The Effects of Job Autonomy on Work Outcomes : Self Efficacy as an Intervening Variable

Previous researches have been used job autonomy to predict and test the effects of job design on work outcomes. These researches describe that job autonomy became the critical antecedent for many positive work outcomes. Gellatly and Irving (2001), Langfred and Moye (2004) found the positive effects of job autonomy on job performance. Job autonomy enhances performance because workers with high job autonomy will perceive that he/she trusted to perform the

and discretion to the individual in scheduling work and in determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out.Job autonomy is one of several core job design characteristic (the others are skill variety, task identity, task significance and feedback from the job) developed by Hackman and Oldham (1975).According to Hackman and Oldham (1975), autonomy leads to the critical a psychological state of "experienced responsibility for outcomes of the work", which in turn leads to outcomes such as high work effectiveness and high internal work motivation.
Researches in job autonomy have showed a consistent and positive association between job autonomy and performance.Gellatly and Irving (2001) found positive effect of perceived autonomy on contextual performance.Managers who report greater autonomy in their work have a better performance than managers who report lower autonomy.Claessens et al., (2004) found that perceived autonomy in time was positively related to job performance and job satisfaction and negatively to work strain.According to Langfred and Moye (2004), job autonomy enhances job performance because they perceive themselves capable and more resourceful in performing the task.Psychologically, employee will more motivate to do the best and leads to higher performance.Therefore, a positive linkage is hypothesized between job autonomy and job performance.

Hypothesis 1: Job autonomy is positively related to job performance.
A high level of autonomy as perceived by employees has sends a message that supervisor has confidence in his or her capability therefore allows the employees to carry out the task the way he or she wish to.This message has a positive effect on employees' self efficacy.Wang and Netemeyer (2002) test the effects of job autonomy and self efficacy.The result showed a positive association between job autonomy and self efficacy.The higher job autonomy leads to higher confidence in performing the task.According to Bandura (1997), this confidence will affect the effort invested to attain the best performance.Therefore, a positive linkage is hypothesized between job autonomy, self efficacy and job performance.
Hypothesis-2: Job autonomy is positively related to job performance, self efficacy as an intervening variable.

Job autonomy, Self Efficacy and Job Satisfaction
Job autonomy is believed could influence job satisfaction.More autonomy is expected to be associated with greater job satisfaction because employees have more freedom to determine their own effort and work schedule.Previous research in this area has been found the significant and consistent results.Morrison et al. (2005) explain that job autonomy became a critical factor in enhancing employees' intrinsic motivation and job satisfaction.Finn (2001) found that job autonomy became the important component in nurses' job satisfaction.Cuyper and Witte (2005)  Several researches found positive association between job autonomy and job satisfaction (DeCarlo and Agarwal, 1999;Finn, 2001;Liu et al., 2005;Nguyen et al., 2003;Thompson and Prottas, 2005).Workers that given high autonomy will fell that the results of their job are determined by their efforts, actions and decisions so, they will fell more satisfied.
Another work outcomes that related to job autonomy is job stress.Job autonomy allow individuals to limit their exposure to stressors and able to choose their task or allow individuals to limit the more stressful tasks, thereby reducing feelings of threat and encouraging positive coping behaviors (Elsass dan Veiga, 1997).Thompson and Prottas (2005) support this finding.They found that job autonomy significantly negative to job stress, turnover intention, and work and family conflict.Furthermore, Kauffeld (2006), Nonaka et al., (2000) in Smith et al. (2003) Gist and Mitchell (1992), self efficacy is an important motivational construct.It influences individual choices, goals, emotional reactions, efforts, coping and persistence.Self efficacy also changes as a result of learning, experience, and feedback.
To the extent that autonomy is high, work outcomes will be viewed by employees as depending substantially on their own efforts, initiatives, and decisions, rather than on the adequacy of instructions from the boss or in a manual of procedures.This condition has positive effects on employees' self efficacy judgment because they perceive themselves as more capable and more resourceful thereby increasing their self efficacy (Wang dan Netemeyer, 2002).Employee with high self efficacy will put forth more effort and is more likely to persist when encountering obstacles or negative experiences (Kreitner and Kinicki, 2004).On the other hand, employee with low self efficacy is apt to give up, believing the difficulties merely prove that he or she was unable to do the job.Self efficacy also has a significant positive correlation with job satisfaction, job performance and job stress.Employees' satisfaction increases because the feeling of competence and confidence that accompany self efficacy make job the more enjoyable and able to coping the stressor in the workplace.Therefore, job design with high autonomy will be powerful in influence employees' performance, satisfaction and reduce job stress through increased self efficacy.
Finally, by setting self efficacy as an intervening variable between job autonomy and work outcomes (performance, satisfaction and job stress), this research is going to explain the process of job autonomy effects work outcomes.
This study is important for the following reasons.

