1.Perception is the process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. The perception is important bcs – people’s behaviour is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself. The world as it is perceived is the world that is behaviourally important. Why We Study Perceptions • We study this topic to better understand how people make attributions about events. • We don’t see reality. We interpret what we see and call it reality. • The attribution process guides our behaviour, regardless of the truth of the attribution Factors Influencing Perception • The Perceiver • The Target • The Situation When an individual looks at a target and attempts to interpret what he or she sees, that interpretation is heavily influenced by personal characteristics of the individual perceiver. The more relevant personal characteristics affecting perception of the perceiver are attitudes, motives, interests, past experiences, and expectations.Characteristics of the target can also affect what is being perceived. This would include attractiveness, gregariousness, and our tendency to group similar things together. For example, members of a group with clearly distinguishable features or color are often perceived as alike in other, unrelated characteristics as well. The context in which we see objects or events also influences our attention.This could include time, heat, light, or other situational factors.Individuals behave in a given manner based not on the way their external environment actually is but, rather,on what they see or believe it to be. An organization may spend millions of dollars to create a pleasant work environment for its employees. However, in spite of these expenditures, if an employee believes that his or her job is lousy, that employee will behave accordingly. It is the employee’s perception of a situation that becomes the basis for his or her behavior. The employee who perceives his/her supervisor as a hurdle reducer who helps him/her do a better job and the employee who sees the same supervisor as “big brother, closely monitoring every motion, to ensure that I keep working” will differ in their behavioral responses to their supervisor. The difference has nothing to do with the reality of the supervisor’s actions; the difference in employee behavior is due to different perceptions.The evidence suggests that what individuals perceive from their work situation will influence their productivity more than will the situation itself. Whether or not a job is actually interesting or challenging is irrelevant. Whether or not a manager successfully plans and organizes the work of his or her employees and actually helps the employees to structure their work more efficiently and effectively is far less important than how employees perceive the manager’s efforts. Similarly, issues like fair pay for work performed, the validity of performance appraisals, and the adequacy of working conditions are not judged by employees in a way that assures common perceptions, nor can we be assured that individuals will interpret conditions about their jobs in a favorable light. Therefore, to be able to influence productivity, it is necessary to assess how workers perceive their jobs. Absenteeism, turnover, and job satisfaction are also reactions to the individual’s perceptions. Dissatisfaction withworking conditions or the belief that there is a lack of promotion opportunities in the organization are judgmentsbased on attempts to make some meaning out of one’s job. The employee’s conclusion that a job is good or bad is an interpretation. Managers must spend time understanding how each individual interprets reality and, where there is a significant difference between what is seen and what exists, try to eliminate the distortions. Failure to deal with the differences when individuals perceive the job in negative terms will result in increased absenteeism and turnover and lower job satisfaction.

2. The Expectancy Theory of Motivation explains the behavioral process of why individuals choose one behavioral option over another. It also explains how they make decisions to achieve the end they value. Vroom introduces three variables within the expectancy theory which are valence (V), expectancy (E) and instrumentality (I). The three elements are important behind choosing one element over another because they are clearly defined: effort-performance expectancy (E>P expectancy), performance-outcome expectancy (P>O expectancy).[5]
Three components of Expectancy theory: Expectancy, Instrumentality, and Valence
1. Expectancy: Effort → Performance (E→P)
2. Instrumentality: Performance → Outcome (P→O)
3. Valence- V(R)
Expectancy: Effort → Performance (E→P)
Expectancy is the belief that one's effort (E) will result in attainment of desired performance (P) goals. Usually based on an individual's past experience, self confidence (self efficacy), and the perceived difficulty of the performance standard or goal. Factors associated with the individual's Expectancy perception are self efficacy, goal difficulty, and control. Self efficacy is the person’s belief about their ability to successfully perform a particular behavior. Goal difficulty happens when goals are set too high or performance expectations that are made too difficult are most likely to lead to low expectancy perceptions. Control is one's perceived control over performance. In order for expectancy to be high, individuals must believe that they have some degree of control over the expected outcome.
Instrumentality: Performance → Outcome (P→O)
Instrumentality is the belief that a person will receive a reward if the performance expectation is met. This reward may come in the form of a pay increase, promotion, recognition or sense of accomplishment. Instrumentality is low when the reward is given for all performances given.
Factors associated with the individual's instrumentality for outcomes are trust, control and policies. If individuals trust their superiors, they are more likely to believe their leaders promises. When there is a lack of trust on leadership, people often attempt to control the reward system. When individuals believe they have some kind of control over how, when, and why rewards are distributed, Instrumentality tends to increase. Formalized written policies impact the individuals' instrumentality perceptions. Instrumentality is increased when formalized policies associates rewards to performance.
Valence- V(R)
Valence[6]: the value the individual places on the rewards based on their needs, goals, values and Sources of Motivation. Factors associated with the individual's valence for outcomes are values, needs, goals, preferences and Sources of Motivation Strength of an individual’s preference for a particular outcome. [pic] 3. Answer – Seniority, position, merit, skill, and productivity/performance.generally, there is a great deal of discussion of performance pay in the literature and among managers.The key issue is whether employees perceive the compensation-performance linkage, regardless of what management implements. Performance measurement can be difficult depending on the type of job being evaluated. The key is to try to control for those factors that employees cannot control, measure, and reward those that employees can control. Also, building in base income in an incentive system helps smooth the dips that come due to factors beyond employee control. The
4. five roles that I play in my organization are:
Employee of my organization
Member of middle management
Sales Manager
Sales Trainer
Brand Manager
As an employee of my organization, I am responsible to convey management’s communications to my team reporting to me. Even if the communication is negative. I need to communicate in a very professional manner. I need to keep certain matters confidential and even if am friendly with my team and we meet on a personal level. I should keep the matter confidential.
