EQUIVOCAL INFORMATION AND ATTRIBUTION: AN INVESTIGATION OF PATTERNS OF MANAGERIAL SENSEMAKING
研究管理者在解读模棱两可的组织绩效信息时，是否同时存在自利归因和行动者-观察者归因效应，发现两种模式均显著存在。
Organizational research has revealed ample evidence of self-serving attributional patterns in managerial sensemaking, but has not yet resolved whether actor–observer attributional effects also influence managers’ sensemaking tendencies. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate whether such actor–observer effects can be detected in managers’ interpretation of equivocal information. Results indicate that managers receiving equivocal information about the performance of an organization described as their own credited positive outcomes to organizational strengths and blamed negative outcomes on environmental threats. In contrast, managers receiving equivocal information about an organization described as managed by others associated positive outcomes with environmental opportunities and linked negative outcomes to organizational weaknesses. Both self-serving and actor–observer attributional patterns were thus detected. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd