Abstract
Although the accuracy of managerial perceptions has crucial consequences, the literature on attributions made by top executives focuses exclusively (on these attributions as) justifications for performance or impression management efforts, reflecting self-serving biases and illusions of control. This paper contributes to theory development by concentrating on the much-ignored construct of Attributional Accuracy (AA) and establishing the conditions under which it shapes critical organizational outcomes. We build an initial process model and test the hypotheses that focus on accurate attributions of executives and their impact on motivation, performance, and leadership perceptions. We contribute empirically by utilizing an innovative and relevant dataset to test the hypotheses. We find strong support for a strong impact of attributional accuracy on organizational performance. Implications for the
debate on Perception Accuracy Research (PAR) are discussed.