Attribution of the "Causes" of Performance: A General Alternative Interpretation of Cross-Sectional Research on Organizations.

This paper presents a general alternative interpretation of correlational findings which link perceptual or questionnaire measures 10 data on performance. It is posited that organizational participants possess theories of performance just as do organizational researchers, and that respondents will use knowledge of performance as a cue by which they attribute characteristics to themselves, their work groups, and organizations. According to this attribution hypothesis. self-report data on organizational characteristics may actually represent the consequences rather than the determinants of performance. To test this alternative interpretation of correlational findings, an experiment was conducted in which knowledge of group performance (positive vs negative) was a manipulated independent variable. The results showed that knowledge of performance affected the levels of influence, cohesiveness, communication, motivation, and openness to change attributed by members to their work groups. These findings were also replicated by an interpersonal simulation. The data of the true experiment and the interpersonal simulation, together, provide strong evidence for the attribution hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]