Job autonomy and employee voice: is work-related self-efficacy a missing link?

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, this work replicates the existing research by examining the links between job autonomy and work-related self-efficacy; and, second, it extends the literature by investigating the relationships between work-related self-efficacy and two forms of voice such as promotive and prohibitive and by measuring the mediating role of self-efficacy on the link between job autonomy and promotive and prohibitive voice. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a self-administered instrument to conduct a survey among 1,227 highly skilled employees. The researchers received a total of 904 questionnaires. After disregarding the non-usable questionnaires, the authors retained 813 questionnaires for the study. The overall response rate was 66 percent. Findings The results suggest that work-related self-efficacy has a significant relationship with prohibitive voice and mediates the link between job autonomy and prohibitive voice. Meanwhile, the findings of this study indicate that there is no significant association between work-related self-efficacy and promotive voice. Originality/value This work is the first to identify the association between work-related self-efficacy and prohibitive voice and the mediating role of work-related self-efficacy on the association between job autonomy and prohibitive voice.

Paternalistic Leadership and Innovative Behavior: Psychological Empowerment as a Mediator

“…They treat employees in accordance with their virtue [44] and involve lower ranking employees in decision making processes, where subordinates have fair opportunities to contribute to the organization and achieve their goals, which could be interpreted by employees as having a sense of impact. Moreover, moral leaders respect employees and provide them autonomy for the tasks that they carry out, which in turn contributes to a sense of self-determination [9,48]. In addition, under moral leadership, employees will likely try to enhance their capability; and by using a leader's constructive feedback, they will be able to build self-efficacy and increase competence [9].…”

Managing One’s Career: The Joint Effects of Job Autonomy, Supervisor Support, and Calling

“…Job autonomy reflects the extent to which a job provides an employee with freedom, independence, and discretion to conduct the work (Hackman & Oldham, 1976). It has been found to be positively related to many proactive behaviors such as job crafting and voice (Dedahanov et al, 2019;Sekiguchi et al, 2017). We argue that job autonomy helps satisfy employees' need for autonomy because it liberates them from excessive control and constraints and endows them with discretion and freedom.…”

Learning goal orientation and promotive voice: A moderated mediation model

“…Promotive voice behavior was measured using a five-item scale developed by Liang et al ( 2012 ). The Korean version of the scale items was also validated previously with a sample of Korean employees (Dedahanov et al, 2019 ). A sample item for promotive voice is “Proactively develop and make suggestions for issues that may influence the unit.” The Cronbach’s α for voice behavior was .92.…”