Work Autonomy Research Articles

Mental stress and resources in the sectors of IT services and social services – The potential of company occupational safety and health policy for developing health-promoting organisations

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic greatly increased the demands on employees and companies for handling mental stress and resources. A mixed-methods design was used to examine contrasting occupational groups, i. e. IT service workers (IT), and care workers and home helps providing social care (SC) in clients’ homes. First, this paper analyses how the mental health of both occupational groups was affected by the pandemic. Second, the potential of risk assessments for mental health (RA-M) for developing health-promoting organisations is investigated. While the first question is analysed with quantitative company surveys before and during the pandemic, the second question draws on qualitative company case studies. The quantitative survey shows few differences in health outcomes for the occupational groups during the observation period. In contrast to social care employees, IT employees were able to work at home. The social care employees show a greater fear of infection and report little influence over their work. In IT, the lack of direct contact with colleagues was perceived as stressful, while improvements in work autonomy were reported. The case study findings show that implementing RA-M contributed to reducing work-related stress and to fostering health-related resources. RA-M-based workplace interventions proved to be overarching social innovations that extended beyond OSH by improving work structures and enabling health-sensitive organisational development.

How does work autonomy in human-robot collaboration affect hotel employees’ work and health outcomes? Role of job insecurity and person-job fit

Based on the conservation of resources theory, this study examines the mechanism of work autonomy in human-robot collaboration on hotel employees’ service innovation behaviour and insomnia, and explores the mediating role of job insecurity and the moderating role of person-job fit. This study conducted a two-stage, multisource questionnaire survey among hotel industry employees and managers. The results show that job insecurity plays a mediating role between work autonomy in human-robot collaboration and service innovation behaviour/insomnia. Person-job fit not only moderates the relationship between work autonomy in human-robot collaboration and job insecurity but also moderates the mediating role of job insecurity. This study verified, for the first time, the impact of work autonomy in human-robot collaboration on employee work and health.

Ethical Challenges for Human–Agent Interaction in Virtual Collaboration at Work

In virtual collaboration at the workplace, a growing number of teams apply supportive conversational agents (CAs). They take on different work-related tasks for teams and single users such as scheduling meetings or stimulating creativity. Previous research merely focused on these positive aspects of introducing CAs at the workplace, omitting ethical challenges faced by teams using these often artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled technologies. Thus, on the one hand, CAs can present themselves as benevolent teammates, but on the other hand, they can collect user data, reduce worker autonomy, or foster social isolation by their service. In this work, we conducted 15 expert interviews with senior researchers from the fields of ethics, collaboration, and computer science in order to derive ethical guidelines for introducing CAs in virtual team collaboration. We derived 14 guidelines and seven research questions to pave the way for future research on the dark sides of human–agent interaction in organizations.

THE PHENOMENON OF DISCOMFORT TOWARD ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MODERATED BY EMPOWERING LEADERSHIP

Organizational change is an inevitable demand in the era of globalization. These changes can lead to discomfort, which can reduce organizational commitment in each member of the organization. It can happen because everyone in the organization is forced to leave their comfort zone to face new situations. The study was conducted to determine the phenomenon of discomfort in educational organizations that are making changes to the organization and whether this phenomenon influences the work commitment of organizational members. The empowering leadership variable will then moderate the relationship between the two variables. Empowering leadership is a leadership method in which a leader provides opportunities for subordinates to be independent at work (autonomy) and provides development opportunities. This study uses a questionnaire method in data collection and gets 255 respondents from Ciputra school foundations in Indonesia. This study uses SPSS as software in data processing to obtain research results. Based on the results of this study, discomfort does not have a significant impact on respondents who have a high level of commitment but can increase commitment if given empowering leadership. Discomfort cannot have a negative impact on organizational commitment because the majority of respondents' profile factors have strong organizational values, so they have built a commitment to schools. The research results can certainly be implemented by relevant organizations when they want to make organizational changes. Empowering leadership, which has a positive impact on commitment, is useful for accelerating change and keeping members of their organization.

