Perception Pcm P2

Rouslan KOUMAKHOV - RMS

Stereotypes

In an ideal word:– the policeman would be

English

– the car mechanics would be German

– the cooks would be French

– the innkeepers would be Swiss

– and the lovers would be Italian

In a living hell:– the policeman would be

German

– the car mechanics would be French

– the cooks would be English

– the innkeepers would be Italian

– and the lovers would be Swiss


How we judge CVs

Typical competency statements:– “I have excellent customer service skills”– “I have a highly organized and systematic

approaches to work” Conventional statements are pure self-

evaluations, but they have a considerable impact on assessors


Stereotypes: Information and jugementE.g.: social situation – height

1. ”M. Jones, a student from Cambridge”

2. “M. Jones, demonstrator in psychology from Cambridge”

3. ”M. Jones, lecturer in psychology from Cambridge”

4. “M. Jones, senior lecturer from Cambridge”

5. ”Professor Jones from Cambridge”

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Stereotypes

A stereotype is anindividual’s set of beliefs

about the characteristics of a group of people.

6-4


Stereotypes and Physical Attractiveness

“what-is-beautiful-is-good” Appearance - performance

– “ more attractive man = higher in ability ”

– “ less attractive woman = higher in ability ”

Why?

Attribution Process: answering the question WHY?

”Joe drinks too much because he has no willpower, but I need a couple of drinks after work because I am under the pressure”


Behavior can be attributed either to:

Internal factors (personal characteristics) High/low ability

High/low effort

High/low intelligence

External factors (environment or situation)

o Easy/difficult tasko Good/bad lucko Help from co-workerso Good/bad manager


Attributions of success and failure

– If I got 20/20: because I work hard, I am smart, I have necessary skills … ;

– If I got 4/20: because the course is extremely hard, the textbook is boring and bad, the teacher is a jerk….


Attribution errors

– If my outcome is good (CEO), I am responsible for it (my hard work and my brilliant mind)

– If my outcome is bad (I am homeless, junky), it is society’s fault, I am only a victim


Attributions of success and failure

People tend to explain their own success by their own personal abilities and their failure by the external factors

People tend to explain other’s failure by other’s personal abilities and their success by external factors


Implications

Managers tend to disproportionaly attribute behaviour to internal causes– Innacurate evaluations, inappropriate

promotions and layoffs => decreasing motivation and performance

People are demotivated, when they attribute failure to the lack of ability

Attributional training sessions


Self-Fulfilling Prophecy



The tendency for someone's expectations about another individual to cause that

individual to behave in a manner consistent with these expectations

“What we believe" becomes our reality

(Thank you, Rosenthal – and your rats!)



Forming expectations is natural and unavoidable!

Pygmalion effect: someone’s high expectations for another individual result in high performance for that individual

Galatea effect: an individual's high self-expectations for him- or herself lead to high performance

Golem effect: low expectations for another individual result in low performance for that

individual


Implications for managers

Once formed expectations about ourselves tend to be self-sustaining

Good managers produce employees who perform well and feel good about themselves.

Bad managers produce employees who perform poorly and feel badly about themselves.


Keep in mind that self-fulfilling prophecy exists

Identify the expectations that can potentially harm the project and continually guard against communicating them to others. E.g.:– Analysis is a waste of time.

– If no one says anything, we all agree.

– No cares what I think. I’ll just keep quiet.

– Problem? It’s not a problem for us.

– The tool was meant to do this. It cannot do that so just forget about it.

– We don’t need to be creative. We just need to get it done.

– We have never done it before. It’s not going to work.

– “X”? No one has an interest in “x”.

– We should only do what we are explicitly told to do”.

– Why am I here? I have nothing of value to bring to this group.

– It’s obvious that everyone agrees that “x” is true

Technology

Perception Pcm P2