Question

Answer ALL Questions

1. (A). One of the most interesting findings from attribution theory is that there are    

        errors or biases that distort attributions. Discuss four (5) of these errors and how   

        they affect organizational performance.                                               [12 marks]

(B). Explain the concept “Emotional intelligence” and examine three (3) of the

    Dimensions.                                                                                                 [8 marks]

Answer 1

(A)     Attributions are inferences that people make about the causes of events and behavior of others and themselves. Attribution theory explains how the people uses information to arrive at judgments for events. There are errors or biases found in the attribution theory. Three of them are:

• The fundamental attribution error : It is the tendency for people to over emphasize personality based explanations and under-emphasizing situational explanations for the behaviors observed in others. People judge a person's actions depend on the kind of person rather than on the social and environmental forces that influence the person.
• Actor-observer bias: People make personal attributions for the behavior of others than they do for themselves and make more situational attributions for own behavior than for the behavior of others.
• Self-serving attributions : These attributions help people to meet the desire to see ourselves positively. It is the tendency to attribute the successes to themselves and the failures to others and the situation.

(B)       Emotional intelligence is the process of understanding and managing ones own and others emotional states in order to solve problems based on emotions and to regulate the behaviour. Three dimensions of emotional intelligence are self awareness, self regulation and motivation.

Self–awareness: Self awareness is the knowledge of the individual about what he is feeling in the moment, and using those preferences in the decision-making. He will have a realistic assessment of his own abilities and a self-confidence.

Self-regulation: This involves regulating self emotions so that they facilitate to pursue goals and in recovering from emotional distress.

Motivation: This dimension involves using available preferences to guide the individual towards the goals and to help in taking initiative. It also helps to improve and to persevere in the face of frustration