Situations. Is The Employee Who Arrives Late Today Also The One Coworkers Say Regularly

3.
Explain the attribution theory of perception in relation to performance appraisal

Attribution theory tries to explain the ways in which we judge people differently, depending on the
meaning we attribute to a given behavior.
Performance appraisal: is a personnel management function which is done in order to determine
whether employees are accomplishing their tasks more effectively.
: is where the individual performance is formally documented and feedback delivered
to him/her, (Measurement of performance and rating as good or bad).
Attribution theory suggests that when we observe an individual’s behavior, we attempt to determine
whether it was internally or externally caused. That determination, however depends largely on three
factors:
i. Distinctiveness
ii. Consensus
iii. Consistency
Internally caused behaviors are those we believe to be under the personal control of the individual
(originate from within a person), such as individual’s ability or motivation.
Externally caused behavior is what we imagine the situation forced the individual to do (originate
from the environment), Such as lack of resources, other people or just luck.
For example, if one of your employees is late for work, you might attribute his lateness to his
lateness to his partying until late hours and then oversleeping. This is an internal attribution. But if you
attribute his arriving late to an automobile accident that tied up traffic, then you are making an external
attribution.
1. Distinctiveness: refers to whether an individual displays different behavior in different
situations. Is the employee who arrives late today also the one coworkers say regularly
about? What we want to know is whether this behavior is unusual. If it is, we are likely to
give it an external attribute. If it’s not unusual, we will probably judge the behavior to be
internal.
2. If everyone who faces a similar situation responds in the same way, we can say the
behavior shows consensus. The behavior of tardy employee meets this criterion if all
employees who took the same route to work were also rate. From an attribution
perspective, if consensus is high, you would probably give an external attribution to the
employee’s tardiness, whereas if others employees who took the same route made it to
work on time, you would attribute his lateness to an internal cause.
3. Finally, an observer looks for consistency in a person’s actions. Does the person respond
the same way over time? Coming in 10 minutes late for work is not perceived in the same
way for an employee for whom it is unusual case (she hasn’t been late for several months)
as it is for an employee for whom it is part of a routine pattern. The more consistent the
behavior, the more we are likely to attribute it to internal cause.
Observation interpretation attribution of cause
High external
Distinctiveness
Low internal
High external
Individual behavior consensus
Low internal
High internal
Consistency
Low external
Errors of attribution theory

i. It tends to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of
internal or personal factors.
How managers do use attribution theory in performance appraisal.
a) Attribution theory helps managers to give feedback to employee.
b) Attribution theory is the base for dismissal, transfers and retrenchment of employee.
Distinctiveness: internal attribution mostly will cause employee to lose their jobs, if their do not
tend to change according to manager expectation.
c) Managers use attribution theory to test effectiveness of recruitment, selection and training. This
is by checking employee behaviour and output, mostly based on consistency and distinctiveness.
d) Attribution theory helps managers to identify individual employee strengths and weaknesses,
hence give consider them in job allocation.
Reference books:
1. Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge 2009, Organizational
Behavior, 13th Edition.
2. Laurie J. Mullins and Gill Christy 2014, Management & Organizational
Behavior, 10th Edition.

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3.

Explain the attribution theory of perception in relation to performance appraisal

Individual behavior consensus

Errors of attribution theory

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