Support or Neglect: Is the Effect of Job Autonomy Conditional on Trust Towards the Supervisor?

Abstract

In job design research, autonomy has generally been portrayed as a predictor of positive attitudinal and behavioral work outcomes. Some studies, however, have indicated that job autonomy under certain condition can yield ambiguous results. We therefore hypothesize that the social context can change employees’ perception of granted autonomy. Using responses from 451 matched pairs of PhD candidates and PhD supervisors, we explored the effect of job autonomy on attitudinal (satisfaction) and behavioral (performance) work outcomes and the role of interpersonal trust in this relation. We found that job autonomy had a positive effect on performance partially mediated by job satisfaction. In addition to that, our results show that this indirect effect is moderated by the level of trust in the supervisor. More specifically, our study suggests job autonomy to be beneficial only if there is a certain level of trust between the supervisor and supervisee.