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Following are the examples of perception management in relation to specific organizations or communities:
Following are the examples of perception management in relation to specific organizations or communities:



⚫
==US Department of Defense==
==US government==
The US government already has checks in place to dissuade perception management conducted by the state towards domestic populations, such as the [[Smith-Mundt Act|Smith-Mundt Act of 1948]], which "forbids the domestic dissemination of U.S. Government authored or developed propaganda... deliberately designed to influence public opinion or policy".<ref>"Pentagon Sued for Records on Propaganda, PSY-OPS and 'Perception Management' Targeting U.S. Civilians." (2005, March 4) Judicial Watch, Inc: Washington, D.C.</ref>

Perception management can be used as a propaganda strategy for controlling how people view political events. This practice was refined by US intelligence services as they tried to manipulate foreign populations, but it eventually made its way into domestic US politics as a tool to manipulate post-Vietnam-War-era public opinion. For example, in the early 1980s, the Reagan administration saw the "[[Vietnam Syndrome]]"-a reluctance to commit military forces abroad-as a strategic threat to its [[Cold War]] policies. This caused the administration to launch an extraordinary effort to change people's perception of foreign events, essentially by exaggerating threats from abroad and demonizing selected foreign leaders. The strategy proved to be very successful.<ref>Parry, Robert. "Bush's Perception Management Plan". November 18, 2004., [http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/unitedstates/democracy/2731.html Global Exchange]</ref>

Beginning in the 1950s, news media and public information organizations and individuals carried out assignments to manage the public's perception of the CIA, according to the ''New York Times''. [[Carl Bernstein]] wrote in 1977 that "The CIA in the 1950's, '60's, and even early 70's had concentrated its relationships with journalists in the most prominent sectors of the American press corps, including four or five of the largest newspaper in the country, the broadcast networks, and the two major weekly news magazines." [[David Atlee Phillips]], a former CIA station chief in Mexico City, described the method of recruitment years later to Bernstein: "Somebody from the Agency says, 'I want you to sign a piece of paper before I tell you what it's about.' I didn't hesitate to sign, and a lot of newsmen didn't hesitate over the next twenty years."<ref>Carl Bernstein, "The CIA and the Media," ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', 1977; cited in Lamar Waldron, ''[[Legacy of Secrecy]]'' (Berkeley: Counterpoint Press, 2008) pp. 317-318.</ref>

By the mid-80s, CIA Director [[William Casey]] had taken the practice to the next level: an organized, covert "public diplomacy" apparatus designed to sell a "new product"-Central America-while stoking fear of communism, the [[Sandinistas]], Libyan leader [[Muammar al-Gaddafi]], and anyone else considered an adversary during the Ronald Reagan presidential administration. Sometimes it involved so-called "[[white propaganda]]", stories and op-eds secretly financed by the government. But they also went "black", pushing false story lines, such as how the [[Sandinistas]] were actually anti-Semitic drug dealers. That campaign included altered photos and blatant disinformation dispersed by public officials as high as the president himself.<ref name="Greg Guma 2008"/> In 1984, the DEA became upset with the White House, alleging the White House blew the smuggling investigation against the Sandanistas to embarrass them before a contra aid vote. The White House felt it was better to sacrifice a probe to catch the leaders of the Medellin drug cartel and gain a propaganda edge.<ref>http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/lost12.html</ref>

