Management of locus of control--Assignment代写范文

Assignment代写范文:“Management of locus of control”，这篇论文主要描述的是通过对心理控制源的研究，能够让管理者们更好地学会如何去管理员工，以及提高个人的工作成果和组织的发展绩效。人们可以控制内部和外部的轨迹，从而控制个人的行为，在现如今竞争日益激烈的市场环境中，学会对企业的内部控制，能够较好的提高组织绩效，让企业发展活动与计划相符。

Introduction

The studies of locus of control and leadership are increasing because these studies can effectively help supervisors and managers to motivate employees and improve individual and organisational performance (Martin et al., 2005). Scholars also make efforts to study locus of control in order to improve the quality of exchange between subordinates and leaders, which has significant influence on organisational performance and job satisfaction (Graen et al., 1982). In this essay, the author will review the literature about locus of control and imply personal “locus of control” scores for leadership.

The nature and the importance of the ‘Locus of Control’ construct

The construct of locus of control is used to explain organisational behaviour. Rotter (1966) noticed that people’s internal and external locus of control can influence the role making process and motivation. He claims that locus of control is essentially the perceived control in cognitive perspective. According to Kremer and Lifmann (1980), locus of control is essentially the strength of an individual’s belief that the influence of personal actions on outcome of events and the degree to which individuals can control factors affecting them. Because this is a degree concept, there are two extremely type. Internal locus of control drives people to believe that the outcome of situations is determined by external forces such as powerful forces and players. External locus of control drives people to believe that outcomes are contingent on one’s own effort and choices (Rotter, 1966). From these materials, it is found that locus of control is an aspect of an individual’s belief system, and this belief system can significantly influence their behaviours and thinking ways towards outcomes of events and forces in their life.

Barbuto et al. (2010) claim individuals with internal locus of control attribute control to themselves, while individuals with external locus of control ascribe controls to outside forces. Due to the difference cognitive perceived control, people with scoring high on internal locus of control show higher work motivation, job satisfaction, work performance, and efforts (Spector, 1982; Martin et al., 2005; Barbuto et al., 2010). The competition in modern business world is intense and this competition has forced many companies to try many practices to improve organisational performance. Human resource management is important to modern companies (Armstrong, 2006). From the previous empirical studies (Spector, 1982; Martin et al., 2005; Barbuto et al., 2010), it is found that locus of control has close relationship with employee performance and satisfaction. Consequently, this concept is also important to modern companies. The companies which can understand this concept well can do employee management and leadership development more effectively.

From these researches, it is found that locus of control is important to human resource management and organisational performance improvement. DeLamater (2006) argues that the importance of locus of control is not only recognised in organisational behaviour, but also many other social sciences. For instance, in the education field, it is found that locus of control can influence students’ objective setting and efforts of studying (Hopper, 2011). In the health and medicine field, it is found that internal locus of control can influence patients’ health-related experiences. Murray et al. (2006) argues that the applications of locus of control in management and organisational behaviour are significantly important. They claim that personality and perceptions of employees can influence the organisational performance. When managers are selecting employees, leading and motivating employees, a better understanding of locus of control can help managers do better management and motivation. For instance, in the recruitment and selection process, a manager who understand locus of control will select the candidates with internal locus of control. Such a decision is favorable to the development of organisations.

From the above examples, it is found that understanding of locus of control and applications of locus of control can result in many benefits in different fields, including education, health and management. The above examples prove the importance of locus of control.

In Rotter’s social learning theory (1966), locus of control beliefs are not stable and there are other factors influencing the behaviour of individuals. This statement shows added arguments to the above conclusions. First of all, because locus of control can be changed, researchers can explore ways to increase the internal locus of control scores. This is important to individual and organisational development. On the other hand, it is argued that there might be more significant factors influencing people’s behaviour (Rotter, 1966), so locus of control is not effective in some situations.

Relationship of the ‘Locus of Control’ and leadership

The definition of leadership is expanding from the first decades of the 20th century to nowadays. Today, it is defined as a process, act and influence of the leaders on followers in which things are done (Bass & Bass 2008). From the contemporary definition of leadership and the concept of locus of control, it is found that there is a link – influence. Leadership is the influence of leaders on employees, while internal locus of control makes people try to influence the external events, and external locus of control make people be influenced by powerful forces such as leaders.

