Levels Of Job Autonomy Research Articles

The influence of humble leadership on employees' active self-service performance -- the mediating role of affective commitment and the moderating role of job autonomy

With the continuous development of social economy and the increasingly fierce competition among enterprises, how to improve employees' active self-service performance has attracted more and more scholars' attention. Based on the active motivation model, starting from the affective commitment and job autonomy of employees, this paper analyzes 328 valid sample data, and discusses the role and adjustment mechanism of humble leaders on employees' active self-service performance. The results show that humble leadership has a significant positive effect on employees' active self-service performance, and affective commitment plays a completely mediating role. In addition, job autonomy is an important boundary condition that affects this mechanism. When the level of job autonomy is high, the impact of humble leadership on employees' active self-service performance through affective commitment will increase. On the contrary, when the level of job autonomy is low, the interaction between humble leadership and job autonomy will decrease, and the degree of positive effect will be negatively affected.

The influence of humble leadership on employees' active self-service performance -- the mediating role of affective commitment and the moderating role of job autonomy

With the continuous development of social economy and the increasingly fierce competition among enterprises, how to improve employees' active self-service performance has attracted more and more scholars' attention. Based on the active motivation model, starting from the affective commitment and job autonomy of employees, this paper analyzes 328 valid sample data, and discusses the role and adjustment mechanism of humble leaders on employees' active self-service performance. The results show that humble leadership has a significant positive effect on employees' active self-service performance, and affective commitment plays a completely mediating role. In addition, job autonomy is an important boundary condition that affects this mechanism. When the level of job autonomy is high, the impact of humble leadership on employees' active self-service performance through affective commitment will increase. On the contrary, when the level of job autonomy is low, the interaction between humble leadership and job autonomy will decrease, and the degree of positive effect will be negatively affected.

Understanding the organizational learning culture—Innovative behavior relation in local government: The roles of knowledge sharing and job autonomy

AbstractDrawing from research on organizational learning culture, knowledge sharing (KS), and job characteristics theory, this study investigates the mediating role of KS in the link between organizational learning culture (OLC) and employee's innovative behavior (IB), as well as how this mediating effect might be moderated by job autonomy (JA). Data captured from 1420 public employees of 33 local governments in South Korea shows that OLC affects employees' IB, while the effect size is reduced when controlling for the role of KS. Further, JA moderates the positive relationship between KS and IB, such that the relationship becomes invigorated at higher levels of JA. The findings also reveal that the indirect effect of OLC on IB through KS is more pronounced at higher levels of JA, which offers evidence of moderated mediation. We discuss the significant implications of our findings for future research and practice.

Burn-out and employability rates are impacted by the level of job autonomy and workload among Dutch gastroenterologists.

BackgroundIncreasing burn‐out rates among gastroenterologists make it necessary to find ways to prevent burn‐out and to stimulate their ability and willingness to continue working (i.e., their employability). Understanding their antecedents might help organizations to prevent burn‐out and to enhance employability among this occupational group.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to provide insight in the relationship between job characteristics and job crafting behavior on the one hand and job outcomes (burn‐out symptoms and employability) on the other hand.MethodsData from two surveys in 2020 and 2021 were collected in a longitudinal study among 238 Dutch gastroenterologists. The data were analyzed with multiple linear regression analyses and paired‐samples t‐tests.ResultsJob characteristics, specifically job aspects that require sustained physical and/or psychological effort or skills (i.e., job demands), are important predictors of burn‐out symptoms among gastroenterologists. Specifically, high quantitative and emotional workload are significantly related to more burn‐out symptoms. No strong relationship was found between job crafting and burn‐out symptoms. Furthermore, job aspects that reduce the negative impact of these demanding aspects and that help to achieve work goals (i.e., job resources), and job demands to some extent, significantly predict employability. In particular, high job autonomy is related to higher employability, and high quantitative workload is associated with lower employability. Job crafting does not significantly affect employability. Furthermore, levels of burn‐out symptoms and employability differed only little across time.ConclusionIn gastroenterologists, a high quantitative workload and emotional workload are associated with a higher burn‐out risk, while low job autonomy and high quantitative workload are associated with more negative perceptions of employability. To prevent burn‐out and to create positive perceptions of employability, it is important to take these aspects into account.

