Cross-National Differences in the Psychological Effect of Work Autonomy

Abstract

This study investigates 1) whether the psychological effect of work autonomy on job satisfaction is different for American and Japanese workers, and 2) if a cross national difference is identified, to what extent the disparities in the level of bureaucratic structuring between American and Japanese organizations explain the difference. It is hypothesized that a U. S.-Japan difference in the effect of work autonomy disappears once organizational characteristics are held constant across workers in the two countries. The results, based on samples of 4, 567 American and 3, 735 Japanese manufacturing workers, show that although work autonomy increases job satisfaction for both American and Japanese workers, it exerts significantly stronger influence on American workers even when organizational characteristics are held constant between the United States and Japan. The findings suggest that cross national variations in organizationalstructuring does not fully explain why autonomy has more powerfulimpacts on Americans. Embeddedness of the importance of autonomy in social structures is discussed.