Conditions Under Which the Behavior of Employees with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is Misperceived as Low Job Performance

Neurodiverse individuals encounter work- and career-related challenges, such as high un-/underemployment, barriers to promotion, and interpersonal conflict. Integrating attribution theory with literatures on job performance, counterproductive work behavior (CWB), and neurodiversity, I propose that the behaviors of employees with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or ADHD behavior, conceptually overlap with low levels of job performance behaviors (low job performance in short), and consequently, that some ADHD behavior that “appears” to reflect low job performance is misperceived to be controllable, influencing the downstream consequences in terms of the level of responsibility and, ultimately, the ratings of job performance. A content validation study (Study 1; n1 = 100–102) showed that some ADHD behavior items were weakly distinctive from low task performance items and CWB items, particularly those involving mild than severe forms of CWB. An artificial intelligence (specifically, large language model) analysis of Reddit posts (Study 2; n2 = 3,000 posts) further supported Study 1 findings that there exists conceptual overlap of ADHD behavior with CWB and low task performance. Moreover, an experimental vignette study (Study 3a; n3a = 574) showed that being aware of an actor’s ADHD predicted an observer’s (mis)attribution (i.e., controllability and responsibility judgments) about the actor’s ADHD behavior, which in turn influenced the actor’s overall performance ratings. Another experimental vignette study (Study 3b; n3b = 496) was used to strengthen the causal inference of Study 3a findings. Taken together, this research advances our knowledge of how employee cognitions/beliefs regarding ADHD influence attribution and performance appraisal.

Author

• Kim, JeongJin

• ADHD
• artificial intelligence
• attribution
• counterproductive work behavior
• job performance
• neurodiversity

Identifier

hdl:1920/15174

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:MARS:1920/15174