A. This refers to the mental arrangement based on certain characteristics. People, objects and events tend to get grouped on the basis of similarity, proximity or closure.
(a) Similarity. The greater the similarity in the events, the greater is the probability that we tend to perceive them as a group. For examples, if bomb blasts have occurred at three market places on the eve of the Independence Day, we have a tendency to attribute these three different blasts to the same source or organisations.
(b) Proximity. Further, objects have close proximity are also grouped under one head, howsoever unrelated they are. For instance, if from a department, two people suddenly resign then others tend to perceive that their departures were closely related; whereas , in reality it might not be so. One might have got a foreign assignment, and the other might be starting own business.
(C) People when faced with incomplete information have a tendency to fill in the gaps themselves. When presented with a set of stimuli that are incomplete, people fill in the missing parts and make it more meaning ful. The tendency to organize perceptual stimuli so that they form a complete message is known as 'closure'. As we go higher in the hierarchy of the organisations, the information recived would often be incomplete, ambiguous, confusing and even contradicting. Yet, as leaders, we will have to take timely decisions in order to be effective. We ought to therefore acquire specific ability in order to avoid pitfalls of 'closure'.