An empirical assessment of the construct "work locus of control"

Abstract

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.