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The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the relations between perceived job autonomy and attitudes are stronger among self‐employed than employees.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the relations between perceived job autonomy and attitudes are stronger among self‐employed than employees.
Design/methodology/approach
Four samples (total n=25,974), consisting of self‐report data from working adults, were used. In each, participants were classified under three work arrangements: owners of businesses employing others, independent contractors, and employees. The perceived job autonomy for each work arrangement was determined, as were the strengths of the relationship with attitudinal variables (job satisfaction, life satisfaction, professional commitment, and stress). Correlational analysis and hierarchical regression were used to test whether the strengths of these relationships were stronger among the self‐employed.
Findings
In all four samples, both types of self‐employed reported more job autonomy than employees. In all samples and within all work arrangements, the relationships between job autonomy were statistically significant and positive with respect to desirable outcomes and negative with respect to stress. However, the strengths of these relationships were no greater among owners or independents than among employees.
Practical implications
From a career advising and planning perspective, the research indicates that self‐employment, either as an owner or independent, is an effective tactic for individuals to increase their job autonomy. However, there was no evidence that the self‐employed differ from employees with respect to the benefit they receive from the job autonomy they perceive.
Originality/value
This study adds to the literature on career choice and self‐employment by comparing the strengths of relationships between job autonomy within and across work arrangements.
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Abdulrazaq Kayode Abdulkareem, Abdulrasaq Ajadi Ishola, Muhammed Lawan Bello and Abdulhakeem Adejumo
This study aims to investigate the effects of digital overload on job autonomy and job satisfaction among civil servants in the Nigerian public sector using the job…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the effects of digital overload on job autonomy and job satisfaction among civil servants in the Nigerian public sector using the job demand–resources model.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey was conducted among mid-career and senior-level officers in five federal ministries in Nigeria. The collected data were analyzed by using structural equation modeling partial least squares to test the research hypotheses and necessary condition analysis to assess the necessary conditions for high satisfaction among civil servants.
Findings
The study reveals that the use of information and communication technology (ICT) has a significant positive impact on digital overload. Furthermore, digital overload has a significant negative effect on job autonomy and adversely affects job satisfaction. Additionally, job autonomy partially mediates the relationship between digital overload and job satisfaction. Job autonomy and ICT use were found to be necessary conditions for high satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
The study acknowledges certain limitations, such as the focus on civil servants in federal ministries in Nigeria and the reliance on self-reported data.
Practical implications
The findings of this study have practical implications for policymakers in the Nigerian civil service. They highlight the importance of reducing digital overload and promoting job autonomy to enhance job satisfaction, as well as to improve the overall performance and efficiency of the public sector.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the existing literature by providing insights into the detrimental effects of digital overload on civil servants’ job autonomy and satisfaction in the Nigerian public sector. It explores a relatively unexplored aspect of digitalization and emphasizes the need to address the negative implications of digital overload. Additionally, it examines the necessary conditions for high satisfaction among civil servants.
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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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Research limitations/implications
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.
Practical implications
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.
Originality/value
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.
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As knowledge management increasingly becomes critical for the success of professional service firms, this paper uses social exchange theory to investigate the interactive impact…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Originality/value
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.
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The purpose of this study is to examine whether emotional deviance in response to customer aggression and employees’ feelings of anger is likely to be influenced by perceived job…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine whether emotional deviance in response to customer aggression and employees’ feelings of anger is likely to be influenced by perceived job autonomy. To date, studies on emotional labor have focused primarily on emotional regulation strategies. Little is known about the factors that may serve to increase emotional deviance (i.e. situations in which felt and expressed emotions match but are at odds with organizational display rules).
Design/methodology/approach
Three samples of service workers were recruited from northern Israel, and data were collected using self-reported questionnaires. Research hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analyses.
Findings
Study 1 revealed that under conditions of frequent exposure to customer aggression, more perceived job autonomy was associated with more frequent instances of emotional deviance. The results of Study 2 and Study 3 demonstrated that the relationship between anger and emotional deviance was stronger for employees reporting high levels of perceived job autonomy.
Practical implications
Given the potentially negative impact of emotional deviance on customer satisfaction, organizations should find a balance between satisfying employees’ desire for control and discretion and ensuring employee compliance with display rules.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the existing literature by pointing out that job autonomy may have a “dark side”, in the sense that it provides employees with a certain level of perceived freedom, which might then be extended to include freedom from rule compliance, especially when negative emotions are experienced.
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Lisa Harris, Helena Cooper–Thomas, Peter Smith and Gordon W. Cheung
This study aims to test the propositions of socialization resources theory, specifically focusing on social capital resources and their prediction of proximal (relational…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to test the propositions of socialization resources theory, specifically focusing on social capital resources and their prediction of proximal (relational learning) and distal (job satisfaction and intent to quit) outcomes. The authors include the job design characteristic of job autonomy as a moderator of these associations.
Design/methodology/approach
Cheung et al.’s (2021) four-step SEM procedure was used to test our mediation, moderation and moderated mediation hypotheses. The sample consisted of newcomers (N = 175) measured at two time points.
Findings
The results support the proposed model. Relational learning mediates the associations between social capital resources and outcomes; the utility of these social capital resources is stronger when job autonomy is lower.
Practical implications
Organizations can use social capital resources to reduce newcomers' uncertainty during socialization, facilitating learning and positive outcomes. Organizations should also carefully consider the amount of job autonomy they grant to newcomers, as too much can be detrimental.
