Autonomy as a key resource for women in low gender egalitarian countries: A cross‐cultural examination

Abstract

Relying on Conservation of Resources theory and a sample of 23,439 workers in 26 countries, we develop and test a multilevel moderated mediation of the effects of perceived job autonomy on work–life balance, engagement, and turnover intentions, depending on employee gender and country‐level gender egalitarianism (GE), and indirectly through stress. We find that perceived job autonomy relates to these outcomes indirectly through stress such that these effects are stronger for women in lower GE countries compared with women in higher GE countries and are not significant for men. Practical implications for engaging and retaining global female talent are discussed.

When Discrimination is Worse, Autonomy is Key: How Women Entrepreneurs Leverage Job Autonomy Resources to Find Work–Life Balance

“…A desire for control and independence tends to be an important goal among people who start their own businesses (Holmén et al 2011;Parasuraman and Simmers 2001), though if they also confront excessive workloads, this goal may become difficult to realize (Bunk et al 2012;Prottas and Thompson 2006). As mentioned, organizational behavior studies conceive of employees' job autonomy as a vital source of job-related energy that they can leverage to achieve work-life balance (Halliday et al 2018). We similarly propose that the residual energy that women entrepreneurs gain from a sense of control over work-that is, the extra energy that they have at their disposal because they do not feel constrained by others' opinions about how and when they should do their job tasks-can generate important resource gains, which they can apply to enhance their ability to combine work and private life obligations (Haar 2013;Hobfoll 2001).…”

“…We propose that this job resource in particular grants women entrepreneurs better options for reconciling their professional and personal responsibilities (Parasuraman and Simmers 2001;Sarri and Trihopoulou 2015). According to organizational behavior research, employees' job autonomy leads to various positive outcomes, such as enhanced career satisfaction (Yavas et al 2013), career adaptability (Zacher 2016), work engagement, and work-life balance (Halliday et al 2018). To the best of our knowledge though, prior research has not explicitly examined how women entrepreneurs' job autonomy might spur their work-life balance, nor addressed external environmental factors that likely influence this relationship.…”

“…Accordingly, the primary objective of this study is to detail how and when employees' job autonomy might increase their work-life balance. This prediction rests on the notion that when people have autonomy in their job functioning, it provides them with a critical source of discretionary energy, which they then can exploit to satisfy both work and private life demands (Halliday et al 2018;Quinn et al 2012). This reasoning aligns with conservation of resources (COR) theory, which argues that people apply discretionary energy resources primarily toward outcomes that promise to generate additional resource gains (Hobfoll 1989;Hobfoll et al 2018).…”

The nonlinear consequences of working hours for job satisfaction: The moderating role of job autonomy

“…Thus, even though flexible arrangements may be company-wide, employees in certain job classifications often cannot benefit from them (Putnam et al, 2014 ). Furthermore, work (re)designs vary because certain types of jobs (e.g., web developer, writer/editor) are inherently more flexible than others (e.g., manufacturing), and because firm characteristics (e.g., size, culture) also affect organisational needs (Halliday et al, 2018 ). Therefore, future research should consider the moderating role that job classifications, job tenure, and types of workers may play in the influence of work method autonomy on job satisfaction.…”

Getting nowhere, going elsewhere: the impact of perceived career compromises on turnover intentions

“…This contextual factor enables employees to take the initiative and find effective ways to deal with personal challenges in the workplace (De Clercq et al, 2011;Prottas, 2008). When employees make their own decisions, they gain the ability to develop novel insights into their organization's internal functioning (Halliday et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2017) and the reasons it might have required some people to adjust their original career aspirations (Creed and Gagliardi, 2015). With these insights, employees can put their career-related compromises into better perspective, with positive consequences for their sense of self-worth and willingness to stay loyal to the organization.…”