The term "perception management" is not new to the lexicon of government language. For years the [[FBI]] has listed foreign perception management as one of eight "key issue threats" to national security, including it with terrorism, attacks on critical US infrastructure, and weapons proliferation among others. The FBI clearly recognizes perception management as a threat when it is directed at the US by foreign governments.<ref>Martemucci, Matteo G. "Regaining the High Ground: The Challenges of Perception Management in National Strategy and Military Operations". 17 June 2007.</ref>
⚫
=== US Department of Defense ===
Deception and sleight of hand are important in gaining advantages in war, both to gain domestic support of the operations and for the military against the enemy. Although perception management is specifically defined as being limited to foreign audiences, critics of the DOD charge that it also engages in domestic perception management. An example cited is the prohibition of viewing or photographing the flag draped caskets of dead military as they are unloaded in bulk upon arrival in the U.S. for further distribution, a policy only recently implemented. The DOD also describes perception management as an intent to provoke the behavior you want out of a given individual.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}} During the Cold War, the Pentagon sent undercover US journalists to Russia and Eastern Europe to write pro-American articles for local media outlets. A similar situation occurred in Iraq in 2005 when the US military covertly paid Iraqi newspapers to print stories written by US soldiers; these stories were geared towards enhancing the appearance of the US mission in Iraq.<ref>Daragahi, Borzou, and Mark Mazzetti. "U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press." ''Los Angeles Times'' 30 Nov. 2005: A1.</ref>
Deception and sleight of hand are important in gaining advantages in war, both to gain domestic support of the operations and for the military against the enemy. Although perception management is specifically defined as being limited to foreign audiences, critics of the DOD charge that it also engages in domestic perception management. An example cited is the prohibition of viewing or photographing the flag draped caskets of dead military as they are unloaded in bulk upon arrival in the U.S. for further distribution, a policy only recently implemented. The DOD also describes perception management as an intent to provoke the behavior you want out of a given individual.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}} During the Cold War, the Pentagon sent undercover US journalists to Russia and Eastern Europe to write pro-American articles for local media outlets. A similar situation occurred in Iraq in 2005 when the US military covertly paid Iraqi newspapers to print stories written by US soldiers; these stories were geared towards enhancing the appearance of the US mission in Iraq.<ref>Daragahi, Borzou, and Mark Mazzetti. "U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press." ''Los Angeles Times'' 30 Nov. 2005: A1.</ref>


Revision as of 18:07, 18 November 2011

Perception management is a term originated by the US military. The US Department of Defense (DOD) gives this definition:

Actions to convey and/or deny selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning as well as to intelligence systems and leaders at all to influence official estimates, ultimately resulting in foreign behaviors and official actions favorable to the originator's objectives. In various ways, perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and psychological operations.[1]

The phrase "perception management" has often functioned as a "euphemism" for "an aspect of information warfare." A scholar in the field notes a distinction between "perception management" and public diplomacy, which "does not, as a rule, involve falsehood and deception, whereas these are important ingredients of perception management; the purpose is to get the other side to believe what one wishes it to believe, whatever the truth may be."[2]

Perception management was also known as public diplomacy in the Ronald Reagan era; however, some people also argue perception management is now an accepted part of international strategic influence.

Perception management occurred as the Iraq war began. Word leaked out that a new Pentagon Office of Strategic Influence was gearing up to sway leaders and public sentiment by disseminating false stories. Facing public censure, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld publicly denounced and supposedly disbanded it. But, a few months later, he quietly funded a private consultant to develop another version. The apparent goal was to go beyond traditional information warfare with a new "perception management" campaign designed to "win the war of ideas"—in this case, against those classified as a terrorists.

The phrase "perception management" is filtering into common use as a synonym for "persuasion." Public relations firms now offer "perception management" as one of their services. Similarly, public officials who are being accused of shading the truth are now frequently charged with engaging in "perception management" when disseminating information to media or to the general public.

Although perception management operations are typically carried out within the international arena between governments, and between governments and citizens, use of perception management techniques have become part of mainstream information management systems in many ways that do not concern military campaigns or government relations with citizenry. Businesses may even contract with other businesses to conduct perception management for them, or they may conduct it in-house with their public relations staff.

As Stan Moore has written, "Just because truth has been omitted, does not mean that truth is not true. Just because reality has not been perceived, does not mean that it is not real."[citation needed]

There are nine strategies for perception management. These include:

  1. Preparation — Having clear goals and knowing the ideal position you want people to hold.
  2. Credibility — Make sure all of your information is consistent, often using prejudices or expectations to increase credibility.
  3. Multichannel support — Have multiple arguments and fabricated facts to reinforce your information.
  4. Centralized control — Employing entities such as propaganda ministries or bureaus.
  5. Security — The nature of the deception campaign is known by few.
  6. Flexibility — The deception campaign adapts and changes over time as needs change.
  7. Coordination — The organization or propaganda ministry is organized in a hierarchical pattern in order to maintain consistent and synchronized distribution of information.
  8. Concealment — Contradicting information is destroyed.
  9. Untruthful statements — Fabricate the truth.[3]

Organizational Perception Management

Organizations use perception management in daily internal and external interactions as well as prior to major product/strategy introductions and following events of crisis. Life cycle models of organizational development suggest that the growth and ultimate survival of a firm is dependent on how effectively business leaders navigate crisis, or crisis-like, events through their life cycles.[4] As suggested by studies,[5][6] organizational perception management involves actions that are designed and carried out by organizational spokespersons to influence audiences' perceptions of the organization. This definition is based on the understanding of four unique components of organizational perception management: perception of the organization; actions or tactics; organizational spokespersons; and organizational audiences. The organizational perceptions is further classified into three major forms namely organizational images, organizational reputation, and organizational identities.[7]

Perception Management Events: Perception management is often used by an organization in the following major events:

1. Dealing with perception-threatening events: Include such events as scandals, accidents, product failures, controversial identity changes, upcoming performance reviews, and introduction of new identity or vision.

