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Do it yourself, but I can help you at any time: the dynamic effects of job autonomy and supervisor competence on performance

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Abstract

Complementing the literature on job autonomy, this study explored the joint effects of job autonomy needed and supplied on employees’ work engagement and subsequent job performance. To test our hypotheses, this study methodologically employed a polynomial regression analysis with response surface analysis, using multi-wave and multi-source data from a sample of 417 employee-leader dyads in China. Our results indicate that work engagement is high when the fit between job autonomy needed and supplied is high, particularly when the autonomy needed and supplied are both high rather than low. Moreover, work engagement mediates the effects of fit between job autonomy needed and supplied on task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Perceived leader competence strengthens the indirect effects of the fit between job autonomy needed and supplied on task performance and OCB via work engagement. This study not only extends our theoretical understanding of the effectiveness of job autonomy by considering the important role played by employees’ personal needs for job autonomy and leader characteristics in the working environments but also offers useful practical implications for organizations to maximize the function of job autonomy and promote employee performance.

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Data availability

The data are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Notes

  1. Working adults were selected because they are appropriate for the research purpose of investigating how and when job autonomy needed and supplied influence employees’ job performance in the workplace. The target sample comprised a demographically diverse pool of participants who had attended the researchers’ previous research projects. We kept in touch with the participants via personal social network and measured multiple demographics, including employment status, to ensure the appropriateness of their inclusion in this study.

  2. As indicated by Edwards and Cable (2009), the block variable approach can effectively facilitate the estimation of the indirect impacts of a congruence effect for the mediation model. As the block variable is calculated from the coefficients for the polynomial regression terms, it does not change the total variance explained by the equation using the original polynomial regression terms (Cao and Hamori, 2019; Edwards and Cable, 2009).

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  1. International Business School, Hainan University, Haikou, China

    Shenyang Hai

  2. Department of Psychology, Jeonbuk National University, 567 Baekje-daero, Jeonju, Jeonbuk, 54896, Republic of Korea

    In-Jo Park

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Hai, S., Park, IJ. Do it yourself, but I can help you at any time: the dynamic effects of job autonomy and supervisor competence on performance. Asian Bus Manage (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41291-024-00269-2

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