Organizational lifecycle and happiness at work: investigating best-fit for employees based on their locus of control expectancy

Dharani, Babar

Organizational lifecycle and happiness at work: investigating best-fit for employees based on their locus of control expectancy

Doctoral Thesis

2019

Abstract

Happiness at work is an umbrella concept including the constructs of: job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment and engagement. A major contributor to happiness at work is personorganization fit. Distinct organizational characteristics are identified in studies of organizational development, and concludes that organizations follow a set path of development ˗˗ the organization’s lifecycle. Regarding new departments to be like new organizations; the research investigated the position of the department in the organizational life cycle and level of happiness at work of the employees, conducted in 35 departments in one of the largest 10 accounting firms, in South Africa. Firstly, a questionnaire to assess the position of the department in the business life cycle was completed by the partners of the firm for each department. Following this, an abbreviated questionnaire to test locus of control, and constructs contributing to happiness at work, namely: job in general scale, Meyer’s affective organizational commitment, and abbreviated Utrecht work engagement scale of job engagement was completed by the employees in the departments. Data analysis entailed testing correlations of each construct using Spearman Rank Order Correlation and revealed a negative, statistically significant relationship between stage of development of the department and affective job commitment and job satisfaction at 5% level, and at 1% level significance for job engagement. Nonetheless, β values revealed a weak relationship. Investigating the relationship using hierarchical regression for locus of control as a moderator revealed enhanced predictability of the model concluding locus of control as a moderator to the relationship, but did not enhance the relationship β values to a strong level. Investigating the relationship further, the participants were split into 0-4 for internals, 4-7 for bi-locals, and 7-11 for externals. This revealed strengthened relationship for internals to a moderate level, at 5% significance, for job satisfaction and job engagement (driven by vigor), and to a strong level at 1% significance level between all constructs of happiness at work for externals. No relationship existed for any construct or components of happiness at work for those with a balanced locus of control. The above is explained by the fact that externals with their belief that their happiness is dependent on factors outside their personal control, either with: powerful others, chance or luck, fate, or attributed to complexity of the world, sensitive to the departmental characteristics to their happiness at work, such as proximity to leaders. The preference towards earlier stages in the organizational life cycle persists for internals, but is explained due to the fact that departments in early stages of development possibly allow them the chance for taking control, and provide reinforcements to their own actions. The resilience of a balanced locus of control is evident that showed no correlation between the position of the department in the organizational life cycle and happiness at work. This is supported by this research that subjective well-being measured through satisfaction with life scale is highest for those with a balanced locus of control expectancy, highlighting their ability to leverage strengths of both polar opposite expectancies to ensure happiness at work. 3 Exploring themes emerging using the open-ended enquiry in the survey from the respondents revealed antecedents for happiness at work which align well with current research on the enablers of job satisfaction. Separating the themes based on employees’ locus of control expectanciesreveal positive attitude of workload by internals, and higher importance of leadership for externals and internals than for those with a balanced locus of control expectancy. This is possibly explained by the fact that externals’ dependency on powerful others; thus, allowing their level of happiness to also be dictated by leaders. On the contrary, internals attributed to harness leadership qualities, also ranked leadership to great importance to their happiness at work, but expressed demands from the leaders. It appears that a balance of the two expectancies allows for a limitation to dependence on the leadership, and also a limit towards the demands from them, making it less important an enabler to their level of happiness at work. Similarly, the in respect of training and learning from the job, internals with lack of trust leading to an inability to benefit from others’ strengths, and difficulties working in groups and with other people due to possible narcissistic behaviour express their frustration of lack of training of others, while externals and bilocals draw a clear link between self-learning and their own happiness at work. In reference to career, the concerns raised relate to being placed in a department which does not fulfil the individual’s future aspirations. Due to the lack of proactivity associated with externals, the comments are only observed from employees with an internal or a balanced locus of control expectancy. Concerns about pay arose from internals and externals, but not from those with a balanced locus of control expectancy (Staw and Ross 1985). Once again, analysis of the responses reveals a difference in the nature of the concern by the two poles of the expectancy. The importance of pay as a response to the work is demanded by internals, while importance of pay to externals is for fulfilling their needs as demanded from a powerful other. Similar to pay, the attribution of happiness at work to one’s own personality is only noted from internals and externals. There are mild hints that internals allude towards higher self-esteem leading to a belief that higher pay is deserved, while externals appear to present it as learnt behaviour rather than a fundamental core belief or personality trait. The inductive study highlights that while the relationship between position of the department in the organizational life cycle and happiness at work is negatively correlated for both internals and externals, the reasonings for the preference towards departments in early stages of development differ greatly. In respect of the resilience of balanced locus of control expectancy, how this generalized expectancy exists (as a sum of situation specific expectancies) is challenged, along with linearity assumption of this core self-evaluation personality trait. This presents a challenge to existing understanding of the balanced locus of control expectancy requiring further research.

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