The Ambivalence of Job Autonomy and the Role of Job Design Demands

This study aims to explain potentially detrimental effects of job autonomy by introducing the concept of job design demands (JDD); that is, when workers are confronted with jobs that are poorly regulated by the organization, the opportunity to design their own job may become an unavoidable requirement. A cross-sectional study of 417 workers reveals that the link between autonomy and emotional exhaustion is twofold. First, autonomy is associated with reduced emotional exhaustion; second, autonomy is associated with increased JDD, which are positively related to emotional exhaustion. A longitudinal study of 236 workers confirms this result with regard to the effect on cognitive irritation and provides stronger evidence for causality and the direction of the effects. Furthermore, study 2 identifies the specific content of JDD that imposes strain effects on workers. The study results imply that autonomy—despite its prevailing strain-reducing effects—is associated with demands that may impair well-being. Interventions aimed at increasing autonomy should also account for the implied additional effort in terms of JDD.