Why do people do the things they do?

When behavior hits our radar screen at work, it is usually when someone has done something wrong, or at least unexpected. When it gets our attention, we naturally begin to formulate explanations for the behavior we just observed.

So what do you think is driving most of the behavior that you observe at work – things about the person (P) or things about the environment or system (E)?

Consider this:

When we attribute behavior to people rather than system
structure, the focus of management becomes the search for extraordinary people
to do the job rather than designing the job so that ordinary people can do it.

Sternberg (1994)

and

The law of crappy systems trumps the law of crappy
people.

Pfeffer and Sutton (2006)