2. Dealing with perception-enhancing events: Include such events as positive/negative ranking or rating by industry groups, overcoming hardships, and achievement of desired goals.[7]

Following are the examples of perception management in relation to specific organizations or communities:


US government

The US government already has checks in place to dissuade perception management conducted by the state towards domestic populations, such as the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, which "forbids the domestic dissemination of U.S. Government authored or developed propaganda... deliberately designed to influence public opinion or policy".[8]

Perception management can be used as a propaganda strategy for controlling how people view political events. This practice was refined by US intelligence services as they tried to manipulate foreign populations, but it eventually made its way into domestic US politics as a tool to manipulate post-Vietnam-War-era public opinion. For example, in the early 1980s, the Reagan administration saw the "Vietnam Syndrome"-a reluctance to commit military forces abroad-as a strategic threat to its Cold War policies. This caused the administration to launch an extraordinary effort to change people's perception of foreign events, essentially by exaggerating threats from abroad and demonizing selected foreign leaders. The strategy proved to be very successful.[9]

Beginning in the 1950s, news media and public information organizations and individuals carried out assignments to manage the public's perception of the CIA, according to the New York Times. Carl Bernstein wrote in 1977 that "The CIA in the 1950's, '60's, and even early 70's had concentrated its relationships with journalists in the most prominent sectors of the American press corps, including four or five of the largest newspaper in the country, the broadcast networks, and the two major weekly news magazines." David Atlee Phillips, a former CIA station chief in Mexico City, described the method of recruitment years later to Bernstein: "Somebody from the Agency says, 'I want you to sign a piece of paper before I tell you what it's about.' I didn't hesitate to sign, and a lot of newsmen didn't hesitate over the next twenty years."[10]

By the mid-80s, CIA Director William Casey had taken the practice to the next level: an organized, covert "public diplomacy" apparatus designed to sell a "new product"-Central America-while stoking fear of communism, the Sandinistas, Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, and anyone else considered an adversary during the Ronald Reagan presidential administration. Sometimes it involved so-called "white propaganda", stories and op-eds secretly financed by the government. But they also went "black", pushing false story lines, such as how the Sandinistas were actually anti-Semitic drug dealers. That campaign included altered photos and blatant disinformation dispersed by public officials as high as the president himself.[11] In 1984, the DEA became upset with the White House, alleging the White House blew the smuggling investigation against the Sandanistas to embarrass them before a contra aid vote. The White House felt it was better to sacrifice a probe to catch the leaders of the Medellin drug cartel and gain a propaganda edge.[12]

The term "perception management" is not new to the lexicon of government language. For years the FBI has listed foreign perception management as one of eight "key issue threats" to national security, including it with terrorism, attacks on critical US infrastructure, and weapons proliferation among others. The FBI clearly recognizes perception management as a threat when it is directed at the US by foreign governments.[13]

US Department of Defense

Deception and sleight of hand are important in gaining advantages in war, both to gain domestic support of the operations and for the military against the enemy. Although perception management is specifically defined as being limited to foreign audiences, critics of the DOD charge that it also engages in domestic perception management. An example cited is the prohibition of viewing or photographing the flag draped caskets of dead military as they are unloaded in bulk upon arrival in the U.S. for further distribution, a policy only recently implemented. The DOD also describes perception management as an intent to provoke the behavior you want out of a given individual.[citation needed] During the Cold War, the Pentagon sent undercover US journalists to Russia and Eastern Europe to write pro-American articles for local media outlets. A similar situation occurred in Iraq in 2005 when the US military covertly paid Iraqi newspapers to print stories written by US soldiers; these stories were geared towards enhancing the appearance of the US mission in Iraq.[14]

The US Air Force has used perception management with UFO/ET events by dropping flares and claiming it was a "misperception of their training activity". Years ago in Gulf Breeze Florida similar techniques were used where a fake UFO model was planted in a house.[15]

