DeborahWhitt_MAN5245-12_Week4_IndividualWork

Think of a time when you assessed, either formally or informally, someone elses level of
performance and found it deficit by your standards?
Were you engaging in any attributional tendencies?
How could you avoid doing so?

I am going to begin this assignment, telling you of a situation where I assessed the
performance of a co-worker. I was much younger, and had decided after I had a near death
experience that I wanted to become a nurse. I was an older student, as nursing was a third career
field for me. I took many peoples advice, and became a certified nursing assistant (CNA) first,
which helped me not only decide if nursing was for me, but also gave me the opportunity to
work in that field while I went to nursing school.
Becoming a certified nursing assistant also has its own educational segment where you
can select how quickly you want to get your license to work. Some choose the fast track and
finish their course in two weeks while some courses take six weeks to six months to complete.
Each course contains the same amount of information that you need to learn to demonstrate your
skill and obtain your licensure.
I chose the six week course, and was proud of my accomplishment. I secured a position
at a local nursing home, and began work while I attended nursing school. Now, just to make
myself clear, I was a very good student, and earned high honors upon completion. I, unlike other
class mates was still afraid to do, or say the wrong thing, so I was very cautious when it came to
performing my job duties.
The facility I worked in used a semi-team nursing approach to patient care. The facility
was set up in a Y shape, and each of the three halls had 28 residents. One RN was assigned to

each hall, and two CNAs. The CNAs had the option of splitting the hall for 14 residents each,
or teaming together with all 28 residents. One particular CNA who had been employed there for
approximately eight months wanted to use the team approach, but I was not comfortable with it
yet, and for about 3 months asked the RN to assign us as a split team.
I became very good at my job duties, but the other CNA (whom no one else wanted to
work with, so we were always put together in the same hall) never finished her assignment even
near the time that I completed mine. Not even when we switched sides. That is when I feel I
began to use attributional tendencies. I am going to use our text books explanation for
Fundamental Attribution Bias, where I assumed that she just did not try hard enough to complete
her work. This bias that I was experiencing did not ease up when we began to work together in a
team approach. Just the opposite actually, when she seemed to slow down her work pace and I
felt as though I was then carrying the brunt end of all the work. (Newstrom, 2011, pg. 154).
How you asked, could I have avoided doing so? At the time, I was very unaware that it
was not right, or even what I was actually seeing. All I knew is what I felt, and I felt as though
she was inadequate in her job performance as a CNA. Of course, I also felt as though I was a
high achiever when I looked at myself which our text book calls Galetea Effect . (Newstrom,
2011, pg. 155). Unfortunately, as a new employee, and new in a career field, one tends to listen
to those around you, whom you hope will steer you down the right road. I also was guilty of
listening to all the other CNAs who didnt want to work with this person and their perceptions of
her work ethics.
This all changed one day when I found her crying in the employee break room. My
compassion for people overrode everything in that moment, and I consoled her. What I had

failed to do is to actually get to know my co-worker. I learned that she had never been truly
accepted by the other CNAs and always felt less of a person than they were, and that they had
helped her feel that way with their belittling manners. I learned that her husband had passed
away unexpectedly at the age of 32, and she was left without insurance, or the ability to care for
her two small children. She had taken the two week course to get a job quickly, and confessed
that she never really caught on as things went by so quickly, and she still after all this time
remained in terror that she was doing everything wrong, which had been reinforced by the other
employees and their actions. Tragically I learned that she thought I felt the same way about her
because I didnt want to do the team approach with her.
Now, in conclusion I would like to state that I am a fixer by nature. I, myself, learned a
very valuable lesson that day, what my grandmother would have called judging a book by its
cover. I learned that before I give into a bias judgment I needed to investigate all of the issues
that surround my feelings or assumptions. I have remained faithful to that today, and have
pointed out to people along my career path that what they deem as a deficit might be lack of
training, or a cry for help, and they need to step in and see if they can determine the cause, and
help with a fix! It has not let me down, and has helped instill teamwork in a career field that
attempts to eat their young.

References

Newstrom, J., (2011), Organizational Behavior: Human Behavior at Work,

Thirteenth edition, New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin