A supervisor receives regular information about a sales employee's performance (e.g.sales volume, incomplete paperwork, etc.) and must complete a performance appraisal of the person's work.The supervisor has a complete description of the employee's job but has never worked in the field as a sales representative.Moreover, the supervisor is relatively new to this job and therefore has little experience observing or appraising the performance of salespeople.What attribution error is likely to occur under these conditions and what effect would it have on the performance appraisal results?

Fundamental attribution error is very likely to occur here because the supervisor lacks the knowledge of and empathy for the employee's position.This would cause the supervisor to be relatively insensitive to external forces on the employee's performance.Since the employee works away from the office as a field sales representative, the supervisor is unlikely to receive reliable information about these external factors.Instead, the supervisor will engage in fundamental attribution error whereby the employee's behavior and performance are attributed more to his or her own characteristics (ability and motivation).
Fundamental attribution error can have a significant effect on the performance appraisal results.In the case of good performance, the supervisor would give the employee perhaps more credit than is due because the supporting external conditions are not apparent.Where performance is poor, the employee would be assigned more blame than is due and, consequently, the appraisal results would be lower than where the supervisor's perceptions are not biased by fundamental attribution error.