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Understanding the role of locus of control in consultative decision‐making: a case study

Marcus Selart (Department of Strategy and Management, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen, Norway)

Management Decision

ISSN: 0025-1747

Article publication date: 1 March 2005

6516

Abstract

Purpose

The study aims at clarifying whether locus of control may act as a bias in organisational decision‐making or not.

Design/methodology/approach

Altogether 44 managers working at Skanska (a Swedish multinational construction company) participated in the study. They were asked to complete a booklet including a locus of control test and a couple of decision tasks. The latter were based on case scenarios reflecting strategic issues relevant for consultative/participative decision‐making.

Findings

The results revealed that managers with low external locus of control used group consultative decision‐making more frequently than those with high locus of control. There was also a tendency showing that high externals more frequently used participative decision‐making than low externals. This was in line with the general trend, indicating that managers on the whole predominantly used participative decision‐making.

Originality/value

The results of the present study are valuable for HRM practice, especially with regard to the selection of individuals to management teams.

Keywords

Citation

Selart, M. (2005), "Understanding the role of locus of control in consultative decision‐making: a case study", Management Decision, Vol. 43 No. 3, pp. 397-412. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740510589779

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2005, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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