Experts in leadership field study the characteristics and traits of leaders, in order to differentiate leaders from non-leaders (Northouse 2009). In this field, it is found that locus of control has been linked to the traits of leadership. According to a study by Bruttel and Fischbacher (2013), it is found that leaders have an internal locus of control. They strongly believe that they can depend on their actions to influence the outcome of events and they have power to change the circumstances in the interaction process with others. They like to take initiatives more than the non-leaders. However, according to the five major leadership traits claimed by Northouse (2009) – intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity, and sociability, it is found that locus of control is not one of the major traits. However, critically speaking, people having high scores in internal locus of control are self-confident with their ability to change the circumstances and their power to control the things in their life. From this perspective, Northouse’s one of the five major traits indicate leaders have characteristic of internal locus of control. This proves the close relationship between locus of control and leadership.

Besides the traits of leaders, another major direction in leadership is the exchange and interaction between leaders and followers. Graen et al. (1982) claim different scores of locus of control of either leaders or followers can influence the leadership style and effectiveness. In a study by Howell and Avolo (1993) based on survey on 78 managers, it is found that transformational leadership style is associated with high internal locus of control. In this research, both transformational and transactional leadership are measured and identified. Between these two leadership types, it is found that the former one has a positive relationship with business performance, while the later one has a negative relationship with business performance. To combine these findings, it is found that internal locus of control can drive leaders to use transformational leadership style on followers, and then increase the business performance. Leaders’ belief of the ability of controlling and changing things in the life can influence their leadership style. However, Barbuto et al. (2010) argue that the locus of control of followers can also influence the leadership performance. In their research, it is found that leaders with high score on internal locus of control value followers and their contribution, and followers with high need to believe causal relationship (external locus of control feature) are likely to develop a strong relationship with their leaders. In other words, if followers are also internal locus of control, the forces of leaders might have less influence on employees. This will reduce the effectiveness of leadership.

If the conclusion of Barbuto et al. (2010) is right, leaders can motivate their followers with external locus of control through emphasize the causal relations of leadership and outcome and convince them to trust the leadership. However, in fact, in the empirical field, there are opposite finding. Martin et al. (2011) found that people with internal locus of control would develop a better relationship with their leaders, and then result in a better performance. The employees with internal locus of control will take active actions to improve the cooperation with leaders. Leaders can influence employees with internal locus of control more effectively. Anderson and Schneier (1978) had god the same finding. They found that leaders and group members with internal locus of control will result in superior performance. Such leaders can influence followers effectively, and followers can cooperate with leaders effectively. Influenced by internal locus of control, leaders use task-oriented leadership style on group members. If both leaders and members are external, a social-emotional style is formed in the group, which is not favourable to superior group performance.

Implications of my personal ‘Locus of Control’ scores for leadership

My personal “locus of control” scores are as follows:

Internal Scale                    Mean = 35.3, Max = 48, Min = 11

Powerful Others Scale        Mean = 21.0, Max = 39, Min = 2

Chance Scale                    Mean = 18.3, Max = 42, Min = 0

According to Levenson (1981), internal locus of focus is positively related with the internal scale, and negatively related to the powerful others and chance scales. From the above scoring result, it is found that I am a relatively internal locus of control person, rather than an external locus of control person. As discussed in the previous section, people with internal locus of control are likely to become leaders. From this test result, I am a potential leader in the future workplace. From the studies conducted by Anderson and Schneier (1978) and Martin et al. (2011), it is found that internal locus of control will motivate people to establish a good relationship with both supervisors and followers. They will be active in interaction and work and try to identify all kinds of possibilities to improve work performance and outcome. To apply this finding in my career development, I will make good use of my psychological feature to motivate myself to identify opportunities and creative solutions to improve my work performance.

I will also be active in the change. There will definitely many changes in my life and career. I will form a positive attitude towards these changes. This does not mean that I will follow all the changes without resistance. Differently, it means that I will identify the necessity of change and make change, and I will reject or accept the change in different situations, according to my analysis of the situations. In a word, I will try my best to control my life, rather than leaving chance to others to control my life.

Conclusion

Locus of control can show people’s psychological belief of live and work and it can influence the manager-employee-exchange. It is significant to people’s life and work, so this concept is important. However, there are still many researches needed to explore the applications of locus of control in organisations and society. The relationship between leadership and locus of control is close, but the interaction and exact positive or negative relationship between leadership and locus of control are not consistent among empirical studies either. The present author will make good use of the positive relationship between internal locus of control to develop the personal career.

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