The article below may contain offensive and/or incorrect content.
In organizational psychology research, autonomy is generally seen as a job resource with a monotone positive relationship with desired occupational outcomes such as well-being. However, both Warr's vitamin model and person–environment (PE) fit theory suggest that negative outcomes may result from excesses of some job resources, including autonomy. Thus, the current studies used survey methodology to explore cross-sectional relationships between environmental autonomy, person-environment autonomy (mis)fit, and well-being. We found that autonomy and autonomy (mis)fit explained between 6% and 22% of variance in well-being, depending on type of autonomy (scheduling, method, or decision-making) and type of (mis)fit operationalization (atomistic operationalization through the separate assessment of actual and ideal autonomy levels vs. molecular operationalization through the direct assessment of perceived autonomy (mis)fit). Autonomy (mis)fit (PE-fit perspective) explained more unique variance in well-being than environmental autonomy itself (vitamin model perspective). Detrimental effects of autonomy excess on well-being were most evident for method autonomy and least consistent for decision-making autonomy. We argue that too-much-of-a-good-thing effects of job autonomy on well-being exist, but suggest that these may be dependent upon sample characteristics (range of autonomy levels), type of operationalization (molecular vs. atomistic fit), autonomy facet (method, scheduling, or decision-making), as well as individual and organizational moderators. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)





Departments
Authors
Libraries
Current Articles
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Video » NIMH Expert Dr. Krystal Lewis Discusses Managing Stress & Anxiety
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Scientific Meeting » NIMH Livestream Event: Managing Stress and Anxiety
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: A third of Americans don't see systemic racism as a barrier to good health
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: What brain imaging tells us about decluttering our minds
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Blog Post » Showing Support for Basic Researchers
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: How to reduce news-related stress for better mental health
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Five myths about loneliness
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: How to help someone struggling with suicidal ideation
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Better sleep hygiene is crucial when you're anxious
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: How to remotivate kids for more distance learning
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: How to set goals you’ll actually achieve
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: To 'keep sharp' this year, keep learning
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Mental health is one of the biggest issues facing 2021
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Reasons to prioritize better sleep in 2021
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Coping with post-holiday blues amid coronavirus
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Video » The NIMH Director’s Innovation Speaker Series: Pursuing an Innovation Agenda: A New Healthcare Architecture
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Pandemic worsening domestic abuse
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Young people's anxiety levels nearly doubled during first Covid-19 lockdown
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Video » NIMH Director’s Innovation Speaker Series: Decision-Making and Computational Psychiatry
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Blog Post » The Lives Lost to COVID-19