Bank of Bhutan
Perception
Perception
is the way we see things and notice. “Perception is a process by which individuals
organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to
their environment.” (Rubbin, & Judge, 2011). People’s behaviour is based on their
perception of what reality is, not on reality itself. Perception is the reality
but the reality may be different from what we perceive. Same situation may be
perceived differently by different people because interest may be one of the
driving forces behind his perception.
Attribution
theory
Attribution
theory tries to explain the ways in which we judge people differently,
depending on the meaning we attribute to a given behavior. When individual
observe behaviour, they attempt to determine whether it is internally or
externally cause, (Rubbin, & Judge, 2011). According to the definition
of Heider (1976 cited in Harvey, & Weary, 1984), “Attribution is a part of
cognition of the environment. Whenever you cognize your environment you find
attribution occurring”. Internally
caused behaviour such as; poor attitude, stress, lack of knowledge and
personality traits are under the control of individuals. But the behaviour results
from outside causes which are forced into behaviour by situations are external
to individuals. The theory basically attempts to analyse the information how
people use while making causal inferences. Fundamental attribution error occur while
judging other’s behavior because we tend to under estimate the influence of
external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors. Self-serving
bias occurs when we attribute our own success to internal factors and attribute
failure to their external factors. According to Rubbin, & Judge,(2011), “There
is tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate
the influence of internal factors while making judgments about the behavior of
others”. Common shortcuts in judging
other such as selective perception, halo effect, contrast effects and stereotyping
are frequently valuable but have some limitation as well.
Attribution theory referred to the perception
or inference of cause. Understanding attribution is critical because people’s
interpretation of causes of behaviour and events determine their subsequent
attitudes and behaviours, (Kelly, & Michela, 1980). It is also referred to as judging people
differently, depending on the meaning we attribute to given behaviour. (Rubbin,
& Judge, 2011). However, according to the Bartunek, (1980), the attribution
theory is a branch of social psychology which addresses the factors affecting
our understanding of behaviors. Attribution
is also referred to as work concerned with attempt to understand the factors
involved in perceived causation. Kelley (1973,
cited in Mizerski, Richard ; Gloden, Linda, Kernan, Jerome, 1979) defines it “Attribution
theory is a theory about how people make casual explanation, about how they
answer questions beginning with, why?”.
Thibaut & Riecken (1955, cited in Kelley, & Michela,
1980) argued that, the subject decides
between an internal and external cause for the other’s compliance on the basis
of other’s perceived power. If the other person is high in power or status,
then distinctiveness is low and the cause for the compliance will be considered
to be endogenous to person. But, if the other person is low in power or status,
then distinctiveness is considered to be high and the cause for the compliance
will be seen as exogenous to person. Eccles, et al (2002) suggest that, “
attributing success to an internal cause enhances one’s pride or self-esteem,
but attributing that success to an external cause enhances one’s gratitude;
attributing failure to internal cause is linked to shame, but attributing it to
external causes to anger.”
While making judgment of other people; there is
likely that we underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate
the influence internal factors. Ross, (1977, cited in Harvey, & Weary,
1984) argued that, the tendency of
attributors to underestimate the impact of situational factors to overestimate
the depositional factors in controlling behavior was the fundamental attribution error. According
to Robbins, & Judge, (2011) the fundamental error occurs when there is
tendency to underestimate the external factors and overestimate the influence
of internal factors when making judgment about the behaviour of others. He also
suggests that self-serving bias is also likely to face when people attribute
their own success to internal factors and put the blame on external factor on
their failure. According to experiment conducted by Miller, & Lawson,
(1989) suggest that, subjects are capable of avoiding the fundamental
attribution error as well as committing it and it depends on their situation.
There are number
of shortcuts we use such as selective perception, halo effects, contrast
effects and stereotyping when we judge others. (Robbins, & Judge, 2011).
Since organisation is a consciously coordinated
social unit; it comprises of people with diversity of attitude, values, ethic,
and behaviour and understanding of individual behaviour is key to the success
of the organization. Because of these
social intricacies involved in an organization, manager’s judgment has
important consequences in employees’ appraisal. According to Robbins, &
Judge, (2011) most common application of attribution theory are employment
interview, performance expectations, performance evaluation, employee's effort
and employee loyalty. Perceptual judgment of interviewers may not be accurate
because the early impression quickly becomes entrenched and ad-hoc decision may
not be advisable as the first perception may not be the complete one. Managers’
expectation also has impact on employees’ behaviours. Performance evaluation
depends on the perceptual process and has direct link in terms of promotion,
pay raises, continuation of employment of the individual employee. All these evaluation process are subjective
and are problematic due to attribution errors as discussed above.
