Linking job autonomy to employee engagement and exhaustion: the role of employee cognitive appraisal

Abstract This research focuses on the impact of different forms of autonomy on employee engagement and exhaustion, as mediated by employee feelings of personal responsibility and cognitive appraisals of personal gain and loss. By integrating conservation of resources theory with a cognitive appraisal approach, we argue that decision-making autonomy, method autonomy, and scheduling autonomy represent qualitatively distinct autonomy resources that may differ in their associated potential for personal gain and loss. We propose personal gain appraisal as a psychological mechanism that leads to engagement (motivating pathway) and personal loss appraisal as a psychological mechanism that leads to exhaustion (strain-reducing pathway). Using data from 255 employees that responded to surveys at three time points, our findings suggest that the motivating potential of job autonomy on employee engagement refers to decision-making autonomy (via felt responsibility and personal gain appraisal) and method autonomy (via personal gain appraisal), but not to scheduling autonomy. In addition, the strain-reducing potential of job autonomy on employee exhaustion refers to decision-making autonomy (via felt responsibility and less personal loss appraisal) and scheduling autonomy (via less personal loss appraisal), but not to method autonomy. Our results yield several theoretical, empirical, and practical implications for the study of job autonomy.