Joe Salatino, President of Great Northern American

JOE SALATINO, PRESIDENT OF GREAT NORTHERN AMERICAN
Name:
Course:
Professor Name:
(January 29, 2012)
Joe Salatino, President of Great Northern American
Introduction
Perception is a process by which people put together and interpret sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. This however can be different from what people perceive from reality. For instance all employees in a firm may see it as a great place to work due to a conducive working environment, good salaries, good job assignments and responsible management but it is difficult to find such agreement. Therefore people`s perception is important because it is based on their perceptions on what the reality is and not on reality itself (De Jong, et al. 1999). This paper discusses how Joe could address the importance of understanding how people form perceptions and make attributions about others with his employees. It also evaluates the social learning theory, and how Joe applied the theory in addition, to how Joe could leverage an understanding of the value of self-efficacy to ensure he hires the most successful salespeople.
Personality and Individuals
The differences that occur in the personality of people due to factors like age, experience and gender can also affect the way people perceive things. For example in an organization young employees may complain to the high management who may be reluctant to accept change in technology and new management ethics (Delbridge & Whitfield 2001). Similarly the high management may complain to young employees that they are rushing to make quick inappropriate decisions.
Several factors may affect the way employees see each other within an organization:-
Personal characteristics of an individual can affect how he/she interpret things. Such characteristics may include past experiences, motives, personal interests, altitudes and expectations.
Some employees may find it difficult working in small groups while others find it easier to work in large groups. Those who like working in small groups may do so in order to participate fully in the job being executed. However others like to see the job done by other people and this makes them like working in multitudes. Consequently both categories of people see the same thing but interpret it differently (De Jong, et al. 1999).
In the field of OB studies have shown that people`s perceptions can also be influenced by unsatisfied needs or motives. It has been observed that personal problems could affect how a person perceives things. For instance an employee who has been reprimanded by his boss for lateness is likely to notice lateness by other employees than he was. Therefore, an individual interest differs in a number of ways, what one sees in a given situation may be different from what another perceives.
Additionally, past experiences can affect how a person perceives things. For instance, if for a long time a male individual heads an organization, employees may perceive the situation as unethical if a female is chosen to head the same organization. Eventually people`s expectations can affect how they perceive things (Nestle, 2006). This makes them see what they expected to see. For instance most young employees are said to be un-ambitious and hence cannot be given high level/executive positions. This may be opposite of their actual traits.
The attributes of a target/object to be perceived may also affect perception. People may perceive objects depending on their characteristics. These include noise, size, movement etc. For example, fat people are likely to be noticed in a multitude than the slim ones. Similarly disabled employees within an organization are highly treated with care that the health ones.
The presence of different elements within our environment can affect how people perceive things. These environmental factors may include: climatic factors and state of mind of a person. For instance, pregnant women employee is likely not to be friendlier to their fellow employees because of moods that are associated with pregnancy (De Jong, et al. 1999). Similarly, a manager wearing official clothes during working days is likely to be perceived differently if he wore casual clothes like Jeans on Weekends. Neither the perceiver nor the target has changed but the situation is different.
Social Learning Theory
This theory focuses on the concept of people learning from one another including such concepts as imitation, learning through observation and modeling. Social Learning theory can be used to improve employee performance in the following ways. These include:-
Leaders should model the behavior of employees. This involves leaders teaching employees practically what they would like them to do ins...