Personal Responsibility in the Financial Services Industry: The Cognitive Antecedents and Behavioral Consequences of an Employee

December 3, 2025

Personal Responsibility in the Financial Services Industry: The Cognitive Antecedents and Behavioral Consequences of an Employee’s Sense of Responsibility in Organizations

Kelly D. Monahan | 2015

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to define and examine the cognitive antecedents and behavioral consequences of personal responsibility within the workplace. A quantitative research design was conducted on a sample of 200 full-time employees working at The Hartford. Confirmatory structural equation modeling confirmed the a priori model, a full mediation model, as the best fit to represent the relationships found within the personal responsibility model. Self-concept beliefs, as manifested by locus of control and self-efficacy, were strong predictors of one’s ascription of responsibility back to the self. Contextual job beliefs, however, were not found to predict personal responsibility and were rather an indirect influence based on the covariant relationship with self-concept beliefs. As predicted, attitudes towards personal responsibility were a strong predictor of whether one intended to engage in helpful behaviors. Therefore, helpful behavioral intentions were found as a direct consequence of personal responsibility. This study provides an extensive model that evaluates the motivational cognitions and intentions of personal responsibility within the workplace based on the theory of reasoned action framework. The findings call into question the job characteristics model as the most appropriate measure of personal responsibility, which states personal responsibility as a byproduct of autonomy. Rather, personal responsibility may be defined as a cognitive process and individual tendency to attribute the consequences of one’s action back to the self. Perhaps rather than focusing on the amount of autonomy one has within the workplace, research should focus on explaining why some employees have a higher sense of personal responsibility and test the stability of that trait. The call for future research invites greater attention and dialogue to the self-cognitions that drive one to ascribe responsibility back to the self.

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