A Study On The Relationship Among Locus Of Control, Social Networks And Villagers’ Prohibitive Voice

With the implementation of Organic Law of the Villagers Committees of the People’s Republic of China(adopted at the 5th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People’s Congress on November 4, 1998), villager autonomy, a basic political system, began to be institutionalized gradually. Being a villagers’ autonomous organization, the villagers committee which has gradually become a kind of substantive power group is responsible for the series of social, economic and political affairs of the related village. However, the villages committee, to some extent, fails to get a comprehensive understanding of the status quo of the village and make reasonable decisions due to the limitation of time, energy and village cadres. Therefore, villagers’ voice to villagers committee holds the same importance in the process of villager autonomy. There are two types of voice: promotive voice and prohibitive voice. The former one proposes ways of changing the status quo with innovative solutions and suggestions for improvement. It is focused on a future ideal state or what could. In contrast, prohibitive voice calls for stopping harm or prevent problematic initiatives from taking place. Thereby, it prevents the negative effects of process loss in a timely manner. According to the differences of the two types of voice, we can infer that villagers’ prohibitive voice to village committee is more important for village development under the system of village autonomy. Different villagers have different viewpoints on voice behavior. Locus of control plays an efficient role in making a difference. Meanwhile, social forces have remarkable influence on individual’s behavior especially in China where collectivism plays an significant role in people’s life. Further, personal behavior is inseparable from his social networks.Some research confirms that social networks and locus of control are related to individual’s political behavior. Based on the definition of prohibitive voice, we can regard it as a kind of political behavior. In this paper, we put forward the hypotheses that different types of social networks are related to prohibitive voice and locus of control may moderate the relationship between them. After reviewing relevant literature, we divide social networks into three types: kinship network, neighbor network and friend network. Meanwhile, we also decide to assess prohibitive voice from two aspects: voice about other villagers’ behavior and voice about the performance of village committee.The specific hypotheses of this paper are that kinship network, neighbor network, friend network as well as locus of control is significantly positive related to prohibitive voice; locus of control moderates the relationship between kinship network and prohibitive voice; locus of control moderates the relationship between neighbor network and prohibitive voice; and locus of control moderates the relationship between friend network and prohibitive voice.The original items are designed on the basis of relevant literature, existing scales and research purposes. Some improper items are deleted in accordance with the results of small-scale interviews and pre-test. Thus the final scales are finished. This paper analyzes and examines those hypotheses by SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 20.0 with the data from questionnaire survey conducted in Ningbo, Quzhou, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. The results show that friend network is positively related to prohibitive voice in two dimensions while neighbor network has no influence on prohibitive voice in two dimensions; kinship network is positively related to the prohibitive voice about other villagers’ behavior while it has no influence on the prohibitive voice about the performance of village committee; locus of control moderates the relationship between friend network and prohibitive voice while it cannot influence the relationship between kinship network, neighbor network and prohibitive voice. Based on the findings, the paper puts forward some effective solutions to give the reference of views for village committee. For examples, enhancing exchange and cooperation among villages to expand the friend network of villagers; adopting various ways to manage villagers with different locus of control(internals and externals) et al.The innovative part of this paper is that it explores the antecedents of voice in the political field. Meanwhile, we also combine individual characteristics, social factors and prohibitive voice to explore the potential relations among them, which make research on voice more scientific and comprehensive.The paper examines the relationship between different types of social networks and prohibitive voice and the moderating role of locus of control. This research enriches the theoretical achievements on prohibitive voice and provides practical advice for village committee in the process of villager autonomy.