The Effects of Transformational Leadership on Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Moderated Mediating Effects of Work Autonomy and Innovation-Relation Culture

The Effects of Transformational Leadership on Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Moderated Mediating Effects of Work Autonomy and Innovation-Relation Culture

Examining the Antecedents and Consequences of Public Officials’ Satisfaction with the Flexible Work System

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the antecedent and consequential factors of satisfaction with the flexible working system. Organizational culture was examined as an antecedent factor, while job satisfaction, work performance, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and quality of life were examined as outcome factors. The data of 2,785 public officials who used the flexible work system in the Korea Institute of Public Administration (2022) data set were analyzed using SPSS 28.0. and PROCESS macro's Model 4. The main research findings are as follows. First, organizational cultures that respect individuality and cooperation, supports management, and aims for work autonomy all positively and significantly affect satisfaction with the flexible working system. When ranking the size of influence by the type of organizational culture, work autonomy, respect for individuality, and a cooperative organizational culture had a positive impact in that order, with work autonomy being the most influential factor. In addition, the public officials' age, job preparation period, self-evaluation of workload, and overtime working hours are significant antecedents of satisfaction with the flexible work system. Second, when examining consequential factors, a high level of satisfaction with the flexible working system affects job satisfaction (+), work performance (+), organizational commitment (+), turnover intention (-), and quality of life (+). Job satisfaction was an especially valid mediator between satisfaction with the flexible working system and other consequential factors, including work performance, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and quality of life.

Different Results from Varied Angles: The Positive Impact of Work Connectivity Behavior After-Hours on Work Engagement.

With the development of communication technology and the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become increasingly common for employees to maintain work connectivity after-hours, which has a significant impact on their psychological state at work. However, most of the existing studies have not reached a consensus on the impact of work connectivity behavior after-hours on employees' psychological state at work, and the existing studies have led to theoretical and practical disagreements. Based on the Job Demands-Resources model, we built a two-path model of work autonomy and emotional exhaustion to explore the impact of work connectivity behavior after-hours on work engagement. In addition, we compared the differences between different workplace statuses (managers and ordinary employees). Through surveys and analyses of 257 employees, the results show that work connectivity behavior after-hours positively impacts employees' work engagement by increasing managers' work autonomy and reducing ordinary employees' emotional exhaustion. This study not only reveals that work connectivity behavior after-hours positively affects work engagement but also illustrates the differences in impact between managers and ordinary employees; these findings contribute to the development of a consensus on the influence of work connectivity behavior after-hours on employees' psychological state at work, which provides insights for organizations seeking to manage work connectivity behavior after-hours, for example, by adopting different connectivity management strategies for employees with different workplace statuses.

Digital privacy is a sexual health necessity: a community-engaged qualitative study of virtual sex work and digital autonomy in Senegal

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the harm reduction potential of virtual sex work (VSW) such as video or audio calls with clients. VSW limits exposure to COVID-19 and STIs. However, sex workers using digital technologies face high risks of technology-facilitated intimate partner violence (IPV), such as non-consensual distribution of intimate images. This study explored perceived risks and benefits of VSW, including the salience of STI harm reduction. Ethnographic interviews and participant observation with self-identified cis women sex workers in Dakar between January 2018 and August 2019 informed a further period of focused data collection in June 2022, in which two key research participants and the author devised a goal of concrete community benefit: a list of contextually relevant digital privacy precautions and resources. Brainstorming this list during workshops with 18 sex workers provided prompts for participant perspectives. While participants generally preferred VSW, citing STI prevention as a key reason, most resumed in-person sex work after COVID-19 curfews lifted; social risks of digital privacy breach and potential outing outweighed physical risks of contracting STIs. Participants proposed privacy features for mobile applications to make VSW viable and benefit from STI prevention. Their reflections call on tech companies to embed values of informed consent and privacy into platform design, shifting the burden of protecting privacy from individuals to companies. This study addresses a gap in technology-facilitated IPV research, which has concentrated on Euro-American contexts. Participant perspectives can inform action in technology policy sectors to advance criminalised communities’ rights to sexual health, privacy, and autonomy.

Overwhelmed by routine tasks: A multitasking principal agent perspective

Employees often report being overloaded with routine tasks, which distracts them from more demanding and rewarding work. We analyze this in a multitasking model involving a verifiable routine task and a skill-dependent task characterized by moral hazard. Multitasking is costly so that high- and low-skilled employees specialize, and only employees with intermediate productivity handle both tasks. In the Nash bargaining solution of contract negotiations, work overload in the routine task is used to lower the informational rent from the non-verifiable task. Compared to the first-best solution, more employees perform both tasks and effort in the routine task is inefficiently large. Moreover, the payment structure is such that the employee would prefer to allocate more effort to the demanding task, which we interpret as a loss of control over work autonomy. Reducing employees' bargaining power exacerbates the problem, while the effects of improved monitoring are mixed.

