Therefore, your interpretation of the same clothes will vary with the context. Similarly,
you are more likely to notice your employees goofing off if your manager from head
office happens to be in town. Your employees may be acting as they always do, but it
is the situation that affects your perception. The time at which an object or event is
seen can influence attention, as can location, light, heat, or any number of situational
factors. Thus, it is possible to say that truth is often in the eye of the perceiver, rather than
some objective fact. For instance, a recent study compared how women managers were
perceived, depending upon whether they were wearing flat shoes, slacks, and a turtle-
neck or high heels, a tight skirt, and a low-cut blouse. Businesswomen wearing the
sexy clothes were viewed as less competent. “A female manager whose appearance
emphasized her sexiness elicited less positive emotions, more negative emotions, and
perceptions of less competence on a subjective rating scale and less intelligence on an
objective scale, the study’s authors reported.”^7PERCEPTUAL ERRORS
In their workplace assessment report of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, consultants
Watson Wyatt Worldwide identified numerous problems reported by employees. The employ-
ees suggested that three top managers should be replaced. They also claimed that female
employees were discriminated against. The problems were considered so severe that some
people outside the commission thought it should be closed. Chief Commissioner Michelle
Falardeau-Ramsay disagreed. She said the findings were “unpleasant” and “painful,” but sug-
gested that those calling for the commission’s closing had read the report in a “simplistic and
irresponsible manner.” These differences in response might suggest that the employees,
Falardeau-Ramsay, or her critics were engaged in making perceptual errors. What might have
caused this to happen?It’s difficult to perceive and interpret what others do. As a result, we develop shortcuts
to make this task more manageable. These shortcuts are often very helpful—they allow
us to make accurate perceptions quickly and provide valid information for making pre-
dictions. However, they are not foolproof. They can and do get us into trouble. For
instance, when we make a bad first impression on someone, that perception may lead
them to treat us poorly, or dismiss us as a prospective employee or teammate. Some of
the errors that distort the perception process include attribution theory, selective per-
ception, the halo effect, contrast effects, projection, and stereotyping.Attribution Theory
Attribution theoryexplains how we judge people differ-
ently, depending on the cause we attribute to a given behav-
iour.^8 Basically, the theory suggests that when we observe
an individual’s behaviour, we try to determine whether the
individual is responsible for the behaviour (the cause is
internal), or whether something outside the individual
caused the behaviour (the cause is external). Whether we
realize it or not, we use attribution theory whenever we try to come up with explanations
for why people behaved the way they did.
In trying to understand another person’s behaviour, then, we consider whether the
behaviour was internally or externally caused.Internallycaused behaviour is believed to
be under the personal control of the individual; that is, the person choosesto engage in
the behaviour. Externallycaused behaviour is believed to result from outside causes;
that is, the person does not have control over his or her actions and is forcedinto the
behaviour by the situation. For example, while waiting for one of your team members34 Part 1 Understanding the Workplace
attribution theory The theory
that when we observe what seems
to be atypical behaviour by an indi-
vidual, we attempt to determine
whether it is internally or externally
caused.
3 Can people be
mistaken in their
perceptions?Who do you tend
to blame when
someone makes a
mistake? Ever
wonder why?