Agentic work behaviour and thriving at work: role of decision making authority

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the contribution of agentic work behaviour and decision-making authority (DMA) to thriving at work and, more importantly, the moderating role of DMA in the relationship between agentic behaviour and thriving.

Design/methodology/approach

The study has been carried out upon a random sample of 330 employees below supervisory level from manufacturing companies located at Odisha (a state located at the eastern part of India). After verifying the significance of correlation among the study variables through Pearson’s product moment correlation, moderated regression analyses were carried out to examine the independent contribution of agentic work behaviour and DMA to thriving as well as the moderating contribution of DMA towards thriving.

Findings

Results reveal that the three dimensions of agentic work behaviour, namely, task focus, exploration and heedful relation, have a direct positive contribution towards thriving at workplace. As far as the moderation is concerned, it is observed that the thriving level is higher for the employees having high DMA irrespective of the level of agentic work behaviour at each dimension.

Research limitations/implications

The findings imply for designing interventions to enhance task focus, super-ordinate relationship and interest for learning. In addition, the organisations should provide autonomy to employees for decision making.

Originality/value

The study is first of its kind in the Indian context upon employee thriving. In this study, the authors have not only investigated the separate independent contribution of agentic behaviour and DMA, but also their interacting contribution to employee thriving.

Citation

Sia, S.K. and Duari, P. (2018), "Agentic work behaviour and thriving at work: role of decision making authority", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 25 No. 8, pp. 3225-3237. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-07-2017-0204