other aspect of non-verbal behaviour.
Paralanguage: rate of speech.
Eye behaviour.
Self-manipulation.

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The significance of non-verbal communication

We usually send and receive non-verbal messages

unconsciously. However, it is possible both to
control most of the non-verbal signals we send.
Impression management is the process whereby
people seek to control the image others have of
them.
Effective impression management means being
consciously aware of and control the cues that we
send to others through verbal and non-verbal
channels.

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Perceptual sets and perceptual worlds

A perceptual set is an individual’s predisposition to

respond to particular events in a particular manner.
An perceptual set is also known as a mental set.
As we tend to perceive what we expect to perceive,
this can also be called our perceptual expectations.
The individual’s perceptual world is simply their
personal image, map or picture of their social,
physical and organizational environment.
Different people has different perceptual expectation and
world, but we share some common grounds.

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Perceptual sets and assumptions about behaviour

A halo effect is a judgement of someone based on

striking characteristic, such as an aspect of their
dress, speech or posture. Haloes can be positive
or negative.
It is a natural human response, on meeting a stranger, to
“size them up”, to make judgements about the kind of
person they are and whether we will like them or not.
We are forced to be selective with respect to the
information to which we pay attention.
It is an early screen, which filters out later information.

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Perceptual sets and assumptions about behaviour

A stereotype is a category, or personality type, to

which we consign people on the basis of their
membership of some known group.
Stereotypes are overgeneralizations and are bound to be
radically inaccurate on occasion.
But they can be convenient. By adopting a stereotyped
point of view, we may be able to shortcut our evaluation
process, and make quicker and more reliable predictions
of behaviour.

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Sex, appearance, attractiveness and discrimination

Attribution is the process by which we make sense

of our environment through our perceptions of
causality. An attribution, therefore, is a belief about
the cause or causes of an event or an action.
Research has revealed patterns in our attributions.
Attribution theory may help to explain aspects of
discrimination in organizational setting.

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Sex, appearance, attractiveness and discrimination

Discrimination against particular groups and

individuals, on the basis of sex, sexual orientation,
age or ethnic background, is now widely
recognized.
Legislation seeks to address sexual and racial
discrimination, and social attitudes towards
homosexuals and the elderly in organizational
settings are slowly changing.
Research suggests that discrimination are more
subtle than this, and considerably less public.

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Sex, appearance, attractiveness and discrimination

With respect to attractiveness, sex, height and

weight, we are dealing with factors which can not
have any meaningful impact on performance for
most jobs or occupations.
We can regard any aspect of our appearance as a
form of non-verbal communication.
Without control: sex, age, etc.
Within control: clothing, style of dress, etc.

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Person perception: errors and avoidance

The main sources of errors in person perception

include 8 points in page 63.
The main remedies of errors in person perception
include 4 points in page 64.

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Assessment

Interpersonal communication is critical to personal

and organizational effectiveness. The
communication processes and skills involved are
relatively straightforward, but in practice our
communications can be particularly error-prone.
Perception is critical to our understanding of each
other’s behaviour, in organizational and social
settings.

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The End
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THANK YOU!

© 2006 TANG Weijun

Shanghai Jiao Tong University

31 2006-4-10 © 2006 Tang Weijun http://www.drtang.org