Locus Of Control

Since the concept of locus of control has been proposed by Rotter (1996), it has aroused much enthusiasm in the academic circles and been intensively researched in the context of personality psychology as well as economics. In the psychology discipline, it has been endorsed by a variety of studies that differences in individuals’ control beliefs contribute to explaining the heterogeneity in life outcomes such as education achievement, life satisfaction, social experiences, healthiness, and happiness. Economists concentrate most attention on the influence of locus of control on economic behaviors and outcomes. Wages, employment, occupational status, career success, job search behaviors, and tenure are frequently investigated (see for instance

This expands traditional studies on training which predominantly explore the influence of a variety of demographic factors, firm specific factors, and structural labor market characteristics (see for example Offerhaus, Leschke and Schömann (2010), Blundell, Dearden, and Meghir (1996), Wilkens and Leber (2003)). However, controversial statements about the influence of locus of control on training can be discovered in the literature. On the one hand, some articles verify that differences in the motivation to engage in training and the actual participation in training can be attributed to personality traits including locus of control to a certain degree (see for instance, Fouarge, Schils, and Grip (2013), Offerhaus (2012), Borghans et al. (2008), Borghans, Meijers, and ter Weel (2008), Colquitt, LePine, and Noe (2000)). On the other hand, there exist few studies in the literature which state that personality traits play no significant role in individuals’ decision on participation in further employment-related training. For instance, Görlitz and Tamm (2011) demonstrate the complementary relationship between education and training and conclude that tasks performed at work and job complexity are strong predictors of training participation while personality traits are not. Therefore, further examination is needed in order to corroborate the linkage between

Part 3 describes a theoretical human investment framework incorporating locus of control and training and analyses the linkage between locus of control and participation in training. Three hypotheses are put forward in this part. Part 4 provides a descriptive summary of the data on locus of control, (specific and general) training, and expectations about a wage increase within the next two years collected from the GSOEP for the survey years 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007. Demographic and firm-specific factors which are incorporated into the model as control variables are also introduced in this part. On the basis of logistic and multinominal logit regressions on pooled cross-sectional data, Part 5 conducts empirical research on the explanatory power of locus of control to training participation and the type of training and discusses regression outcomes. The heterogeneity of the effects of control beliefs between German citizens and migrants is also investigated. In Part 6, it is empirically examined with ordinary least squares regressions whether internalized control attitudes has influence on the perceived likelihood of future pay raise and whether the influence differentiates between training (specific and general training) participants and non-participants as well as between German citizens and migrants. The last part