Performance Management: Putting Research into Action

Diagnosing the Causes of CWB

As a manager, the first challenge in dealing with CWB is to correctly diagnose the root of the problem. This is generally done by talking to the problem individual, talking to the individual’s co-workers, and observing the employee’s behavior and patterns. It is important not to jump to quick conclusions but rather to take time to try to clearly understand what is going on and avoid making attributional errors. One common error that can occur in diagnosing causes of employees’ behaviors is the fundamental attribution error in which, “regardless of actual performance, those observing the performance of others are more likely to attribute poor performance to internal stable conditions (for example, ability). Because ...