Who do you tend to blame when someone makes a mistake?
I learnt an interesting theory in Organizational Behavior class, and this is attribution theory. The theory suggests that when we observe what seems like atypical behavior by an individual, we try to make sense of it. We consider whether the individual is responsible for the behavior( the cause is internal), or whether something outside the individual caused the behavior( the cause is external). People tend to blame someone makes the mistakes caused by internal factors, rather than external ones.
There are three rules to determine whether behavior is internally or externally caused: distinctiveness, consensus and consistency. For example, a student is silent in a comm101 class, she or he does not listen to the teachers and join the class. If the student is always underperforming not only in comm101 class, but also in other classes, professor may think the student is unwilling to join the class, and the cause is internal. There can be a F on his or her grade. However, if the action is unusual, the professor judge it as externally caused. Maybe the student is sick.
Another rule is consensus. If in a comm101 class, all students are late. That means consensus is high. In this case, professors would be expected to give an external attribution perspective like the bus students take is broken, and professors would not blame students. But if other students who take the same route make it to class on time, professors would conclude the cause of lateness was internal for the student( wake up late or does not like the class). As a result, professors will be very angry.
The last rule is consistency. If a student always misses to submit assignments. He or she missed case1, 2 and 3 submissions, professors are likely to attribute the missing to external causes.
Organizational Behavior is really useful and the theories can be applied to many areas. In my opinion, the most magic part of Organizational Behavior is that it can explain some strange behaviors which people even do not notice in lives.
There is a integrated understanding about attribution theory on simply psychology website. The website also give us other famous theories which can be used to explain individuals’ behaviors. You may find it is quiet interesting to apply Organizational Behaviors to our daily lives.
references: OB text book
http://www.papermasters.com/attribution-theory.html