2.8 Part III: An introduction to the role theory framework
2.8.14 Locus of control construct
The idea behind this concept is that individuals differ in their perception of the amount of control that they possess over their fate. Rotter (1966) suggests that individuals can either possess an external or an internal individual locus of control. Whereas, external individuals believe that the outcomes of their actions are determined by fate, chance or destiny, internal individuals are convinced that they are in total control of their environment. Rotter (1966: 618) argues,
‘Internal control refers to individuals who believe that reinforcements are contingent upon their own behavior, capacities or attributes. External control refers to individuals who believe that reinforcements are not under their personal control but rather are under the control of powerful others, luck, chance, fate, etc’
Internal locus of control has been positively associated with superior performance (Anderson and Schneier, 1978), greater risk taking attitude (Miller et al., 1982), satisfaction with current job (Organ and Green, 1974; Pryer and Distefano, 1971), and stronger stress coping mechanisms (Anderson, 1977).
There have been many research studies pointing to the idea that there is a strong link between internal locus of control and high levels of perceived managerial discretion (Hambrick and Abrahamson, 1995; Rotter, 1966). Carpenter and Golden (1997: 187) support the view that there is a relationship between ‘locus of control, a stable personality difference, and perceptions of managerial discretion’.
It was demonstrated in the literature review chapter that executive leadership and managerial discretion are both dependent on organisational context. Rotter (1966) on the other hand established that locus of control is a stable individual characteristic and therefore context independent (Boone and DeBander, 1993). According to Carpenter and Golden (1997:199) locus of contol is ‘independent of one’s organisational position and the objective qualities of a situation’ (Carpenter and Golden, 1997:199). Key (1997) posits that whereas discretion involves proactive judgments, locus of control on the hand involves reactive judgments. Although locus of control has been shown to be stable throughout an individuals’ lifetime (Rotter, 1966; Smith and Dechter, 1991), individuals in management or leadership positions can be trained to assess the various level of discretions within their respective organisations (Carpenter and Gold, 1996).
Table.2.4: Introduction to the role theory: Literature review table
Researcher(s) Study Type Sample Size Key Focus Relevance to research study
Adler et al. (2003) Exploratory N/A Boundary spanning
Strong interpersonal skills are critical to acquire, evaluate, discard, retain and disseminate information with
organisations.
4
Organisations in order to promote speed, flexibility, integration and innovation are now required to loosen boundaries between functional units and across geographies to implement changes
Ashkenas (2000) Qualitative
4
Boundary spanning
Loosening organisational boundaries has been demonstrated to enable a ‘healthy and brisk flow of ideas, energy and information’ Ashkenas (2000: 11) Balogun et al. (2005) Qualitative 7 Boundary spanning
The skills required to be a successful boundary spanners are the same as for a successful change agents.
Biddle (1979) Literature
review N/A Role making
Individuals are not merely the passive recipient of role expectations and that the latter are actively involved in shaping their own role.
Blau (1963)
Qualitative 2 Boundary
spanning
Success in boundary spanning activities is not an attribute of formal position within the organisation.
Bowman and
Kakabadse (1997) Qualitative Unknown
Managerial discretion
‘A number of individuals are determining a way forward, making discretionary roles essentially leadership roles’ (Bowman and Kakabadse, 1997: 205)
Cadwell and
O’Reilly, (1981) Quantitative 93
Boundary spanning
Crossing boundaries implies interacting with groups of individuals who may have different norms and who differ in their willingness to communicate across boundaries.
Campbell (1999) Literature
Review N/A
Role expectations
Role expectation is a combination of an individuals’ own expectations of their role and the expectations of other individuals within the same role-set (Campbell, 1999: 5)
88
‘managers who perceive themselves as having much discretion are more likely to affect change, or seek to otherwise influence critical organisational contingencies’ Carpenter and Golden (1997: 192)
Carpenter and
Golden (1997) Quantitative
88
Managerial discretion
Managerial discretion is situation specific, therefore highly variable.
Chun and Mooney (2009)
Literature
Review N/A Role making
‘The degree to which a firm’s strategy and processes are IT enabled has a profound influence on the CIO’s ability to change and evolve in his/ her roles and responsibilities’. Chun and Mooney (2009: 331)
Coghlan and Hurley (1996) Secondary research quantitative Unknown Role expectations
A cultural gap and a lack of understanding between business and IT executives can lead to mutual feelings of frustration
Earl and Feeny
(1994) Qualitative 14
CIO expectations
CIOs have the challenging task of running a function that uses a lot of resources but ‘offers little measurable evidence of its value’ (Earl and Feeny, 1994: 11)
Feld and Marmol
(1994) Qualitative Unknown Role expectations
A cultural gap and a lack of understanding between business and IT executives can lead to mutual feelings of frustration
Fennelle and
Alexander (1987) Quantitative 901
Boundary spanning
Increasing competition led many organisations to merge, partner, or acquire other organisations or subsidiaries, which has increased the complexity in integrating, identifying and defining organisations’ boundaries.
Role Set
The role set of an individual consists of the different people with whom a manager interacts and ‘who have a stake in and hold expectations about the manager’s performance in the job’ (Fondas and Stewart, 1994: 85)
Role expectations
Expectations in managerial roles are influenced by four main factors, namely, the characteristics of the role set; the characteristics of the focal manager; the characteristics of the relationship between the role set and focal manager, and the organisational determinants of managerial impact on the role set’s expectations
Fondas and Stewart (1994)
Literature review
N/A
Role making
Individuals are not merely the passive recipient of role expectations and that the latter are actively involved in shaping their own role.
Friedman and
Podolny (1992) Quantitative 1 Role conflict
Role conflict and role ambiguity are two of the most frequent problems faced by individuals involved in boundary spanning activities.
Grover et al.
(1993) Quantitative 71
CIO
expectations CIOs are often perceived by executives as outsiders
Hales (1986) Exploratory N/A Role theory
The role theory is a useful and insightful framework when carrying researches into managerial roles.
Hambrick and Finkelstein introduced the concept of managerial discretion, which is defined as ‘latitude of managerial action’ (Hambrick and Finkelstein,1987: 371) Executives ought to be great readers of situations, and act according to their perception of the amount of discretion they possess.
Hambrick and
Finkelstein (1987) Exploratory
N/A Managerial discretion
Discretion should not be considered as a techno-economic but a socio-political phenomenon.
Haselkorn (2003) Qualitative Unknown Boundary spanning
CIOs’ toughest problems rarely occur when dealing with a functional manager, but when the level of involvement spans across functional and hierarchical boundaries.
Highbarger
(1985) Qualitative Unknown
CIO expectations
CIOs are ‘neither understood nor appreciated for their contributions’ (Highbarger, 1988: 53)
Unknown Role conflict
Role conflict comes from a discrepancy of expectation between an individual’s expectations of his/ her role and the organisation’s expectation of this individual’s role
House and Rizzio
(1972) Quantitative
Unknown Role ambiguity
Role ambiguity on the other hand, emanates from a lack of clarity regarding the outcomes of an individual’s behaviour
Grant and Hutson (2009
Literature
review N/A
Role Perception
Grant and Hutson (2009) whose study concluded that outstanding CIOs are more similar to outstanding CEOs than they are to other CIOs.
Hickson et al.
(1971) Exploratory N/A
Managerial power
Individual’s power is a result of a perceived ability to alleviate environmental and organisational uncertainties. Kaarst-Brown and
Robey (1999) Qualitative 87 Role expectations
A cultural gap and a lack of understanding between business and IT executives can lead to mutual feelings of frustration Kakabdase and
Kakabadse (1999)
Qualitative Unknown Managerial discretion
Individuals in an organisation with a broader role remit can be expected to be in a situation where they can influence the demands and the constraints of their role.
Katz and Tushman
(1979) Qualitative Unknown
Boundary spanning
Boundary spanners are individuals who operate at the boundary of an organisation performing activities relevant to running and developing the organisation
Role ambiguity
Individuals in organisations in a role ambiguity situation may result in individuals developing their own coping behaviour, attempting to resolve the conflict themselves or a distortion of the reality of the situation.
Kahn et al. (1964) Qualitative 53 Role conflicts
There is a strong link between role conflict and dissatisfaction at work, likelihood to change job, high level of work-related stress and anxiety, unfavourable attitudes towards individuals within the same role set and withdrawal from interactions with targeted or untargeted role senders.
Lawrence and
Lorsch (1967) Qualitative Unknown
Boundary spanning
Lawrence and Lorsch differentiation and integration model demonstrates that differentiation arises between organisations’ sub-units facing environments with different degrees of uncertainty.
CIOs and IT professionals are prime examples of individuals who span inside and outside the organisation in order to perform their role.
Boundary spanning
Boundary spanning may require promoting somebody who is less distinguished.
Levina and Vaast
(2005) Qualitative 2
Role conflict
Role conflict and role ambiguity are two of the most frequent problems faced by individuals involved in boundary spanning activities.
Merton (1957) Conceptual N/A Role set
The organisation role set of an individual consists of the individual’s immediate manager, his or her supervisors and key stakeholders with whom the individual works closely with.
