Comprehension of the Equilibrium between Social Perception and Self Perception at Workplace

Abstract

To establish the need for congruity between social perception and self-perception by analyzing the subtle differences in behaviors that individuals exhibit while embracing ego, self-esteem, pride, and honor in the workplace scenario.

The comprehension of how the elements of social perception and self-perception dictate the state of ego, pride, honor, and self-esteem of an individual will facilitate the required equilibrium to strike an optimum balance between social perception and self-perception.

Introduction

Social Perception

Social perception in this context depicts the social desirability, acceptance, and the image of how an individual is perceived to be at the workplace. Social perception, by definition, means the process of identifying and utilizing social cues to make judgments about social roles, rules, relationships, context, or the characteristics of an individual in an ideal state of interaction. Social perception impacts a raggedly curved horizon of constituents that affect professional bearing, functionality, and efficiency. For instance, individuals who are high performers but possess an external locus of control will be affected by the perception of the peer group at the workplace.

Self-Perception

The context of this article defines self-perception as the portrayal of how an individual perceives themselves concerning their existence the external environment. The vantage point that serves the basis for this perception is extensively biased and lacks objectivity. Self-perception can alleviate or aggravate the identity crisis, existential crisis, or communication crisis of an individual at the workplace.

A large chunk of perceptive impediments arises out of the variation and incongruity between social perception and self-perception. Those individuals who were able to establish a serenity between both the states of perception were able to leverage better professional contentment and were able to scale the hierarchy relatively faster than those who were tormented by the affliction of the incongruity.

Ego, Pride, Honor, and Self-esteem at the workplace

There are 4 factors viz. ego, pride, honor, and self-esteem, that directly command the variations between the social perception and the self-perception of an individual. The dictionary definitions of each of these words cast an agreeable amount of difference. However, when being practically embraced the difference becomes treacherous and narrow. In other words, the way these factors are comprehended is based on the vantage point of the beholder.

Pride is a sense of accomplishment and deep pleasure from achievements. The rudimentary foundation for pride is self-esteem which is the amount of confidence in one’s worth or abilities.

Honor is an extended iteration of pride. Ego is the sense of self-esteem that an individual develops over the due course of time. Woefully, the way the word Ego has been conceived and understood attracts obstructive behavior and attitude. Often, when an individual carries a sense of accomplishment, he/she is always perceived to have an impervious state of ego thus, is thought to lack benevolence and is attributed to be difficult or even hostile when approached.

Ego is a state of social perception that blooms out of a consensus of distinctive and consistent behavior. If an individual possesses confidence in his worth or abilities, he is always mistaken to be over-confident or contain an egoistic persona. Such a state of social perception tends to create nonconformity with the personal beliefs and perceptions about self.

Persistent nonconformity breeds trepidation and affects the work proficiency, motivation, and interpersonal skills of the individual. Being able to amend such behavior to match the tunes of the external environment is attributed as an ability to accommodate. When the individual begins soliciting feedback from the environment in terms of adjusting self-esteem or pride, the feedback is to be viewed objectively and in case of any suitable remedies, the execution is to be done cautiously.

Effects of dissonance between Social Perception and Self-perception

The incongruity between social perception and self-perception leads to the following adverse effects:

• Work-place anxiety and stress
• Reduced environmental observation leading to skived attention to detail
• Inter-personal dissonance
• Blemished subordinate, superior, and peer relations
• Hindrances to opinion exchange and solicitation
• Disrupted workplace atmosphere as perceived by the affected individual

Mitigating the dissonance and establishing equilibrium

Soliciting feedback objectively and identifying the elements of the personality that are creating an incongruent social perception will help reduce the dissonance to a great extent. The reduction can be manifested if the identified deficiencies are incorporated successfully.

Certain aspects of self-esteem and pride cannot be amended or adjusted because of tight integrity and how these aspects define the core of the personal bearing. In the case of such aspects, the individual is ought to orient towards an alignment that is less obstructive to existing attitudes. If the social perception tends to highlight the individual who is high on self-esteem as an ego-centric personality, the serene spot would be either to neglect the environmental feedback or to address the incongruity through tweaking the elements that provoke such a consensus.

Scope of such an equilibrium at the workplace

A serene equilibrium of social perception and self-perception at the workplace captivates the surroundings. It facilitates individuals who are engaged in cross-functional job roles that demand a high degree of interpersonal interaction. It also boosts motivation levels and morale, directly affecting organizational commitment and integrity.

Additionally, those who possess this form of equilibrium tend to attract people in their surroundings as a result of their ability to foresee perceptive notions and build only those preemptive contentions that would catalyze their requirement or objective.

Conclusion

The orientation towards establishing an effective outlook at the workplace is subject to how well an equilibrium is maintained between social and self-perception. Ego, pride, honor, and self-esteem are all faces of the same cube. Which face and how much to exhibit at a given point in time and yields a meaningful value that can be added to one’s personality.

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