It's in my opinion that personality defines how people perceive a situation. Often times, a person’s perception is their reality; very few times is one able to alter the person’s opinion of their reality.

A police officer arriving on the scene of an accident is a prime example of having to decipher the opinion of the individual from the reality of what actually occurred. Shibata and Fukuda (1994) have found speed to be the most important risk factor for fatalities. Even though witnesses are found to be accurate, not going more than 3 miles per hour above or below actual speed, officers need to exercise caution and use other means to determine what else occurred. Skid marks, location of the vehicle, and extent of damage to a vehicle can all be indicators (Kebbell, Johnson, Froyland, & Ainsworth, 2002).

In the same regards, those with a responsibility for promoting within a department (the police officer) need to pick up on not only the cues their employees are telling them, but the unspoken cues as well that could prove the situation to be different than what the manager is being told (i.e., employee coming in late, not being liked by other co-workers, etc.). While these things may be minor on the surface, they are key indicators to how the employee will behave if placed in a promoted role (the potential wreck waiting to happen). For any employer looking to promote more than warm bodies into leadership roles, careful observation from the witness and the skid marks along the road need to be added to the report before a decision is made. People’s work lives are in the crossfire.

References

Kebbel, M., Johnson, S., Froyland, I., Ainsworth, M. (2002). The influence of belief that a car crashed on withnesses’ estimates of civilian and police care speed. The Journal of Psychology, 136(6), 597-607.

Shibata, A., & Fakuda, K. (1994) Risk factors of fatality in motor vehicle traffic accidents. Accidents Analysis and Prevention, 26, 391-397.