The Role of Performance Feedback and Job Autonomy in Mitigating the Negative Effect of Role Ambiguity on Employee Satisfaction

Abstract

The job demands-control (JDC) model suggests that job demands and job control (job autonomy) combine interactively in predicting job-related outcomes. While the model has been widely tested, studies using it have often failed to demonstrate the predicted interaction effects of job demands and job control on measures of a wide range of outcomes. The current study proposes performance feedback as a different situational variable that could relate to job demands and job control, and examines the three-way interaction effects among role ambiguity, performance feedback, and job autonomy in predicting employee satisfaction. Analyzing data from the 2012 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, the study finds that performance feedback mitigates the negative effect of role ambiguity on employee satisfaction, but is significantly stronger in the high job autonomy condition. This study contributes to theoretical knowledge of the way job demands and job autonomy interact in producing motivational outcomes by offering a plausible explanation for the lack of consistency of the interaction effect of job demands and job control in the JDC model.

Veterans and Job Satisfaction in the U.S. Federal Government: The Importance of Role Clarity in the First Years of Civilian Employment

“…Some use a single-item, “Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your job?” to measure job satisfaction (Bae & Kim, 2016; Fernandez & Moldogaziev, 2015). Others add an additional item: “Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your organization?” to construct a two-item composite measure (Jong, 2016; Pitts, 2009). In the sample of their meta-analysis on job satisfaction, Cantarelli et al (2016) find that about one fourth of the studies uses a single-item and the rest use multiple-item measures, and some work suggests that multi-item measurements tend to produce a more conservative and accurate estimate of overall job satisfaction (Oshagbemi, 1999).…”

Moderating Effects of the Timing of Reward Determination and Performance Standards between Rewards and Self-Efficacy for Sustainable Intrinsic Motivation

“…This is beneficial for practitioners and researchers to maintain a sustainable management environment. For example, both autonomy and feedback can be studied simultaneously with the job characteristics model [88,89] and the inconsistencies between individual performance and team performance [90].…”

Supervisor Feedback and Innovative Work Behavior: The Mediating Roles of Trust in Supervisor and Affective Commitment

“…It has been known that supervisor feedback plays a role in changing their subordinates’ attitudes and behaviors. Previous studies have indicated that employees who receive performance or developmental feedback from their supervisors are likely to display positive behavioral and attitudinal outcomes, such as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB; Peng and Chiu, 2010 ), organizational commitment (OC; Eisenberger and Stinglhamber, 2011 ), trust ( Nyhan, 2000 ), job satisfaction ( Jong, 2016 ), and performance improvement ( Favero et al, 2014 ). However, relatively little empirical research has examined the role of supervisor feedback on IWB, and its effects on IWB is veiled.…”