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How Personal Perceptions Influence Human Resource Management Decisions?
How Personal Perceptions Influence HR Management Decisions? “No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking (Benedict, 1934)” It frequently happens that we form our personal perceptions and tend to categorize the world because it serves our need for cognitive efficiency in that it saves processing time, satisfies our need to understand, and predicts our social world. In our lives these things are omnipresent even though we may not be conscious of it. Within an organization, when Human Resource (HR) managers engage themselves in the responsibilities of their position (i.e., employee selection, training, and evaluation), it becomes easy for them to succumb to their personal perceptions and thus make wrongful decisions. In this essay, we will discuss three aspects of HR management activities, namely employee selection, performance appraisals and employees promotions, and give examples of how discriminations are at times driven by an HR individual’s subconscious perceptions.
Organizations, out of necessity, make decisions through the employee selection process as to whom will be chosen to fill particular job openings. In this process, there are many factors that influence an employer’s decision. One important factor is to consider the personal perceptions of the individuals performing the selection process. These unconscious perceptions come into play and affect the entire process, which inevitably includes the screening of applications, the interviews, and eventually the selection of the final candidates.
Stereotyping is generally not a conscious decision in an HR environment. Nonetheless, it is commonly found within the concept of perceptual error. It is the tendency to judge someone unknowingly yet solely on the basis of the perception of a group to which that person belongs (Kreitner, Kinicki,
How Personal Perceptions Influence HR Management Decisions? “No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking (Benedict, 1934)” It frequently happens that we form our personal perceptions and tend to categorize the world because it serves our need for cognitive efficiency in that it saves processing time, satisfies our need to understand, and predicts our social world. In our lives these things are omnipresent even though we may not be conscious of it. Within an organization, when Human Resource (HR) managers engage themselves in the responsibilities of their position (i.e., employee selection, training, and evaluation), it becomes easy for them to succumb to their personal perceptions and thus make wrongful decisions. In this essay, we will discuss three aspects of HR management activities, namely employee selection, performance appraisals and employees promotions, and give examples of how discriminations are at times driven by an HR individual’s subconscious perceptions.
Organizations, out of necessity, make decisions through the employee selection process as to whom will be chosen to fill particular job openings. In this process, there are many factors that influence an employer’s decision. One important factor is to consider the personal perceptions of the individuals performing the selection process. These unconscious perceptions come into play and affect the entire process, which inevitably includes the screening of applications, the interviews, and eventually the selection of the final candidates.
Stereotyping is generally not a conscious decision in an HR environment. Nonetheless, it is commonly found within the concept of perceptual error. It is the tendency to judge someone unknowingly yet solely on the basis of the perception of a group to which that person belongs (Kreitner, Kinicki,
References: Benedict, R. (1934). Pattern of culture. Boston (MA): Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Cohen, S Jimenez, M. (2009). Right resume, wrong name. Globe and Mail. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/right-rsum-wrong-name/article4274218 Kreitner, Kinichi, Cole & Digby Segrest et al. (2006). Implicit sources of bias in employment interview judgments and decisions. Organizational behavior and human decision processes, 101 (2), 152-167. Statistical Analysis of Age Data. (2009). DocumBase. Retrieved from http://www.documbase.com/Statistical-Analysis-of-Age-Data-included-in-IBM-STG.pdf Steen et al The Swedish Occupational Register with statistics - Statistics Sweden. (2012). Startsida - Statistiska centralbyrån. Retrieved from http://www.scb.se/Pages/Product____59075.aspx What makes a good leader