Perception, attitudes and Values

In this class we saw key elements that are needed to understand behavior in organizations: personality, perceptions, attitudes and values. All of these elements are brought to the organization by all of its members and at the same time their membership in the organization and the way they relate to others in the workplace shape their behaviors.

Personality, which is not the same as character or temperament, is what makes a person unique, a really good definition published by the American psychiatric association defines personality as: ´´Enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself that are exhibited in a wide range of social and personal contexts´´¹  (APA, 2000,P.686)

There are a number of perspectives about how personality develops which can be observed in the chart :

Personality characteristics in organizations are related with a model that explains that there are 4 self-evaluations that determine a person´s position towards job satisfaction and they are: self-esteem(the concept an individual has about himself), self-efficacy(the expectation a person has of its own competences), locus of control(extent to which a person believes that circumstances in his/her life are within its control)  and neuroticism.

                                                           

The perception we have about people around us will affect the way we relate with them. As we learned in class, social perception allows us to understand other individuals and there are three categories of factors that influence our perception of another person: characteristics of ourselves, characteristics of the person that is being perceived and the characteristics of the situation.

In order to really get to know others, we must learn to ignore the barriers to social perception which are: selective perception, stereotyping, first impression error, projection and self-fulfilling prophecies.

When individuals try to explain their own behavior or that of others, they are applying a psychological concept called attribution and when they have a positive or negative disposition towards something or someone that is called an attitude. A good example of the attribution theory would be when students fail a test, they may attribute their failure to their teacher by saying that he/she didn´t provide the right material for the test and in that way they avoid the responsibility and externalize the blame; An example of an attitude would be: when employees are not happy with their jobs, they won´t do their daily activities with enjoyment and satisfaction, instead they would show signs of  dissatisfaction and they would do things as if they were being forced.

  

Values can be defined as deeply held beliefs (therefore they usually remain constant over time) that make an individual prefer and choose certain behavior or mode of conduct over others. In organizations, values provide a framework of the behavior that its members should have, and they should be reflected not only in the general statements of the company but in its member´s everyday actions and decisions.  We saw some important work values in class like achievement, concern for others, honesty and others and I will add some others that I consider essential: tolerance when dealing with diversity and responsibility.

QUESTION

To what do you attribute the success of JICA?

 I believe JICA has been succesful around the globe because the agency has achieved to stablish a clear mission and vision (reduce poverty and encourage the international community to help japan, which depends on resorces from around the world) and in order to reach that mission they have created specific unambigous strategies with measurable results, meaning that they know where they are and where they want to go.
I attribute most of their success to the agency´s internal structure, planning and way of executing those strategies, to their philosophy of giving their best in order to receive, to their effecctiveness when transmitting their organizational values to their aid workers and to the fact that even if their aid workers are kilometers away from JICA´s headquarters the agency doesn´t lose track of them and they constantly evaluate their accomplishments. In conclusion, most of their success comes from internal factors, but one external aspect that one has to consider when analyzing the situation, is the fact that they have the support of Japan´s government and this means that they have access to many resources and opportunities that they probably wouldn´t have if their economic conditions were different.

REFERENCES

American Psychological Association (2000). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) (2000). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Cherry, Kendra. ´´What is personality?´´ (Online). Retrieved March 1st, 2011, from http://psychology.about.com/od/overviewofpersonality/a/persondef.htm.

Psychology attribution theory. What is attribution theory? (Online). Retrieved March 1^st, 2011, from http://www.peaceandhealing.com/psychology/attribution-theory/

El valor de los valores en organizaciones. (Online) Retrieved March 3^rd, 2011, from http://www.elvalordelosvalores.com/definicion/index.html

Locus of control definition. Business Dictionary. Retrieved on March 3^rd, 2011 from
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/locus-of-control.html


Multiple personality. (Image). Retrieved onMarch 3^rd, 2011   from: http://www.hpchile.cl/forense/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=691:personalidad-multiple-un-caso-raro-en-la-practica-forense&catid=14&Itemid