Causal attributions, affect, and expectations for a day's work performance

Area of Science:

• Organizational Psychology
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Employee performance is influenced by attributions and affect.
• Understanding how employees explain their work is crucial for organizational behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationships between perceived job performance, causal attributions, employee affect, and daily work expectations.
• To examine the correspondence between established causal attribution categories and employee-generated job explanations.

Main Methods:

• Two studies were conducted.
• Data collection involved assessing perceived job performance, causal attributions, employee affect, and expectations for a day's work.

Main Results:

• Causal attribution categories aligned with employee explanations of their job performance in both studies.
• The obtained results showed some inconsistencies when compared to previous laboratory-based attribution studies.

Conclusions:

• Employee explanations for job performance are related to established attributional frameworks.
• The findings suggest that real-world work contexts may yield different attributional patterns than controlled laboratory settings.