Behavior in organizations as a function of employee's locus of control.

Abstract

Locus of control is an important variable for the explanation of human behavior in organizations. The nature of the concept, its measurement, and general evidence for its validity are discussed. Several hypotheses are presented involving the locus of control in an organizational context, and supporting evidence from applied studies is reviewed. Specifically, it is suggested that locus of control is related to motivation, effort, performance, satisfaction, perception of the job, compliance with authority, and supervisory style. Furthermore, locus of control may moderate the relation between incentives and motivation and between satisfaction and turnover.

Locus of control at work: a meta‐analysis

“…The current study extends Spector's (1982) and Judge and Bono's (2001) work by providing a quantitative summary of the relationships between LOC and a broad range of criteria. In particular, we offer three different theoretical perspectives for examining the roles of LOC at work.…”

“…Moreover, Mudrack (1990) found in a meta-analysis that internal locus was negatively related to the dispositional trait of Machiavellianism, reflecting that internals prefer to rely on their efforts to obtain desired goals rather than manipulation and deception. Finally, in reviewing the empirical literature, Spector (1982) found support for the assertion that internals have stronger faith in both the effort-performance and performance-reward relationships. Overall, it appears that LOC can be viewed as a personality trait that predicts one's internal motivation and the belief in one's ability to achieve desirable goals and outcomes.…”

“…This positive evaluation of work roles should be associated with more positive affective reactions to one's work environment such as being more satisfied with one's job and demonstrating attitudes and behaviors that indicate dedication to one's organization (i.e., greater affective commitment, lower turnover intention, working more hours, and higher attendance). While Spector (1982) suggests that internals may have higher turnover intentions than externals because of their tendency to leave unsatisfying jobs, internals may be less likely than externals to view their jobs as unsatisfying because, as previously mentioned, they tend to hold a more positive view of their work roles. Thus, we predict:…”

“…As suggested by Spector (1982), internals attempt to align their task or social experiences with their internal locus. These task and social experiences may include 'work flow, task accomplishment, operating procedures, work assignments, relationships with supervisors and subordinates, working conditions, goal setting, work scheduling, and organizational policy' (Spector, 1982, p. 485).…”

“…While their study uses sophisticated quantitative techniques to derive conclusions with regard to the relationships between LOC and work outcomes, the shortcoming of the study is that its scope was limited to only two variables. As such, their meta-analysis does not address the premise that LOC has a widespread impact on employees' organizational lives (Spector, 1982).…”