Preview

attribution

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
882 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
attribution
Q.1)
A.1) Attribution theory is intended to help a person understand the causes of human behavior, be it their own or someone else's. The basis of attribution theory is that people want to know the reasons for the actions that they and others take; they want to attribute causes to behaviors they see rather than assuming that these behaviors are random. This allows people to assume some feeling of control over their own behaviors and over situations.

Attributions are critical to management because perceived causes of behavior may influence managers' and employees' judgments and actions. For instance, managers must often observe employee performance and make related judgments. If a manager attributes an employee's poor performance to a lack of effort, then the outcome is likely to be negative for that employee; he or she may receive a poor performance appraisal rating or even be terminated from the job. Conversely, if a manager perceives that an employee's poor performance is due to a lack of skill, the manager may assign the employee to further training or provide more instruction or coaching. Making an inaccurate judgment about the causes of poor performance can have negative repercussions for the organization.
Attributions also may influence employee motivation. Employees who perceive the cause of their success to be outside of their control may be reluctant to attempt new tasks and may lose motivation to perform well in the workplace. Conversely, employees who attribute their success to themselves are more likely to have high motivation for work. Thus, understanding attributions that people make can have a strong effect on both employee performance and managerial effectiveness.
Attribution is considered to be a three-stage process.
1) The behavior of an individual must be observed.
2) The perceiver must determine that the behavior they have observed is deliberate. That is, the person being observed is believed to have behaved intentionally.
3) The observer

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    AT&T began business back in the 19th century when AT&T became the parent company of Bell System. At the time Bell System held a monopoly in telephone service and was considered to be the best in the world. In 1984 Bell broke into eight different organizations and until 1986 AT&T was part of an integrated telecommunication service. Today AT&T is a global leader in the telecommunications and continues to grow (AT&T, 2013). One of the best technological ideas that helped AT&T stay competitive in the market was the introduction of the Apple iPad. The iPad offers different features and options for different ages, and has become one of the top rated mobile devices available. The iPad is equipped with sound, a variety of applications, is lightweight, equipped with Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth capability. However, the technology industry advances rapidly, and it is necessary for businesses like AT&T to continue to advance to stay competitive. This paper will show the factors that affect supply and demand of the iPad, along with issues and opportunities AT&T will face in regard to competitiveness and profitability and last the best recommendations to maximize profit potential to stay successful in the market.…

    • 1445 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    A manager rating an employee more severely than their work performance merits will create a frustrated and disgruntled employee. Workers will resent the unfair assessment of their performance. The opposite is also true, if a manager rates an employee more favourably than their performance merits “cheats them and the department of the benefits of exploring areas for improvement and the opportunities for developing and coaching” (MacKenzie, 2013)…

    • 865 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Attributions are the causal judgments about why the event or behavior occurred. These attributions can be either internal (made about a person’s characteristics, e.g. personality) or external (made about a person’s situation e.g. weather). One type of the attribution theory that helps us to determine the “why” in behavior is the Kelley’s Covariation Model of Attribution (Kelley, 1967). In this model, behaviour is analyzed to see how well it is correlated either internal or external factors or a combination of both. When making attributions using the Kelley’s covariation there are three criteria in which the attributions are based on: consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency. Consensus criterion is whether the behavior is correlated with the situation or in other terms whether different people do this behavior in the same situation. Distinctiveness refers to the correlation between behaviour and the individual specifically how unique the behavior is to that particular situation. Last out of the three is consistency which looks at how behavior is correlated with both the person and the situation that is, is the behavior is the same towards the…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Man3240 Exam 2 Study Guide

    • 4273 Words
    • 18 Pages

    Attribution theory: an attempt when individuals observe behavior to determine whether it is internally or externally caused…

    • 4273 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jims Concept

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Interpretation-“Is the subjective process of explaining our perceptions in ways that makes sense to us” (Wood, 2012, p.70). Attribution “is an explanation of why something happened or why someone acts a certain way” (heider, 1958; Kelley, 1967; Manusov & Spitzberg, 2008). I think that Jims father is being hard on Jim because his dad paid for college on his own and it was not hard for him to get good grades. Attributional error-“Researchers have identified a common error that people make…

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Attribution theory is concerned with how individuals interpret events and how this relates to their thinking and behaviour. Attribution theory assumes that people try to determine why people do what they do. When we (the observer) try to understand why another person (the actor) did something, we can either attribute one or more causes to that behaviour, internal/dispositional -the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, character or personality. Or; external/situational - the inference that a person is…

    • 1613 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cognitive Psych Study Guide

    • 6138 Words
    • 25 Pages

    Describe the difference between personal and situational attributions in explaining behavior. What is the Fundamental Attribution Error, and how is it related to these types of attributions?…

    • 6138 Words
    • 25 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Attribution theory is concerned with how individuals interpret events and how this relates to their thinking and behaviour. Heider (1958) was the first to propose a psychological theory of attribution, but Weiner and colleagues (e.g., Jones et al, 1972; Weiner, 1974, 1986) developed a theoretical framework that has become a major research paradigm of social psychology…

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Attribution in social behavior is the process of inferring the causes of events or behaviors. For example, in real life, attribution is something we all do every day, usually without any awareness of the underlying processes and biases that lead to…

    • 548 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    psych

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages

    14. Fundamental attribution error: a bias toward overattributing the behavior of others to internal causes…

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Human beings can explain anything. No matter the cause, we have a strong need to understand and explain everything. Due to people feeling the need to explain, it goes beyond the information received. Attribution theory is a theory about how people explain things.3333333333333. Explanation is a synonym for attribution. There are two types of explanations about why things happen. They are external attribution and internal attribution. External attribution places blame to an outside agent or force.333333333. An example is "My girlfriend made me do it." An internal attribution puts all blames on him or herself.33333333333. An example of this is "It is my entire fault we lost the game, all I had to do was make that…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The most powerful workplace motivator is our natural tendency to measure our own performance against the performance of others.…

    • 1803 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Uncertainty Reduction Theory

    • 4688 Words
    • 19 Pages

    Fiske, S. T., & Taylor, S. E. (1984). Attribution theory. In Social cognition. (pp. 72-99). Reading, MA: Addision-Wesley.…

    • 4688 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Psychology Study

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Describe the biases commonly seen in attribution, including the fundamental attribution error, the actor-observer effect. List the factors that may account for these biases.…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The success of a business or organization is dependent on numerous factors such as employee’s level of education, relevant experience, valuable past or present contributions to the organization etc. Yet a key ingredient is perception and attribution. How employees perceive the stimuli of their workplace plays a major role in forming an environment that is productive and profitable. Thus I would like to concentrate on the perception and attribution theory and its general implications in the workplace.…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays