Perceptual Disorders

Perceptual Distortions

1. Stereotypes or prototypes.

Examples:

• We have our mindset that all Sindhi’s are Money minded or Business minded. The moment you encounter a Sindhi you are bound to think that this person does not think beyond money. All his actions are to ensure that he saves or makes lot of money. They are very calculative. Which may not be always true. If his thought process helps the company to save money then there is no harm in his thinking, he is right in a way. One of our managers is Sindhi and whenever we ask him for team budgets for team motivation, he is very stringent. He will ask lot of questions around the requirement like what is it exactly you want to do with the money, how are you planning to spend the money, what will you derive out of it etc…at times we feel that we have to beg in front of him. While setting any targets he tends to ask questions like why this target, what made you decide this etc…

By behaving in this manner he forces you to think more or reflect on your decision. As a manager I should understand his purpose behind this behavior, ultimately his and my goal is the same of making profit for our organization. So I should take this as a trigger for my brain to think of every aspect before coming to any conclusion.

• Our IT head Mr.Chandrshekhar Naini is a short man (approx 5.4`).anyone that sees his for the first time will think that this short man cannot be an IT head. He will not be able to manage the dynamics of our business. But he is one of our oldest employees who has grown from a TL to Head of the Department- IT in just 4 years. His achievement has nothing to do with his height.

As a manager I should not underestimate his capacity. His experience and knowledge is more important than his physical structure. In future I will avoid building any perception on physical appearance.

2. Halo effects.

Examples:

• I usually conduct interviews for the candidates...