Attributional style as predictor of work outcomes among Chinese : Composite vs. Dimensional Scoring

An optimistic versus pessimistic attributional style has been found, in work settings, to be related to outcome variables such as job satisfaction and productivity. However, researchers have been debating on how to score the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ), which measures three dimensions of attribution, namely internality, stability and globality. This study compared the composite scoring approach against the dimensional scoring approach in their ability to predict work outcomes among Chinese insurance salespersons (N=497). Results showed that the dimensional scoring approach is superior because it accounts for more variance of the work outcomes and explicates the uniqueness of each dimension in the prediction. Using the dimensional scoring approach, we found that in a Chinese context making internal attribution for bad events is not to be equated with being pessimistic, contrary to what has been reported in North American studies.