The effect of self-construals on perceptions of organizational events

This empirical research examines the effect of culture on the way people perceive and assign causes to events in organizations. It explores the idea that attributional biases and errors are moderated by a person’s culture. Results supported proposed hypotheses; it showed that Indonesians, New Zealanders and Canadians perceived their interdependent self-construal as salient, moderately salient and least salient, respectively. Furthermore, self-construals moderated people’s perceptions of organizational events. Those with a salient interdependent self-concept (Interdependents) attributed negative organizational events to factors that are external, less controllable, and had a more fatalistic outlook than those with a moderate interdependent self-concept (Moderate-interdependents) and less salient interdependent self-concept (Low-interdependents). In contrast, Low-interdependents attributed positive organizational events to their own actions and stable factors compared to Moderate-interdependents; they also perceived positive events as being controllable compared to Interdependents. Implications for management practices in multinational organizations are discussed