Building Dreams Beyond Labor: Worker Autonomy in the Age of AI

This forum focuses on the conditions and futures of the labor underpinning technology production and maintenance. We welcome standalone articles as well as interviews and conversations about all tech labor within the global supply chain of digital technologies. --- Seyram Avle and Sarah Fox, Editors

Job Enlargement and Psychological Safety Among Non-Teaching Personnel of the Department of Education Division of Batangas Province

The success or failure of its organisational plans was determined by the performance of its personnel. The Department of Education could enhance their employees' performance by creating a suitable working environment that was pleasant for them as this served as a psychological motivator for them to improve their performance and raise their work productivity. To stay competitive, the organisation could minimise the cost of employing new employees, and employees could execute extra tasks at their current level, which was known as job enlargement. This study aimed to correlate the level of Job Enlargement and the level of Psychological Safety Among the Non-Teaching Personnel of the Department of Education Division of Batangas Province. This study used a quantitative correlational research design. Using simple random sampling, 134 non-teaching personnel responded to the Job Diagnostic Survey on Job Enlargement and Psychological Safety Survey. Using the four-point Likert Scale, Mean and Pearson Product Moment Correlation, results revealed that the level of job and the level of psychological safety were high. Work Flexibility and Autonomy, Task Significance, Identity and Variety, Feedback, Specialisations, Problem-Solving, and Physical Demands had a significant relationship with the psychological safety of the non-teaching personnel, while Job Complexity and Information Processing had no significant relationship with psychological safety. A mental health program in relation to job enlargement was proposed. This could help in organisational analysis in understanding the vital role of the non-teaching personnel and the improvement of psychological safety in the Department of Education, which was key in achieving success in the organisation. This study presents a unique study that directly correlated Job Enlargement and Psychological Safety Among Non-Teaching Personnel that can contribute to the Human Resource and Organizational Development of the Department of Education Division of Batangas Province. However, the study was limited only to knowing the levels of Job Enlargement and Psychological Safety among Non-Teaching Personnel and how these two variables correlated.

공직 내 적극행정의 내·외재적 선행요인에관한 실증분석

Proactive administration is important in that it is emphasized not only in terms of the internal mission for providing improved services to the public, but also in terms of strengthening government capabilities in the global society. Accordingly, public officers' motives, perceptions, and attitudes were divided into intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and the impact on proactive administration was analyzed by intrinsic factors; public service motivation, public service satisfaction, organizational commitment, also external factors; recognition of remuneration, welfare and work support. In addition, it tried to delve whether work autonomy and transformational leadership control this relationship at the organizational level.
 As a result of the analysis, we revealed that public service motivation and organizational commitment as intrinsic factors, and remuneration recognition and welfare recognition as external factors had a positive effect on active administration. In addition, the cross-level interactions of 1) public service motivation and transformational leadership, 2) remuneration recognition and transformational leadership, 3) public office satisfaction and work autonomy, 4) remuneration recognition and work autonomy showed meaningful moderating effects on active administration.
 This study tried to shed light on the effectiveness of various factors related to public officers with internal and external viewpoints, confirming the influence of the interactions of organizational management variables, as well as providing major theoretical, policy, and practical implications on the basis of the empirical results.

Characterizing the relationship between personality traits and safety motivation among construction workers

Injury rates in the construction industry have been high. Losses from a construction accident are not limited to the high expenses of the delay in construction and the compensations for the injured workers, sometimes even the worker's life. The worker's unsafe behaviors have been the direct cause of an accident, and it is urgent to reduce them effectively. This study examines the relationships between personality traits, psychological needs, and safety motivation. It attempts to provide evidence and support for using personality traits and psychological needs in improving practical construction safety interventions. First, the constructs for personality traits, psychological needs, and safety motivation have been contextualized for application in the construction industry. Second, hypotheses about the relationships among the three constructs were established based on the literature, and a social survey was conducted to collect data for testing the hypotheses. Third, structural equation modeling was used to investigate the association between the three key constructs. The study found that conscientiousness is associated with social identity and intrinsic safety motivation, and extraversion is related to the worker's self-efficacy and extrinsic motivation. Openness to experience is positively associated with work autonomy and self-efficacy; conscientiousness is positively related to social identity, as well as extraversion to self-efficacy, agreeableness to work autonomy, and neuroticism to self-efficacy. The findings of this study contribute toward a better understanding of how personality accounts for differences in psychological needs and safety motivation and how these differences can be used in customized safety interventions. This study guides using personality traits in promoting safety motivation and shows that assessing personality traits can be a helpful tool in designing customized safety interventions.

