Organizational Behaviour

Assignment on “Perception”

Submitted by: Swetal

Roll no.:60
Q1. Think of a time when you made judgments about a new
classmate/workmate as you came to know him or her. In what ways
were these judgments biased? the notice of our Head Of department
(HOD), who was an authoritative As you began to know this person
better, did you change your mind? What lesson can you learn about
reaching judgments about people prematurely?

Ans: “One-of-a-kind humans frequently sees the identical phenomenon

otherwise”. perception is the process of recognizing and interpreting
sensory stimuli. It is a procedure with the aid of which a person arrange
and interpret their sensory influence for you to give meaning to their
surroundings.

“Different people often see the same phenomenon differently”.

Perception is the process of recognizing and interpreting sensory stimuli.

It is a process by which individual organize and interpret their sensory
impression in order to give meaning to their environment.

When I completed my schooling and was in a dilemma about whether to

do my graduation from my hometown itself or go to some other city.
Then I got some ideas from my friends' circle and my elder brother, too,
about colleges. And in the end, I finally took admission to Patna
Women’s College, which is referred to as the best college for women in
Patna, Bihar. I was very excited as well as a bit nervous about the new
place I was about to go. My other school friends also joined the same
institute and this made me comfortable in the beginning. Instead of
people talking to each other within the class, some have made their own
groupistic group and they were restricted only to that group and many
others were there who did not find any such groups. And someone
brought this to the notice of our Head Of department (HOD), who was an
authoritative kind of person. Since it was ordered by our HOD, we are
supposed to behave in such a way. And something was about to happen
which was uncertain. And something weird happened which I did not
expected especially not in my degree college. We were asked to sit
according to our enrolment numbers and which was actually a foolish
thing to do. But left with no choice forcefully we all started to sit
accordingly. In the beginning I was also restricted to few people only and
started making judgements in my mind of the people whom I did not
know personally.

So, mine enrolment number was 160 and there were no one in that slot
whom I was knowing from before and it was difficult for me to make
myself comfortable. And also, I have heard of a girl named Ritika Waliya
who was appearing very arrogant and never listens to others and then I
thought that she will not come to my good books ever find her did not
find right person to talk with.

And something bad happened to me that her enrolment number was 157 a
number before just to my the earlier one and now we are supposed to sit
altogether. Classes started and I was trying to be at par with the class and
also to make myself adjustable with the groups in which I was sitting.
Beside my classmate Ritika, I was in a good term with other people. In
the earlier days I was confined to myself only but I realised it I was not
fruitful to continue in this way and I need to be broader regarding my
concepts. So, I started to take the initiative of going and talking to people
might be related to the topics or anything what comes to my mind at that
point of time. During that course of time, I heard this girl Ritika talking to
some other classmate not talking she was actually making her understand
some question in a very polite manner. For the first time in these few
days, I saw something positive thing within her of which earlier I was
unaware personally. As we were commerce students we were very much
involved in practical problems. I am a kind of person who is always after
that. But in cost accounting which I was not able to do and also asked
regarding this to others but did not find the solutions so the girl who use
to sit before me suggested me to ask the girl with enrolment number 157
that she has got the problem right and she was the same girl with whom I
was not in a good term not because we had a fight, it was just out of my
own perception and the things which I have heard in the class itself. At
first, I found a bit awkward to go and ask her about the sums straight
forward but then also I went there and discussed. The way she made me
understand the sum, I was quite shocked. I did not find any arrogance and
also, she was a good a good listener more than a speaker and this less
speaking behaviour of her made me to reach to a point where I had
formed a completely different image of her in my mind which I found
wrong. then after that I thought that I had a negative perception about
Ritika my classmate which started changing from that day. She started
seeming right to me and my negative perception about completely
changed into positive one. And as I began to know her completely, it did
change my mind. After that whenever I had any query regarding the Cost
Accounting sums, I used to take her help and even she started taking
interest in solving things together.

And reaching at judgements too early without knowing the person in a

better way taught has taught me some lessons that I should have the
ability to make sound judgements. Judgements skills can help me make
better professional decisions in many areas such as leadership,
productivity and quality. I should not try to be biased in my judgements.
To behave in the actual way how the external environment actually is
rather than how I want to see the things from my viewpoint. I should not
behave in a selective perception to see things what I feel is right and
completely ignoring the other things. More practice and experience is
required to make the perception skilful.
Q2. As a manager, it is important not to judge employees based on
your expectations. If you do, the Pygmalion effect may occur. Think
back of a situation on the job or at school in which either you or your
supervisor/teacher had expectations that led to one of these self-
fulfilling prophecies. Exactly what happened? How was everyone
involved affected, both positively and negatively? What could have
been done to avoid this problem?

