Question

You are the HR Director of one of the most respected Computer Company. Your CEO recently fired the Executive Vice-President (EVP) of your company who was supposed to be the most qualified person to replace the CEO who is retiring in three years. You have been tasked to look for a replacement who would be the best person to assume the responsibilities of the EVP and would be able to take over the CEO after he retires. A colleague of yours from another computer company suggested a candidate who used to work as a Vice-President of a progressive multi-national computer company who was looking for a job. He described him as follows: "He acts without thinking and with bad judgment. . . . He does not give credit where due. ... Very often, when told of a new idea, he will immediately attack it and say that it is worthless or even stupid and tell you that it was a waste of time to work on it. This alone is bad management, but, if the idea is a good one, he will soon be telling people about it as though it was his own. At the same time, he's a genius. His imaginative leaps are instinctive, unexpected, and at times magical." 1. On page 189, is a list of Commonly Found Perceptual Errors (Table 7- 2.). If you rejected this person when he could be a winner or if you hired this person when he is a loser, which of the five perceptual errors were you guilty of? 2. Please explain your justifications based on what you learned In Employee Engagement and Job Satisfaction.

Answer 1

1. If I rejected this person, when he could be a winner, then I am under the influence of the following perceptual errors - Halo, Recency effect and contrast effects.

Halo effect - I would have formed an impression about the candidate, based on my colleague's words and my rejection would have been a result of it.

Recency effect - The communication with my colleague, from another company is the recent one. Based on this communication, I may refuse choosing the candidate for the position.

Contrast effect - I will compare the candidate to the Ex Executive Vice-President. If the Ex (EVP) had the similar characteristics as said by the colleague about the candidate, then this comparison would make me to reject the candidate, as the Ex EVP was fired by the CEO earlier.

If I were to hire this person, then I would be under the influence of the following perceptual errors - Leniency and central tendency.

Leniency - Even if the colleague has told negative about the candidate, if I were a very lenient person, then I would not give much importance to his words and consider that there would be positives to the candidate too.

Central tendency - The candidate has told extreme negative things about the candidate. I would avoid it, and take it in average terms.

2. As a HR director, I would hire people, who would be high in employee engagement. These people would be enthusiastic about what they do and contribute to the work more. They will be highly satisfied about the job. If I were to reject this candidate, I would do the above mentioned perceptual errors and would think that this person would not contribute much to the organization and his satisfaction would be low.