FOUNDATIONS OF MANAGEMENT

Foundations of Management

Foundations of Management

Question 1

Perception

Perception is a process we go through and can shade our thinking and reasoning if allowed to overshadow our critical thinking skills. Perception also has blocks that can influence our views in situations. Critical thinking is also a process that can be changed or manipulated by our perception of events. How we use perception and logic together can affect the way we think and reason. Perception better describes one's ultimate experience of the world and typically involves further processing of sensory input(Roseman, 1984, Zebrowitz, 1990, pp.21-29). In practice, sensation and perception are virtually impossible to separate, because they are part of one continuous process. Historically, systematic thought about perceiving was the province of philosophy. Philosophical interest in perception stems largely from questions about the sources and validity of what is called human knowledge (epistemology). Epistemologists ask whether a real, physical world exists independently of human experience and, if so, how its properties can be learned and how the truth or accuracy of that experience can be determined. They also ask whether there are innate ideas or whether all experience originates through contact with the physical world, mediated by the sense organs(Fiske, Taylor, 1991, pp.112-119).

Social Perception and Perception of Static Objects

Social perception is the process through which people interpret information about others, draw inferences about them, and develop mental representations of them. The accuracy of perceptions is a focus of inquiry in each of these domains as is the impact of perceptions on social interactions and on the target of perception (see self-fulfilling prophecies). The theoretical approaches represented in social perception research include a structuralist approach, which emphasizes the impact of the target person's attributes upon perceptions; a constructivist approach, which emphasizes the impact of the perceiver's cognitive structures and cognitive and motivational processes upon perceptions; and mixed approaches, which consider contributions of the perceiver and the target person Social perceptions are made up mostly by schemas. Schemas are the mental representations about people and social situations a person has. A schema can influence the things a person notices or ignores about another person. Also, a schema will help decide what types of things we remember about a person(Zuckerman, DePaulo, Rosenthal, 1981, pp., 1-59). The schema will also affect the way another persons behavior is judges by a person. Overall, a schema helps a person 'fill-in-the-blanks' about another person. Schemas can be a positive thing as well as negative. A correct schema will help someone categorize a person quickly and react to a social situation in an appropriate way. Yet, incorrect schemas create false expectations and errors in judgment about the person/people that could eventually lead to narrow-mindedness or prejudice(Roseman, 1984, Zebrowitz, 1990, pp.21-29).

The major characteristic of perception, which applies to all the sensory modalities, is that it is organized. With respect to visual perception, the world that we experience is immensely complex, consisting of many entities whose surfaces are a potentially bewildering array of overlapping textures, colors, contrasts, and contours, undergoing constant change ...