Outcomes of job autonomy and its effect on work engagement: A study of the banking industry in Nigeria

Abstract

An individual’s ability to exercise freedom in how he/she plans his/her work is referred to as job autonomy, and this is associated with many positive work outcomes. Work engagement is a positive work outcome that many organizations desire to see in their employees due to its impact on productivity. This study was carried out to examine the extent of job autonomy in ensuring that banking industry employees in Nigeria attain a certain level of work engagement. The study used a mixed investigation method, including both quantitative and qualitative research techniques. The quantitative analysis involved the distribution of 438 copies of the questionnaire, of which 353 copies were retrieved from bank employees. For a qualitative assessment, 15 respondents were randomly selected from among the senior officers of the selected banks. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (PLS). As a result, job autonomy was found to be stronger with cognitive engagement (β = 0.524, Tval = 6.268, P = 0.000) and emotional engagement (β = 0.440, Tval = 4.372, P = 0.000) than with physical engagement (β = 0.341, Tval = 2.485, P = 0.000). This implied that though job autonomy had a significant influence on employee work engagement, the aspects of scheduling work and making decisions were weak areas. This study concludes that there is a need to rethink the decision-making element in the banking system, given that the workplace is tilting to a more dynamic and flexible culture, fueled by digital innovation.