Domestically, during the Vietnam War, critics allege the Pentagon exaggerated communist threats to the United States in order to gain more public support for an increasingly bloody war. This was similarly seen in 2003 with accusations that the government embellished the threat and existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.[16]

Perception management includes all actions used to influence the attitudes and objective reasoning of foreign audiences and consists of Public Diplomacy, Psychological Operations (PSYOPS), Public Information, Deception and Covert Action.[17] The Department of Defense describes "perception management" as a type of psychological operation. It is supposed to be directed at foreign audiences, and involves providing or discarding information to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning in a way that is favorable to the originator of the information. The main goal is to influence friends and enemies, provoking them to engage in the behavior that you want. DOD sums it up: "Perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and psychological operations."[11]

The US military has demonstrated using perception management multiple times in modern warfare, even though it has proven to take a hit to its credibility among the American people. In 2002, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld disbanded the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Influence. This office had been organized to provide false news items to unwitting foreign journalists to influence policymakers and public sentiment abroad. The Pentagon was criticized to create and to use a perception management office to influence foreign states at the time.[18]

More recently, the DOD has continued to pursue actively a course of perception management about the Iraq War. "The Department of Defense is conscious that there is an increasingly widespread public perception that the U.S. military is becoming brutalized by the campaign in Iraq. Recognizing its vulnerability to information and media flows, the DoD has identified the information domain as its new 'asymmetric flank.' "[19]

The level of use of perception management is continuing to grow throughout the Army. Until recently specialists, known as psychological operations officers and civil affairs officers, whose only purpose is to decide how to present information to the media and to the people of the current country that they are in only held positions in high division levels of command. The Army has decided that it is now necessary that these specialists be included in the transformed brigades and deal with "everything from analyzing the enemy's propaganda leaflets to talking with natives to see what the Army can do to make them their friends," said 3rd Brigade's Civil Affairs Officer Maj. Glenn Tolle. "[20]

Business

Businesses shape the perceptions of the public in order to get the desired behavior and purchase patterns from consumers.

Advertising

Branding and Brand Control

Leadership

People can use perception management as a way to positively enhance their leadership abilities. A person's ability to manage perceptions is what sets great leaders apart. What people, your followers, appraise as your effectiveness and ability as a leader becomes their perception, which then becomes reality. Unmanaged perceptions of a person's followers create a reality opposite to what was wanted. Perception management is very hard work, but it can help us all grow as leaders.[21]=== Marketing === The best medium for businesses to affect the perceptions of the public is through marketing. To get people to buy products, marketers must create a need and manage the perception of the public so that they feel the product will fulfill that need. This is not the same thing as manipulation, where businesses create something people don't need, and marketers convince them that they do need it. Good perception management is to the benefit of the consumer, as it fulfills more of their needs, and to the benefit of the business, as it increases their revenue.[22]

Risk Management

The decision making process in relation to the future is an element of business that has a great effect on the company's future. If the company is too risky, this leads to underperformance, and a missed opportunity. If the company takes too many risks, it is likely that there will be a large amount of losses. Ultimately if this amount of risk taking leads the perception of the company to exceed the boundaries of logic and fact, the company will most likely fail based on their poor perception.[23] Companies today cannot afford not to manage perceptions. Though not a substitute for a substantial product, it is useful in "sustaining the offering" for a length of time.[24]

International Business

The communication gaps that exist in international business can lead to misunderstandings. Perception management helps to prevent the complex emotional characteristics of communication from changing the original interpretation of the message. Perception management also serves to change the original interpretation of the message in order to prevent complex emotional characteristics in communication.[25]

Perception Management Services

The phrase "perception management" is filtering into common use as a synonym for "persuasion." Public relations firms now offer "perception management" as one of their services. Similarly, public officials who are being accused of shading the truth are now frequently charged with engaging in "perception management" when disseminating information to media or to the general public.[26]

Nutrition

Food and beverage manufactures can manage the perceptions of consumers by controlling information on food labels. Here are some deceptive practices:

  1. Distribute sugar amounts among many ingredients
  2. Pad the ingredient list with small list of healthy ingredients
  3. Hide dangerous ingredients by giving them innocent sounding names
  4. Give the product great sounding name that has nothing to do with what the product is
  5. Not including containments (heavy metal, toxic substances)
  6. Manipulating the serving sizes

