PROCRASTINATION IN THE WORKPLACE - ATTRIBUTIONS FOR FAILURE AMONG INDIVIDUALS WITH SIMILAR BEHAVIORAL TENDENCIES

Working adults (n = 156) who attended college classes were categorized as procrastinators (n = 90) or nonprocrastinators (n = 66) and asked to complete a study where they evaluated the attributions for failure of a factitious employee described as either a 'procrastinator', a 'perfectionist' or unlabeled. Procrastinators attributed responsibility and blame for the employee's behavior to the target regardless of the presence or absence of the label. Across story labels nonprocrastinating men assigned less causality and a curvilinear pattern of responsibility to the target. Nonprocrastinating women assigned more causal and responsibility attributes to the target across conditions. Furthermore, procrastinators more than nonprocrastinators indicated that the target labeled a procrastinator should be fired and not allowed to continue regular job duties. Results indicate that procrastinators evaluate other procrastinators harshly, despite their similar behavioral tendencies.