What is Benevolent Misperception and How It Affects Your Workplace Dynamics?

In today’s fast-paced workplace, relationships thrive not just on facts—but on how we perceive each other’s intentions. One psychological quirk, benevolent misperception, plays a surprisingly powerful role in shaping team culture, trust, and collaboration. But what is it really, and how does it help—or hurt—organizational dynamics?

What Is Benevolent Misperception?

Benevolent misperception is the tendency to assume someone’s actions are kind, constructive, or well-intentioned—even when the reality might be more complex. It’s not necessarily delusion; it’s a subtle optimism that keeps the wheels of cooperation turning.

Imagine interpreting a colleague’s abrupt email as being "pressed for time" instead of "cold and dismissive." That instinct to believe the best? That’s benevolent misperception .....in action.

The Upside: Trust, Teamwork, and Resilience

When this bias leans in the right direction, it can be the glue that keeps teams together during high-stress periods.

• Fuels Collaboration: Assuming good intent reduces defensiveness and opens space for dialogue.
• Builds Psychological Safety: Employees feel more comfortable taking risks and voicing ideas.
• Encourages Forgiveness: Mistakes are seen as human rather than malicious, maintaining morale and cohesion.

In environments that demand agility—like startups, consultancies, and innovation hubs—benevolent misperception fosters the kind of resilience that keeps teams thriving.

The Downside: Naïveté and Blind Spots

But unchecked optimism has its risks. When benevolent misperception goes too far, it can mask dysfunction or stall progress.

• Enables Toxic Behavior: Misinterpreting manipulation as enthusiasm allows unhealthy patterns to persist.
• Stifles Honest Feedback: Leaders may believe all is well, missing disengagement or quiet dissent.
• Ignores Inequities: Power dynamics or microaggressions may get glossed over in the name of harmony.

Take, for instance, a manager who constantly interrupts meetings. If the team interprets this as excitement, rather than control, it might silence quieter voices and limit creative input.

The Game Theory Twist

In strategic settings—like negotiations or cross-functional collaborations—benevolent misperception can shape outcomes. Research in game theory suggests that trusting an opponent’s goodwill (even inaccurately) can foster cooperative strategies, especially when stakes are high.
Hypergame models, where participants perceive the same “game” differently, show that even misperceptions can produce stable outcomes if grounded in reciprocity.

The Solution: Balance Benevolence with Curiosity

So how do you embrace this optimistic bias without losing sight of reality?

• Practice Constructive Questioning: Don’t just assume—ask, clarify, and reflect.
• Encourage 360° Feedback: Give everyone a voice, not just the loudest or most visible.
• Use Structured Dialogue: Establish frameworks for decision-making that check assumptions and reduce bias.

Final Thought

Benevolent misperception isn’t just a psychological quirk—it’s a silent architect of workplace culture. When nurtured with awareness and critical thinking, it can transform how we collaborate, innovate, and lead.

Want to make your workplace truly dynamic? Start by seeing others with generosity—and listening with curiosity.

HCLTech and Verizon Business Launch FlexSpace 5G, An Advanced Digital Workplace Experience-As-A-Service

HCLTech, a leading global technology company, today launched FlexSpace 5G, an advanced digital workplace experience-as-a-service that boosts efficiency and security for global businesses.

Powered by Verizon’s secure, reliable network and HCLTech’s best-in-class hardware partnerships, this offering is a significant upgrade to HCLTech FlexSpace, which supports the entire workplace experience value chain. It enables a smooth transition to a digital workplace for all categories of employees, whether at the desk, remote, on-the-go, or on the frontline.

HCLTech FlexSpace 5G carries unique benefits for businesses.

• It provides ‘Experience-as-a-service’ to support end-to-end device life cycle management.
• It extends mobility for enterprise users in the hybrid work model, going beyond Wi-Fi.
• It provides fast and more dependable connectivity, proving advantageous for various sectors, including financial services, technology, life sciences, healthcare, telecom, media and entertainment.
• It assuages data security worries for users working remotely.

Earlier in November of last year, Cisco partnered with HCLTech to launch Meeting-Rooms-as-a-Service (MRaaS).

“With HCLTech FlexSpace 5G, powered by our strategic partner Verizon Business, we aim to provide our clients with a fluid, hybrid and sustainable future of work that fosters collaboration, productivity and innovation,” said Rakshit Ghura, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Digital Workplace Services, HCLTech.

“We continue to make significant investments in our network in order to support solutions such as these, which enable employees to work virtually wherever they need to connect, be that in an airport, a client’s office or on the road,” said Jonathan Nikols, Head of Global Enterprise Americas, Verizon Business. “Connected devices on our network also provide our customers with additional peace of mind due to the enhanced, built-in security inherent to the Verizon network, a significant improvement over public Wi-Fi.”

