Further investigation of the work autonomy scales: Two studies

Although the importance of work autonomy is widely recognized, research on autonomy has been criticized for failing to examine important facets of autonomy. In response to this criticism, Breaugh (1985) developed a new instrument which measures method, scheduling, and criteria autonomy. This paper presents the results of two studies that examined the validity of Breaugh's work autonomy scales and investigated whether employee reports of autonomy were related to autonomy ratings of their jobs made by independent sources. The results of these two studies generally support the validity of the work autonomy scales. For example, as predicted, full-time employees reported having more work autonomy than part-time employees, and the three autonomy scales were found to be related to a number of other variables with which they should be correlated. A moderate degree of correspondence was found between employee self-reports of autonomy and autonomy ratings of their jobs made by job analysts, supervisors, and co-workers.