Originality/value
Despite the acknowledged importance of workplace resources and relationships, few studies have focused on social resources provided during socialization. Moreover, job design is rarely included in socialization research, despite its influence on workplace processes. Thus, this study provides information about two novel areas of investigation: socially-oriented socialization resources and the impact of job autonomy.
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Lander Vermeerbergen, Geert Van Hootegem and Jos Benders
Decentralisation attempts that aim to increase job autonomy do not always succeed. This paper aims to study to what extent the tendency to maintain existing operational task…
Abstract
Purpose
Decentralisation attempts that aim to increase job autonomy do not always succeed. This paper aims to study to what extent the tendency to maintain existing operational task divisions is an important explanation for this lack of success.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 456 employees in 25 organisations participated in a cross-sectional intervention study. Each employee filled out a questionnaire on job autonomy both before and after the decentralisation process, in which all organisations shifted regulatory, preparatory and supportive tasks to the lowest organisational level.
Findings
This study found small, but significant, effects of decentralisation attempts on job autonomy. The size of the effects, however, depended on the way the way in which the operational tasks were divided. Simultaneously, larger effects were found for organisations which decentralised tasks and changed the way operational tasks were divided. Both findings reached the conclusion that although decentralisation attempts seemed important for increasing job autonomy, the way in which the operational tasks were divided and even changed, was at least as important for a successful decentralisation process.
Originality/value
After decades of research on modern sociotechnical theory, this study is the first to show that decentralisation attempts do not merely increase job autonomy. The effect of such attempts depends on the way in which operational tasks are divided in organisations.
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Michael Mustafa, Hazel Melanie Ramos and Siti Khadijah Zainal Badri
The purpose of this study seeks to examine how nonfamily employees' job autonomy and work passion can influence their job satisfaction and intention to quit in family…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study seeks to examine how nonfamily employees' job autonomy and work passion can influence their job satisfaction and intention to quit in family small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Current, research regarding the determinants of nonfamily employees' job satisfaction and turnover intentions has largely focused on the effects of family influence and family firm characteristics. Accordingly, not much is known of how the job characteristics and emotions of nonfamily employees influence their job satisfaction and intention to quit.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 160 nonfamily employees across 28 family-SMEs. Process macro was used to analyze the mediating role of nonfamily employees' work passion in the relationship between their job autonomy and job satisfaction and intention to quit.
Findings
Findings showed that nonfamily employees' job autonomy only had a significant direct effects on their job satisfaction and not their intention to quit. Subsequently, nonfamily employees' work passion was found to only partially mediate the relationship between their job autonomy and job satisfaction.
Originality/value
By focusing on the concepts of job autonomy and work passion, the study adds additional insights about the drivers of nonfamily employees' pro-organizational attitudes in family-SMEs. Also the study represents one of the first efforts in the literature to establish a link between job autonomy and the work passion of nonfamily employees with respect to their job satisfaction.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of perceived organizational support (POS) in the relationships between job autonomy and organizational citizenship…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of perceived organizational support (POS) in the relationships between job autonomy and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and the moderating role of organizational strategy in those relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypotheses were tested by a moderated mediation model using multilevel survey data that were collected in South Korea in 2008.
Findings
This study found that POS mediated the relationship between autonomy and OCB regardless of organizational strategy, and that job autonomy was more strongly related to POS in companies with an analyzer strategy than with a defender strategy. The results also indicated that the indirect relationship between job autonomy and OCB via POS was stronger in companies with an analyzer strategy than in companies with a defender strategy.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides a new mechanism in the relationship between job autonomy and OCB using social exchange theory. An analyzer strategy should not be treated as a hybrid of defender and prospector strategies.
Practical implications
While all organizations may benefit from providing employees with job autonomy regardless of organizational strategy, companies with an analyzer strategy in particular should provide their employees with sufficient autonomy.
Originality/value
The present study bridged the gap between the macro and micro approaches through multilevel analyses. This study is unique in that it examined the vertical fit between job autonomy and organizational strategy while focussing on individual employee outcomes.
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Jeanine K. Andreassi and Cynthia A. Thompson
The purpose of this paper is to assess the relative influence of personality (locus of control) and situational control (job autonomy) on the experience of work‐to‐family conflict…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the relative influence of personality (locus of control) and situational control (job autonomy) on the experience of work‐to‐family conflict (WFC), family‐to‐work conflict (FWC), and positive work‐family spillover (PS).
Design/methodology/approach
Using data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (n=3,504) and from O*Net, an independent database of occupational characteristic ratings, regression analysis was used to test direct effects, relative weights analysis was used to determine the relative influence of locus of control and job autonomy on work‐family outcomes, and mediation analysis was used to examine the mediating influence of perceived job autonomy.
Findings
Dispositional control (i.e. internal locus of control) was more strongly associated with the outcome variables than was situational control (i.e. objective job autonomy). As expected, internal locus of control was negatively related to WFC and FWC, and positively related to PS. Job autonomy, however, was unexpectedly related to higher levels of FWC and was unrelated to WFC and PS. Relative weights analysis revealed that situational vs dispositional control were differentially related to the outcome variables. Perceived job autonomy mediated the relationship between locus of control and WFC and PS.
Research limitations/implications
The correlational design prevents conclusions about causality.
Practical implications
Knowing that both personality and job autonomy are important in understanding work‐family outcomes enables managers to intervene appropriately.
Originality/value
This study increases our understanding of the role of personality in relation to work‐family outcomes. In addition, it used a novel technique to partial the effects of situational and dispositional control, and used an objective measure of job autonomy.
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