Factors Influencing Supervisor's Responses to Subordinate's Poor Performance: An Attributional Analysis.

Abstract Previous research in accounting and other disciplines has indicated the importance of causal attributions in the interpretation of performance variances. However, most accounting research has focused on antecedents rather than consequences of attributions. This stud/focuses on consequences of attributions by examining the relationship between causal attributions and subsequent responses in a performance evaluation context. Specifically, the study examines the effects of two dimensions of causal attribution: locus of causality and stability, as well as a potential moderating variable, organizational responsibility, on supervisors' responses to a subordinate's poor performance. A field experiment was conducted using members of the American Production and Inventory Control Society. Participants were presented with a case scenario in which a subordinate failed to meet a production quota. They were asked to select the one most appropriate action to take in response to the failure and to rate what the action sought to accomplish. The statistically significant results indicate that both the locus of causality and stability of supervisors' causal attributions, as well as the subordinate's organizational responsibility, has an effect on supervisors' responses to the subordinate's performance.