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This study aims to explore the role of frontline service employees’ (FSEs) awareness that their job can be substituted by smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics and algorithms (STARA) in their job autonomy and proactive service performance and when these relationships can be buffered. Drawing on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress, the study examined the mediating relationship between FSEs’ STARA awareness, job autonomy and proactive service performance and the moderating effects of self-efficacy and resilience on this relationship.

The authors administered two-wave online surveys to 301 South Korean FSEs working in various service sectors (e.g. retailing, food/beverage, hospitality/tourism and banking). The Time 1 survey measured respondents’ STARA awareness, self-efficacy, resilience and job autonomy, and the Time 2 survey assessed their proactive service performance.

FSEs’ STARA awareness negatively affected their subsequent proactive service performance through decreased job autonomy. The negative association between STARA awareness and job autonomy was weaker when FSEs’ self-efficacy was high than when it was low. While the authors observed no significant moderation of resilience, the author found a marginally significant three-way interaction between STARA awareness, self-efficacy and resilience. Specifically, STARA awareness was negatively related to job autonomy only when both self-efficacy and resilience were low. When either self-efficacy or resilience was high, the association between STARA awareness and job autonomy became nonsignificant, suggesting the buffering roles of the two personal resources.

Given that the measurement of variables relied on self-reported data, rater biases might have affected the findings of the study. Moreover, the simultaneous measurement of STARA awareness, self-efficacy, resilience and job autonomy could preclude causal inferences between these variables. The authors encourage future studies to use a more rigorous methodology to reduce rater biases and establish stronger causality between the variables.

Service firms can decrease FSEs’ STARA awareness through training in the knowledge and skills necessary to work with these technologies. To promote FSEs’ proactive service performance in this context, service firms need to involve them in decisions related to STARA adoption and allow them to craft their jobs. Service managers should provide FSEs with social support and exercise empowering and supportive leadership to help them view STARA as a challenge rather than a threat.

Distinct from prior research on STARA awareness and employee outcomes, the study identified proactive service performance as a key outcome in the STARA context. By presenting self-efficacy and resilience as crucial personal resources that buffer FSEs from the deleterious impact of STARA awareness, the study provides practitioners with insights that can help FSEs maintain their job autonomy and proactive service performance in times of digitalization and automation.

Based on person-job fit and self-determination theory, this paper examined the effects of (in)congruence between autonomy expectation and perceived autonomy on proactive behaviour, and the moderating role of humble leadership in this relationship among Chinese public employees.

Data were collected from a two-wave survey, and the research model was tested using polynomial regression and response surface methodology.

Results suggested that employees' proactive behaviour will be highest when autonomy congruence was achieved, while autonomy incongruence led to different levels of proactive behaviour based on the specific situations. Furthermore, the moderating effect of humble leadership was proved such that it accentuated the positive influence of autonomy congruence on proactive behaviour.

Managers should be fully aware of the benefits and importance of person-job fit and strive to reduce autonomy incongruence. Meanwhile, humble leadership should be considered in the context of granting autonomy to boost proactivity.

This paper re-emphasises the importance of autonomy by utilising a congruence perspective to understand the effects of autonomy on proactive behaviour. Meanwhile, it incorporates an important boundary condition, humble leadership, on the effects of autonomy congruence and thus offers a more nuanced understanding. Further, this paper not only highlights the significance of underexplored concepts among public employees, but also extends autonomy (in)congruence study to a new context and culture.

As knowledge management increasingly becomes critical for the success of professional service firms, this paper uses social exchange theory to investigate the interactive impact of transformational leadership and organizational innovation on online knowledge sharing by employees in professional service firms. This study aims to investigate the mediating roles of job autonomy and job engagement in this process.

Data were collected from a survey of 350 frontline employees in professional service providers, including banking, telecommunication and insurance. Structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

The results show that transformational leadership positively affects job autonomy, which in turn has a positive impact on online knowledge sharing through job engagement. Thus, job autonomy and job engagement mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and online knowledge sharing. Finally, organizational innovation moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and job autonomy.

This paper extends the knowledge management literature by studying the impact of transformational leadership on the online knowledge-sharing behavior and exploring the focal roles of job autonomy and job engagement in online-sharing behavior in professional service firms. The findings also provide useful implications for practitioners to help them engage employees in the adoption of digital technologies to optimize outcomes.

Research examining the joint role of serial acquisitions and subsidiary autonomy in holistic value provision within servitizing industrial firms is scarce. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the role of serial acquisition and subsidiary autonomy in providing value within servitizing industrial networks.

A conceptual framework is developed based on the case study of a large Swedish industrial group specializing in selling industrial products and providing industrial solutions to business customers through its numerous subsidiaries.

The analysis of 14 interviews with the five subsidiaries and seven customer firms and secondary data reveals interesting findings concerning the role of serial niche acquisition strategy and subsidiary autonomy in customer value provision in servitizing organizations. In particular, the authors find that the role of acquisitions in industrial firms extends beyond growth to customer sensing and proximity. Likewise, the authors find that subsidiary autonomy facilitates value provision to customers in industrial networks.

The paper provides a more nuanced understanding of how serial acquisitions and subsidiary autonomy are intertwined and jointly affect industrial firms’ value provision activities amidst the servitization transition in an intraorganizational network.

This study probed the impact of using learning technologies (LT) on developing Yemeni English as a foreign language (EFL) students' autonomy and creativity toward English language learning. Also, the research gauged if LT impacts learners' autonomy and creativity across gender and university-type variables.

The study utilized a valid and reliable questionnaire, comprising 20 close-ended items, which was administered to 109 Yemeni EFL undergraduate students.

