Locus of Control

Rotter (1966), who delivered the concept of locus of control, believed that behavior does not depend only on external stimuli and reinforcements but rather on the meaning that the person assigns to a given external stimulus or reinforcement. In simple way, Rotter believed that behavior is the interaction between the person’s cognition and the environment.

Chung and Ding (2002) believed that locus of control is a generalized expectancy pertaining to the connection between personal characteristics and/or actions and experienced outcomes.

Bradley and Sparks, (2002) stated that to the extent that people consistently experience a contingent relationship between their actions and the outcomes, they will develop a belief in internal locus of control. To the extent that they perceive action outcome relationships to be un-patterned and unreliable, they are likely to develop beliefs in external locus of control.

The definition for locus of control seems to converge on that individuals with an internal locus of control believe that their efforts have a direct effect on their future outcomes, and individuals with an external locus of control attribute their behavior outcomes to external events that externals believe are out of their control (Appelbaum & Hughes, 1998).

Locus of control plays an important role in human performance (Frucot & Shearon, 1991). It is believed to influence job satisfaction (Spector, Cooper, Sanchez, & O’Driscoll, 2001), job performance, and the other organizational withdrawal (Hyatt & Prawitt, 2001). Hyatt and Prawitt suggested that internals are more satisfied with their job than externals. Spector et al. found that the positive relationship between locus of control and job satisfaction is consistent across nations. Internals believe their job efforts are more highly related to performance (Wit, Kacmar, Carlson, & Zivnuska, 2002).

In Hyatt and Prawitt’s study, they even found that internal locus of control achieve higher level of performance at unstructured working environment, and external locus of control achieve higher level of performance at structured working environment. Prior research even identified that individuals with internal and external characteristics differ in the kinds of rewards they prefer. Baron and Ganz (1972) stated that people with a internal locus of control prefer intrinsic, or self-supplied rewards, for example, sense of achievement and accomplishment.

In contrast, externals believe that forces beyond their control are responsible for success, therefore, externals prefer extrinsic rewards, such as pay promotion and job security. The construct of locus of control is used as the independent variable to predict the level of perceptions of organizational politics and job satisfaction.