Exploring the Associations of Facets of Locus of Control and Moral Potency with Job Satisfaction and Counterproductive Work Behaviors

The psychology of individual differences has helped explain why some employees engage in counterproductive work behaviors. In this paper, we examine the differential association between facets of locus of control and counterproductive work behaviors. We also examine the roles of moral potency and job satisfaction. We tested our hypotheses using data collected from 427 employees of small organizations in Uganda. The results show that internal locus of control was positively related to job satisfaction and negatively associated with counterproductive work behaviors. On the other hand, dimensions of external locus of control were positively related to counterproductive work behaviors. Only the chance dimension was substantially negatively related to job satisfaction. Whereas moral potency was positively related to job satisfaction, it was negatively related to counterproductive work behaviors. The results suggest that ensuring job satisfaction and strengthening employees’ moral capacity are some strategies that can be used to reduce occurrences of counterproductive work behaviors.