DOUBTS ABOUT THE CONCEPTUAL AND EMPIRICAL STATUS OF CONTEXT-FREE AND FIRM-SPECIFIC CONTROL EXPECTANCIES - A REPLY

Boone and De Brabander (1993) contend that Hodgkinson's (1992) strateg ic locus of control scale will not lead to interesting research result s and that researchers should continue to adopt the well known Rotter (1966) I-E scale. Central to their argument is the assertion that resp onses to domain-specific control expectancy scales, such as the strate gic locus of control scale, largely reflect actors' perceptions of the ir current circumstances, whereas responses to the I-E scale are a fun ction of stable personality differences. In this reply the literature on the locus of control construct is briefly reviewed, in order to sho w that the accumulated empirical research evidence does not support th e notion of generalized control expectancies as a simple unidimensiona l personality trait, but points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that control expectancies are more appropriately construed as a multidimens ional, domain-specific, cognitive variable shaped by the combined effe cts of disposition, prior learning experiences, reinforcement historie s and current circumstances. The rationale for the development of the strategic locus of control scale is further explained, in order to cla rify a number of other misconceptions.