How does the usage of robots in hotels affect employees’ turnover intention? A double-edged sword study

The purpose of this paper is to examine the double-edged sword effect of the usage of robots on hotel employees' turnover intention. We also examined the mediating role of work autonomy and job insecurity, as well as the moderating role of conscientiousness. Based on conservation of resources theory, we used a time-lagged method to select a sample of 370 employees from 18 hotels in China. We performed statistical analyses using SPSS 23.0 and Mplus 7.4. We found that the usage of robots reduces turnover intention through work autonomy and increases turnover intention through job insecurity. Conscientiousness moderated the effects of the usage of robots on work autonomy and job insecurity, as well as the indirect effects of work autonomy and job insecurity. Our study enriches the research on the usage of robots in the hospitality industry and expands scholars' exploration of conscientiousness. Our findings change previous scholars' perceptions of employee’ conscientiousness. It is crucial for hotel managers to acknowledge that the usage of robots is a double-edged sword. Hotel managers need to recruit employees who use robots from a complementary perspective and do not always have to recruit employees with high conscientiousness.

Reforming for trust and professionalism in municipal healthcare services: implications for human resource management

BackgroundMany countries face an increasing demand for home-based healthcare services, and consequently experience a mismatch between expectations and available financial and human resources. It is therefore important to utilize human resources more efficiently, while at the same time offer jobs that attract the professionals they need. This article reports a study of the development and piloting of a new organizational model for home-based healthcare services in a Norwegian municipality, which addresses the need to provide efficient services and enhance trust and professionalism within healthcare services by improving work autonomy and involvement of employees.MethodsThe research project this article draws its empirical material from was commissioned by the municipality piloting the new organizational model and executed in collaboration with the municipality based on an evaluative trailing research (ETR) design. The data consists of interviews with key personnel and knowledge exchange between researchers and the involved actors in the pilot project. 20 semi-structured interviews involving a total of 34 informants were conducted.The analysis emphasises how different employee groups and management perceived and experienced various aspects of the work situation, as they were introduced to working and managing within the new organizational model. The aim is to shed light on how these employees and managers feel about it, interpret it, and respond to it.ResultsOverall, the results indicate that the model holds potential for realizing the benefits it aims for. However, there were also challenges that need resolving for the model to fulfil this potential. Central elements include clarification of roles and responsibilities for employees and managers, competence specification and development, and development of structures for inter-professional cross-team collaboration and information provision.ConclusionsTrust reform initiatives may be a strategy for fostering high-involvement work systems. To achieve this, sufficient attention must be paid to ensuring structures for information exchange and knowledge development in the early phases of implementation, or preferably prior to implementation. The theoretical model applied in this study could potentially be a useful managerial tool in preparing for and implementing trust reforms in healthcare services.

Impact of Police Personnel's Ranks on Quality of Work Life

The current study aims to deeply analyze the influence of various hierarchies within the police department on the Quality of Work Life. The specific focus is on the Police Telecom Branch of the Madhya Pradesh Police. The primary goal of this research is to delve into how police personnel of different ranks perceive their quality of work life. It seeks to pinpoint the dimensions where their perceptions significantly vary. By doing so, the study aims to understand how these dimensions impact their performance and provide suggestions for enhancement. To gather data, a questionnaire comprising 50 questions was employed. After data collection, a Chi-square test was used to analyze the information to identify those dimensions that exhibit a significant association between ranks and perceptions about QWL. The findings conclusively established that there was a noticeable disparity in how police personnel of various ranks viewed the autonomy of work, compensation & rewards, and job satisfaction. This disparity was directly linked to differences in roles and responsibilities.

The Role of Women's Leadership Characteristics in Shaping Job Autonomy and Its Effects on Employee Innovation Performance

Research aims: This study investigates the impact of women's leadership traits on employee innovation performance and the role of job autonomy as an intermediary.Design/Methodology/Approach: This study used a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional design, focusing on micro-level analysis, with 323 employees from a Pekanbaru Public Health Center (Puskesmas) as the target population. One hundred seventy-five samples were obtained using Cluster Random Sampling, and the SEM statistical test and Smart PLS 4.0 software were utilized for quantitative analysis.Research findings: Women's characteristic leadership supports the creation and development of employee innovation performance. It will be better if the provision of work autonomy accompanies it.Theoretical Contribution/Originality: Developing a job autonomy theory covers procedural autonomy, soft skills, and decision-making. Scheduling autonomy includes time flexibility and technical tasks. Autonomy within job criteria is assessed through task priority, management, and performance.Practitioners/Policy Implications: The research highlights the importance of work autonomy in Pekanbaru Health Centers, highlighting the role of women's leadership characteristics and proving that women possess the same abilities as men, thereby supporting employee innovation performance.Research Limitations/Implications: The study suggests that future research could benefit from a longitudinal design to assess theory constructs over time, considering the limitations of cross-sectional designs and the limited sample size of Pekanbaru City Health Center employees, allowing for a more comprehensive analysis.

