Biomedical Engineering Reference
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very negative effect on reliability. Even monkeys can discriminate
between real and faked behavior. It is very important for us to under-
stand the behavior of others, and we are more willing to believe
actions than words. A manager who actively promotes a company
safety policy but behaves sometimes in an unsafe way (for example,
forgetting to wear the safety belt while driving in a plant car) will be
regarded with disrespect and loses his modeling power.
There are two complicating factors in this story. The first factor can
be described as this: Power corrupts. The more power one has, the less
one feels obliged to stick to the rules. Everybody can recall top
managers who trespass conventions (for example, sexual). But even
from the viewpoint of employees, we can state that they regard some-
body who is trespassing rules as being more powerful (Van Kleef
et al., 2011). For example, when kids are playing, the strongest one
can define the rules and then not stick to them.
The second factor is the discussed self-attribution failure. Managers
also suffer from this failure and think that they act more safely than
they in reality do. The self-attribution failure is another way of stating
that we are more positive in words than in acts. Managers who suffer
more from this failure are seen as less reliable, without knowing why.
The only way to escape from this failure is to organize feedback so
that the self-image can be adjusted to the perceived reality of others.
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