Perception/Motivation - Organizational Behavior Post and Responses

Camille Flores 

Discussion 2 - Week 4

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There are countless reasons why it is important for managers to study human perception. We all perceive things and people differently, but managers are managers for a reason – they are supposed to possess the knowledge and skills to accurately perceive others. This is something that sets great leaders apart from others. Having managers who know how to correctly perceive situations usually leads to them handling organizational issues better than those who cannot. I think we can all at least remember a time or two where we incorrectly perceived a situation. For example, I used to work in sales as a leasing agent for an apartment complex. I was new and it was my first time leading a tour with my manager shadowing. At the end, they did not end up signing and I was surprised because I thought I did a good job selling the apartment. My manager let me know that I did not “mirror” the customer, i.e., match their personalities. I was very talkative and outgoing while the customer was the exact opposite. I perceived the situation very different than the customers did.

It is important for managers to have a working knowledge of attribution, correspondent inferences, and perceptual biases because they will be able to efficiently and effectively deal with the challenges that organizations face today. For example, having a strong knowledge of attribution helps managers understand the actions of others including internal and external attributions. Correspondent inferences are able to guide managers/leaders to explain why people make certain internal or external attributions. Likewise, having a working knowledge of how to accurately deal with perceptual biases lessens the extent to which we make errors when perceiving others.

April Chaneydavis 

Discussion 2, Topic 2

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Hello Everyone! Hope all is well with each of you in life and education.  Thank you for reading my post!

On page 115 of our text, motivation is described as forces from within individuals that stimulate and drive them to achieve goals.  The extent to which an employee is motivated has many factors in my opinion.  Self-esteem or self-accomplishment are my main drivers.  I perform according to what I feel the value of my job is.  I would not perform well-doing something that I felt served no purpose in life as I would if I had a job that I felt was rewarding or gave me a certain level of status. The text on page 120 talks about the need for achievement which is the need to perform well against a standard of excellence, the need for affiliation which is the desire to belong to a group and be liked is a motivator and also, the need for power which is the desire to control and influence the behavior of others.   I also believe that when individuals are made to feel important by their organization they tend to be more motivated and as the text touches on page 121, money can be a huge motivator. 

If a manager notices a lack of employee motivation and wants to improve it there are several strategies they could try.  Usually, motivation is a process and is not necessarily something that just happens quickly  Managers most likely will be able to offer financial motivation so in lieu of that, a manager could utilize recognition programs, try to make employees feel that they belong, offer compliments, thank individuals for their work, point out team wins, specifically outline and make plans for improvement, and making sure that employees are well equipped for the challenges that may face them in the future.

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