Autonomy of Choice in the Work Environment and the Effects Observed on Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, and Team Effectiveness

• Main Author: Robertson, Olivia
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2022
• Subjects: Management; Occupational psychology; Organization Theory; Organizational behavior
• ISBN: 9798381168921

Throughout the COVID-19 global pandemic, organizations have struggled with maintaining employee engagement, employee motivation, and team effectiveness within their employee populations, while turnover rates have risen for a number of reasons (McKinsey & Company, 2020). The purpose of this study was to explore whether the presence of autonomy of choice regarding the work environment would relate to favourable outcomes regarding employee engagement, employee motivation, and team effectiveness in a population of remote workers during the COVID-19 global pandemic. This study was designed in an exploratory nature using a mixture of various analyses of variance and correlations. A quantitative approach was chosen for this study to maintain strict levels of empiricism and to add increased value based on the situational based nature of research completed during an ongoing global pandemic on a specific concept (autonomy of choice) within three fields (engagement, motivation, and group dynamics) of research that already has much depth within the available literature at this time. The results from this study provided support for the presence of autonomy of choice regarding the work environment being significantly related to employee engagement and employee motivation, but not team effectiveness. Additionally, numerous individual factors were found to have significant relationships with a variety of items within this unique survey instrument created to measure employee engagement, employee motivation, and team effectiveness. As well, the desire for an opportunity for autonomous choice regarding the work environment was significantly related to favourable outcomes for employee motivation and team effectiveness, but not for employee engagement. Moreover, the alignment between ideal and actual work conditions was not a significant factor when observing between group differences in employee engagement, employee motivation, and team effectiveness. Finally, the prevalence of specific team structures was related to different levels of team effectiveness. The results obtained from this study have provided support for the prevalence of autonomy of choice regarding the work environment based on the coexisting favourable levels of employee engagement, employee motivation, and team effectiveness observed from within this sample. Further research has been suggested to explore any potential cause-and-effect relationships that may be observed and to reduce the potential for extraneous and confounding factors as responsible elements for the results obtained within this population.