Influence of autonomy and task significance on engagement: Experiment
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Trends and Issues in Interdisciplinary Behavior and Social Science: Proceedings of the 5th International Congress on Interdisciplinary Behavior and Social Science (ICIBSoS 2016) |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | CRC Press webpage with the proceedings |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1201/9781315269184-5 |
| Field | Management and administrative |
| Keywords | autonomy; task significance; engagement; experiment |
| Description | This study is an between-subject laboratory experiment focusing on the influence of task autonomy and task significance on engagement. The respondents were 120 university students who had to complete a standardized task inspired by the Stroop colour-word test. The respondents had greater or lesser autonomy when carrying out the task and the task was presented to them as significant or not significant. After the task had been completed, engagement was measured using an adjusted UWES-9 scale and manipulation check was carried out using questions about perceived autonomy and perceived significance. The Bayesian correlation analysis provided extremely strong evidence that the manipulation of autonomy was successful but no evidence that the experimental conditions influenced the perceived task significance. The Bayes factor ANOVA provided strong evidence against the hypotheses that autonomy and task significance influenced engagement. Although the manipulation of autonomy was successful, the autonomy conditions did not predict higher engagement. This study indicates that the relationship between job characteristics and engagement is not necessarily causal. |
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