Miles (1977) Quantitative 202 Role conflict
Role conflict occurs when individuals perceive that ‘role demands or expectations which he or she receives are incompatible’, (Miles, 1977: 22)
Moghaddasi and Sheikhtaeri (2010)
Literature
Review N/A Executive
Power
Executive power is not automatically granted to CIOs, however given the increasing influence of technology, CIOs are potentially in a position to exploit a variety of
organisational power sources. Nolan Norton
(2001) Quantitative Unknown Role expectations
A cultural gap and a lack of understanding between business and IT executives can lead to mutual feelings of frustration
Nygaard and Dahlstrom (2002)
Quantitative 218 Role conflict
Role conflict and role ambiguity are two of the most frequent problems faced by individuals involved in boundary spanning activities.
Pawlowski and
Robey (2004) Qualitative 23
Boundary spanning
Given the current organisational settings, a wide range of IT professionals ought to develop their boundary spanning capabilities.
Pemberton (1992) Qualitative Unknown Boundary spanning
The primary role of the CIO is to bridge the gap between IT and other business units
Peppard (2009) Qualitative
42
Role expectations
Prior to hiring a CIO, the executive team ought to reflect upon the environment in which the CIO will operate as this can greatly influence the performance and effectiveness of the CIO.
Pfeffer and Salancik,
(1978) Qualitative Unknown
Managerial power
An individual’s power is a result of a perceived ability to alleviate environmental and organisational uncertainties. Preston et al.
(2008) Quantitative 207
Role expectations
In some cases, executives’ expectations act as self fulfilling prophecies and lead an organisation into a circle of IT failures.
Remenyi et al.
(2005) Literature review N/A Role expectations
A cultural gap and a lack of understanding between business and IT executives can lead to mutual feelings of frustration
Rizzio et al. (1970) Quantitative
264 Role
conflicts
There is a strong link between role conflict and dissatisfaction at work, likelihood to change job, high level of work-related stress and anxiety, unfavourable attitudes towards individuals within the same role set and withdrawal from interactions with targeted or untargeted role senders.
Individuals differ in their perception of the amount of control that they possess over their fate. Individuals can either possess an external or an internal individual locus of control
Rotter (1966) Exploratory
N/A
Locus of control
construct Locus of control is a stable individual characteristic and consequently context independent
Role expectations
Low self monitoring managers are most likely to exhibit transactional leadership than transformational, due to an insensitivity to role expectations and role pressure and a lack of willingness ‘to modify their behaviors according to role prescriptions due to inner feelings, attitudes, or emotions’ Shivers-Blackwell (2004: 45)
Shivers-Blackwell
(2004) Exploratory
N/A
Role set
The role set of individuals in an organisation consists of the individual’s immediate manager, his or her subordinates and key stakeholders with whom this individual works closely with.
Role expectations
Issues between individuals arise when there is a discrepancy of expectations regarding one’s role within the organisation and a lack of clarity around the role that individuals are supposed to play.
Solomon et al.
(1985) Exploratory N/A
Role theory
The study of roles enables researchers to study defined positions within organisations rather than studying the characteristics of individuals who occupy the position.
Szilagyi (1997) Qualitative Unknown Role expectations
Individuals in organisations are ‘continually exposed to a variety of expectations from their work environment that may affect the perceptions of their organisational roles’
Szilagyi (1997: 376)
Troyer et al. (2000) Quantitative 5811 Role making
Individuals are not merely the passive recipient of role expectations and they are actively involved in shaping their own role.
The success of the boundary spanners is not dependent of formal status but on individuals’ perception of competency of the boundary spanner.
Tushman and
Scanlan (1981) Quantitative 175
Boundary
spanning Success in boundary spanning activities is not an attribute of formal position within the organisation.
Van Sell et al. (1981) Literature Review N/A Role conflicts
There is a strong link between role conflict and dissatisfaction at work, likelihood to change job, high level of work-related stress and anxiety, unfavourable attitudes towards individuals within the same role set and withdrawal from interactions with targeted or untargeted role senders.
Weedman (1992) Quantitative 180 Boundary spanning
Cross boundaries communication can be a source of new information and create an awareness of environmental changes.
CIO expectations
Most of the disputes between IT and other parts of the organisation are due to unclear expectations, ‘business executives are unclear on how they should interact with IT and CIOs have often been unable to help them understand’ Westerman and Weil (2005: 1)
Westerman and
Weil (2005) Quantitative 143
Role expectations
A cultural gap and a lack of understanding between business and IT executives can lead to mutual feelings of frustration
Willcocks (1994)
Qualitative Unknown Role making
Individuals are not merely the passive recipient of role expectations and that the latter are actively involved in shaping their own role.
Source: compiled by the researcher