SELF-ESTEEM, INTERNAL-CONTROL AND EXPECTANCY BELIEFS OF WHITE AND BLACK MANAGERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

Therelationship between internal-control, self-esteem and self-respect measures of the effort-performance and performance-outcome beliefs – the two major beliefs of the expectancy model of work motivation – were examined in a sample of forty-two white and thirty-eight black managers in South Africa. The correlations between self-esteem and the effort-performance belief and between internal-control and the performance-outcome belief were both significant in the white group but not in the black group. The white managers were significantly more internally oriented and had significantly higher levels of self-esteem than the black mangers. The white-black differences are explained in terms of features of the current socio-political systems in South Africa. The fact that in both groups the two beliefs correlated significantly together and equally with the self-esteem and internal-control suggests that the two beliefs may not be as independent as is implied by expectancy theory.