In this paper, the nature of organizational discourse is theoretically underpinned by the concept of self-serving attributions, a type of causal reasoning that allows the writer to take credit for good news and avoid blame for bad news. We incorporated signaling theory to the extant theoretical framework for self-serving attributions in order to develop hypotheses for the expected levels of attributional bias in the justification of organizational performance. A sample of 49 companies was selected, both from a bad year and a good year regarding the capital market context. Each company's Letter to Shareholders was content analyzed in order to test our propositions concerning the presence and intensity of self-serving attributions in that section of annual reports. The results partially corroborate the proposed theoretical hypotheses, but the sample size is an issue in terms of robustness. Nevertheless, the results indicate that companies attempt to create a positive corporate image to external stakeholders even when negative performance occurs in a clearly favorable external context. Moreover, we observed that companies with positive performance in a good external context blame negative effects on the environment in a proportion equivalent to that observed for companies with positive performance in a bad year.

Studies on the management of operational risk in financial organizations have predominantly utilized quantitative and probabilistic approaches. Such approaches provide managers with a way to estimate the probability of operational failure occurring but do not provide insights with regard to specific managerial actions that can be taken to avoid the occurrence of such failure. Results of our study of the processes of a large Brazilian banking institution suggest that HRO theories can make an important contribution to the effective management of operational risk. Understanding the underlying causal mechanisms that contribute to operational failures makes it possible to take steps to manage them and to reduce the probability that they will occur. In addition to suggesting a new approach to the management of operational risk in financial institutions, the study tested HRO theory in a new sector. The results clearly demonstrate that HRO concepts are relevant in financial institutions, broadening the scope of applicability of this theory.

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An investigation of the relationship between self-serving attributions and corporate governance Antônio Thadeu Mattos da Luz (FUCAPE Business School) Marcelo Sanches Pagliarussi (FUCAPE Business School) 1