– Explain how marketing is both a reflection of a culture and a powerful influence upon it. Explain with the help of suitable examples.What is business portfolio analysis? Discuss how a company might use the Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) growth-market matrix.Saudi Electronic UniversityStudent’s college and majorCover page is importantUnit Name: Organisational BehaviorCRN Number: (****)Surname:Student’s Family NameOther NamesStudent’s First NameStudent Number:S653……..Topic:Attribution Theory and itsRelevance to Management PracticeAssignment 1_Week3_ Chapters TopicsInstructor’s Name:Tahani BasfarClass (Day/Time):Wednesday: 11:30 am_12:30 pmWord Count:1 512Date Submitted:day/Month/year Student’s name S654321Writer name and number in headerImportant Notes: Font type size color:Time new romans12 lackSpacing: 2Introduction:What is coming up….A very important part for readersPeople’s actions in organizations are a fundamental aspect has been studied amonghundreds of researchers to understand why people behave in certain ways based on theirattitudes and perceptions. Attribution theory is an attempt that can explain behaviordepend upon different meanings we give to people’s behaviors trying to recognizewhether there is an external or internal cause. In organizations mangers are concernedabout reasons that can add meaning and explain behavior happened in the workenvironment. This essay will explain and discuss attribution theory (based on previousacademic studies) and the importance of it to managers in the organization.Attribution Theory Background:Using of subtitles..Attribution theory is an explanation of a psychological process that influencesindividuals’ performance and gives reasons why they behave the way they do (Gedeon &Rubin 1999). The efficiency of attribution theory depends upon the level of managers’In text referenceinterpretations for others behavior in the work environment (Dubinsky et al 1989). styleTherefore observing individuals’ behaviors is a function of managers’ responsibility and it would be a very difficult if managers can not have a sense to interpret behavior tocertain reasons. Dubinsky Skinner and Whittler (1989) show that there are threeAnother style ofin text referenceassumption underlying the theory: 1) individuals attempt to determine causes ofbehaviors 2) They give causal explanations of behaviors in a logical approach 3) theattributions that individuals make through these explanations have consequences forfuture behavior and interactions. Thus the role of managers does not stop on these threePage # in footerPage 2 of 8 Student’s name S654321Writer name and number in headerpoints yet they face an important issue of what action should be taken to direct behaviorfor better performance.Kelly and Michela (1980) demonstrate antecedents and consequences of attributions ininvestigation of behavior. The antecedents consist of factors that drive people to attributea certain event to a particular cause more than another and the consequences are thepeople’s making particular attributions. Investigators focus on information beliefs andmotivation about the consequences of actions to understand a certain act. In addition Kelly and Michela (1980) admit a difference between attribution theories andattributional theories therefore attribution research when the investigators mainlyconcern about the link between antecedents and attribution while atrributional researchrefers to those have interest of consequences beyond attributions. The following diagramshows Kelly and Michela’s explanation.Using of pix graphs……Source: Kelly & Michela 1980In text reference for a pix or graphs…Page # in footerPage 3 of 8 Student’s name S654321Writer name and number in headerDimensionality of attributions:Attribution theory is based on the explanations of behavior that managers predict so it isa part of their job which should be efficient and strong duty to achieve a considerablelevel of organizational effectiveness. People’s predictions of behavior is an attempt todetermine the internal and external origins that influence people’s behaviors. An internalattribution”is what people believe to be under personal control of the individual( Robbins& judge 2011 p. 170 ) while an external attribution “is what people imagine thesituation forced the individual to do” ( Robbins & judge 2011 p. 170 ). Thedetermination generally depends upon three elements between the internal and externalattributions and individual behaviors. These factors are: Distinctiveness “refers towhether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations”; Consensus “Ifeveryone who faces a similar situation responds in the same way” and Consistency “ anobserver looks for consistency in a person’s action” ( Robbins & judge 2011 p.170 ).The question can be asked here what these factors in attribution theory can tell anobserver so the following Exhibit 6-2 ( Robbins & judge 2011 p.170 ) illustrates theanswer.For example In organization when a certain employee performs in a different mannerto another different given task that is (high distinctiveness). Also when he/she has thesame performance to other of employees (colleagues) on the given task that is (highconsensus) and his/hers task performance is inconsistent over the time that is (lowconsistency) so an observer could judge the employee’s behavior as external origins.Interestingly Gedeon & Rubin (1999)have a similar point of view of attribution theory intheir study but they explain it in a different way . Gedeon & Rubin (1999) assert thatPage # in footerPage 4 of 8 Student’s name S654321Writer name and number in headerattributions can be grouped into four factors: ability effort task and luck and these fourattributions can be divided and characterized as having either internal and externalcauses. Ability and effort describe the level of individuals’ skills so they can becharacterized as internal causes. On the other hand task and luck involve some elementsthat are part of the environment rather than people’s characteristics. In addition Gedeon& Rubin (1999) mention that internal and external characteristics can be categorized asstable ( ability and task difficulty) and unstable (effort and luck) .This explanation ofattribution theory can be