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In the current exploratory study, the issue as to what motivates people to seek greater autonomy in their jobs is explored. Both instrumentality and value-based hypotheses are tested. One possibility is that people desire autonomy in order to be more satisfied in their job, and the other is that people desire autonomy so that they can be more productive in their job - presumably leading to future (but uncertain) rewards. In a sample of 103 individuals in diverse jobs, participants who believed that more autonomy would result in greater job satisfaction were more likely to express a desire for increased autonomy than those who believed it would result only in greater productivity.
In recent years, individual autonomy in the workplace has become an increasingly important area of study to researchers and practitioners (Cordery, Morrison, Wright, & Wall, 2010; Langfred, 2000; van Mierlo, Rutte, Vermuth, Kompier & Doorewaard, 2006). Autonomy is considered a crucial part of job design (Hackman & Oldham, 1976; Langfred & Moye, 2004) and a central design feature of self-managing teams (Hackman, 1986; Langfred, 2000), and is defined as the amount of freedom and discretion an individual has in carrying out assigned tasks (Hackman, 1983). Over the past several decades, there has been a focus on the effects of autonomy on employee productivity and satisfaction (Cordery et al., 2010; Finn, 2001; Spector, 1986) as well as on the positive effects of autonomy on the individual (Deci & Ryan, 1987; Langfred & Moye, 2004; Ryan & Deci, 2000). By the mid-1990s, task autonomy and related forms of employee participation were already used in more than 90% of Fortune 1000 companies (Lawler, Mohrman, & Ledford, 1995).
Giving task autonomy to employees is generally expected to result in higher motivation, satisfaction, and performance (Argote & McGrath, 1993; Dwyer, Schwartz, & Fox, 1992; Langfred & Moye, 2004; Loher, Noe, Moeller, & Fitzgerald, 1985; Spector, 1986). Researchers have explored how best to design individual jobs (Hackman & Oldham, 1976) as well as teams (Cohen & Ledford, 1994; Cordery, Mueller, & Smith, 1991; Langfred, 2000), so as to take advantage of the benefits of increased task autonomy. The current exploratory study is designed to determine which benefits of job autonomy appeal to the individual employee most - potential...