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) was formed in 2000 and is one of the world’s leading providers of technology and communications services. Headquartered in New York City and with a presence around the world, Verizon generated revenues of $134.0 billion in 2023. The company offers data, video and voice services and solutions on its award-winning networks and platforms, delivering on customers’ demand for mobility, reliable network connectivity, and security.

HCLTech is a global technology company, home to more than 224,000 people across 60 countries, delivering industry-leading capabilities centered around digital, engineering, cloud, AI and software, powered by a broad portfolio of technology services and products. We work with clients across all major verticals, providing industry solutions for Financial Services, Manufacturing, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Technology and Services, Telecom and Media, Retail and CPG, and Public Services. Consolidated revenues as of 12 months ending December 2023 totaled $13.1 billion. To learn how we can supercharge progress for you, visit hcltech.com.

HCLTech and Cisco Launch Meeting-Rooms-as-a-Service (MRaaS) on Subscription Model

HCLTech and Cisco enhance collaborative environment for modern hybrid workplaces

Indian global technology company HCLTech, in collaboration with Cisco, has announced the launch of Meeting-Rooms-as-a-Service (MRaaS). Available on a subscription model, the MRaaS solution modernizes legacy meeting rooms and enables users to join meetings from any meeting solution provider using Webex devices.

The MRaaS solution helps enterprises simplify the design, implementation and maintenance of integrated meeting rooms, enabling seamless collaboration for their globally distributed hybrid workforces.

“MRaaS combines our consulting and managed services expertise with Cisco's proficiency in Webex devices to change the way employees conceptualize, organize and interact in a collaborative environment for a modern hybrid work model,” said Rakshit Ghura, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Digital Workplace Services, HCLTech. “The common vision of our partnership is to elevate the collaboration experience at work and drive productivity through modern meeting rooms.”

“Our partnership with HCLTech helps our clients transform their offices through cost-effective managed services that support the ongoing evolution of workspaces,” said Alexandra Zagury, Vice President of Partner Managed and as-a-Service Sales at Cisco. “As we reimagine the modern office, we are making it easier to support collaboration and productivity among workers, whether they are in the office or elsewhere.”

Cisco's Webex collaboration devices harness the power of artificial intelligence to offer intuitive, seamless collaboration experiences, enabling meeting rooms with smart features such as meeting zones, intelligent people framing, optimized attendee audio and background noise removal, among others.

DXC Technology and Microsoft Collaborate to Power a More Personalized, Intelligent, Secure and Modern Workplace Experience for Global Enterprises

DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) today announced an expanded strategic collaboration with Microsoft to deliver a more personalized, intelligent, secure and modern workplace experience to help companies to address rapidly evolving business challenges and customer and employee needs.

DXC and Microsoft are joining forces to deliver a solution and suite of services that will help companies to empower their employees with a modern workplace experience and to ensure customers’ employees can seamlessly and securely work anytime, anywhere and on any device.
 

Called DXC MyWorkStyle™, DXC brings the largest install base of workplace customers and the blueprint for the modern workplace experience. As part of the collaboration, Microsoft and DXC will work together to co-develop and deliver the solution, leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning from millions of data points to create a modern workplace experience. 

DXC and Microsoft will bring together leading technology, engineering talent and architects to enhance the DXC MyWorkStyle platform. The platform will leverage Microsoft’s suite of services including Microsoft 365 and Teams, and Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.

Together, our goal is to bring customers a next level employee experience and to unlock further value in the workplace. DXC’s partnership with Microsoft is a game changer, with both companies committed to changing the future of work forever. DXC will be customer number one, creating the modern workplace experience for themselves. DXC is already working to implement and adopt the DXC MyWorkStyle platform to create a better experience for its own people, globally. 

As the world’s largest provider of workplace services, DXC supports more than 1,000 workplace customers in 67 countries. The company manages over 7.2 million devices and 1.3 million desktops virtually, nearly two-times its closest competitor. DXC also manages over 8.2 million Microsoft Office 365 and Teams seats and responds to more than 40 million requests for support each year in 56 languages.

 

“We are excited about our modern workplace business and our partnership with Microsoft,” said Mike Salvino, DXC president and chief executive officer. “The world of work has changed forever and working virtually is now a ‘must’ for all businesses. This is a great opportunity for customers of both Microsoft and DXC to help their employees to work without disruption and provide a truly virtual, modern workplace experience that allows them to be more productive, more engaged and more connected to their teammates.

