Open AccessAn empirical assessment of the construct "work locus of control"
Author(s) -
Allan Maram,
Karen Miller
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
sa journal of industrial psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2071-0763
pISSN - 0258-5200
DOI - 10.4102/sajip.v24i3.661
Subject(s) - locus of control , psychology , social psychology , construct (python library) , locus (genetics) , scale (ratio) , core self evaluations , job satisfaction , job performance , computer science , genetics , job design , physics , quantum mechanics , biology , gene , programming language
This study is concerned with the domain specificity of the locus of control construct within the workplace. The research investigated whether Specter's (1988) work locus of control scale, a work centred conceptualisation of Rotter's (1966) locus of control measure/ demonstrated evidence of criterion - related validity. This was done by assessing its relationship to leader-member exchange and organisational commitment. The results indicated that work locus of control correlated with both leader-member exchange and organisational commitment and that leadermember exchange acted as a mediator of the relationship between work locus of control and organisational commitment. This is consistent with results from a similar study undertaken by Kinicki & Vecchio (1994) who employed Rotter's (1966) general locus of control measure. The current research demonstrated stronger relationship than Kinicki & Vecchio's (1994) study, which suggests that Specter's (1988) domain specific scale may predict work behaviour more precisely than Rotter's (1966) more general measure