Fundamental attribution error would cause a supervisor to believe that an employee's lateness is due to factors beyond the employee's control rather than to a lack of motivation to attend work.

Fundamental attribution error is the tendency to attribute behavior to stable and enduring characteristics of an individual rather than to external factors. Therefore, a supervisor who commits this error would attribute an employee's lateness to the employee's personality traits (such as laziness) rather than to temporary situational factors (such as traffic or family emergencies).