Journal Article

Exploring the Effects of Job Autonomy on Engagement and Creativity

Zhang, Wenqin, Peng, Yisheng, Wang, Dongdong, Jex, Steve M.

2017

Overview

Purpose The 21st century work environment calls for team members to be more engaged in their work and exhibit more creativity in completing their job tasks. The purpose of this study was to examine whether team performance pressure and individual goal orientation would moderate the relationships between individual autonomy in teams and individual engagement and creativity. Design/Methodology/Approach A sample consisting of 209 team members and 45 team managers from 45 work teams in 14 companies completed survey measures. To test our hypotheses, we used multilevel modeling with random intercepts and slopes because the individual-level data were nested within the team-level data. Findings Hierarchical linear modeling showed that team-level performance pressure attenuated the positive relations between job autonomy and three dimensions of engagement. There were also 3-way interactions between job autonomy, psychological performance pressure, and learning goal orientation in predicting three dimensions of engagement and creativity. Implications This study highlights the importance of exploring the moderating effect of team-level task characteristics and individual differences on the relationships between job autonomy and individual engagement and creativity. Organizations need to carefully consider both individual learning goals and performance pressure when empowering team members with job autonomy. Originality/Value This is one of the first studies to explore the association between individual job autonomy in teams and individual outcomes in a contingency model. We first introduced team performance pressure as a moderator of job autonomy and examined the 3-way interaction effects of performance pressure, individual job autonomy, and learning goal orientation.

• Publisher: Springer Science + Business Media,Springer US,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Behavioral Science and Psychology / Business and Management / Community and Environmental Psychology / Creativity / Expatriate employees / Generalized linear models / Hypotheses / Industrial and Organizational Psychology / Job satisfaction / ORIGINAL PAPER / Personality and Social Psychology / Psychology / Social Sciences / Studies / Teams / Work environment