useful for observers to achieve effective performance evaluationin the organization. Also it can be a suitable way in measuring and evaluating theattributions of self performance (Gedeon & Rubin 1999).Managers and attribution theory:Since judging behaviors is an important factor for organizational effectiveness managersmust evaluate their employees’ performance through strong and efficient communicationto raise their ability to determine and understand behaviors (Bartunek 1981). Indeed attribution theory plays a critical role in the performance evaluation to explain whyemployees and managers behave the way they do in the organization (Gedeon & Rubin 1999). Thus managers must increase their awareness in achieving a significant level ofunderstanding behaviors based on such theory to cognize and control over theorganization environment (Harvey & Weary 1984). For instance Gyeke and Salminen(2006) provided through their research a clear link between job satisfaction andorganizational environment so attribution can be influenced by some aspects: jobsatisfaction foe example which can be a supportive statement to illustrate that mangersPage # in footerPage 5 of 8 Student’s name S654321Writer name and number in headershould find out the effective factors on behaviors which help them to analyze employees’behaviors for successful future of the organization. Furthermore in depth attributiontheory is a combination of highly complex socio- psychological process hence there aresome issues can be clarified to managers for understanding the theory and then logicallyaccomplish better practices. Firstly as Bartunek (1981) exposes that there are two mainfactors that negatively lead to an appalling judgment on behavior: the behavior is judgedby an observer or an actor and the action is expressed as a failure or a success theseelements can lead to misunderstanding in attributing people’s behavior. Regarding thispoint of the two above-mentioned factors researchers discovered interesting factsregarding attribution theory: the fundamental attribution errors and self –serving bias.The fundamental error “is the tendency to attribute behavior to internal causes whenfocusing on someone else’s behavior” (DuBrin 2007 p. 56). As a result people normallytend to underestimate the effects of external causes and overestimate the effects ofpersonality traits ( Robbins & Judge 2011 p. ) . Self-serving bias happens when judgingone owns behavior therefore people attribute success to their significant skills andqualities whereas they attribute failure to other external causes (DuBrin 2007 p.56 ).Secondly locus of control is another important aspect of attribution theory that explainsthere are some people who have internal locus of control so they feel whatever happensto them as being controlled internally. Conversely those others who have external locusof control interpret what happens to them as being controlled by an outside environment(DuBrin 2007 p 57). For instance while people with an external locus of control oftenattribute their failure and success to luck those with an internal locus of control feel thatthey are attracting chances by their own efforts into their lives. Consequently DuBrinPage # in footerPage 6 of 8 Student’s name S654321Writer name and number in header(2007 p.57) points out that there is an implication which comes of the relevance of theattribution theory and perception that managers should spend more time in explainingthe causes of events to individuals avoiding misperceptions. Finally Blame is anotherconcept means” the tendency to place the responsibility for a negative outcome on aperson a thing or the environment” (DuBrin 2007 p. 58). DuBrin (2007 p. 58)mentions that a negative consequences of blame lead to obstruct problem solving because blame comes from a problem people spend time on evaluating the blame ratherthan fix the real problem caused the blame. However its positive side is to cause betterchange for better behavior such finding ways to fix the problem that causes unacceptablebehavior instead of focusing on blaming as result that blame will help to understandpeople’s behavior in the work environment.Conclusion:Writer summarization… including results opinions…..Attribution theory is to describe explain and understand human beings’ behaviors in thework place. It offers essential information of managers and employees’ behaviorsregarding the evaluation of their performances. Hence attribution theory is a procedureby which people attribute causes to the behavior they perceive. Managers ascribe causesbased on the theory dimensions of gathering information about task stability over time(Consistency) comparison across tasks (Distinctiveness) comparison among people(Consensus). Furthermore it is combined of some different concepts and factors thatneed to be identified for having better consequences in understanding behaviors.Attribution theory is a part of managers’ work it helps them to predict and control peoplebehaviors in the organization and it support the efficiency of their performance.Page # in footerPage 7 of 8 Student’s name S654321References:Writer name and number in headerReference list…..Harvard style….alphabetical list orderingBartunek J.M. 1981 ‘Why did you do that? Attribution Theory in Organization’ Business Horizons Sept: 66-81.DuBrin A.J. 2007 Fundamentals of Organizational Behavior 4th Edn. Thomson SouthWestern USA Thomson Higher EducationDubinsky A. J. Skinner S. J. & Whittler T. E. 1989 ‘Evaluating Sales Personal: Anattribution Theory Perspective’ Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management Vol.IX pp. 9_21Gedeon J.A. & Rubin R.E 1999 ‘Attribution Theory and Acadmic LibraryPerformance Evaluation’ The Journal of Acadmic Librarianship Vol. 25 pp. 8_25Gyeke S. & Salminen S. 2006 ‘Making Sense of Industrial Accidents: The Role of JobSatisfaction’. Journal of Social Sciences Vol 2 pp.127-134.Harvey J. & Weary G. 1984 ‘Current Issues in Attribution Theory and Research’ Annual Review of Psychology 35: pp. 427-459.Kelley H. & Michela J. 1980 ‘Attribution Theory and Research Annual Review ofPsychology’ 31: pp. 457-501.Robbins S. & Judge T. 2011. Organizational Behavior 14th Edn. Upper Saddle River NY Pearson Education.Page # in footerPage 8 of 8
