Empirical Evidence of Managerial Attribution in Managing Poor-Performing Employees

The Attribution Model of Leadership explains internal and external attributions. However, actual data to explain the construct of internal and external attribution is scarce. This is because past researches use dependent measures already framed in terms of the internal/external categories. To overcome this gap, this study explores the processes that construct internal and external attributions as experienced by human resource managers in managing poor-performing subordinates. Data of this study is based on an in-depth interview of six selected informants. The research finding explains the informants’ own words on the internal/external categories, based on their direct observation and knowledge structures for what specific causes covary with what specific effects. The contribution of this study is the empirical evidence, based on actual data that explains internal and external attribution. This is because the Attribution Model of Leadership is based on dependent measures of covariance analysis, while this research finding explains the processes based on specific explanation of internal and external attribution.