TY - JOUR
T1 - Within-person Increases in Job Autonomy Linked to Greater Employee Strain
AU - Clinton, Michael
AU - Neil, Conway
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2024/4/14
Y1 - 2024/4/14
N2 - It is commonly believed that job autonomy has a positive impact on employee well-being and protects workers from strain. However, an emerging counter-narrative challenges this assumption and identifies ways in which greater job autonomy has negative impacts, especially for jobs that already have substantial autonomy. Contributing to this debate, our longitudinal study disaggregates stable, between-person variation in job autonomy from dynamic, within-person change in job autonomy over a multi-year period with a sample of Church ministers. We argue that experiencing high and stable job autonomy is conceptually distinct from experiencing an increase in one’s job autonomy; the former being positive for worker well-being while the latter often represents a form of role stress. We develop a two-level model tested by a random-intercept crossed-lagged panel analysis. We find that workers with higher job autonomy than others tend to have lower emotional exhaustion at the between-person level. Also at this level, trait positive affect and, more weakly, trait self-efficacy account for variance in aggregate levels of job autonomy and emotional exhaustion. Our model then evidences the counter-view that within-person increases in job autonomy are followed by greater emotional exhaustion. Implications for extending theory on within-person change in well-being are discussed.
AB - It is commonly believed that job autonomy has a positive impact on employee well-being and protects workers from strain. However, an emerging counter-narrative challenges this assumption and identifies ways in which greater job autonomy has negative impacts, especially for jobs that already have substantial autonomy. Contributing to this debate, our longitudinal study disaggregates stable, between-person variation in job autonomy from dynamic, within-person change in job autonomy over a multi-year period with a sample of Church ministers. We argue that experiencing high and stable job autonomy is conceptually distinct from experiencing an increase in one’s job autonomy; the former being positive for worker well-being while the latter often represents a form of role stress. We develop a two-level model tested by a random-intercept crossed-lagged panel analysis. We find that workers with higher job autonomy than others tend to have lower emotional exhaustion at the between-person level. Also at this level, trait positive affect and, more weakly, trait self-efficacy account for variance in aggregate levels of job autonomy and emotional exhaustion. Our model then evidences the counter-view that within-person increases in job autonomy are followed by greater emotional exhaustion. Implications for extending theory on within-person change in well-being are discussed.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85198555185&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02678373.2024.2364593
DO - 10.1080/02678373.2024.2364593
M3 - Article
SN - 0267-8373
JO - WORK AND STRESS
JF - WORK AND STRESS
ER -