Working time and autonomy: Lessons for the new ways of working

This article critically examines the relationship between autonomy and working time, with a focus on the new challenges in the world of work and explores whether traditional approaches can address new challenges. By comparing the situation of autonomous workers to known contexts, valuable lessons emerge. Autonomous work in this contribution is approached as work under subordination with at least one of three characteristics, namely, time independency, place independency (understood as autonomy in respect of hours and place of work) and autonomy in the performance of the work. The discussion covers issues such as the concept of working time, reconciling constant connectivity with rest periods, the scope of the Working Time Directive and the derogation of Article 17(1), as well as the obligation to measure working time. Comparative examples from Belgium, France, Finland and Italy provide useful and tangible insights into the application of the Working Time Directive. The article concludes that while old insights alone cannot address the specific issues faced by autonomous workers, they can guide the identification of suitable rules and regulations.

Motywacja i zaspokojenie potrzeb w pracy a work-life balance i poczucie satysfakcji z życia pracowników polskich korporacji w okresie przed pandemią Covid-19

Introduction: Maintaining a balance between personal and professional life (work-life balance, WLB) is one of the key factors important for the effectiveness of functioning in the professional area and also has a direct impact on the sense of satisfaction with life. The article explores the relationship between motivational factors and needs satisfaction at work and WLB and life satisfaction. Research Aim: The aim of the research was to determine the relationships between the different types of motivation regulation postulated in the theory of self-determination by Deci and Ryan (2000) and the satisfaction of needs at work (autonomy, competence and bonds with other people) and WLB and the sense of life satisfaction of corporate employees. Method: The study covered 82 employees of five institutions from the financial sector, aged 22 to 62.27 (33%) of the respondents held a managerial position. The following questionnaires were used in the study: “Work-Life Balance” (Hill Hawkins, Ferris, Weitzman, 2001), “SWLS” (Juczyński, 2012), Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale (WEIMS) Tremblay, Blanchard, Taylor, Pelletier, Villeneuvei (2009), and Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction Scale – Work Domain (Deci et al., 2001). Results: Among the respondents, a negative relationship between amotivation – lack of motivation to work and WLB was found. The factor that turned out to be positively associated with WLB was the satisfaction of the need of autonomy at work. Positive relationships were also found between intrinsic motivation and life satisfaction, as well as WLB and life satisfaction. Conclusions: The results of the study indicate that it is not so much the specific type of motivation that affects the maintenance of WLB, as the lack of motivation is associated with the disturbance of this balance. The key need that is met at work translates into WLB is the need for autonomy. Our study reported a positive relationship between WLB and life satisfaction. This means that maintaining a work-life balance can be considered as one of the important aspects of well-being.

A key to recovery for working mothers? Psychological detachment and the roles of relaxation, mastery and control on boundary violations

PurposeThis study aims to incorporate theory on effort-recovery and stressor-detachment models to examine the roles of relaxation, mastery and types of control on the relationship between psychological detachment from work and boundary violations at home.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzes data from two time points using a sample of 348 working mothers recruited from Prolific.FindingsWorking moms who psychologically detach from work have less work boundary violations at home. There are mixed findings on whether and when the other types of recovery experiences moderate the relationship between psychological detachment and boundary violations at home. Relaxation, control after work and job autonomy do not moderate the effect while mastery and boundary control do. Specifically, psychological detachment is more effective as reducing boundary violations at home for working moms who have (1) low levels of mastery and (2) high levels of boundary control.Practical implicationsWorking mothers juggle multiple roles and often have increased stress and less time to manage the two domains. The findings of this study illustrate whether and when psychological detachment from work acts as a key to recovery from work-based stressors.Originality/valueMuch of the research on recovery experiences is based on employees without consideration of motherhood status. Further, scholars have not examined the combinative potential of recovery experiences. Finally, examining control over both domains (vs. one domain) adds precision to the literature.