The co-variation principle of the attribution theory (Kelley, 1973) is used in the HRM literature (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004) to explain message-based persuasion and collective interpretation of employees (Fiske & Taylor, 1991). Employees give meaning to their work situation by the signals they receive from the management through HRM messages (Guzzo & Noonan, 1994). Employees need to deduce attributions about cause and effect in order to judge which behavior is rewarded and necessary.