Be careful when reading food labels, because what you see is not always what you get.[27]

Fashion

Perception management is a robust component in the fashion industry. Fashion stylists are responsible for providing perception management in the branding of products, and in creating the public persona of both individuals, businesses, and brands, through means of wardrobe, appearance, and communication skills.[28] As with any product, perception management influences purchasing decisions. According to one analyst, "In the external environment, the offerings of competitors, with which a customer compares a product or service will change, thus altering his perception of the best offer around. Another point is that the public opinion towards certain issues can change. This effect can reach from fashion trends to the public expectation of good corporate citizenship." Other effects of perception management in fashion include that "a commonplace strategy to circumvent the loss of exclusivity associated with high market share is to leverage the brand by introducing new related brands. This is very efficient with fragrances or fashion brands."[29]

Celebrity

Public relation firms are now offering services to celebrity clients in perception management or reputation repair. It is a new tool for public firms. It lets large firms pour huge resources to the public by website. The web helps public relations executives to reach out the news media and it offer ways to link the public relations people and news media. For example, firms provide direct email addresses of some business journalists.[30] A new trend in perception management is athletes signing with major public relation firms. Well-known agencies, such as William Morris and competitor Creative Artists Agency, recently started attracting huge sports stars. Alex Rodriguez joined the company after his alleged affair with Madonna, during the summer of 2008. He is following in the footsteps of Serena Williams, Kevin Garnett, and Vince Young, who are all represented by the William Morris agency (and who really need it, Garnett being excepted).[31] In the case of Britney Spears, the media has tarnished and skewed the way she is perceived by the public. In a short interview conducted by contactmusic.com, Spears exclaims, "the media has had a lot of fun exaggerating my every move." January 2007.[32] Another case of media skewing our interpretation of celebrities is in the case of Miley Cyrus. After her music video controversy, "Can't be Tamed," her album sales declined to 72% less than her 2008 solo debut, "Breakout."[33]

Technology

Results from a survey conducted in Hamburg in 2006 suggest that closed-circuit television (CCTV) has little to do with manufacturing security/feelings of safety among people. It seems that preceding spatial perceptions have a greater impact on whether a certain space or place is regarded as being unsafe or not.[citation needed]

Universities

A research article in the journal Disability & Society gives an account of students with hidden disabilities and their experience with the behavior of their peers when their disability is revealed. These students actively manage the perception of others because the awareness of their disability "altered the behavior of others towards them."[34]

Terrorism

Since the U.S. engaged in the War on Terror, perception management tactics have become vital to military success and relations with other countries.

...It is absolutely vital that the Perception Management campaign of the United States and its allies be coordinated at the highest possible level, that it be resourced adequately, and executed effectively. Properly coordinated, such a campaign could be a war-winning capability. When left uncoordinated, such operations will achieve only modest success, at best, and at worst, could seriously backfire. Even a poorly chosen word, used in the heat of the moment (e.g. ‘crusade’), can have significant negative consequences.[35]

Typical counter-terrorism (CT) thinking focuses on the violence, or its associated threat, to identify and exploit associated avenues for meaningful response and reaction.[36]

Politics

In the years of the Reagan/Bush administration the government saw a lot of reluctance to commit military forces abroad. They used many tactics to change the outlook of peoples' thoughts about oversea issues. Warfare experts from the CIA and the Army Special Forces were included in this plan. They accomplished this by pushing issues about the events in South America and Leftist right issues in Nicaragua and Afghanistan.[37] Perception management has long been a key issue in the United States government. Beginning in the 1950s, the CIA contracted out several hundred different public information and news agencies for different "assignments." This practice grew, and currently operates with several thousand initiatives helping to privately shape public opinion of the government. Indeed, the Department of Defense views perception management as a psychological operation aimed at eliciting the behavior you want by manipulating the opinions of both enemies and friends. Best put by the DOD directly, "Perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and psychological operations."[38]

Media

The US military had been accused of manipulating the media in Iraq in order to achieve their pro-war goals, by secretly paying Iraqi journalists to publish stories written by US soldiers. According to the article The Man Who Sold The War by James Bamford in the recent edition of Rolling Stone magazine, John Rendon and his Rendon Group, the leader in strategic field of perception management, was awarded a $16 million contract from the Pentagon "to target Iraq and other adversaries with propaganda.[39]