Job Autonomy, Self Efficacy and Job Performance
shown to play a role in a number of key jobrelated attitudes (organizational commitment, job satisfaction) and behavior, such as turnover (Sager, 1994).Moreover, stress can lead to physical illness and chronic diseases such as heart disease, mental ill-health, depression or other problems such as alcoholism (Eckles, 1987in Moncrief et al. 1997).Narayanan et al. (1999) examined stressful incidents at work for three different occupations (clerical workers, university professors and sales associates).Lack of control and work overload were reported as major stressors by clerical group and interpersonal conflict as a major stressor by the academic and sales group.Gender differences in stress were also found in this research.
Therefore, it can be conclude that stress occurred in all kind of job and affects the individual, group and organization's performance.Therefore, it is hypothesized that: Hypothesis -8: Job stress is positively related to job performance

Sample and Data Collection
Data were obtained from banking salesperson in Yogyakarta and Solo, Indonesia.Purposive sampling is used as sampling method so several criteria was applied to this study.The respondents have been working with those companies for more than 3 months.According to Gist and Mitchell (1992), judgments about self efficacy become more routinized and automatic as experience with a task increases.Therefore, setting 3 months as a criterion is relevant in reducing bias in answer self efficacy, job satisfaction, job stress and job performance.A total of 230 questionnaires were distributed to the salesperson directly through coordination with supervisor and area sales manager.A total 190 questionnaires with complete responses were returned directly to the researcher.Therefore, the response rate in this study is 89, 13 %.
The average age of the respondents was 26-35 years, 56,3 percent of the respondents were male and 67,9 percent received a 4-years college degree 2002; DeCarlo and Agarwal, 1999).In addition, the feeling of job personal responsibility leads employees to develop favorable affective and behavioral reactions to their job thereby increasing job satisfaction.Cohrs et al. (2006) examined the effects of self efficacy on job satisfaction and found a positive association.According to Bandura (1997) individual with high self efficacy will have greater job satisfaction because the feelings of competence and confidence that accompany self efficacy make the job more enjoyable (Purwanto, 2002).Therefore, it is hypothesized that: Hypothesis-4: Job autonomy is positively related to job satisfaction, self efficacy as an intervening variable.

Job autonomy, Self Efficacy and Job Stress
Some researchers suggest that the need for personal control may be an intrinsic, ongoing desire (Elsass and Veiga, 1997).Although the need for personal control appears to vary among individuals, as well as across time and situations in a single individual, it may be that a desire for personal control is an inherent motivation.
Therefore, when individual loss of control in her/ his work (low job autonomy), it will associated with increased level of stress.
Previous researches have documented compelling evidence linking how level of job autonomy with the incidence of negative stress-related outcomes.
High job autonomy will leads to reducing job stress because the presence of control may encourage individuals to believe positive outcomes are possible, thereby reducing feelings of threat (Spector, 1986;Elsass and Veiga, 1997).Karasek (1979) examined the effects of job control and level of depression and the result show that job control has a negative association with employees' level of depression.The higher job autonomy, the lower level of stress he/she have.This condition happens because high autonomy allows employees to carry out the job the way he/she wishes to and lead to reducing feelings of threat.Therefore, a negative linkage is hypothesized between job autonomy and job stress.The literature suggests that people's perception on job autonomy enhance their self efficacy because this autonomous job allows people to use their skill, knowledge, and creativity to choose and formulate sales strategies without others' interference.According to Bandura (1997), people with high self efficacy will more likely to persist when encountering obstacles or negative experiences.Therefore, it is hypothesized that: Hypothesis-6: Job autonomy is negatively related to job stress, self efficacy as an intervening variable.