Role Stress, Job Autonomy, and Burnout: The Mediating Effect of Job Satisfaction among Social Workers in China

Social workers are at high risks of experiencing burnout. Despite abundant literature exploring the association between role stress, job autonomy, and burnout, there is a lack of clarity underlying the process that explain how role stress and job autonomy relate to the experience of burnout. Drawing upon a sample of 5,965 social workers in China, this study employed Job-Demands and Resources (JD-R) model as well as stress and coping theory to investigate how role stress and job autonomy are related with burnout through job satisfaction. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was adopted to examine the hypothetical model using AMOS 23.0. The data analysis showed that higher levels of role conflict and role ambiguity were associated with lower job satisfaction, which resulted in higher burnout. Whereas, higher levels of job autonomy were associated higher job satisfaction, which resulted in lower burnout. This study provided implications for human resource management of social work organizations. Reducing role conflict and role ambiguity and improving their job satisfaction combined with increasing job autonomy may be effective in protecting social workers from burnout. Future studies should include social workers in public sector into analysis to enrich our understanding regarding burnout of different groups of social workers.

Supervisor-subordinate guanxi and emotional exhaustion: The moderating effect of supervisor job autonomy and workload levels in organizations

This research utilizes the conservation of resources (COR) theory to examine the effect of supervisor-subordinate guanxi on the emotional exhaustion of the Thai subordinates working under Chinese supervisors at Chinese subsidiaries in Thailand. Specifically, this study examines the role of supervisor job autonomy and workload as moderators of supervisor-subordinate guanxi on subordinates' emotional exhaustion. Survey data were obtained from 201 dyads comprised of Chinese supervisors and their Thai subordinates at the subsidiaries of a Chinese multinational enterprise in Rayong, Thailand. A partial least squares structural equation model was used for data analysis. The analysis significantly supports the negative association between supervisor-subordinate guanxi effects on the emotional exhaustion of Thai subordinates. The effect of supervisor-subordinate guanxi is positively moderated by the Chinese supervisors' level of job autonomy. However, it is negatively moderated by the level of workload generally experienced by Thai subordinates at this organization. Findings support and advance previous research, illustrating that not every group of employees will benefit from guanxi equally; whether an employee benefits from guanxi depends on the supervisor's authority and the levels of workload.

Work\u2013Family Conflict and Job Outcomes Among Prison Officers in Ghana: A Test of Mediation and Moderation Processes

This study examines the mediating effect of job stress and the moderating effect of job autonomy on the relationship between work-to-family conflict (WFC) and job satisfaction and organizational commitment. It uses cross-sectional data from 1062 prison officers sampled from 31 prison establishments in Ghana. The results of structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis showed that WFC was negatively associated with job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Job stress significantly mediated the influence of WFC on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The negative influence of WFC on job satisfaction and organizational commitment was less for prison officers with higher levels of job autonomy than for those with lower levels of autonomy. These findings suggest the need for correctional organizations to adopt family-friendly measures that facilitate officers’ ability to integrate their work and family responsibilities.

The Use and Effects of Accountability and Job Autonomy when Results Controls are Irrelevant: Substitutes or Complements?

While prior work in management accounting has mainly focused on results controls, this study investigates how accountability as an action control and the level of job autonomy are complementarily or substitutively used by supervisors in a setting in which results control are largely irrelevant. We analyze our research question by collecting survey data among nurses from Swiss public hospitals. We predict and find that when task requirements are high (i.e., intensive care units (ICUs) in our hospital setting), job autonomy and accountability are used as substitutes by the supervisor. When task requirements are low (i.e., non-ICUs in our hospital setting), job autonomy and accountability are also used as substitutes but significantly less so compared to departments with high task requirements. Additional analyses show that, consistent with supervisors’ control choices, job autonomy and accountability have substitutive effects on employees’ likelihood to stay in the department and their overtime when task requirements are high. When task requirements are low, job autonomy and accountability are complementarily related with regard to employees’ likelihood to stay in the department and substitutively with respect to overtime. Our study enhances the understanding of the use and effects of action controls in settings in which results controls are irrelevant and contributes to a better understanding of job autonomy as a control practice.

How Having a Calling Leads to Job Crafting: A Moderated Mediation Model.

