Freedom is encapsulation: The invisible iron cage of job autonomy

By all accounts, the use of autonomy as a key job characteristic is increasing as organizations seek to retain the best employees, manage more employees with fewer managers, and keep up with advances in technology. Employees themselves also often clamor for autonomy to better manage their tasks, their teams, and their non-work lives. Using theory related to bureaucratic control, we argue the “push” to spread autonomy is coinciding with some unintended effects as organizations “pull” back and fight the urge to relinquish control to employees. We argue that employees are sensitive to this tension in the organization, which changes how they experience felt responsibility. What was once just a source of motivation, autonomy has now become a source of guilt and stress, leading to role boundary management challenges. Future research on job design should distinguish between actual and felt autonomy, concurrently examine different types of job autonomy, and acknowledge that individuals will vary in terms of how much autonomy they desire as well as how much autonomy they can effectively manage.