Job Satisfaction and Job Performance
Perhaps the most controversial issues that have evolved from behavior research is the job satisfaction and job performance relationship.
Previous researchers identified the following viewpoints that have been assumed by theorists with respect to the satisfaction and performance relationship.First, satisfaction causes performance.
Second, performance causes satisfaction.Third, the satisfaction and performance relationship is moderated by a number of other variables.Petty et al. (1984) found that the first viewpoint (satisfaction causes performance) is stronger and more consistent than others viewpoints.Engko (2006)  Instrument of Bandura (1977) 8 items."I feel I am overqualified for the job I will be doing".

Meta analysis conducted by
Tabel 1. Operationalization Each Variables

Validity and Reliability of Measures
Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to asses the validity of each construct.Items with factor loading 0.4 or greater are considered practically significant (Hair et al. 2006) et al. (2006) this value is threshold to accept.Table 2 provides the reliability of the measures.

Descriptive Statistic and Correlation between Construct
Descriptive statistic in this research involved mean, standard deviation and correlation between construct.Table 3 provides the descriptive statistic and correlation between construct.Result showed that job autonomy, self efficacy, job satisfaction and job performance correlate and significant in 0. 01 while there is no correlation existed between job stress and other construct.

Fixing the Error Terms and the Lambdas
This study used two-step approach to test the proposed model in figure 1. Testing structural model using two-step approach requires value of lambda (λ) and epsilon (υ).The measurement error (epsilon) terms were fixed at (1-a) X variance and the corresponding lambdas-the loading from a latent construct to its corresponding indicator were fixed at (alpha)2 X standard loading deviation.
The lambdas and epsilon of the constructs are presented in table 4.

Number of item retained
Cronbach's Alpha efficacy is 9, 459 (significant at 0, 01) and CR for self efficacy on job stress 0, 240 (not significant).Based on this, this research did not support hypothesis 6. Self efficacy did not mediate the relationship between job autonomy and job stress.
In addition, this research supports the hypothesis 7. The results showed that critical ratio for job satisfaction on job performance is 2, 345 (significant at 0, 05).The higher job satisfaction, the higher job performance.Table 5 also showed that CR for job stress on job performance is 0, 043 and lower than 1, 96 (not significant).So, it can be conclude that there is no significant relationship existed between job autonomy and job performance.Job autonomy negatively related to job stress (Elsass and Veiga, 1997;Karasek, 1979;Spector, 1979).Job autonomy allows salesperson to carry out the job with the way he/she wishes to which leads to reducing feeling of threat.This condition creates a comfortable work environment and  4. Job autonomy did not relate to job stress.Self efficacy also did not mediate the relationship between job autonomy and job stress.

Structural
Individual difference may be the causes of insignificant this relationship.
5. Job satisfaction positively related to job performance.Satisfied salespersons will positively effects their intrinsic motivation and the effectiveness in working.
6. Job stress did not relate to job performance.
This condition happens because this research did not distinguish between negative and positive stress which lead to bias.
reducing job stress.This research did not support this relationship.There is no significant relationship existed between job autonomy and job stress.6 My job is such that can decide when to do particular work activities. 7 My job allows me to modify the normal way we are evaluated so that I can emphasize some aspects of my job and play down others.
also support this finding; job autonomy is found significantly effect job satisfaction both permanent and temporaries employment.A cross cultural study by DeCarlo and Agarwal (1999) examines the effects of job autonomy on salesperson's job satisfaction.In general, this study finding suggests perceived job autonomy is an important antecedent to job satisfactions among salesperson from Australia, India and U.S. Therefore, it is hypothesized that: Hypothesis-3: Job autonomy is positively related to job satisfaction Job autonomy will enhance employees' self efficacy because they fell they can go about job basically by themselves without much guidance, resulting in a stronger autonomy-efficacy linkage.Research indicates that high job autonomy enhances employee feelings that job outcomes are a result of his/her efforts (Wang and Netemeyer, task.This perceives positively effects their intrinsic motivation and the effectiveness in working.
also found positive association between job autonomy and worker's competency and creativity.Generally speaking, researches in job autonomy have showed the consistent relationship between job autonomy and work outcomes.However, research on job autonomy has left several questions unanswered.This present study focuses on question: what are the processes by which job autonomy effects work outcomes?To answer that question, this research used self efficacy as an intervening variable between job autonomy and work outcomes.According to

First
, it contributes to the literature by used self efficacy to explain how job autonomy effects work outcomes.Second, this study also contributes an empirical evidence in investigated the relationship within the work outcomes occurred on job autonomy, such as the effects of job satisfaction on performance and the effects of job stress on performance.Third, the results of this study may have important implications for human resource managers in designing job.