The Chinese government had been controlling media to exercise "mind control" and manipulate public opinion on its citizens. All Chinese media, including newspapers, periodicals, news agencies, TV stations, broadcasting, the movie industry and art performances, are categorized and managed as "mouthpieces" of the ruling Communist Party.[40]

"Mind control" includes "indoctrination from kindergarten to college through officially compiled textbooks, as all teachers are categorized as 'educators of CCP' (The Chinese Communist Party)". According to Qinglian He, a former Chinese government propagandist and now a senior researcher at Human Rights in China, by exercising "mind control", the Chinese government has misled the Chinese population from the values of human rights and democracy, and also from the truth.[41]

The Chinese government has also used strategies to manage the perception of their country to the rest of the world. One example of this was the various perception management techniques the Chinese Communist Party used before and during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The government wanted to ensure that it use this opportunity to portray China as positively as possible by showcasing its development and modernity rather than some of its more internationally disliked features such as its domestic human rights policies and frequent government protests. China looked at its opportunity to host the Olympic Games as "a definitive demonstration of its status as a world partner comparable to any power in the Western world".[42]

The Chinese Communist Party manipulated the world’s perception of China in many ways. They made certain that those who would be directly talking to the media had the “right” talking points; mostly these focused on promoting the stability and dominance of China’s economy. Also, the government restructured the landscape of Beijing to portray a sense of modernity to foreigners. Three new buildings called the “bird buildings” were constructed at a high cost, including the forcing of a large number of residents to relocate. A couple of new subway lines are also built to increase the convenience for foreigners to reach the Olympic village. The government also did whatever it could to make the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics more impressive and extravagant than any before. An example of how they managed perceptions in this realm was the intentional substitution of a more attractive girl to lip-sync “Ode to the Motherland” instead of using the original singer, whose image was considered less preferable. Beijing’s security forces were also greatly increased before and during the Olympic Games to ensure that no large protests could be started and possibly caught on camera by the media. Not only the security forces, reeducation camps, and imprisonment are also made possible for Chinese citizens who made known a desire to protest around the Games. The government also announced a few days prior to the opening ceremonies that three "demonstration parks" would be opened for protests, requiring a written request form five days in advance, although at the end none of the requests were granted. Promotional materials are also made as ideal as possible, for example the slogan "One World, One Dream" referring to a unifying ideal of "love for all mankind". There was even the creation of a slogan, (“Beijing Welcomes You”) and five stuffed animal mascots used to portray Beijing and China as harmonious and cordial.[42]

Cognition

The objective of this seedling project is to investigate the feasibility of enhancing the quality of human decision-making in complex and uncertain situations and under time pressure. The specific focus is to characterize the principles underlying the augmented cognition systems and to develop techniques that alleviate natural human attentional limitations in the management of uncertainty using dynamic visualization techniques.[43]

Athletics

Training

Team Branding

Sponsorship

Perception management is the idea of using an image as a tool for identification of sponsorship opportunities. An effective sponsorship relationship, outlines the perfect marriage as being a good match between the image, which the company wants to promote and the image of the sponsored body. Perception management directs both behavior and communication activities as it works towards the establishment of a common vision of reality in a given social group.[44] In the case of Tiger Woods, the sales of his clothing brand, which is part of Nike Golf have drastically declined since his scandal due to perception management.[45] [46]

Signing

Conflicts of interest and consolidation in the sports agency industry arise through "the fierce competition to sign and retain athletes."[47]

A majority of the literature regarding employee-organization relationships has focused on perceived organizational support. More specifically, "the primary purposes of this study were to: (a) examine the antecedents of POS; (b) examine the consequences of POS, including, affective commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover intention; and (c) assess gender differences in regard to these antecedents and consequences, and (d) develop and test a comprehensive model of POS, applicable to intercollegiate athletic administrators."[48]

Chinese government

Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party controls all the paper and media in China. The internet is also under strict control and censorship. The Propaganda and Information Leading Group is generally responsible for all the information controlling and censorship. The unit is also one of the largest in the CCP leadership organ.[49]The manipulation of information is specifically common in China. The perception management is frequently applied. During the Beijing Olympic, facing the criticisms about its questionable domestic human right policy, Chinese government successfully altered international media's attention to the apolitical Olympic ideals by creating intensive coverage of the positive feedback of Olympic on paper, TV, and internet, despite the governmental officers made promise in 2001, when Beijing was still competing for the right to host the game, to improve its poor human right practicing.[50] The images and video captured that night by Chinese media would display only the packed, patriotic crowds and nothing of the rest of the celebrants, who were largely occupied with taking photos of themselves with friends, family, and even security personnel.Hosting the World: Perception Management and the Beijing Olympics JIM LORD Bob Jones University

