Perception is a process by which we interpret sensory impressions to give meaning to our environment. What we perceive can be substantially different from objective reality. For example, all employees in a firm may view it as a great place to work but, as most of us know, it’s very unusual to find universal agreement across people. Why is perception important in the study of Organizational Behavior? It is important because people’s behavior is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself.

In other words, our perception becomes the reality from which we act. To understand what all of us have in common in our interpretations of reality, we need to begin with the factors that influence our perceptions. These factors can reside in the perceiver, the object or target being perceived, or the situation.