This study examines the association between calling and crafting behavior by proposing a moderated mediation model. Drawing from the job crafting perspective and self-determination theory (SDT), career commitment is identified as the mediator, and occupational self-efficacy and job autonomy are identified as the moderators in the model, respectively. The authors tested the proposed relationships with an SPSS macro that utilizes a sample of 338 employees in a three-wave procedure. Results support all the hypotheses. The findings reveal calling to be significantly associated with employees’ job crafting behavior. Such a process begins with one’s career commitment and is strengthened by the level of occupational self-efficacy in the first stage as well as the level of job autonomy in the second stage, thus yielding a pattern of moderated mediation. These findings answer recent calls for an integrative examination of calling in the workplace by demonstrating that career commitment along with occupational self-efficacy and job autonomy represent key mechanisms in transferring one’s calling into job crafting behavior. As such, this study complements existing literature on the theoretical and practical implications of calling.

Relationship Between Job Autonomy and Job Stress Among Public Secondary School Principals in Punjab, Pakistan

School principals play a dynamic role in schools’ administrative processes where independent decision-making is inevitable. The present study investigates the level of job autonomy as experienced by public secondary school principals of Punjab, Pakistan. The study further determines the relationship between job autonomy and job stress among school principals. The study uses a survey research design where two scales i.e., Job Autonomy Scale by Breaugh (1985) and Organizational Stress Index by Shrivastava and Singh (1984) were used to measure job autonomy and job stress respectively. The study comprises the sample of 145 public secondary school principals, working in a district of Punjab, Pakistan. The research questions are addressed by conducting descriptive as well as inferential statistics. The study identifies a positive and moderate relationship between job autonomy and job stress among secondary school principals. It is found that school principals perceive themselves more autonomous in method autonomy and scheduling autonomy while less autonomous in criteria autonomy. The results exhibit that school principals suffered from greater stress because of low self-esteem. The current study suggests that school principals should be provided with middle-level job autonomy to mitigate their job stress.

The Interplay between Education, Skills, and Job Quality

Compared to general education, vocational education and training (VET) has been shown to facilitate young people’s integration into the labour market. At the same time, research suggests that VET falls short in teaching basic skills and, in turn, may lead to less adaptability to labour market changes and long-term disadvantages in individual labour market outcomes. To better understand the relationships between education, skills, and labour market outcomes, we examine to what extent job quality differs between individuals with general education and those with VET with respect to different skill levels. Furthermore, we investigate whether the relationship between type of qualification and job quality differs by skills. We broaden past research by considering four indicators of job quality: earnings, job security, job autonomy, and the match between respondents’ abilities and job demands. Using data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies for Germany, we demonstrate that individuals with academic education and advanced VET score higher in job quality concerning earnings and job autonomy as compared to individuals with initial VET. Comparing the two higher qualified groups, academic education is more associated with higher earnings than advanced VET, while the level of job autonomy is similar. Regarding the abilities-demands match, both groups score lower than individuals with initial VET. Moreover, higher literacy skills are associated with higher levels of job quality irrespective of the type and level of formal qualification. Finally, we find no empirical evidence that skills compensate for or reinforce disadvantages in job quality derived from professional qualifications.

Towards ‘Dirty Realism’ in Inequality Research: is Inequality Always Dirty?

We contribute to research on organizations and inequality by providing a more nuanced picture of how organizations – through their employment practices – shape the negative consequences of income inequality. We reply to a recent call for more ‘dirty realism’ in inequality research by extending the research focus to actual life satisfaction consequences for individuals facing inequality. Building on procedural utility theory and self-determination theory, we hypothesize that adverse effects of disadvantaged income positions on individuals’ life satisfaction can be mitigated by the way organizations arrange work. We find empirical support for two important aspects of individuals’ job quality mitigating the negative effects of disadvantaged income positions: individuals in disadvantaged income positions perceive a relatively lower decrease in life satisfaction when their levels of job autonomy and job security are high. In sum, we find that income inequality is always ‘dirty’, but less so when individuals have job autonomy and job security. We conclude with a discussion of the research implications of emphasizing employment practices as a key determinant for shaping the impact of income inequality on overall life satisfaction in society.

