Active on the Job—Proactive in Change

Abstract

Two separate samples of a hospital's employees ( N = 166 and 133) obtained at different points in time are used to test a structural equation model of the developmental and socializing effects autonomy at work has on employees' proactivity and its resultant impact on their support for organizational change. In both samples, autonomy positively affected employee role breadth self-efficacy and personal initiative, which in turn had positive though differential relationships with employee responses to change. The model fitting each cross-sectional sample is supported in a third separate, longitudinal sample ( N = 74) of participants in both surveys. Results indicate that the proactivity characteristic of workers enjoying on-the-job autonomy promotes their positive responses to structural change. Promoting worker autonomy itself can be a critical precursor to successful implementation of certain forms of organizational change.