People in organizations are always judging each other. For instance, people typically
go through an employment interview before being hired. Interviewers make percep-
tual judgments during the interview, which then affect whether the individual is hired.
Studies show that if negative information is exposed early in the interview, it tends to be
more heavily weighted than if that same information comes out later.^26 When multiple
interviewers are present, agreement among interviewers is often poor; that is, different
interviewers see different things in the same candidate and thus arrive at different con-
clusions about the applicant. If the employment interview is an important input into the
hiring decision—and it usually is—you should recognize that perceptual factors influ-
ence who is hired and, eventually, the quality of an organization’s labour force.
An employee’s performance appraisal is another process that depends very much on
the perceptual process.^27 An employee’s future is closely tied to his or her appraisal—pro-
motions, pay raises, and continuation of employment are among the most obvious
outcomes. Although the appraisal can be objective (e.g., a salesperson is appraised on
how many dollars of sales he or she generates in a given territory), many jobs are eval-
uated in subjective terms. Subjective measures are easier to implement, they provide
managers with more freedom to do as they like, and many jobs do not readily lend
themselves to objective measures. Subjective measures are, by definition, judgmental. The
evaluator forms a general impression of an employee’s work. To the degree that managers
use subjective measures in appraising employees or choosing whom to promote, what
the evaluator perceives to be good or bad employee characteristics or behaviours will sig-
nificantly influence the outcome of the appraisal. One recent study found that man-
agers in both Hong Kong and the United States were more likely to promote individuals
who were more similar to themselves.^27 One’s behaviour may also be affected by per-
ceptions. Below we discuss how the self-fulfilling prophecy can lead to people’s engag-
ing in behaviour that is expected of them.
Managers are not the only people making judgments at work. When a new person
joins a work team, he or she is immediately “sized up” by the other team members.
McMaster University Professor Kathleen Martin found that even small things can make
a difference in how a team member is viewed. In her study, students read descriptions
of individuals and were then asked to evaluate 12 personality characteristics of “Tom”
or “Mary.”^29 Some of these descriptions included information about whether “Tom”
or “Mary” exercised. Students evaluated nonexercisers more negatively on every per-
sonality and physical characteristic than those described as exercisers. In fact, those
described as nonexercisers were rated more negatively than those for whom no infor-
mation about exercise was provided. Martin noted, “When Mary and Tom were described
as exercisers, they were considered to be harder workers, more confident, braver, smarter,
neater, happier, and more sociable than the non-exerciser.”Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
There is an impressive amount of evidence that demonstrates that people will attempt to
validate their perceptions of reality, even when those perceptions are faulty.^30 This char-
acteristic is particularly relevant when we consider performance expectations on the job.
The terms self-fulfilling prophecyor Pygmalion effecthave evolved to characterize the
fact that people’s expectations determine their behaviour. In other words, if a manager
expects big things from his people, they are not likely to let him down. Similarly, if a man-
ager expects people to perform minimally, they will tend to behave so as to meet those
low expectations. The result then is that the expectations become reality.
An interesting illustration of the self-fulfilling prophecy is a study undertaken with
105 soldiers in the Israeli Defense Forces who were taking a 15-week combat command
course.^31 The four course instructors were told that one-third of the specific incoming40 Part 1 Understanding the Workplace
McMaster University
http://www.mcmaster.ca
self-fulfilling prophecy A
concept that proposes a person will
behave in ways consistent with how
he or she is perceived by others.
4 Does perception really
affect outcomes?