The researchers found that LT positively impacts learners' creativity and autonomy, with mean scores of 4.09 and 3.86, respectively. Furthermore, the results showed a medium correlation between creativity and autonomy with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.63 at a probability of Sig = 0.00. Likewise, the results revealed that LT impacted female learners' creativity more significantly than their male counterparts (Sig = 0.047). Nevertheless, no significant differences were found pertaining to the impact of LT on students' autonomy across public and private universities (Sig = 0.213).

EFL teachers are advised to encourage their students' autonomy and creativity throughout their lifelong learning journey in order to adapt to the ever-changing demands of the world.

This study investigates the impact of learning technology on Yemeni EFL students' autonomy and creativity.

Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study aims to develop and test a model of moderated mediation in the relationship between job autonomy and employee life satisfaction, focusing on the mediating role of work–family enrichment (WFE) and the moderating role of segmentation preference.

Using a time-lagged research design, data were collected from 314 employees representing various organisations in Vietnam. The PROCESS macro in SPSS 20.0 was used to analyse the relationships.

The results indicate a positive relationship between job autonomy and employees’ life satisfaction, mediated by WFE. Additionally, the indirect effect of job autonomy on life satisfaction via WFE was weaker when employees preferred high work–family segmentation.

The study suggests that organisations can enhance employee life satisfaction by increasing job autonomy and promoting WFE. Organisations can establish a more supportive and engaging work environment that promotes well-being by tailoring these interventions to suit employees’ segmentation preferences.

This study contributes to the literature by shedding light on how organisational factors influence employee life satisfaction. It provides the first empirical evidence of a relationship between job autonomy and life satisfaction. It also explores the potential mediation effect of WFE and the moderating effect of segmentation preference.

Foreign construction subsidiaries play an important role in the global construction market. How to establish and maintain long-term sustainable performance has attracted increased attention, but only a few studies have considered this issue. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between autonomy and the sustainable performance of subsidiaries and to provide support for their management control modes.

From an institutional logics perspective, empirical research using a questionnaire survey was conducted following the methodological framework of this study. Relevant data were collected from 106 experienced managers of foreign construction subsidiaries, and the hypotheses were tested through a regression model.

The results show that foreign construction subsidiaries have a high degree of operational autonomy, which tends to strengthen their embeddedness in the host country and improve their sustainable performance. However, the role of strategic autonomy is not found to be significant. The moderation results show that the positive impact between operational autonomy and external network embeddedness is strengthened by institutional distance. Institutional distance has no significant moderating impact on the relationship between strategic autonomy and external network embeddedness, respectively.

Geographical limitations may exist as the survey is focused on the Chinese construction foreign subsidiaries. However, based on an institutional logics perspective, this study discusses the management control mode of foreign subsidiaries, which enriches the antecedents of sustainable performance and can provide an in-depth explanation of the effects of the organizational strategies of multinational construction enterprises.

This study provides beneficial information for the sustainable performance of foreign construction subsidiaries. It will provide detailed guidance to managers located in different institutional environments on optimally promoting the sustainable development of subsidiaries.

This study identifies autonomy as an important antecedent, making it one of the first studies investigating autonomy on the sustainable performance of foreign construction subsidiaries. The findings of this study can contribute to the construction subsidiaries' sustainable performance literature and provide novel, comprehensive knowledge for academia and practice.

This study aims to examine the role of location autonomy (i.e. autonomy over where to work) in shaping employee mental distress during their working days.

A total of 316 employees from 6 organizations in the UK provided data for 4,082 half-day sessions, over 10 working days. Random intercept modeling is used to analyze half-day data nested within individuals.

Results show that location autonomy, beyond decision-making autonomy and work-method autonomy, is positively associated with the perception of task-environment (TE) fit which, in turn, contributes to lower mental distress during each half-day session. Results of supplementary analysis also show that location autonomy can contribute to higher absorption, task proficiency and job satisfaction via TE fit during each half-day session.

This study reveals the importance and uniqueness of location autonomy in shaping employees' outcomes, offering implications for how organizations can use this in the work–life flexibility policies to support employee mental health.

Based on the trait activation theory, the current study systematically integrates how autonomy interacts with proactivity to influence the relationship between ethical leadership style and employee creativity.

Using simple random sampling and questionnaires, a sample of 475 engineering employees of 3 leading telecommunication companies in Ghana were obtained. The analysis was done using structured equation modeling (SEM), using SmartPLS.

The results showed that ethical leadership style provides employees with job autonomy which facilitates individual creativity. Employee proactivity also moderates a positive relationship between autonomy and creativity such that high-proactive employees are well placed to produce more creative outcomes when given autonomy. At the individual level, personal characteristics determine the degree of creativity.

The current study implies that telecommunication companies should put in more efforts to train and encourage leaders to be ethical in leaders' dealings with employees and employees must be rewarded for taking initiative.

With a focus on the integrative approach from a developing economy, this work is novel in exploring how contextual and personal features impact creativity.

Recently new forms of telework emerged, such as the hybrid model; however, little is known about how and when it promotes performance. Based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, the authors developed a conceptual framework to demonstrate that the hybrid model of telework positively influences performance via positive affect. Furthermore, the authors identified both personal (emotional intelligence [EI]) and job resources (autonomy) as moderators of this relationship.

To test the proposed model, the authors collected data from teleworkers who were in a hybrid telework regime from the telecommunications industry (N = 290).

The results showed that (1) telework positively influenced positive affect and, in turn, performance and (2) the indirect effect of telework on performance through positive affect was moderated by both EI and autonomy.

These results appear to be fundamental for a better conceptual and practical understanding of how and when hybrid telework can improve performance.