Autonomy: An Important Factor In Employee Satisfaction
In a recent book, Human Autonomy in Cross-Cultural Context: Perspectives on the Psychology of Agency, Freedom, and Well-Being, the authors Marylène Gagné and Devasheesh Bhave from Concordia’s John Molson School of Business in Montreal, Canada discuss the role of autonomy in the workplace.
The authors explain that workers who feel autonomous—free to make choices in their position and being accountable for them—are happier and more productive according to a comprehensive research literature review. However, how autonomy is defined varies depending on workplace as well as cultural factors.
“The perception of autonomy has very positive effects on workers,” Gagné says. In every culture autonomy is important to employee engagement and well-being. Autonomy can range from allowing employees to spend 20% of their work time on personal projects to allowing employees to work from home.
Giving employees freedom in the workplace leads to greater employee commitment, greater productivity, higher performance, and increased retention. “Autonomy is especially likely to lead to better productivity when the work is complex or requires more creativity,” says Gagné. “In a very routine job, autonomy doesn’t have much impact on productivity, but it can still increase satisfaction, which leads to other positive outcomes. When management makes decisions about how to organize work, they should always think about the effect on people’s autonomy.”
However, what one culture views as freedom in the workplace can be viewed as chaos in another organization. “Managers can’t simply export North American methods of granting autonomy anywhere and expect them to work,” Gagné explains. “Even in Canada, approaches to giving workers more autonomy need to be constantly rethought as the country becomes more multicultural. People don’t always react the same way to management initiatives as they did in the past.”
Because the notion of autonomy differs so drastically from organization to organization and especially from country to country, it is important to keep these differences top of mind. “We’re trying to see how leadership behaviors affect employee motivation, and if the same behaviors in different countries have the same effect,” says Gagné. “Sometimes, they do not. For example, in some cultures, bosses can’t ask the opinion of subordinates, because it makes them appear weak. So managers in these environments have to find other ways to make people feel autonomous. There is no simple recipe.”
This is intrinsic to remember when hiring for fit. Understanding how the position allows the employee to be autonomous, and using that to find candidates who define workplace autonomy in the same way, is a critical factor for a successful hire.
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