Hector Attribution Theory

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I am employed as the Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator at The UPS Store in Bowie, MD. A part of my job is to assist in Human Relations task. Keron D. Hector and Richard Nunez Jr are both employed at The UPS Store in Bowie Maryland. Hector is the owner and manger of the store. Richard is the Assistant manger. Richard was recently promoted from Print Specialist to Assistant Manger. Both individuals speak to me when they have issues. In the last months since Richard has be promoted he has been lacking in motivation and work ethic. Richard shows up for work late and he is not getting important tasks done for clients. Hector observes Richard’s behavior and thinks that Richard has become lazy. Hector attributes Richard’s behavior to the fact that he feels he does not have to work hard anymore because he has been promoted. Richard feels that Hector does not care about his time and effort. Richard proposed to his girlfriend a month before he was promoted to Assistant Manger. With the added stress of planning a wedding, his fiancé wanting to spend more time with him, and playing in three gospel bands, Richard started to feel tired and worn out. Using Friz Heider’s Attribution Theory I will explain and clarify the source of Hectors and Richards conflict. Main Body Attribution Theory helps us explain the behaviors of others and why they behave that way. …show more content…
We attribute others behaviors to certain causes and we do so by observing others actions. To gain understanding we analyze the causes of an action or behavior (Galvin, 2011, pg.111). Hector believes that Richard is late to work because Richard he is an Assistant Manger and feels he can “make his own hours”. Hector attributes Richard being promoted as the cause of Richard being late. This shows us how Hector is trying to make sense Richard’s actions. According to Fized, the attributions that we make can be internal or external (Malle). These sources of behaviors are called Casual Lioci (Galvin, 2011, pg.111). Internal attributions are dispositional, meaning that the person is acting in a certain way because of personal factors such mood, character or personality (Malle). External attributions are situational, which means that the person is acting in a certain way because of the situation. Hector attributes internal factors for Richard’s behavior. Even though this may not be reality, it’s easy for an individual to attribute internal factors to another individual’s behaviors instead of our own. (Braithwaite & Manusov, 2008, pg.40). Along with the Casual Loci there are other dimensions of attributions. For example, people will take into account whether or not the individual had control over the circumstances. Before Hector makes a judgment about Richard’s actions he should take into account if Richard has control over his actions. Hector feels Richard can control if he gets to work on time or not. He feels that even in traffic an individual should show up for work on time. He says, “ people should add on extra time”. On the other hand Richard’s actions are caused by non-controllable factors such as, flat tires, car-pooling, and traffic. Another dimension of attributions is stability. Heider(1958) suggests people are like “Naïve scientists” because we observe others actions and try to understand why they act in certain ways . While observing, Kelley’s Covariation Model (1973) suggests that there are three stages to “observing others that influence our judgments” (Galvin, 2011, pg.111). One factor we observe that affects the way we make judgments is distinctiveness. We take into account if the” person acts differently in a situation then they normally would act in other situations”( Galvin, 2011, pg.111). If someone is acting differently then we can attribute his or her behavior to external factors. (Kelly, 1967). For Example, Richard never showed up to work late before he was promoted. Hector should take this into account when analyzing the situation. Instead of attributing Richard’s actions to internal factors like cockiness and laziness, Hector could attribute Richard’s behavior to external factors like traffic. According to Kelley’s model, if Richard never showed up to work before he got promoted then it would be fair to attribute his actions to internal factors, such as him being lazy. Another factor we think about when observing others is consistency. “ Consistency is the extent to

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