Article in Group & Organization Management · January 014 citations reads 13,031 authors: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects


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Self-leadershipinaChinesecontext

Hypothesis 1 (H1): Self-leadership will be positively related to (a) super-
visor performance rating, (b) objective work performance, and (c) job 
satisfaction.
The Moderating Role of Job Autonomy
Although we hypothesized that self-leadership is positively associated with 
supervisor performance rating, objective work performance, and job satisfac-
tion, these relationships are likely moderated by the employee’s perceptions 
of job autonomy. Job autonomy refers to the extent to which a job allows 
employees discretion, freedom, and independence in the performance of 
tasks in their job (Oldham & Cummings, 1996). Mischel’s (1977) situational 
strength theory suggests that low-autonomy jobs create considerable con-
straints on employees as they “induce uniform expectancies regarding the 
most appropriate response pattern, provide adequate incentives for the per-
formance of that response pattern, and require skills that everyone has to the 
same extent” (p. 347). In low-autonomy job situation, individuals high in 
self-leadership have little room to set a specific and challenging goal, apply 
self-observation and self-reward strategies for goal accomplishment, and 
have less opportunity to impress their supervisor by demonstrating their self-
motivated behaviors. Hence, they become less motivated to strive for higher 
performance. Furthermore, self-leading employees in this situation have little 
discretion to build more enjoyable features into the tasks that lead to feelings 
of self-determination and competence (Deci & Ryan, 1985); thus, they may 
feel less satisfied with their job. In addition, employees low in self-leadership 
could still perform as well as those high in self-leadership in situations of low 
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395
autonomy, as they may successfully complete their tasks by relying on the 
work instructions given by their leaders or by following the standard proce-
dures of the company. They may also find their job satisfying because of their 
success in meeting job requirements. Thus, work situations that provide only 
for low levels of job autonomy attenuate the positive effects of self-leader-
ship on job performance and job satisfaction.
By contrast, in high-autonomy jobs, individuals have substantial free-
dom to determine what behaviors to undertake. Greater decision latitude in 
high-autonomy jobs offers self-leading individuals more opportunities and 
freedom to express their self-leadership orientation and so leads to increased 
goal-striving effort for exhibiting good performance. Self-leaders in this 
situation are also more satisfied with their job, as they are able to build 
more naturally enjoyable activities into their job. However, employees low 
in self-leadership skills are less likely to perform well without sufficient 
supervision for goal attainment, leading to lower job performance. 
Moreover, as they lack the skills of building natural motivation into work 
and establishing constructive thought patterns for regulating their emo-
tional state in the face of failure, they may experience decreased feelings of 
competence and self-determination, leading to lower job satisfaction. Thus, 
individual differences in self-leadership characteristics are more likely to 
influence individuals’ job satisfaction and work performance under high 
job autonomy. Andressen et al. (2012) reported that self-leadership has a 
higher influence on motivation in virtual work structures (where employees 
have more personal control in their job, as the leaders are more separated 
from team members) than in conventional, co-located work structure. 
Therefore, we expect a stronger relationship between self-leadership and 
performance/job satisfaction for individuals who report greater job auton-
omy than those who experience a low level of job autonomy. Accordingly, 
we hypothesize the following:

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