Changing the focus of locus (of control): A targeted review of the locus of control literature and agenda for future research

• Date: 01 September 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2275
• Author: Brian J. Collins,Amy E. Randel,Benjamin M. Galvin,Russell E. Johnson
• Published date: 01 September 2018

THE JOB ANNUAL REVIEW

Changing the focus of locus (of control): A targeted review of

the locus of control literature and agenda for future research

Benjamin M. Galvin

1

|Amy E. Randel

2

|Brian J. Collins

3

|Russell E. Johnson

4

1

Marriott School of Business, Brigham Young

University, Provo, Utah, U.S.A.

2

Fowler College of Business Administration,

San Diego State University, San Diego,

California, U.S.A.

3

College of Business, The University of

Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi,

U.S.A.

4

Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State

University, East Lansing, Michigan, U.S.A.

Correspondence

Benjamin M. Galvin, Marriott School of

Business, Brigham Young University, Provo,

Utah 801‐422‐6713, U.S.A.

Email: bengalvin@byu.edu

Summary

Locus of control—a fundamental individual difference variable that reflects individuals' beliefs

about the degree of control they have over events in their lives—has been formally studied for

more than 50 years. Early scholarship demonstrated that locus of control was a key predictor

of various work‐related outcomes, ranging from job attitudes and affect to motivation and

behavior. Despite this evidence, the majority of contemporary organizational research has moved

away from examining locus of control as an independent construct. Instead, locus of control is

now commonly examined as a component of core self‐evaluation. However, recent research

suggests that locus of control is in fact an independent, distinct concept and that core self‐

evaluation research should continue without incorporating locus of control in future work.

This presents an opportunity to theoretically review locus of control as a distinct construct

and explicate its salient characteristics. Accordingly, this review aims to further clarify the

construct of locus of control, provide a foundation upon which research may build, and

elucidate fruitful avenues for future research.

KEYWORDS

individual differences, locus of control, organizational behavior

1|INTRODUCTION

The degree to which individuals perceive they control events and

outcomes in their lives (and how those beliefs shape affect, cogni-

tion, and behavior) h as garnered intense i nterest from schola rs

across a variety of academic fields since Rotter's (1954) founda-

tional work. Much of this inquiry has focused on a construct

termed locus of control, which stems from social learning the ory

(Rotter, 1966). Locus of control has been conceptualized as “the

extent to which people believe that the rewards they receive in

life can be controlled by their own personal actions”(Q. Wang,

Bowling, & Eschleman, 2010, p. 761) and captures whether

individuals “attribute the cause or control of events either to them-

selves or to the external environment”(Spector, 1982, p. 482).

A tremendous body of knowledge generated from a wide range of

scholarly fields has examined locus of control as a central construct,

1

not to mention the many investigations incorporating it as a correlate

or control variable. Results from meta‐analyses (Ng, Sorensen, & Eby,

2006; Q. Wang et al., 2010) link internal locus of control to numerous

outcomes that are relevant to the workplace (e.g., general satisfaction,

organizational commitment, and task performance), suggesting that

the construct maintains an important place in the management conver-

sation. However, although Rotter's (1966) seminal work explicitly

introduced locus of control as a fundamental individual difference var-

iable, modern research in the organizational sciences has tended to

position it as an indicator of the higher order, multidimensional con-

struct of core self‐evaluation,

2

along with the indicators of self‐esteem,

generalized self‐efficacy, and emotional stability (Judge, Erez, Bono, &

Thoresen, 2002; Judge, Locke, Durham, & Kluger, 1998). However,

recent research has questioned whether locus of control is correctly

specified as an indicator of core self‐evaluation (Johnson, Rosen,

Chang, & Lin, 2015, 2016; Johnson, Rosen, & Djurdjevic, 2011) and

has encouraged future core self‐evaluation studies to progress without

the inclusion of locus of control.

1

There are well over 6,000 articles, according to a Web of Science topic search.

2

According to a Web of Science search, in the last decade, the majority (57%) of

the approximately 45 articles published each year in the organizational sciences

studied locus of control as a dimension of core self‐evaluation.

Received: 12 July 2016 Revised: 30 January 2018 Accepted: 7 February 2018

DOI: 10.1002/job.2275

820 Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J Organ Behav. 2018;39:820–833.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job