 

“As we explored strategic alternatives over recent months, we realized that keeping this business provides the opportunity to define the future of work and create much more value for our customers and our people.”

 

“Enterprise customers are accelerating deployment of cloud-based services to enhance employee experiences, facilitate better decision making based on data-driven insights and engage customers in new ways,” said Judson Althoff, executive vice president of Microsoft’s worldwide commercial business. “We are excited by our enhanced collaboration with DXC that will help enterprise customers evolve their cloud strategies and realize their business transformation.”

About DXC Technology

DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) helps global companies run their mission critical systems and operations while modernizing IT, optimizing data architectures, and ensuring security and scalability across public, private and hybrid clouds. With decades of driving innovation, the world’s largest companies trust DXC to deploy the Enterprise Technology Stack to deliver new levels of performance, competitiveness and customer experiences. Learn more about the DXC story and our focus on people, customers and operational execution at www.dxc.technology.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201202005481/en/

HARMAN Launches AccuAlertMe - An Enterprise Platform to Enable Workplace Safety for Employees and Visitors

HARMAN, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., focused on connected technologies for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets, today announced the launch of AccuAlertMe, a unique solution to help companies, employees and visitors navigate the risks of COVID-19 while re-opening facilities of business.

Built by HARMAN's Digital Transformation Solutions (DTS) business unit, with a central focus on employee safety, the platform offers a secure, scalable and comprehensive framework for companies preparing to welcome the workforce and visitors back to their premises. Through months of testing, AccuAlertMe has been developed to provide options for automated contact tracing, up to three levels - direct, indirect and contacts of indirect contacts. It captures details like the duration of contact, which helps assess the risk level with accuracy. Additionally the platform detects the exact location of contact and floor level, offering valuable information for facility management teams to plan their sanitization activities.

AccuAlertMe positively promotes social-distancing behavior among employees and visitors by using a first-of-its-kind feature that offers real-time alerts to nudge users into following the appropriate norms. The platform is built to instill an added sense of security and to offer real-time assistance in managing risk exposure through alerts. It provides a constructive framework for the employees and visitors to manage their safety at workplaces with confidence and ease.

The uniqueness of the platform relies on intelligent and context aware multi-mode Bluetooth scanning along with edge analytics algorithms for real time social distance violations detection and notification. AccuAlertMe does not collect any Personally Identifiable Information (PII) like name or contact details, and is based on robust privacy, access and retention controls, ensuring that only company administrators can access the data. Additionally, each user is encoded to a randomly generated identifier (anonymized User ID) in the system and all data exchanged between the app and platform leverages this User ID. The contact tracing is done using this User ID and the actual user identity is not revealed in the system.

"With HARMAN's AccuAlertMe, our goal is to provide best-in-class "at office" solutions to companies planning to bring back their workforce to offices, without compromising employee's physical safety and privacy," said David Owens, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Digital Transformation Solutions, HARMAN. "We are proud to offer an employee-first solution that provides real-time updates to colleagues and visitors on possible risk scenarios, ensuring minimal impact on the rest of the workforce."

When a positive case is self-reported, the platform provides contact tracing and alerts all direct and indirect contacts of the infected individual. At the same time, it gives the company an aggregated view of the number of people at risk at a facility. This critical information equips organizations to take swift action to minimize further risk in the work or retail environment. AccuAlertMe has been successfully rolled out in HARMAN's India offices that host the company's biggest workforce.

Available for both Android and iOS, the solution works in all modes (foreground, background and low battery) on the mobile device. Find out more about AccuAlertMe and other solutions by HARMAN: services.harman.com/products-and-solutions/harman-accualertme

About HARMAN

HARMAN (harman.com) designs and engineers connected products and solutions for automakers, consumers, and enterprises worldwide, including connected car systems, audio and visual products, enterprise automation solutions; and services supporting the Internet of Things. With leading brands including AKG, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon, Mark Levinson and Revel, HARMAN is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues where they perform around the world. More than 50 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and connected car systems. Our software services power billions of mobile devices and systems that are connected, integrated and secure across all platforms, from work and home to car and mobile. HARMAN has a workforce of approximately 30,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. In 2017, HARMAN became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Embee Software Launches VirtuaPlace - Platform to Aid Businesses with Secured, and Modern Virtual Workplace During Challenging Times

Embee Software Pvt. Ltd. (Embee) is announcing the launch of VirtuaPlace for helping Indian Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) maintain business continuity and embark on their cloud adoption journey. Curated for bringing efficiency and security in the remote-workplace scenarios, the platform runs on Microsoft Azure and brings together offerings across Azure, Microsoft 365, Octane HRMS, SAP Business One, and Windows Virtual Desktop.