Chinese military scholars argue that their nation has a long history of conducting “psychological operations,” a phrase that connotes important aspects of strategic deception and, to a certain degree, what the US Department of Defense portrays as perception management. Several articles published by the PLA’s Academy of Military Science (AMS) journal Zhongguo Junshi Kexue, for example, examine psychological warfare and psychological operations mainly as a deception-oriented function of military strategy.[51]An example of Perception Management occurred at the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing. The officials decided to replace the originally chosen singer with Lin Mioke, who lip synched during the Olympic opening ceremony. The reason the officials made the decision is because in their opinion the original singer wasn't attractive enough to represent China. It wanted to show only its attractive parts and people to other countries. [52]

The Beijing games were an opportunity for China to show its rapid development. The presence of a large contingent of foreign businessmen, media, and politicians necessitated a strict system of perception management before and during the Olympic Games. Lord, J. (2009). Hosting the world: perception management and the Beijing olympics.[53]

Authors

John Grisham's new book The Appeal is about a multimillion dollar suit against a chemical company in Mississippi that dumped harmful chemicals in the water supply to save money. The chemical company tries to pay off a supreme court justice to get out of any punitive/monetary damages or civil charges. Grisham gives details in his book about one of the executives for the chemical company hiring a "government relations" firm in order to get a political stance on their issue and turn around the company's image.

David Baldacci's book, The Whole Truth involves a shady perception management firm that creates an anti-Russia campaign for one of the largest international arms dealers. This perception management company "employs various strategies at a grassroots YouTube level, as well as selectively leaking information to the corporate media, that seek to blame Russia for a host of terrible atrocities." The main character's fiance is killed because she starts to suspect foul play with all of the anti-Russia campaigning.[54]

Movies

People in the movie industry can also use perception management through the movies they choose to make. One movie, The Day After Tomorrow, changed many people's minds in a study comparing watchers and non-watchers views on global warming. They asked both groups how concerned they were about global warming, and 83 percent of watchers said they were very concerned compared to 72 percent of non-watchers. They also asked the watchers whether the movie made them less or more worried about global warming and 49 percent said they were more worried after seeing the movie.[55]


See also

References

  1. ^ Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, Joint Publication 1-02, 12 April 2001 (As Amended Through 17 December 2003)
  2. ^ Goldman, Emily O. (2004). National Security in the Information Age: Issues, Interpretations, Periodizations. Routledge (U.K.). ISBN 0-7146-5600-3., p. 149
  3. ^ http://www.ausairpower.net/Deception-IWC6-05-Slides.pdf
  4. ^ Hargis, Michael, and John D. Watt. "Organizational Perception Management: A Framework to Overcome Crisis Events." Organization Development Journal 28.1 (2010): 73-87. Business Source Complete. EBSCO. Web. 11 Nov. 2010.
  5. ^ Leary, M. R. (1996). Self-presentation: Impression management and interpersonal behavior. Westview Press (Oxford, England).
  6. ^ Elsbach, K. D. (2004). Managing images of trustworthiness in Organizations. In R. M. Kramer & K. Cook (Eds.), Trust and distrust in organizations: Dilemmas and approaches (pp. 275-292). The Russel Sage Foundation (New York).
  7. ^ a b Elsbach, K. D. (2006). Organizational perception management. Lawrence Erlbaum Associate, Publishers (Mahwah, New Jersey).
  8. ^ "Pentagon Sued for Records on Propaganda, PSY-OPS and 'Perception Management' Targeting U.S. Civilians." (2005, March 4) Judicial Watch, Inc: Washington, D.C.
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Kopp, Carlo. "Classical Perception Techniques and Perception Management vs. the Four Strategies of Information Warfare. http://www.ausairpower.net/Deception-IWC6-05-Slides.pdf

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Further reading

  • The Corporation - a book and film which looks at how corporations operate, each of which includes a chapter titled "Perception Management" as it is practiced by corporations.
  • The Whole Truth - a novel by David Baldacci, in which an arms dealer tries to fabricate a new Cold War by running a disinformation campaign using sophisticated perception management. David Baldacci researched perception management techniques extensively during the writing of this book.
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