A135.
Griffith, T. L.,
Nordback, E. S., Sawyer, J. E., & Rice, R. E. (2018). Field study
of
complements to supervisory leadership in more and less flexible work
settings. Journal of
Organizational Design, 7:10. https://jorgdesign.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41469-018-0034-5
Self-management is
increasingly required by people in jobs with flexible schedules and
locations,
freelance arrangements, and other forms of organizational job design.
Successful self-management requires a sense of engagement with one’s
work. We
build from the substitutes for leadership literature to develop a model
of work
design focused on how complements to supervisory leadership foster work
engagement. The model illustrates a parsimonious set of possible
complements to
supervisory leadership: feedback from the work itself, technology
support of
work, knowledge to work independently, electronic communication with
supervisors, and alternative workplace use as predictors of work
engagement.
Results are from a two-period field study of a Nordic telecom company
experienced with flexible work practices. Additionally, in time 2, we
compare
the data from this first organization with a Nordic transportation
company that
is less experienced with flexible work practices. Our results show the
strongest relationships with work engagement are feedback from the work
itself
and technology support of work. Supervisor electronic communication
also plays
a role in work engagement, mediated by alternative workplace use. We
highlight
shifts in work design that can enable more flexible work settings while
maintaining worker engagement in our increasingly digital organizations.
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