Development of the sales locus of control scale

Abstract

The sales locus of control scale (SLCS), composed of 12 items, was developed to measure the constructs of internal, chance and powerful others. A total of 1153 Taiwan insurance and industrial salespeople were used for development and evaluation of the scale. Construct validity, validities related to 29 criteria and reliabilities were all evaluated. Results indicated that reliabilities, the construct validity and most criterion-related validities are supported. Results also indicated that the criterion validities of the SLCS are generally better than those of locus of control scales developed by Rotter, Levenson and Spector. Moreover, situation-specific and multidimensional SLCS contains fewer items, and its validity is less attenuated by social desirability. The usefulness of the scale is also discussed.