Hypothesis 5 :
Job autonomy is negatively related to job stress.
This research's result showed that job autonomy positively related to performance.This finding support the study conducted byGellatly and Gregory (2001).The higher salesperson perceives job autonomy will lead to increasing job performance.Job autonomy affects salesperson's performance because through job autonomy, salesperson granted responsibility and independence to perform their work.Psychologically, salesperson will more motivate which in turn leads to outcomes such as high self efficacy.According toBandura (1997) individual with high self efficacy will put forth more effort to attain the best performance.Therefore, similar with the result, self efficacy partially mediated job autonomy on job performance (H-2 supported).This research also support that job autonomy positively related to job satisfaction.This results support the study conducted byMorrison et al.   (2005)  which found that job autonomy became an important factor for employee's job satisfaction.High autonomy affects salesperson's perception about their job.They will fell that the results of their job are determined by their efforts, actions and decisions.This condition changes their judgement of self efficacy and behavior in performing the job which leads to increasing self efficacy and job satisfaction.Therefore, we can conclude that job autonomy enhance job satisfaction through self efficacy (H-4 supported).

*
Significant at α = 0.01; ** Significant at α = 0.05 environments through reward and punishment system, physical work environment, facility, social support, and supervisor support.Limitation and Futher StudyThere are four limitations worth noting in this study.First, this investigates is limited in scope of banking salesperson's which reducing in external validity.So, in further study should involve other salespersons in different industry.Second, the final sample used in this study is relatively small which causes in difficulties fitting models with data.As a consequently, the research conducted two step approach to estimate the model proposed.Third, a self-report job performance measure was used in this study.This may be contained bias in capture the phenomena.So, in further study objective performance measure or multi-rater should be used to assess the job performance.Forth, this research treats stress as a negative stress and did not distinguish between negative and positive stress.However, researcher have been interviewed the supervisor, area sales manager and several salespersons to get the phenomena about stress in their workplace.CONCLUSIONThe purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between job autonomy and work outcomes (job performance, job satisfaction and job stress), self efficacy as a mediating variable.This research also investigates the impact of job satisfaction on job performance and job stress on job performance.Based on the results, can be concluding that:1.Structural model estimated in this research acceptable fit to the data.It can be seen in several criterion of goodness of fit, such as: efficacy partially mediated the relationship between job autonomy and job satisfaction, and relationship between job autonomy performances.
3 I am free to choose the methods to use in carrying out my work 4 I have control over the scheduling of my work 5 I have some control over the sequencing of my work activities (when I do what).

1
8 I am able to modify what my job objectives are (what I am supposed to accomplish).9 I have some control over what I am supposed to accomplish (what my supervisor sees as my job objectives) is well within the scope of my abilities 2 I do not anticipate any problem in adjusting to work in this organization 3 I feel I am overqualified for the job I will be doing 4 I have all the technical knowledge I need to deal with my new job, all I need now is practical experience.5 I fell confident that my skill and abilities equal or exceed those of my future colleagues 6 My past experiences and accomplishments increase my confidence that I will be able to perform successfully in this organization.7 I could have handled a more challenging job than the one I will be doing 8 Professionally speaking, my new job exactly satisfies my expectations of my self (R) effective in contributing to my firm's market share 2 I am very effective in generating a high level of dollar sales 3 I am very effective in selling to major accounts 4 I am very effective in exceeding annual sales targets and objectives Generally speaking, I am very satisfied with this job 2 I frequently think of quitting this job (reverse-coded) 3 I am generally satisfied with the kind of work I do in this job 4 Most people on this job are very satisfied with this job 5 People on this job often think of quitting (reverse-coded)

Table 4
Table6showed that critical ratio (CR) for relationship between job autonomy and job performance is 2, 795 (significant at α = 0.01).

Table 2
Journal of The Academy of MarketingScience.Vol.30, No.3,Please check list to the one number which best describe your condition.