Locus of control and motivation
People who feel in control of events respond to praise and rewards differently from those who credit luck, which matters before you try to motivate.
by Alberto Viotto · Published · Updated
How much are we able to control what happens to us?
The answer to this question greatly influences our view of the world, both at work and in our personal lives.
In 1954 Julian B. Rotter, an American psychologist, laid the groundwork with his social learning theory for the study of how much we believe we can influence the events that happen to us (the concept of locus of control was later formalized in 1966).
The “locus” (Latin for “place”) of control over the situations we encounter can be perceived as internal or external.
People with an external locus of control are convinced that external events have a strong influence on their professional and personal lives. The influence of luck, imponderable factors and other people is perceived as the main cause of the things that happen. Conversely, people with an internal locus of control hold the conviction that they can influence the events that concern them.
This kind of perception considerably influences our lives and has been the subject of many studies, especially with regard to work (and school). A meta-analysis of these studies found that an internal locus of control is associated with favorable work outcomes, including greater job motivation (Ng, Sorensen and Eby, 2006).
We need to understand, however, that locus of control is a parameter we have to take into account when communicating in the workplace.
Baron and Ganz (1972) studied experimentally, in a group of children, how locus of control and the type of feedback received, intrinsic or extrinsic, affect performance.
We speak of extrinsic motivation when we engage in an activity to obtain rewards external to the activity itself, such as financial rewards, recognition, the avoidance of punishment, and so on.
We speak of intrinsic motivation when we engage in an activity for the pleasure and gratification that come from the activity itself.
Several studies show that intrinsic motivation mainly predicts the quality of performance, while external incentives have a greater effect on quantity (Cerasoli, Nicklin and Ford, 2014, Psychological Bulletin): for jobs in which quality counts, pleasure is worth more than money!
The goal of an organization is therefore to increase the intrinsic motivation of its employees in order to improve their productivity (see the article Motivation and work: the importance of task, organization and goals).
The link between locus of control and motivation is the bridge between perception and productivity: it thus becomes a factor to be taken into account in managing people.
A compliment from a superior, when directed at people with an internal locus of control, tends to increase intrinsic motivation, whereas when it is directed at people with an external locus of control it can have the opposite effect.
To simplify: a compliment to a person who believes they can control events can increase the motivation that comes from the pleasure of doing that activity; by contrast, the same compliment to a person who feels at the mercy of events further reduces the motivation that comes from pleasure.
The idea is that someone with an external locus of control is negatively affected by the compliment because it shifts the perception of control still further outward.
Locus of control is one of the four dimensions of core self-evaluations, together with neuroticism, generalized self-efficacy and self-esteem. The measurement of these four dimensions has proved able to predict job satisfaction and job performance (Judge, Locke and Durham, 1997; Judge and Bono, 2001).
Before praising or rewarding, then, it is worth understanding how the employee explains his or her own results.
(Alberto Viotto)