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112 PART 3: THE PERSONAL SIDE OF LEADERSHIP
play a significant role in performance appraisal. For example, a person with an

outstanding attendance record may be assessed as responsible, industrious, and
highly productive; another person with less-than-average attendance may be as-
sessed as a poor performer. Either assessment may be true, but it is the leader’s job
to be sure the assessment is based on complete information about all job-related
characteristics and not just his or her preferences for good attendance.
Projection Projection is the tendency of perceivers to see their own personal traits in other
Projection
the tendency to see one’ s own people; that is, they project their own needs, feelings, values, and attitudes into their
the tendency to see one’s own
personal traits in other people
personal traits in other people
judgment of others. A leader who is achievement oriented might assume that subor-
dinates are as well. This might cause the manager to restructure jobs to be less rou-
tine and more challenging, without regard for employees’ actual satisfaction. The
best guards against errors based on projection are self-awareness and empathy.
Perceptual defense Perceptual defense is the tendency of perceivers to protect themselves against
Perceptual defense
the tendency to protect oneself ideas, objects, or people that are threatening. People perceive things that are satis-
the tendency to protect oneself
by disregarding ideas, situations,
by disregarding ideas, situations,
or people that are unpleasant fying and pleasant, but tend to disregard things that are disturbing and unpleasant.
or people that are unpleasant
In essence, people develop blind spots in the perceptual process so that negative
sensory data do not hurt them. For example, the director of a non-profi t educa-
tional organization in Tennessee hated dealing with conflict because he had grown

up with parents who constantly argued and often put him in the middle of their
arguments. The director consistently overlooked discord among staff members
until things would reach a boiling point. When the blow-up occurred, the director
would be shocked and dismayed, because he had truly perceived that everything
was going smoothly among the staff. Recognizing perceptual blind spots can help
people develop a clearer picture of reality.
Attribution Theory
As people organize what they perceive, they often draw conclusions, such as
Attribution theory
Attribution theory about an object, event, or person. Attribution theory refers to how people explain
how people draw conclusions the causes of events or behaviors. For example, many people contribute the suc-
how people draw conclusions
about what caused certain
about what caused certain
behaviors or events cess or failure of an organization to the top leader, when in reality there may be
behaviors or events
many factors that contribute to organizational performance. People also make
attributions or judgments about what caused a person’s behavior—something
about the person or something about the situation. An internal attribution says
characteristics of the person led to the behavior (“My subordinate missed the
deadline because he’s lazy and incompetent”). An external attribution says some-
thing about the situation caused the person’s behavior (“My subordinate missed
the deadline because he didn’t have the team support and resources he needed”).
Attributions are important because they help people decide how to handle a situ-
ation. In the case of a subordinate missing a deadline, a leader who blames the
mistake on the employee’s personal characteristics might reprimand the person or,
more effectively, provide additional training and direction. A leader who blames
the mistake on external factors will try to help prevent such situations in the fu-
ture, such as making sure team members have the resources they need, providing
support to remove obstacles, and insuring that deadlines are realistic.
Social scientists have studied the attributions people make and identifi ed
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three factors that influence whether an attribution will be external or internal.
Exhibit 4.3 illustrates these three factors.
1. Distinctiveness. Whether the behavior is unusual for that person (in contrast
to a person displaying the same kind of behavior in many situations). If
the behavior is distinctive, the perceiver probably will make an external
attribution.