The dark side of experiencing job autonomy: Unethical behavior

To date, job autonomy has been conceptualized as a job characteristic that elicits positive outcomes. In contrast, the present studies unveiled a potential dark side of experiencing job autonomy: unethical behavior. Using field surveys on Israeli employees, Studies 1 and 2 found that experienced job autonomy not only positively predicted job satisfaction (thus replicating past research), but also positively predicted unethical behavior. Using experimental designs, Studies 3a and 3b drew on actual job autonomy policies from real-world corporations to prime American employees to experience different levels of job autonomy. Compared to participants in the low-autonomy or autonomy-unrelated control conditions, participants in the high-autonomy condition were more likely to behave unethically because they felt less constrained by rules. Moreover, the relationship between experienced job autonomy and unethical behavior was moderated by the importance that participants assigned to having job autonomy, such that the experience of high job autonomy was less likely to elicit unethical behavior from participants for whom having job autonomy was more important. In addition to replicating all of these findings, Study 4 revealed that the experience of high job autonomy simultaneously increased unethical behavior and creativity, further demonstrating job autonomy to be a double-edged sword. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Good Jobs in Public Research Organizations: Job Characteristics and Rewards of Research Work

Following recent work that has focused on distinctions between good and bad jobs in the labor force, this paper examines determinants of job satisfaction among STEM workers. We propose that STEM workers represent a previously unconsidered type of logic in employment, sharing some (e.g., relatively high pay and job security) but not all (e.g., high levels of job autonomy) characteristics of other good jobs. We developed and administered to STEM workers in a public research center a research environment survey which replicated many of the items assessed in Kalleberg’s (2011) analysis of distinctions between good and bad jobs while also adding new items. Results show that as with workers in the general labor force, authority to make decisions, freedom to pursue new ideas, and promotional opportunities are important determinants of job satisfaction among the STEM workers we studied. Combining various indicators shows that intrinsic rewards emerge as particularly important in affecting satisfaction of STEM wor...

Customer aggression, emotional dissonance and employees' well‐being

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating role of emotional dissonance in the customer aggression‐job‐induced tension relationship and the role of job autonomy in buffering against the negative consequences of emotional dissonance.Design/methodology/approach – In total, three samples of service workers were recruited from Northern Israel between the years 2007 and 2008 and data were collected with self‐reported questionnaires. Research hypotheses were tested with hierarchical regression analyses.Findings – The present results show that emotional dissonance is significantly associated with a decreased sense of well‐being, even after controlling for negative disposition. The results also confirm that customer aggression relates to job‐induced tension through its influence on emotional dissonance, and that emotional dissonance is less likely to increase job‐induced tension and emotional exhaustion when the level of job autonomy is high.Practical implications – The findings suggest that ...

Personality and leader effectiveness: A moderated mediation model of leadership self-efficacy, job demands, and job autonomy.

The trait theory of leadership is advanced by a joint investigation of the mediating role of (a) leadership self-efficacy (LSE = leader's perceived capabilities to perform leader roles) in linking neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness with leader effectiveness and (b) the moderating role of job demands and job autonomy in influencing the mediation. Using K. J. Preacher, D. D. Rucker, and A. F. Hayes' (2007) moderated mediation framework, the authors tested the model (over a 2-year period) with matched data from 394 military leaders and their supervisors. Results showed that LSE mediated the relationships for neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness with leader effectiveness. Moderated mediation analyses further revealed that LSE mediated the relationships for (a) all 3 personality variables for only those leaders with low job demands; (b) neuroticism and conscientiousness for only those leaders with high job autonomy; and (c) extraversion, regardless of a leader's level of job autonomy. Results underscore the importance of accounting for leaders' situational contexts when examining the relationships between personality, LSE, and effectiveness.

Psychologists' reactions to Medicaid managed care: Opinion and practice change after 1 year.

How do .psychologists adapt over time to a new managed care program? Reactions of lowan psychologists to a managed mental health care program for Medicaid recipients were examined. The program was generally perceived negatively, although perceptions improved over time. Psychologists in private practice decreased the proportion of Medicaid patients they treated. Psychologists who continued to treat Medicaid patients reported decreased levels of job autonomy and satisfaction. A new managed care program presents psychologists with difficult ethical decisions, in which the quality of care provided to clients must be weighed against the negative aspects of participating in a managed care program. Few issues have generated as much controversy as managed care. Views are passionate and range from a benevolent and positive assessment to malevolent disdain. Some writers suggest

The Affective Consequences of Service Work

Understanding the social-psychology effects of frontline service work requires attention to the emotional labor performed by incumbents of these positions. Using Hochschild's 1983 classification of jobs requiring emotional labor, this study examines the effects of emotional labor on workers employed in the banking and hospital industries. The results suggest that performance of emotional labor does not have uniformly negative consequences for workers, as some accounts imply. Instead, the effects of emotional labor are conditioned by workers' level of job autonomy and job involvement, and their self-monitoring abilities. The conditions under which emotional labor has negative and positive social-psychological consequences are discussed.