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ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIORORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIORS T E P H E N P. R O B B I N SS T E P H E N P. R O B B I N S
E L E V E N T H E D I T I O NE L E V E N T H E D I T I O N
Attribution TheoryAttribution Theory• How people assign causes to events…
• It involves perception about why things happen or why
people behave in the way they do.
• It explains how we make judgments about people at work.
• We make an attribution when we perceive and describe
other people’s actions and try to discover why they behaved
in the way they did.
Criteria for deciding whether behaviour is attributable to personal rather than external (situational) causes
Criteria for deciding whether behaviour is attributable to personal rather than external (situational) causes
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Reference: Kelly, H.H. (1967) Attribution theory in social psychology, in (ed) D. Levine, Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NB
That determination depends largely on four factors:
1. Distinctiveness: The behaviour can be distinguished from the behaviour of other people in similar situations.
2. Consensus: If other people agree that the behaviour is governed by some personal characteristic. (i.e., response is the same as others to same situation.)
3. Consistency over Time: Whether the behaviour is repeated (i.e., responds in the same way over time.)
4. Consistency over Modality (i.e., the manner in which things are done): Whether or not the behaviour is repeated in different situations.
That determination depends largely on four factors:
1. Distinctiveness: The behaviour can be distinguished from the behaviour of other people in similar situations.
2. Consensus: If other people agree that the behaviour is governed by some personal characteristic. (i.e., response is the same as others to same situation.)
3. Consistency over Time: Whether the behaviour is repeated (i.e., responds in the same way over time.)
4. Consistency over Modality (i.e., the manner in which things are done): Whether or not the behaviour is repeated in different situations.
Errors and Biases in AttributionsErrors and Biases in Attributions
1. Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others.
Example: Why a sales manager is prone to attribute the poor performance of his sales representatives to laziness rather than to the innovative product line introduced by a competitor?
Clarification…Clarification…
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Reference: Weiner, B. (1974) Achievement Motivation and Attribution Theory, General Learning Press, New Jersey
Attribution theory is concerned with the way in which people attribute success or failure to themselves. Research by Weiner (1974) and others have indicated that when people with high achievement needs have been successful they ascribe this to internal factors such as their ‘ability’ and ‘efforts’.
High achievers tend to attribute failure to lack of effort and not lack of ability.
Low achievers tend not to link success with effort but to ascribe their failure to lack of ability.
Reference: Bandura, A. (1982) Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency, American Psychology, vol. 37, 122-47
Reference: Grandy, A. (2000) Emotion regulation in the workplace: a new way to conceptualize emotional behaviour, Journal of Occupational Psychology, vol. 5, 95-110
The extent to which people behave rationally is limited by their capacity to understand the complexities of the situation they are in and their emotional reactions to it.
Your home assignment…
Q. What is the knowledge construct (or contribution) of the following literature towards BR?
Miller, S.; Hickson, D.J.; and Wilson, D.C. (1999) Decision-making in organizations, in (ed.) S. R. Clegg, C. Hardy and WR Nord, Managing Organizations: Current issues, Sage, London
Harrison, R. (2005) Learning and Development, 4th Edition, CIPD, London
– Hindsight = ability to see, after the event, what should have been done
– is the inclination to see events that have already occurred as being more predictable than they were before they took place.
– Falsely believing to have accurately predicted the outcome of an event, after that outcome is actually known.
Schizophrenia [skit-suh-free-nee-uh, -freen-yuh] is an example of a disorder that directly affects the hindsight bias. The hindsight bias has a stronger effect on schizophrenic individuals compared to individuals from the general public.
Also called Dementia Praecox [pree-koks]. a severe mental disorder characterized by some, but not necessarily all, of the following features: emotional blunting, intellectual deterioration, social isolation, disorganized speech and behavior, delusions, and hallucinations.
A state characterized by the coexistence of contradictory or incompatible elements.
Schizophrenia is a psychological disorder, thought to be caused by imbalances in brain chemistry, which involves delusions and faulty perceptions of the world. People suffering from schizophrenia often hear voices in their head and have delusions of grandeur. It's not uncommon for people with schizophrenia to believe that they are Jesus or other prominent figures.
There are several types of schizophrenia including disorganized, catatonic, paranoid, undifferentiated, and residual.
See also: http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/psychology-glossary.php 5–25
5–26
Decision-Style ModelDecision-Style Model
E X H I B I T 5–5E X H I B I T 5–5
Source: A.J. Rowe and J.D. Boulgarides, Managerial Decision Making, (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), p. 29.