Once a supervisor determines that poor performance has occurred, they must diagnose the cause and respond. One way to do this is to conduct a coaching (or performance) analysis. Poor performance often does not result from a single cause, and the same type of performance problem may be caused by different factors at different times. Causes of performance can be placed into four categories, two within an employee (effort and ability) and two in a situation (task difficulty and luck).

A response to poor performance will depend on whether a supervisor concludes that the cause of employee performance is within the employee, or is in the situation. Employee’s response to a performance problem may affect the way a supervisor evaluates and responds to it. Employees are likely to attribute their failures to factors beyond their control (e.g., task difficulty, obstacles in the environment), rather than to a lack of ability or effort on their part, thereby seeking to maintain their self-esteem.

When discussing performance problems with supervisors, employees may volunteer information that they hope will deflect the responsibility for poor performance from themselves to the environment. There is evidence that these attempts at deflecting blame cause the supervisor to view the poor performance less negatively.