As a sales Manager, it is my responsibility to achieve the targets set for my team. I need to motivate and challenge my team to achieve or overachieve the set targets. I need to act firmly with members of the team who are not performing according to plan. Reducing attrition is one of my other responsibilities. People development is also anther responsibility. I sometimes require to be tough and sometimes a good friend.
As a Sales Trainer, I need to train members of my team in improving their skill sets with relation to sales and customer experience. I may have to train people who absolutely no sales skill sets. I may have to train people am improving their attitudes.
As a Brand Manager, I need to talk to the group about the best solution that a customer could get, about what is being marketed and which solution would give the organization the maximum margins.
I don’t see any of these roles in conflict as they are perfectly aligned with each other. Each role has a distinct responsibility although in some cases there is overlapping of roles but that is absolutely all right as the roles are totally in tender with each other. 1.PLANNER ROLE.
-PLANNING
-BUDGETING
2. ORGANIZER ROLE
-ORGANIZING
-STAFFING
3.LEADER ROLE
-LEADING
4.IMPLEMENTER ROLE
-DIRECTING
-COORDINATING
5.CONTROLLER ROLE
-CONTROLLING
-REPORTING
A WELL TRAINED MANAGER, GENERALLY, FACES NO CONFLICT IN THE ROLES, AS THESE ROLES ARE CLEARLY DEFINED. THESE ROLES WEIGHTAGE CHANGES WITH THE SITUATION AND THE MANAGER HAS TO ALLOCATE RESOURCES/TIME
ACCORDINGLY.
Following are the five roles that an individual can play in an organization:
- Figure head: A Figurehead is a role that is played by an employee during a ceremonial activity when he represents his company. There is no decision making in it and very little serious communication.
- Liaison: A Liaison is a role that is used for making and maintaining contact with people outside the organization. It requires strong communication skills but very little authority.
- Leader: A Leader is involved in control and coordination of work.
- Monitor: In a monitor role, an employee is responsible for continuous scanning of the external and internal environment.
- Disseminator: A disseminator is involved in transmittal of information. This involves high analytical and communication skills.
According to my knowledge none of these roles are in conflict with each other.
5. A workforce that's more heterogeneous in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, age and other characteristics that reflect differences. One of the major challenges facing managers in the twenty-first century will be coordinating work activities of diverse organizational members in accomplishing organizational goals. Today's organizations are characterized by workforce diversity- a workforce that's more heterogamous in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, age and other characteristics that reflect differences. A report on work and workers in the twenty-first century called workforce 2020 stated that the United States labour force would continue its ethnic diversification although at a fairly slow pace. Throughout the early years of the twenty-first century minority will account certainly more than one half of the net new entrants in the United States.The fastest growth is of Asian and Hispanic workers. However this report also stated that a more significant demographic force affecting workforce diversity during the next decade will be ageing of the population. This trend will significantly affect the United States work force in three ways first these ageing individual may choose to continue full time work, part time work or retire completely. Think of an organization, when an individual who is employee of that organization with vast knowledge and experience want to leave, it will cause problem for the organizations.Basically workforce diversity can impact the performance of a group both positively as well as negatively. Firstly, workforce diversity increases the skills available to a specific group and the group shows more productive results as compare to the group which has individuals from the same set of mind. Workforce diversity also increases the capability of the individuals to work with people of different nature and habits. Moreover, it creates a motivation among the individuals. On the other hand, it can creates a lot of problems like linguistic problems, cultural issues and communication problems.
Workforce diversity is fast becoming something more acceptable , desired as well as inevitable.
Top companies all over the world can be found to have a fine "unity in diversity" in their workforce.
It undoubtedly gets tough to manage a culturally different workforce.It however, can be done easily when the group is driven by a common objective and the universal management principles. When a workforce is diverse in terms of personality, gender, age, education, functional specialization and experience, there is an in created probability that the team will possess the needed characteristics to complete its tasks effectively.The team may be conflict laden and less expedient as varied positions are introduced and assimilated, but the evidence supports the conclusion that heterogeneous teams perform more effectively than do those that are homogenous, essentially diversity promotes conflict, which stimulates creativity, which in turn leads to an improved decision making.The differences created by nationalities interfere with team processes, at least in the short, term. Cultural diversity seems to be an asset for tasks that call for a variety of viewpoints. But culturally heterogeneous teams have more difficulty in learning to work together and in solving the problems.The good points are that these problems seem to get solved with time. Although newly formed culturally diverse teams under perform newly formed homogeneous teams, the differences disappear in three months of time. The reason is that it takes culturally diverse teams a while to learn how to work through disagreements and different approaches to solving the problems. Conflicts and power struggles are more likely to take place in teams with diverse groups as each person would take sides and try to dominate the other team members. This would in indirect effect the decision making capability of the team and also would be a de-motivating factor for powerful in the group at that point of time. All this would have a serious impact on the satisfaction levels of the team members. As every person strives to give his best, any actions which negate the team member’s contribution would only raise the dissatisfaction level in team and this would further lead to conflict.