ABSTRACT
How people perceive and make decisions about each other underlies many of the processes in industrial and organizational psychology and human resource management. Subjective judgment of others enters into selection, performance appraisal, development, and interpersonal processes in organizations. Despite many standard applications with standard measures and procedures that have been tested for reliability and validity, many of the processes actually used in organizations are not problem free. They are subject to a host of biases and distortions stemming from individual cognitions, motivations, and feelings as well as from situational conditions, such as norms and task demands. Also, they entail complex interpersonal interactions that involve the behaviors, motivations, and perceptions of decision makers and the people about whom personnel decisions are made. The purpose of this book was to understand per-son perception in hopes of improving these key organizational processes. This chapter highlights the major contributions of each chapter in the book.
