Attribution theory what are its implications for explaining organizational behavior?

The process by which persons interpret and pinpoint causes for their own personal and other's behaviour is the theory of attribution. In this motivational theory, a person always finds a way to explain things, he make inferences on why things or events occur. After explaining the events a person then predicts future events through his inferences. He wants to understand the reasons or causes behind behaviour of people and why events happen. It was first proposed by Fritz Heider in 1958 and further developed by Harold Kelly and Bernard Weiner.

he attribution theory explains how individuals pinpoint the causes of their own behavior and that of other people. There are two sources of "power" that human beings believe are responsible for the outcome of their own actions. One source is internal; we normally relate success and elements under our control as an internal attribution. The second source is external: we normally relate failure and elements out of our control as an external attribution. Success in the workplace can simultaneously alternate between internal and external. You might have been prepared and researched for a project and believed your success was internal. On the other hand, you may believe you were lucky to have done such a great job on a project, attributing your success to external forces.