Perceived Control by Employees: A Meta-Analysis of Studies Concerning Autonomy and Participation at Work

TLDR

Perceived control by employees has been extensively studied in job design (autonomy) and participative decision‑making. The authors performed a meta‑analysis of studies linking perceived control to 19 employee outcome variables. Across all studies, higher perceived control correlated with greater job satisfaction, commitment, involvement, performance, and motivation, and with lower physical symptoms, emotional distress, role stress, absenteeism, intent to turnover, and turnover; the same pattern held for autonomy and participation studies, except participative decision‑making showed no association with absenteeism in the sole study.

Abstract

Perceived control by employees is a variable that has been heavily researched in two popular areas, job design (as autonomy) and participative decision-making. A meta-analysis was conducted of studies relating perceived control variables to 19 employee outcome variables. For all studies combined, it was found that high levels of perceived control was associated with high levels of job satisfaction (overall and individual facets), commitment, involvement, performance and motivation, and low levels of physical symptoms, emotional distress, role stress, absenteeism, intent to turnover, and turnover. A similar pattern was found for the autonomy and participation studies analyzed separately, with one exception. Participative decision-making was not associated with absenteeism in the single study available.