The role of line managers in the formation of employees' HR attributions

Abstract

A body of research spanning over a decade has established that employees' responses to HR practices are informed by the attributions that they make about the intention of the practices – do HR practices exist to support them to be happier and more productive, to enforce compliance and control, or because of legislative requirements? HR attributions are important for our understanding of managers' implementation of HR practices because attributions help us to understand the relational context of HR practices. Although some research suggests that managers' own HR attributions are associated with the attributions made by employees, this process is likely highly complex. In this chapter, we draw on theory and research from social psychology about social processes involved in attribution formation to propose three potential pathways through which line managers inform employees' HR attributions: (1) a direct path through communication processes, (2) a complex trickle-down process that is moderated by multiple factors, and (3) that managers themselves are the focus of the attribution, rather than the organization. With this chapter, we hope to inspire new research that examines the role of line managers in employee HR attribution formation.