Learned helplessness and external locus of control in the public sector

Governments worldwide have pursued privatisation and corporatisation agendas as a way to divest themselves of the financial responsibilities and administrative burdens that managing public sector organisations entail. Due to these organisations’ perceptions of the requirement to maintain their traditional risk averse behaviours in the management of the public funds involved, many government organisations require their employees to observe the traditional bureaucratic methodologies with which their administrations have always been run. The intent is to maintain legislative accountability and public transparency. As a result many organisations maintain their tall and rigid hierarchical structures. In the face of this many public sector workers at this level adopt the risk averse culture they perceive their employing organisations possess, leading them to virtually abdicate their responsibilities for ownership of their job outcomes through the perception that the responsibility that comes with greater authority higher in the organisation will cover them. This breeds a culture of learned helplessness