Perception and Communication

Perception is the process by which individuals organise and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. (Robbins et al, 2010)

Individualality is important to consider in the process of perception as we all see things in different ways. We all analyse and judge everything we see and think some information is significant whilst dismissing others. It is influence by our expectations of seeing what we expect to see and hearing what we expect to hear. For example, when hearing someone speak for the first time after seeing them, and you don't expect their voice to sound like that. Or seeing someone after hearing them speak (such as a commentator) and them not looking at all how you expected. There are internal and external factors affecting perception. Internal factors relate to the individual. They include the sensory limits of a person as we are able to train our senses to recognise small differences between stimuli, so we are also able to discriminate. We can adapt and cope with unnatural environments. Psycological factors also affect what is perceived. Personality, learning and motives will affect how we perceive certain stimuli and make us respond in certain ways. This is called a Perceptual Set. External factors are how the environment effects our perception and refer to the characteristics of the stimuli. Usually more attention is giving to things that are bright, large, moving, loud, etc. This is shown in design and advertising as a way of grabbing people's attention.

A situation that I have experienced where my initial perception on someone has been incorrect is when I started a new class at college. There was a boy wholooked like a idiot, really scruffy, looked like he was stoned. We had a test and I assumed that he would do terrible judging by the way he was dressed and the way he acted. He didn't seem to put much effort in. Turns out he got the top mark in the class. So the moral of this story is you shouldn't judge someone on the way they look. From now on I will give everyone an equal chance when I see them and not judge someone's intellegence before you get to know them. The reason I probably made that perception is because I am used to seeing people like that and they aren't very intelligent.

Communication is Child's Play

Goals of British airways explained to 12 year olds:
 
Environment:-  

• No rubbish can be put in a landfill
• Make aircrafts less noisey
• Recycle more
• Reduce Pollution 

Community:- 

• Raise a lot of money for charity
• Help teach at schools

Marketplace:-

• Help people cause less pollution to the environment when they go travelling
• Make sure suppliers are being kind to the environment

Workplace:-

• Help people do work for charities
• Use less energy in the work place to be able to save it for when it is needed
• Make sure all staff are working by the rules and respecting the environment

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/csr-overview-goals/public/en_gb 

Conclusion
In conclusion, everyone is different and is trained by their senses to perceive things in different ways. Judgement is always made as soon as something is seen. This can act as a disadvantage when perceptions are incorrect. They can be affected by a person's personality and psycological factors or by the environment.

Bibliography

•  Mullins, L.J. (2010), Management & Organisational Behaviour, 9th edition, Essex, FT
• http://www.britishairways.com