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The Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behavior

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Page 21<br />

theory) can be easily modified through organizational intervention. Within this new perspective, job<br />

attitudes are seen to be a function <strong>of</strong> stable traits <strong>of</strong> the worker in addition to being a reaction to a<br />

specific situation (see PERSONALITY TRAITS). Perhaps the most convincing evidence for a<br />

dispositional component to job attitudes was a longitudinal study by Staw, Bell, and Clausen (1986).<br />

Affectivity measures obtained from Californian children in the classroom were significantly correlated<br />

with job attitudes measured later in life.<br />

Laboratory studies subsequently implicated individual dispositions in JOB SATISFACTION, but it was<br />

also found that task enrichment manipulations had a stronger effect on satisfaction.<br />

Field studies suggest that individual job attitudes have some stability over time, and experimental<br />

studies indicate that traits and mood influence task satisfaction. On the other hand, the degree <strong>of</strong><br />

stability in attitudes is not very strong, and no study has yet shown that that stability can be attributed to<br />

traits rather than constancy in the situation. Moreover, the effects <strong>of</strong> traits do not in any way account for<br />

the satisfaction effects <strong>of</strong> task perceptions. While there may be some dispositional component to job<br />

attitudes, this would not seem to be an impediment to organizational interventions designed to improve<br />

job attitudes.<br />

See also Attitude theory; Personality; Affect<br />

Bibliography<br />

Gutek, B. A. & Winter, S. J. (1992). Consistency <strong>of</strong> job satisfaction across situations: Fact or framing<br />

artifact? Journal <strong>of</strong> Vocational <strong>Behavior</strong>, 41, 61–78.<br />

Staw, B. M., Bell, N. E. & Clausen, J. A. (1986). <strong>The</strong> dispositional approach to job attitudes: A lifetime<br />

longitudinal test. Administrative Science Quarterly, 31, 56–77.<br />

JOHN SCHAUBROECK<br />

Attribution<br />

An attribution is a causal explanation. Attribution theory is concerned with the COGNITIVE<br />

PROCESSES and consequences <strong>of</strong> the processes by which individuals explain the behavior and<br />

outcomes <strong>of</strong> others as well as their own behavior and outcomes (Martinko, 1994).<br />

Heider (1958) is most <strong>of</strong>ten credited as the founder <strong>of</strong> attribution theory. His basic thesis was that<br />

people are motivated to predict and control their environments. An essential prerequisite for control is<br />

an understanding <strong>of</strong> the basic causal mechanisms operating in the environment. Thus, average people<br />

can be viewed as "naive psychologists" attempting to understand and explain cause and effect<br />

relationships so that they can attain mastery in their environments.<br />

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