full chapter summaries

Perception – sept 21 2020

Perception: is the process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around us
(McShane et al,2018)

- Can influence our behavior

Attribution theory (Kelley)
- The theory addresses our perception of the cause of people’s behaviour
- EX. Suzy shows up late for her meeting today. Everyone else at the meeting also shows up late.
Suzy has not shown up late for these meetings before. Suzy rarely hands in her work late.Why
did Suzy show up late for her meeting today?
o A.Suzy is lazy.B.There was traffic.
- According we can make 2 kinds of attributions:
o Internal
 We attribute the cause of a personas behavior to the person like to the persons
ability or effort (suzy was lazy)
o External
 We attribute the cause of a person’s behaviour to outside factors ( suzy was late
cause of a tracfic
- How do we decide if its internal or external
o Consistency
 Did the person act this way before?
 Yes= high consistency- INTERNAL
 No = low consistency- EXTERNAL
o Consensus
 Do other people act this way in this situation?
 Yes= high- EXTERNAL
 No = low- INTERNAL
o distinctiveness
 Does the person act this way in other situations
 Yes= low- INTERNAL
 No= high- EXTERNAL

Theory x / theory y
One of the first and most famous theories of perception in the workplace developed by mcgregor (1957,
196)

- Theory x managers view their subordinates as lazy
o View them closesy and less encouraged
- Theory y managers view their subordinates in a optimistic way, (find ways to help them rather
then bash them
o Lawer et al (2015) saw that managers who are theory y behaviour to their subordinates
perform way better.