Ans: “Higher expectations lead to higher level of performance”.

“Lower expectations lead to lower level of performance”.

Pgymalion effect describes a situation where someone's level of

expectations improves or detoriate our behaviour and therefore our
performance in a given area.

When I was in college for the final year course, I got an online
application on my college notice board regarding a job opportunity in
TCS, the most reputed company. Friends and I thought we should give it
a try. I got selected for TCS just after the completion of graduation. I was
very excited about starting a new life in a very new place which I have
only heard of, but on the other hand, I was also very nervous about the
work and environment. I was selected as an information process enabler
and got trained for the work. I got a very polite and amazing trainer who
helped me learn from the very basics. I received an appreciation as an
employee of the month award from my project lead in a very first month
of my job that really boost up my confidence. However, my manager has
another perception of me, i.e., I am a fresh graduate and I have only
theoretical knowledge, which was very true and I can only do those
things for which I have recently been trained. I am hardworking but have
minimal knowledge. As most of us are aware that one's expectations
about individual become self fulfilling prophecies, if our manager think
we are slow, we will come to believe that, too, and will indeed work
slowly. The lucky one who strikes a manager as bright also picks up on
that expectation and will rise to fulfill it.

As a result, I found myself demotivated later, as my manager never used

to trust me about new things. He always used to assign new thought-
works to his thoughts and the ones whom he thought were capable of
doing so. I also started being one restricted to the basic work for which I
had been trained. I was thinking of leaving the job as I found no growth
in my professional knowledge. However, nothing is for forever. My
supervisor and my manager both got replaced with newer ones. Both of
them started analysing people not on the basis of the opinion given by the
earlier management but on their own. They first started talking to
everyone in the team to know everyone personally. The conversation with
each one made them aware what kind of people now they are going to
work with. They made some perceptions and started working on that
basis. They assigned some work to each one apart from their regular work
by which they can come to a conclusion whom they should trust for
which works and whom for they should for the another one.They just
changed the work division structure of the team on the basis of the
conclusion drawn from the work performed by each one and, as a result,
the team started appreciating it. Being a new person in a corporate
company, I have no idea regarding what they were trying to do, but what
they expected from the team has worked out. Firstly I think they are
following a very long procedure to analyse people which will take a
longer duration of time however this process of one month has just turned
out fruitful in long run, as an individual, I started getting new and
different works on a regular basis and I always tried to turn up to their
expectations fulfilled and even got appreciated in the end. Fro every new
work assigned i used to look for the most efficient and productive way to
do it sometime I even failed to do so on my own then I took help from my
colleagues, this also build a good relation among the team. The trust
which my manager and my supervisor had in me just made me one whom
the whole team started looking for. Whenever they get stuck with
anything, they used to come to me for a solution as they have trust in me,
I will somehow help them. Even I got to get new names from my
manager swetal the software Engineer, key to each lock, Iron lady and
many more which really made me more confident and more accountable
towards my work. Pgymalion explores the notion that the way one person
treats another can, for better or worse, be transforming.
The new managers what managers expected out of me as subordinate and
the way they treated me has largely led to my higher performance and
career progress. I as a subordinate was expected to do what they believe
they are expected to do and the supervisors expectation became a self-
fulfilling prophecy. The low expectations of my old manager made me
realise that I can't do anything other than what I had trained for, he never
tried to give me a chance to work on new things rather then the indegious
ones. There I understood the meaning of pgymalian effect as the two
different managers made me aware with the two versions of myself.

The whole experience I had on the one-year journey on TCS made me

learn if we expect something from someone, they will always try to make
it up in any possible way in which they can, but we should trust and give
them a chance which my manager and supervisor had given me, which
made me a better person in both professional and personal life. Whenever
we expect things from others on the basis of proper analysis not on first
meeting impression will most of the times leads to better results. Once we
set expectations for somebody, that person will tend to live up to that
expectation, whether it lead us to a negative or positive result. It is
important to understand how our beliefs can affect their actions.
Sometimes unintentionally our expectations leads to lower performance
than that one is capable of achieving.