Appelbaum, Lavigne-Schmidt, Peytchev,
& Shapiro( 1999, cited in Lisa . Nishii, Devid ., Lepak, Binjamin
Schneider, 2008) suggest that when employees perceive that HR
practices reflect an underlying cost
reduction HR strategy in which the organisaton views employees as a cost to be
minimized, corresponding levels of commitment and satisfaction will be
negative. Jones & Nisbett (1971, cited in Knowlton, William, Mitchell, Terence., 1980)
argued that performance is most often attributed to four causes; effort and
ability (either internal or dispositional, causes or both) and luck and task
difficulty (both or either external, or situational, causes). Furthermore,
differences in attributions made by the actors(those performing the actions)
and observers, and ego enhancing biases, suggest that leaders are likely to
attribute the performance of their subordinates more to internal than to
external causes and that this would be most pronounced in the case of poor
performance(when external explanation might suggest poor supervision). Green, Ledin, 1980 postulated that,
when the subordinate’s poor performance was portrayed as being due to internal
reasons as opposed to external reasons, performance was attributed to more to
personal characteristics.
According to
Kipinis & Cosentino(1969 cited in Knowlton, 1980) suggest that leaders used
coercive behavior when they believed a subordinate performed poorly due to a
bad attitude and use expertise when they believed the poor performance was due
to lack of ability. Hence different measures used by the managers on employees
while evaluating them have greater impacts on organization performance. (Brody,
1980) concluded in his research that, the explosion of research in cognitive
psychology has proceeded in relative isolation from the research in motivation.
Conclusion
It
is to be concluded that despite various errors and shortcomings, Attribution
theory has a great positive impact on management of the employees in an
organization. Since the human resource is the asset to an organization,
understanding their behaviours from the management perspective is a key to
success of the organization. Understanding
of attribution theory provides important insight by which employees management
becomes integrated part of their attitudes and behaviours. Though the attribution theory errors and
shortcomings impact the productivity, trust and commitment of the employees, it
far surpasses the positive implications as argued by some authors. Thus,
considering causes of the behaviors which range from internal to external
factors and situational to personal factors; organisations need to formulate
strategy to lessen their manifestations. However, as human factors such as
attitudes, personalities and perception vary, the importance of the attribution
theory will be predominant theory in management of employees in organisations.
References:
Bartunek, J.M,. 1981, why did you do that?
Attribution Theory in Organisation, Business
Horizon, Sept: 66-81.
Brody, Nathan. Social
Motivation, Annual Review
of Psychology, 1980, Vol. 31, p143-168, 26p.
Eccles, Jacquelynne S.; Wigfield, Allan.
Motivational beliefs, values and goals Annual
Review of Psychology, 2002, Vol. 53 Issue 1, p109, 24p
Green, S. & Liden, 1980, Contextual and Attribution
Influences on control decisions, Journal of Applied Psychology, 65, 4: 453-458.
Harvey, J. & Weary, G. 1984 Current Issue in
Attribution Theory and Research, Annual Review of Psychology, 35:427-459
Kelley, H. & Michela, J. 1980, Attribution
Theory and Research, Annual Review of
Psychology, 31: 457-501.
Knowlton,
William, A., Mitchell, Terence, R, Effects of causal attribution on a
supervisor’s evaluation of subordinate performance, Journal of Applied Psychology Vol 65(4), Aug,1980. Pp. 459-466
Lisa
H. Nishii, Devid P., Lepak, Binjamin Schneider, Employee attribution of the
“why” of HR practices : their effects on employees attitudes and behaviours and
customer satisfaction.
personnel psychology 2008, 61, 503–545
Miller, A.G, & Lawson, T., 1989. The Effect of
an Informational Option on the fundamental Attribution Error, Personality and social Psychology Bulletin, 15, 2: 194:204
Robbins, S. &
Judge, T., 2011. Organisational
Behaviour, Chapter 5, 14th Edition Upper saddle River, NY, Pearson Education
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