essential-guide-to-qualitative-in-organizational-research

19 –––– Attributional Coding ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Jo SilvesterCausal attributions refer to the explanations we make for our own behaviour, the behaviourof other people and the events that we observe or hear about from others. One only has toconsider how prevalent gossip is in everyday life to understand that causal attributions are avery common phenomenon. They are also very common in the workplace. Managers seekto explain the behaviour of the people who work for them – why Sally has performedespecially well over recent months, or why Robert’s team seem to be experiencing difficultymeeting targets. Employees may try to understand why a boss has become more supportive,why a particular colleague appears to be getting all the best jobs, or why the organization hasannounced a programme of organizational change. Similarly, we might try to work out whywe were not put forward for an expected promotion, why a customer is being difficult, or whywe are suddenly dissatisfied with our work.According to attribution theorists we engage in a process of sense-making to identify thecauses of novel, important, or potentially threatening events (Wong and Weiner, 1981),because by doing so we render our environment more predictable and therefore controllable(Heider, 1958). Organizational researchers have been particularly interested in theseattributions because the way in which an individual explains an event can have an importantinfluence upon how they choose to respond. Researchers have studied attributions made bysales people for successful and unsuccessful sales outcomes (Seligman and Schulman, 1986;Silvester et al., 2003); the relationship between attributions and job-seeking behaviour (Prussiaet al., 1993); managers’ attributions for employees (Knowlton and Mitchell, 1980); and theimpact of causal attributions upon strategic decision making among CEOs and their seniorteams (Gooding and Kinicki, 1995).However, because causal attributions have traditionally been conceptualized as internal andprivate phenomena, researchers have typically relied upon quantitative research methods suchas questionnaires, and behavioural vignettes to render them explicit. In fact, one might besurprised to find attributional research described in a book concerned with qualitativemethods. Yet, the production of causal attributions is also a very public activity (Antaki, 1994).Whilst individuals are motivated to make sense of the world in order to aid mastery of theirenvironment, they also need to share this understanding if they are to interact effectively withother people (Silvester and Chapman, 1997). Communicated attributions are one means bywhich people seek to persuade others to adopt their view of causal reality. Similarly, bylistening to attributions produced by others, individuals can learn about different perspectivesas well as the causes of events that they may not have observed. They can also learn why onemight be expected to behave in a particular way by listening to attributions produced by seniorindividuals within an organization (Silvester et al., 1999). This chapter describes a methodknown as ‘attributional coding’ that enables researchers to extract, code, and analyse patterns