Normative compliance and occupational well-being: a mediation model

Normative compliance — the degree to which employees conform to organizational rules, professional codes, and implicit social expectations at work — has been theoretically linked to both adaptive and maladaptive occupational outcomes, yet its mechanisms of action remain understudied. The present study proposes and tests a mediation model in which normative compliance predicts occupational well-being through the sequential mediation of perceived autonomy and emotional exhaustion. Data were collected from a heterogeneous sample of 487 Italian workers (Mage = 38.4, SD = 10.2; 56% women) employed across public and private sector organizations. Structural equation modeling revealed that normative compliance was positively associated with perceived autonomy only when compliance was experienced as values-congruent, while compliance experienced as externally coerced was directly predictive of emotional exhaustion (β = .38, p < .001) and, in turn, reduced occupational well-being. Perceived autonomy mediated this relationship negatively under coercive compliance conditions (indirect effect = −.19, 95% CI [−.29, −.10]). Implications for organizational interventions and the design of institutional norms are discussed, with reference to self-determination theory and conservation of resources theory.