PERSON PERCEPTION: MAKING JUDGMENT ABOUT OTHERS

Attribution Theory:

While observing people’s behavior such as getting an overseas assignment or promotion to top management position or failed miserably in university examination or fired from the employer etc, we attempt to determine whether it was internally caused or external caused. If those factors such as knowledge, skill, effort, talent, hard work, positive attitude are responsible for the occurrence of behavior, it is labeled as internally caused. Internally caused behaviors are those that are believed to be under the personal control of the individual. If those factors such as situational factors such as location advantage, non availability of material, contacts with influential others, etc are responsible for the occurrence of behavior, it is labeled as externally caused. Externally caused behavior is seen as resulting from outside causes; that is, the person is seen as forced into the behavior by the situation.

If an employee is late for work, one can attribute his late coming due to laziness or lack of interest in the job of over sleeping. This would be internal interpretation. If an employee late coming is due to traffic jam or road accident or his wife sickness, then he is making external attribution. There are three factors which are used to determine whether the behavior is caused by internal factors or due to external factors. They are: Distinctiveness, Consensus and Consistency.

Distinctiveness:

It refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations. If a person is coming late not only to office but also to picnic party or to birth day party or to attending meeting etc. If his late coming behavior is not unique, it will probably be judged as internal. (Low Distinctiveness) If his late coming behavior is unusual, that is, only to office work, his late coming behavior is due to external attribution. (High Distinctiveness)

Consensus:

It refers to whether all the people who are facing with a similar situation respond in the same way or not. If all the people are responding the same way, then there is high consensus. If consensus is high, then his late coming behavior is due to external factors. If only this worker is late and all others are punctual, then there is low consensus. If consensus is low, then his late coming is due to internal factor

Consistency:

It refers whether a person responds the same all the time, that is, whether his late coming is common in all the days or once in a blue moon. If his late coming is reported in all the days, then there is high consistency. If there is high consistency, his late coming behavior is due to internal factor. If his late coming is reported only one time, then there is low consistency. If there is low consistency, then his late coming is due to external factors. The more consistent the behavior, the more the observer is inclined to attribute it to internal factors.

Errors in Attribution:

While attributing the causes for the behavior of individuals, people tend to commit two types of errors.

Fundamental Attribution Error:

There is tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgment about the behavior of others particularly with reference to the victims of accidents or failures. This is called the fundamental attribution errors. For example, a sales manager is likely to attribute the poor performance of his sales agents to laziness rather than to the new product line introduced by the competitor or current recession prevailing in the society etc.

Self-Serving Bias:

There is also a tendency for individuals to attribute their own success to internal factors such as ability or effort, while putting the blame for failure on external factors such as luck or fate. This is called the self-serving bias. While assessing the performance of subordinates, the managers are likely to provide feedback in a distorted manner depending on whether it is positive or negative.