ATTRIBUTION THEORYAND

SPECIFIC APPLICATION IN AN ORGANIZATION

Presented By:Abhishek Panda-111Rohan Sinha-113Aakash Bhatia-21

ContentsATTRIBUTION THORY DEFINITIONTYPES OF ATTRIBUTION FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE ATTRIBUTIONS(KELLY’S MODEL)COMMON ATTRIBUTION ERRORSSHORTCUTS USED IN FORMING IMPRESSIONS OF OTHERSSPECIFIC APPLICATIONS IN ORGANIZATIONSBIBLIOGRAPHY

DEFINITIONAttribution theory is a theory about how people explain things.

Attribution refer to the way people try to understand the behavior of others or interpret events around them.

Attribution theory seeks to explain how and why people make these causal attributions.

Types Of Attribution

CATEGORY 1

• INTERNAL• EXTERNAL

CATEGORY 2

• STABLE• UNSTABLE

CATEGORY 3

• CONTROLLABLE• UNCONTROLLABLE

Internal vs. External

In an internal, or dispositional, attribution, people infer that an event or a person’s behavior is due to personal factors such as traits, abilities, or feelings.

In an external, or situational, attribution, people infer that a person’s behavior is due to situational factors.

Stable vs. UnstableResearchers also distinguish between stable and

unstable attributions.

When people make a Stable attribution, they infer that an event or behavior is due to stable, unchanging factors.

When making an Unstable attribution, they infer that an event or behavior is due to unstable, temporary factors.

Controllable vs. Uncontrollable

If something is controllable, we can alter it if we wish to do so.

If something is uncontrollable, it is outside our sphere of influence.

Factors That Influence Attributions(Kelly’s model)

Distinctiveness :

Distinctiveness – the consideration given to how consistent a person’s behavior is across different situations

Consistency :

Consistency – refers to the measure of whether an individual responds the same way across time.

Consensus : Consensus - refers to the likelihood that all those facing the same situation will have similar responses.

Common Attribution Errors

Fundamen

tal Error

Self-servin

g Bias

The Fundamental Attribution ErrorThe fundamental attribution error is the tendency

to attribute other people’s behavior to internal factors

such as personality traits, abilities, and feelings. The fundamental attribution error is also called

the correspondence bias, because it is assumed

that other people’s behavior corresponds to their

personal attributes. When explaining their own behavior, on the other hand, people

tend to attribute it to situational factors.

The Self-Serving Bias The self-serving bias is the tendency to attribute successes to internal

factors and failures to situational factors.

This bias tends to increase as time passes after an event.

Therefore, the further in the past an event is, the more likely people are to congratulate themselves for successes and to blame the situation for failures.

Shortcuts Used in Forming Impressions of Others

Selective perception

Halo effect

Contrast effects

Stereotyping

Cont.…Selective Perception – happens when a person selectively interprets

what he sees on the basis of his interests, background, experience, and attitudes. It is impossible for a person to assimilate everything he sees, hears, smells, touches or tastes. Only a limited number of stimuli can be taken in. As a result, people engage in selective perception, but the process is affected by personal interests, background, experience and attitude of the perceiver.

Cont.….Halo Effect – occurs when one attribute of a person or situation is used to

develop an overall impression of the person or situation. In short, this occurs when we draw a general impression on the basis of a single characteristic.

Contrast Effects – evaluations of a person’s characteristics that are affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics. Here, we do not evaluate a person in isolation. Our reaction to one person is influenced by other persons we have recently encountered.

Cont.….

Stereotyping – judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that person belongs. Generalization is not without advantages. It is a means of simplifying a complex world, and it permits us to maintain consistency. The problem, of course, is when we inaccurately stereotype.

Specific Applications in Organizations

Performance Expectation

Employee interview

Employee effort

Ethnic profiling

Performance Evaluator

Cont…Employment Interview - during an interview the interviewers make an perceptual

judgement and draw early impressions. As a result information elicited early in the interview carries greater weight than does information elicited later.

Performance Expectations - Self-fulfilling prophecy (pygmalion effect): The lower or higher performance of employees reflects preconceived leader expectations about employee capabilities.

Cont..Performance Evaluations - Appraisals are often the subjective (judgmental)

perceptions of appraisers of another employee’s job performance.Employee Effort - Assessment of individual effort is a subjective judgment subject

to perceptual distortion and bias.Ethnic Profiling - A form of stereotyping in which a group of individuals is singled

out—typically on the basis of race or ethnicity—for intensive inquiry, scrutinizing, or investigation.

BibliographyOrganizational Behavior - V S P Rao.Organization Behavior -Johhn M Ivancevich ,Robert Konopaske

and Michael T MattesonOrganization Behavior - Stephen P. Robbins , Timothy A. Judge

and Neharika Vohrahttp://www.simplypsychology.org/attribution-theory.htmlGoogle Images

THANK YOU!T

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