• Environtmental Stimuli are detected by the senses (hearing, feeling, seeing, smelling, tasting)
• Most stimuli are screened out, others are sorted and interpreted (selective attention).
• Selective attention may be affected by the person or the object being percieved (size, intensitiy, motion, repition, and novelty)
• The brain attaches emotional markers based on whether the stimuli is relavent.
• Stimuli is then organized and interpreted, final attitudes and behaviors are formed.

Problems with the perceptual process

• Selective Attention is far from perfect.
• confirmation bias- our tendency to naturally screen out information that is contrary to our values and assumption.
• Selective attention is influenced by our assumptions and conscious anticipation of future events. Can cause us to percieve information we normally wouldn't and ignore those we ordinarily may notice.

• categorical thinking- the mostly non conscious process of organizing people and objects into preconcieved categories that are stored in our long term memory.
• Ex: 1) grouping on the basis of similarity or proximity to others 2) grouping b/c of cognative closure by filling in missing information 3) we may see trends in otherwise ambigious information
• mental models are an internal representation of the external world
• Ex: Stereotyping, grouping

• Social identity theory-explains how we develop our self-concenpt and how we  percieve others. Influenced by 1) Categorization 2) Homogenization 3) Differentiation
• Stereotyping- an extension of social identity theory and categorical thinking. Invovles 1) developing social categories and assign traits to them 2) assigning people to one or more categories based on observable characteristics 3) asigning people who seem to belong to them even though they lack observable traits.
• Benefits? They work and save energy
• Costs? They do not comprehensively describe every person in the category, they lay the foundation for discrimination.

• attribution process- deciding whether an observed behavior or event is caused mainly by the person or by the environment.
• Three attribution rules are 1) consistency- how often does this person act this way 2) distinctiveness- how often did this person act this way in other settings 3) consensus- how often do other people act this way in similar situations.
• Internal attribution- high consistency, low distinctiveness, low consensus
• External attribution- low consistency, high distinctiveness, low consensus
• Fundamental Attribution Errors- our tendency to see the person rather than the situation as the main cause of the person's behavior.
• Self-serving bias- the tendency to attribute our favorable outcome to internal factors and our failures to external factors.

•  Self-fufilling prophesy- our expectations about another person cuase that person to ati in a way that is consistent with those expectations. (our perceptions influence reality)
• ex: 1) employer forms positive expectations about an employee 2) supervisor gives him more positive reinforcement and gives him more responsibilities 3) Employee develops more experience and self-confidence 4) employee's behavior becomes more consistent with the employer's expectations
• Contigencies? Stronger at the begining of the hiring process and stronger the more people share the expectations. Also stronger among employees with employers who have held similar expectations.
• Shows a direct application need for positive organizational behavior.

• Halo effect- Our general impressions of a person, usually based on one prominent characteristic, distorts our perception of ther characteristics of the person.
• Primacy effect- Our tenedency to quickly form an opinion about people on the basis of the first information we recieve about them. After cagetorizing, we search for information that supports these initial opinions.
• Recency effect- The most recent information dominates our perceptions. Most common when people are making an evaluation involving complex information.
• False-consensus effect- A widely observed bias in which we overestimate the extent to which others have beliefs and characteristics similar to ours.

Learning- Permanent change in behavior that occurs a result of an individuals interaction with the environment. (refers to tacit knowledge, not explicit knowledge- read in books)

ABC theory- Change behavior by manipulating Antecedent and Consequences:

• Antecendent- What happens before the behavior
• Behavior- What the person says or does
• Consequences- What happens after the behavior

Contigencies of Reinforcement- four types of consequences that increase, maitain, or reduce the probability that behavior will be repeated:

• Poitive reinforcement- occurs when the introduction of a consequence increases or maintains the frequency of future probability of a specific behavior
• Punishment- occurs when a consequence decreases the frequency or future probability of behavior.
• Negative reinforcement- when the removal or avoidance of a consequence increases or maintains the frequencey or future probability of a specific behavior.
• Extinction- The target behavior decreases because no consequence follows it.

Schedules of reinforcement- the frequency and timing of the reinforcers also influence employee behaviors.

• Continuous- provides positive reinforcement after every occurence of the desired behavior
• variable ratio schedule- Behavior is reinforced after a variable number of times.

Although natural part of human interaction, behavior modifiation has a number of limitations when applied strategically in organizational settings.

Social learning theory- Much learning occurs by observing others and then modeling the behaviors that lead to favorable outcomes and avoiding behaviors that lead to punishing consequences. This learning occurs in 3 ways:

• Behavior modeling- Learn by observing the behaviors of a role model on a critical task, remembering the important elements of the observed behaviors and then prcaticing these behaviors.
• Learning behavior consequences- People learn the consequences of behavior through logic and observation, not just through direct experience.
• Self-reinforcement- Occurs whenever an employe has control over a reinforcer but doesn't take it until completing a self-set goal.

Rational choice paradigm- the view in decision making that people should and typically do use logic and all available information to choose the alternative with the highgest value.

The ultimate goal? Choose the highest subjective expected utility- The probability of satisfaction resulting from choosing a specific alternative in a decision.

Assumptions- decision makers follow a systematic process.

