Perception affects communication because people perceive things that are being said how they want to perceive it. One person can take things being said in a different way than how someone else takes it. If things are taken the wrong way, communication can get angry or hurtful.

According to Robbins, perception can be defined as ‘a process by which individuals organise and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment’ (2004, p. 132). Perception is not necessarily based on reality, but is merely a perspective from a particular individual’s view of a situation. In dealing with the concept of organisational behaviour, perception becomes important because ‘people’s behaviour is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself; the world as it is perceived is the world that is behaviourally important’ (Robbins et al 2004, p.132).
Perception affects our working relationships in many ways relating to the factors of organisational behaviour, such as: individual, group or structure. For example, based on the situation, perceiver and target we may have the perception that the people we are working with are no good at their job, and therefore we may tend to avoid working with them, in fear of being held responsible for their mistakes, and in doing so, affecting our working relationship with our team members, and ultimately, the effectiveness and efficiency of the organisation. Alternatively, it may affect the group within the organisation by the way they medically treat people who have come from a specific lower socio-economical suburb, based on their overall prejudice against people who live in the lower socio-economical suburb. Alternatively, it can affect the structural perception of the organisation Nepean Hospital and in doing so, lead to possibly negative health outcomes. For example, based on the structural and group perception that all drug addicts are after opioids (such as morphine or fentanyl) when they come to hospital a doctor or nurse may overlook a fundamental presenting symptom of the patient, by assuming that they are after opioids and not perform further diagnostic techniques. This may result in the negative health outcomes of the patient (organisational ineffectiveness

tereotyping
The concept of the “perception effect” lies at the root of stereotyping. Workers are divided quite often into class lines in the workplace. For example, in a car dealership, there are managers, salesmen and maintenance workers. These are are arranged in a hierarchy where the managers get paid the most, salesmen second, and maintenance third. When a new salesman is introduced to a janitor, a hierarchy immediately is created where sales is “worth more” than maintenance labor. The janitor is seen differently in that role than he would be if he were met at random on the street.
Relationships
The division of labor is a mode of “perception effect.” If blue collar workers are seen by management as being under-educated and limited in skills, then blue collar workers in the workplace will be treated as people who need close supervision and discipline, while administrative clerks may be treated by the same management as specially trained professionals. A worker in such a factory will not see it as an institution that employs 100 individuals, but as an institution that has different classes of workers. Individuals who work at the factory may even tend to manifest the qualities of the perceived categories.
Consequences
Perception is manipulated by information that precedes the perception. If a new worker is told that the person he is meeting for the first time is an accountant, than the new worker will alter his behavior to reflect that fact. This might mean that the new worker will not make any jokes, because the accountant is assumed to be humorless. The new worker will speak with a better vocabulary, because accountants are seen as intelligent and diligent. When that same worker is introduced to someone who drives the forklift in the warehouse, the worker might instinctively want to make a comment about football, beer or pickup trucks. In these cases, a new worker is involuntarily socialized into seeing fellow workers as related to a category. These categories — accountants or blue-collar — then dictate the broad scope of their interaction, conversation and relationship.