The Measurement of Work Autonomy

Abstract

The importance of autonomy has been asserted by numerous writers in a variety of research domains, e.g., leadership, organizational climate, professionalism, and job design. In this paper, it is argued that research on job autonomy has been hindered by the way it has been conceptualized and operationalized by recent researchers. More specifically, it is suggested that the most commonly used measures of job autonomy operationally confound job autonomy with a conceptually distinct job characteristic (job interdependence/independence). Furthermore, it is suggested that for both theory development and improved organizational interventions it is important to distinguish separate areas (facets) of autonomy. This paper presents the development of a new instrument capable of tapping three distinct types, i.e., “Method A utonoly,” “Scheduling Autonomy,” and “Criteria Autonomy,” of work autonomy. Data relevant to the reliability and the validity of the instrument were gathered in two organizations. The results of several psychometric analyses suggest that the three work autonomy scales are both reliable and valid.

Supervisor Autonomy and Considerate Leadership Style are Associated with Supervisors’ Likelihood to Accommodate Back Injured Workers

“…Supervisor autonomy has been defined as the degree to which a career provides substantial freedom, independence, and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and determining the procedures to be used in carrying out the work [18]. Supervisor autonomy has been shown to be an important factor in research domains related to leadership, organizational climate, job design, and professionalism [18].…”

“…Supervisor autonomy has been shown to be an important factor in research domains related to leadership, organizational climate, job design, and professionalism [18]. In the workplace, an offer of accommodation will require that a supervisor have sufficient autonomy to rearrange job duties, cover costs, adjust scheduling or make other arrangements that enable the accommodation to occur.…”

Collecting information on job tasks—an instrument to measure tasks required at the workplace in a multi-topic survey

“…In general, autonomy in one's job is considered to be of high importance for the development of positive affective states such as job satisfaction, motivation, and affective commitment (see e.g. Breaugh 1985). It has also been stressed that a high degree of autonomy is related to positive workplace behavior such as, first and foremost, high job performance (e.g.…”

Individuelle Autonomie in Projektteams

“…5 Hoegl und Gemuenden (2001) stimmen dieser Sichtweise zu; sie weisen daraufhin, dass Teams mit innovativen Projekten "must work together on fundamental aspects of a common task, (but, die Autoren) many activities in the task process should be delegated to individual team members working on parallel subtasks". 6 Breaugh (1985), S. 555 f.. Für eine erfolgreiche Validierung des Messinstruments für individuelle Autonomie siehe Breaugh (1985) sowie Breaugh und Becker (1987), Breaugh (1989), Breaugh (1999), Breaugh (1998), Breaugh (1999 Leifer und Mills (1996), S. 128. Siehe auch Leifer und Mills (1996), S. 129 ff, Mills und Ungson (2003), S. 148.…”

“…68 Vgl. Breaugh (1985), S. 570, siehe aber auch Breaugh und Becker (1987), Breaugh (1989), Breaugh (1998), Breaugh (1999. …”