People and Organisations: Perception and Communication

Perception is ‘The process by which individuals organise and interpret their sensory impression in order to give meaning to their environment,’ Robbins et al (2010.) Everyone has either been perceived or perceived someone as something they’re not and the commonly used quote, ‘don’t judge a book by its cover,’ is an easy and understandable way to explain perception. Perception is influenced by all five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. Through these senses the perceiver will absorb the situation and make a judgement and opinion about someone, something or somehow. Sometimes people make the wrong decision about someone from a hasty decision through perception and in turn their perception changes. There are many types of perception: visual, sensory, colour, depth and form perception.

Perception Theory

The psychology of perception interoperates it as an active process which follows on from the passive process of sensations. This is a passive process as it is an automatic process which is performed subconsciously and is the process of the senses bringing information from the outside world into the body and brain. After the senses collecting the information it is the active process of perception where the brain selects, organises and interoperates the information. To create a final perception processes are used to decide what is meaningful and relevant in the situation the individual is in. Selective attention is the process where an individual discriminates between what is important and what is irrelevant to them in the situation they are in. For example students sat in a class room will be concentrating on the teacher whereas students walking by may focus on the students sat in the class, who the teacher may be or even the decoration of the class room, not the same thing as the students being taught. Another thought process that influences your perception is perception expectancy this is built up from past experiences, cultures and biological make up. For example an Englishman would look at a road and expect to see cars and motorbikes, not planes however an individual from another country may not recognise a road and be shocked to see such a thing. These processes are called Psychophysics and are the study of how physical stimuli are translated into psychological experience.

The diagram to the left interoperates perception in a classic neural theory, although a scientific diagram the psychology of the process is easy to see as well. The first step is the outside world that is picked up by the receptors and processed through senses which creates perceptions which is influenced by sensation which are the expectancy perception. The perception then creates feelings and opinions about the person or object.

My perceptions

I have made a perception of many people before and often been wrong. This is very apparent with a friend at university. When I first saw her in the opposite room at Brook street halls I saw a hysterical woman shouting, screaming and moaning about where her things were and what everyone else was doing. My first impression was shock at how loud and outgoing and even rude this person was and I remember saying ‘well I’m going to hate her!’ After just a few days and university living with her she became a friend. Although what I saw of Caroline and the way she was acting induced my perception it was because of the stressful situation she was in that made her act that way. My think about the situation and the different emotions she would have been feeling as she was in the process of moving into halls. Although Caroline is a loud and still sometimes moans I have now seen a person that is fun and kind and will do anything to help you out. This shows you should not always trust first instincts as you could be missing out on a really rewarding friendship. To stop myself from making judgements of someone before getting to know them, I would consider the situation they were in and how I would act in that situation because I may do the same. Also make sure I communicate with the person and they might explain why they are acting that way.

Using perception within companies

Organisation need to used different methods to convey messages about their business aims and targets to different audiences. Staff need to know the companies aims inside out so they are able to communicate them to all ages and this is what the challenge created by the company Unilever was trying to achieve. Their staff had to explain the company’s goals to a room full of children and pitch it in a way the children would understand and be interested. The companies goals explained in the next paragraph are those of ‘petpals ‘a company that offers an alternative to kennel boarding or catteries. They offer pet boarding, pet sitting and dog walking services. http://www.petpals.com/