Personal Perception Modeled: Challenges of Negative Perceptions Resulting From Poor Customer Service

EDWARD B. VILLANUEVA

DR. SUE LOWE

DEVELOPING A LEARNING ORGANIZATION – HRM 560

JUNE 2, 2013

1. Identifying internal customer mental models.

Perception of internal customers that exist personally and within the IT department. Internal customers are quick to ask for assistance

rather than resolve issues locally. Attribute to laziness.

Internal customers are confused by new technology.

Internal customers are unwilling to develop and update their skills and abilities.

Internal customers think that IT is inefficient and is unwilling to assist with their needs.

Internal customers take every opportunity to blame the IT department for their lack in productivity due to minor IT issues.

Origins of persistent mental models

Historical Past IT directors perpetuated the animosity

through stories.

IT Department Culture Stories of internal customer ineptitude are

discussed daily.

IT Department meetings include discussions about internal customer issues that incite laughter.

Arrogance due to confidence in job security since many IT personnel feel their skill sets are hard to replace easily.

Life span of internal customer mental models

Time of Hire Part of the onboarding process includes warning

about internal customer skills deficiencies.

Reinforced by other IT team members during on-the-job training.

Self Fulfilling Prophecy The perception is perpetuated due to the level of

help requests that are received.

Requests reinforce the perception that internal customers are inept.

Reasons for development of mental models

Lack Of Departmental Leadership and Consistency The IT department historically had high turnover

rates with management and personnel.

Internal customers began complaining about lack of support but were unaware of turnovers.

New IT managers began pushing new technology without training employees.

Employee skills were quickly becoming obsolete as new technology was introduced without any training.

This delay resulted in generalization about internal customers not being competent with current tech.

Reasons for development of mental models

Incoming IT Personnel New IT Personnel quickly identified lack of skills in

internal customers.

IT personnel began blaming internal customers for their lack of skills and internal customers began distrusting IT due to their lack of customer service skills.

Perceptual defense occurred as mechanism to cope with distrust and proceeded with “business as usual” mentality without resolving issues.

2. Leaps of Abstraction and Perception Errors

Generalization IT Department culture perpetuates stereotype of specific internal

customers.

Self-fulfilling prophecies are reinforced through story telling.

Lack of needs assessment or gap analysis to determine where the skills deficiencies are located within internal customers.

Perceptual Errors Overweighting of negative information.

Overreacting to negative information as an excuse to blame customers.

Similarity error. Predisposing positive attitude to internal customers who have

technical skills similar to our own.

Halo Error. Negative characteristics of specific internal customers dominate the

perception of that employee.

3. Debunking Mental Models

Test the Generalization

Identify common generalizations that exist.

Gather objective data to prove or disprove generalization.

Implement action plan to qualify or disqualify the generalization.

Document findings and bring to an open forum for discussion.

Engender a Culture of Candor

Develop core values such as openness to overcome perception errors.

Create opportunities for informal discussions about generalizations.

Align communication policies to promote facilitated discussions between two disagreeing parties.

3. Debunking personal mental models

1: Historical and Cultural Considerations Understanding where the generalization originated and how

it developed can help debunk them. Personal mental models are debunked by understanding that

they originated from stories passed down and were not based on any objective data.

2: Lack of Training The root issues that perpetuate the idea that internal customers

are incapable is due to the lack of training. IT often assumes that all employees should have some level of

technical ability, however different generations and personalities exist within an organization that prevents that from being a reality.

4. Barriers

Esprit De Corps – (The Lack Thereof) A feeling of camaraderie and teamwork is not

realized when mental models exist that promote animosity.

Shared visions become hard to accomplish.

Productivity is reduced due to infighting.

Distrust is engendered through mutual dislike between departments and individuals.

Political routes of action are taken to disqualify departments and pass them off as incompetent.

5. Preventing the traps of mental models.

Step 1

IdentifyDetermine negative perceptions that exist.

Articulate the perception into a problem statement that others can agree with.

Research the origin and historical relevancy of the perception.

Step 2

TestGather data through surveys and interviews.

Communicate perceptions in an open discussion amongst colleagues.

Test to see if the generalization is mutually held or one sided.

Step 3

Disqualify or

ResolveDebunk the generalization by brining to light data that proves contrary to popular belief.

Create an action plan that encourages openness.

Find solutions to quickly resolve future generalization errors that may occur.

References:

Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

Hellriegel, D., & Slocum, J. W. (2011). Organizational Behavior. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Senge, P. M. (2006). The Fifth Discipline. New York, NY: Doubleday.