Locus of Control: A Conceptual and Empirical Study in Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT
It revealed that a contextual gap and an intellectual curiosity exist with regard to Locus of Control which is a critical phenomenon in managing behaviour in organizations. A systematic desk study was carried out to find answers for four conceptual questions and a systematic survey was carried out to find answers for two empirical questions. For the empirical part, 129 senior managers who are middle managers working in a large bank were utilized as the respondents. The instrument used for measuring the phenomenon of the study was based on an operational definition, i.e. the summated rating received on a 10-item, 5-point Likert scale content validity and internal reliability of which were ensured. The empirical findings revealed that Sri Lankan managers under study are having the right type of Locus of Control, i.e. Internal Locus of Control and degree of internality of senior managers in the selected bank is not different from that of senior managers in general.