ion is in terms of withdrawal behavior. Every year, organizations suffer financial and other losses through turnover and high rates of absenteeism. According to several studies, absenteeism and turnover may be related to levels of employee autonomy. For example, Kroesser, Meckley and Ranson (1991) investigated sick leave use (SLU) among full-time employees in a state department for the fiscal year 1984/1985.
The researchers required employees to all completed several measures including a job analysis questionnaire. It was found that employees used an average of 9.5 sick leave days during the period. Sick Leave Use was then compared between professional and support staff.
Five job factors were found to be statistically significant with respect to Sick Leave Use: gender, salaries, number of supervisors, job classification, and employee autonomy. Results were said to confirm the existence of a negative relationship between job autonomy and sick leave use. In other words, the greater the level of job autonomy, the less likely employees are to utilize sick leave.
Similarly, Sherman (1989) examined employee turnover and autonomy for a sample 265 engineering, scientific, and technical support personnel. Subjects completed the supervision scale of the Job Descriptive Index, measures of communication, autonomy, altruism need fulfillment/esteem and need fulfillment/self actualization, and propensity to leave.
Factors in the immediate work environment which were influenced by the behavior of the technical manager were found to affect turnover propensities. Satisfaction with supervision, higher order need fulfillment, and unit morale were found to be more important influences on retention for technical support personnel. However, for the engineering and scientific personnel, the factors of employee autonomy, goal congruence, and higher order need fulfillment were found to have greater influence.
Finally, it has bee...