1. Identify problem or opportunity (problem is a deviation between the current and desired situation, opportunity- a deviation between current expectations and potentially better situation that was not previously expected)
2. Choose the best decision process
3. Develop alternative solutions
4. Choose the best alternatives
5. Implement the selected alternative
6. Evaluate decision outcomes

Problems with the Rational Choice Paradigm- Impossible to apply in reaility. It assumes people are efficient and logical information processing machines. It completely ignores the effect emotions play individuals' decisions.

Stake holder framing- Those with vested interests try to "frame" the situation by persuading decision makers that the available information points to a problem or an opportunity or does not have any importance at all.

Perceptual Defense- People block out bad news a coping mechanism.

Mental Models- Can be visual or relational images in our mind of the external world. They fill in the information that we don't immediately see which helps us understand and navigate our surrounding environment. However, mental models also blind us from seeing unique problems or opportunitites.

Decisive Leadership- Employees rate leaders as more effective when they are more decisive. Those who seek to be effective my announce problems/opportunities before all relavent information is there to size the problem up.

Solution-focused Problems- Define problems as vieled solutions.

How to avoid? Be aware of these problems, and involve others in the process.

Rational Choice paradigm assumes decision makers have well-articulated and agreed-on organizational goals and they can effeicently and simultaneously process facts about alternatives and the consequences of the alternatives and choose the highest payoff.

Problems with goals- assumes goals are clear and agreed on.

Problems with information processing- Instead of processing information about all alternatives, they usually only consider a few alternatives and only some of the outcomes. They also tend to evaluate them squentially rather than all at the same time. As new one comes along, they are always evaluated against an implicit favorite.

Problems with Decision Making-

• Anchoring/ adjustment heuristic- We are influenced by an initial anchor point and do not sufficiently move away from that point as new information is provided.
• Availability heuristic- Objects or events are assigned higher probabilities of occuring if the are easier to recall from memory.  (affected by how recent and the emotional attachment of what we recall)
• Representativeness heuristic- People evaluate probabilities of events or objects by the degree to which they resembe other events or objects rather than on objective probability information.  (ex: stereotyping)

Problems with Maximization- The rational choice theory assumes people want to maximize payoff but in actually they just choose an alternative that is satifactory or good enough. (requires less information processing and humans' information capacity is not as high as they theory suggests).

Evaluating Opportunities- Decison makers do not evaluate several alternatives when they find an opportunity. They tend to attach emotions to opportunies early on that affect evaluating it accurately.

Rational Choice Theory completely ignores the effect of emotions on the decision making process.

• Emotions form our early preferences by ataching emotional markers to each alternative.
• Emotions change the decision evaluation process- bad mood makes us more likely to focus on details.
• Emotions serve as information when we evaluate alternatives

Intuition- the ability to wkno when a problem or oportunity exists and to select the best course of action without conscious reasoning.

Intutional involves rapidly comparing our observations with deeply held patterns learned through experience.

Also relies on action scripts- programed decision routines that pseed up our response to pattern matches or mismatches.

escalation of commitment- The tendency to repeat an apparently bad decision or allocate more resources to a failling course of action.

Causes:

• Self justification- Individuals are motivated to maintain their course of action when they have a high need to justify their decision. Especially strong when decision makers are personally identified with the project and reputations are at stake.
• Prospect theory effect- The negative emotions we experience when we lose money overpower the positive emotions when gaining the same ammount.
• Perceptual blinders- Decision makers do not see th eproblems soon enough. They screen out or explain negative information to protect self esteem.
• Closing costs- Even when a projects success in doubt, decision makers will persist because the cost of ending the project is higher or unknown.

employee involvement- refers to the degreet o which employees influence how their work is organized and carried out.

Benefits?

• Improving deicision quaility by recognizing problems more quickly and defining them more accurately.
• Improve the number and quality of solutions generated.
• Under specific conditions, employee involvement improves the evaluation of alternatives.
• Strengthens employee commitment to the decision.

The optimal level of employee involvement depends on the situation.

• Decision structure- Some decisions are programmed while others are not. Benefits of employee participation increase when the novelty and complexity of the problem or opportunity.
• Source of decision knowledge- When the leader lacks sufficient knowledge and subordinates have additional information to improve decision quality.  Particularly true for complex decision s where employees are more likely to possess relevant information.
• Decision commitment- Participation tends to improve employee commitment to the decision. If they are unlikely to accept, then involve them.
• Rik of conflict- If employee goals and norms conflict with the organizations goals, only a low level of employee involvement is advisable. Also, if the employees are highly likely to reach an agreement, invovlement is reccomended.

Drives- the prime movers because they generate emotions which put people in a state of readiness to act on environment.

Needs- Motivational forces of emotions channeled toward particular goals to correct deficiencies or imbalances.

Behaviors- The actions we take to adress drives and needs.

Even though all people have the same drives they don't have the same emotional reasponses or needs in the same situation.

Self-concept, social norms, and past experience affect how individuals' drives generate needs and how individuals' needs translate to behaviors.

Maslow said that we satisfy needs in order from most basic to most complex. Complex needs cannot be satisfied until a person has completely satiated a lower need.

Needs (from basic to complex)

1. Physiological
2. Safety
3. Belongingness/Love
4. Esteem
5. Self-Actualization- The need for self-fufillment, realization of one's potential.

Bottom four needsa re deficiency needs because they become activated when not fufilled, self-actualization is a growth need beause it continues to develop even when fufilled.

Limitations? People do not progress through heiarchy exactly as he suspects. However, Maslow is credited with introducing a wholistic, humanistic approach.