VirtuaPlace is specifically designed for businesses that found themselves unprepared and scrambled to adopt various technologies to keep the ball rolling during the nationwide lockdown. Since the remote work scenario is here to stay even beyond the pandemic situation, providing seamless teamwork, collaboration, data security and more at controlled prices was the motto behind launching VirtuaPlace. Embee has been a partner of Microsoft India for more than 30 years and has empowered 2500+ organizations of all sizes with customized digital solutions.

Embee has one of the largest cloud consumption and adoption portfolios in India. They have more than 2 million entitlements in Microsoft 365 and enjoyed 70% growth in Microsoft 365 business in FY’19.

With VirtuaPlace, Embee focuses on offering best technical solutions to the customers required to make workflow for their business operations smooth and secure and empower employees to do their jobs in challenging work environments.

Most importantly, with VirtuaPlace, Embee is focusing not just on smooth on-boarding but also on ensuring customer adoption of the new technologies on a foundation of successful digital transformation. Testimony to which is Embee’s role in the Microsoft Teams for Education program in which Embee onboarded 200+ schools to utilize Teams as a remote learning tool during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“With the solution, schools have found themselves equipped with a digital platform to ensure continuity in learning. The swift implementation, taking as little as 3-days per school, establishes Embee’s credentials to empower organizations digitally. We are looking to replicate this success with VirtuaPlace across the country,” says Krishna Sai, CTO, Embee Software Pvt. Ltd.

“This COVID-19 adversity can inspire organizations to rethink their digital strategy and adopt the offerings to transform their businesses. VirtuaPlace is designed to empower small medium businesses and enterprises with business continuity, robust security, and productivity while scaling their operations at reasonable costs. Businesses can choose from a variety of solutions and services, curated to their needs, at an attractive monthly subscription. Embee is eager to be the partner in growth for organizations in the digital age,” says Sudhir Kothari, MD & CEO Embee Software Pvt. Ltd.

Venkat Krishnan, Executive Director, Commercial Partners, Microsoft India said, “Small and medium businesses form the economic backbone of our country. Bringing together the power of the Microsoft cloud and other offerings in a secure and scalable environment, VirtuaPlace by Embee can helps SMBs transform digitally and be future-ready in a world of remote everything.”

Apart from creating a virtual place for business to overcome remote working challenges, Embee offers a secure environment and advanced threat protection to its partners so that they can adapt to remote work environments, more smoothly.

Embee continues to focus on adding and developing more platforms to modernize workplaces and bring digital transformation.

Women Score Higher than Men at Workplace in India: Report

As more and more companies are striving to close gender parity gap, a report has showed that twice as many woman professionals excel in organisational development and coaching talent compared to men.

About 6.56 per cent woman professionals excel in organisational development and coaching talent as compared with 3.26 per cent of man professionals, according to a report by SCIKEY Research.

This is mainly attributed to women's capability to nurture and connect emotionally with their colleagues and peers, the report added.

SCIKEY conducted a survey with 5,388 information technology professionals across India from 22 to 47 years.

Additionally, the survey report showed that woman bosses are not only more likely than men to encourage their subordinates' development but they are also more inclined than their male counterparts to check in frequently on their employees' progress.

Since woman bosses tend to train their juniors better, employees who work under women outscore those who work for men bosses, it added.

The SCIKEY report also showed that women are equally or more effective as men in negotiations when bargaining.

About 1.37 per cent women are good negotiators compared to 1.11 per cent men, it pointed out.

The behavioral trait showed that women are better negotiators than men because they use their wider social knowledge to negotiate along with the hard data to back the negotiation that men are usually not exposed to (social experience), it added.

Women professionals (6.67 per cent) have high conflict management ability compared to men (4.96 per cent), it said. This is attributed to women's ability to understand the reason for conflict because of the social experience and exposure both at workplace and family, they connect better with others and find creative outcomes simultaneously.

Both men and women seem to have low emotional resilience, the report said adding that 16.8 per cent women in the workforce are emotionally unstable compared to 14.7 per cent men.

In the experience range of 0-2 years, it was found that 6 out of 10 women in the industry were facing emotional stress compared to 4 out of 10 men, the report said.

With an increase in the work experience, these numbers increased to almost 8 out of 10 women being emotionally stressed compared to 3 out of 10 men, it said.

"While we do not have a conclusive reason for this, but it cannot be denied that the juggling of family responsibilities and work has never been easier for women and is bound to take a toll on their emotional stability.

"This lack of solid emotional wellbeing often makes women more prone to stress, loss of productivity and unhealthy family life," it added. PTI SM