Shaping The Perception In The Work Place

Perception is a psychological process of observation and interpretation. It is the process through which individuals receive stimuli from the physical world. It involves using senses to acquire the information about the surrounding environment or situations and making interpretations accordingly. What is perceived in a way is revealed to behave in a particular way. It gives rise to understand the aspect that the same world is perceived differently by different people – that is to say - the world is not the same to every one since each of us will have varying views about the world. It would be appropriate to say that every individual lives in his or her own perceived world which is different from the real world. Perception differentiates between individuals. A multicolored arc in the sky is just a rainbow to a common man but a poet has greater capacity to receive sense impressions about it to express his powerful feelings. The great poet Wordsworth was such an individual whose heart leapt up with joy on beholding a rainbow and he expressed his feelings of his own accord about the rainbow. Similarly, a lay man would say about moonlight to be its own but the one who has knowledge would tell that the moon does not have its own light, it is the reflected light transformed from the sun. In a poetic expression – a rose to thee, o, my friend is just a source of fragrance, but to me ‘tis inspiration’s that I am enthused to serve the world. However, the distinction and the uniqueness of individuals is contingent on what they perceive about environment or situations. Just as the perceptual process taking place between situations and behaviors of the individuals is significant in every walk of life, it is of great relevance to organizations as the situations being perceived bring about particular reactions resulting in either improving organizational performance or weakening it. Inappropriately perceived situations lead to contrary consequences creating misunderstandings. A situation may be overstating or understating one’s professional image. Due to misinterpretation, a personality is either portrayed wrongly which results in spoiling one’s reputation and status, or it is represented exaggeratedly with a view to gaining professional advantage. Capable employee may be regarded as incapable, competent as incompetent and vice versa. Unless the person who has position power over subordinate does not figure out his subordinate’s behavior and read him accurately in the light of truth, the layers of perceptual distortions will remain same causing adverse effects. Perception is vitally important element as its theory underlies certain set of ideas and principles, in the sense, to determine the individual behavior on the basis of this cognitive process. As an illustration, to a manager, an employee who works efficiently but needs a bit more time to accomplish his tasks may be the one who does his job with accuracy and carefulness but the same employee to another manager may be regarded to be slow in his performance. In fact, both managers are right in their opinions as they form them based upon what has been perceived. So, the fact that lies in the main is people react to the perceptions rather than reality. There are various factors by which perception is influenced. The need and the desires of a person play a vital role to influence his perception. It depends upon the personality of a person that how he accepts the situations and perceives them. So, the personality of a person is a factor to influence his perception. Furthermore, the experience and knowledge have a lot to do with what is perceived. Nonetheless, what may be construed is not to be overwhelmed by perceptual deformations in order to perceive the situations properly, but the need is to overcome perceptual distortions,shape and improve perceptual abilities. There can be substantial benefits and positive results if perceptual abilities are made better. One would be able to interpret the situations accurately. The justifications may be made on the realities rather than what is perceived incorrectly and the factors governing the situations would be considered as they should be. The layers of misunderstandings can be evaporated swiftly. Every individual at all times wants to establish his good image to others but due to perceptual distortions it is understood differently. So, a person whose image has been represented wrongly or different from what it is in reality; whose reputation has been eclipsed by the layers of misinterpretations or wrongly perceived picture, would be comprehended in the light of fact and genuineness if the perceptual abilities are developed. Attention must be focused as to what is implicit in the development of perceptual abilities. The same can be briefly outlined herein. There is a need to avoid forming an opinion about an individual unless he or she is read properly. It gives rise to have balanced and unbiased outlook else it will result in perceptual distortion. More to the point, it is the fact that the one who understands himself well can understand others appropriately. As it goes in the words of Maslow, “Self-actualizing individuals have more accurate perceptions about themselves than those who are not self-actualizing.” Further, it is said generally, to understand the situation of another person one must live in his shoe. That is, to think what you would do if you were to be at his place. It is worth mentioning here the translation of a verse of anonymous Urdu poet - which is analogous to the context that “Do not form any opinion about me seeing my circumstances, as my circumstances will change, so will your opinion.” By: K.A.Fareed (Fareed Siddiqui) Pursuing PhD – Management; MPhil – Financial Management; MBA- Finance MPhil-English; MA-English MIMC-Member of Institute of Management Consultants of India http://expertscolumn.com/content/psychology-%E2%80%93-nature-and-scope http://expertscolumn.com/content/financial-analysis-short-note-tools-and-techniques http://expertscolumn.com/content/accounting-need-and-importance