OCCUPATIONAL SELF-DIRECTION AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO INVOLVEMENT, EFFICACY, AND EFFOR

Jobs can be said to vary in the degree to which they permit people to direct their own work. Occupational self-direction (OSD), a structural condition of work identified by Kohn and Schooler (1983), was hypothesized to heighten levels of job involvement, effort, and perceptions of personal efficacy. Three component variables comprise the OSD construct: (1) substantive complexity, whether or not the work itself requires thinking, initiating, and exercising independent judgement relative to Data, People, and Things; (2) closeness of supervision, how much latitude the worker has to decide how the work gets done; and (3) routinization, how repetitive the work is. Objective and subjective assessments of the variables were obtained for 313 technical, clerical, and managerial employees in the food industry. A job-related efficacy measure constructed for this study was evaluated as well.;The hypotheses were tested through multiple regression analyses of each dependent variable (job involvement, efficacy, and effort) using the set of seven measures of occupational self-direction (three dimensions of substantive complexity, assessed by codes from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (Fourth Edition, 1977), and self-report and supervisor reports of closeness of supervision and routinization) as predictors. Partial support for the hypotheses was provided. Levels of involvement, efficacy, and effort were negatively related to self-reported routinization and, to a lesser extent, self-reported closeness of supervision. Relationships between two of the three objective indices of OSD and increased effort and job-specific efficacy were found; however, the third component OSD variable, substantive complexity, was not predictive of job involvement, efficacy, or effort. The 23-item efficacy instrument constructed for this study appears to be a reasonable measure of efficacious job-related feelings and behaviors and merits further validation.