Autonomy at Work & 3 Simple Domains That Increase It

What is autonomy? Do you know? From our research, it appears that not many people do. It doesn’t help that there are many suggested definitions and meanings out there. By learning about and understanding the real sense of autonomy, you can help increase the happiness, satisfaction, and productiveness of your employees. In this article, we will not only explore what autonomy at work means, but we’ll also offer you three simple domains that increase autonomy at work. Keep reading on to learn more!

What Does Autonomy at Work Mean?

If you look up autonomy in the dictionary, you’ll find something similar to this, “independence or freedom from external control or influence.” This isn’t far off from the actual definition of autonomy; it just varies slightly.

Independence is a part of it, but rather, real autonomy involves the desire for us to be in control of our actions and experiences. When a person is presented with an option rather than being told what to do, they are more likely to show enthusiasm and eagerness to complete the tasks given to them.

The opposite of autonomy would be micromanaging. It helps to look at these, in contrast, to understand precisely what autonomy is and how it works.

Good leaders increase autonomy

Different leadership styles have different approaches to autonomy. For example, micromanaging leaders would be telling employees to do something, such as organize these spreadsheets and make copies for everyone. Once that task is done, you’ll have to assign more responsibilities. This cycle keeps repeating, leaving the employee feeling unhappy, and you likely frustrated.

On the contrary, when leaders use empowerment and autonomy at work, they trust their employees to be responsible for their areas of work and tasks. They tell them what the desired outcome is and let them organize their tasks themselves.

In the above example, instead of telling your employees what to do, you would communicate to them to end goals. Let’s say you were trying to organize accounting files so you could run some numbers for data. By explaining the desired outcome and effectively delegating that task, the employee then becomes responsible for the result. Rather than coming to you for an assignment after a job is assigned, they will be empowered to make the decisions on their own and achieve the ultimate goal of the separate tasks.

Why is Autonomy at Work Important?

Autonomy at work has been shown to improve the overall happiness of your employees. If you’re wondering why that matters, it’s because happier employees are more motivated, productive, and miss work less often. Autonomy in the workplace has been shown to:

  • Improve psychological health
  • Make employees feel more secure
  • Motivate employees to work to the best of their ability
  • Promote organizational culture
  • Improve overall happiness at work
  • Make employees feel valued and heard
  • Increase creativity and problem-solving skills
  • Optimize overall productivity

Managers that use empowerment and autonomy at work have found that their employees are happier, more willing to engage in tasks, and more invested in the outcome of the tasks. When they feel like they are being listened to, trusted, and valued, your employees will work harder for not only their success but yours as well.

Proof that Autonomy at Work Matters

The use of autonomy in the workplace has been heavily researched and documented. Even outside of the lab, it has been applied successfully in real-life workplaces as well. Google’s 20% time is one of the most fruitful applications of autonomy that shows its actual benefits.

Google’s 20% time allows the engineers that work there to use “20% of their time” or roughly one day a week working on a side or personal project. This could be done at work on company time without the need to justify it to anyone. What came out of this 20% time? Most of the backbone of Google. During this time, employees developed many products, most notably Google Maps, Adsense, Gmail, Google Talk, and many more. Adsense alone is reported to account for nearly 25% of Google’s annual revenue.

Wikipedia came to fruition because of autonomy at work

Wikipedia, another hugely successful company, counts the use of autonomy as a significant part of their triumph. Before Wikipedia came around, Microsoft invested a lot of money into Encarta. Essentially, it was working to be the Wikipedia of the internet. Microsoft paid many professionals to write and edit thousands of articles while also hiring costly managers to oversee everything. Then Wikipedia came around with a different model that summed up to write for us because you want to, and you would have fun doing it.

Wikipedia ended up destroying Encarta simply because Wikipedia writers have autonomy, mastery, and purpose. The people writing for Wikipedia didn’t get paid, but they had freedom, and the Encarta workers did not. It’s not just Wikipedia, either. Many people around the world are creating open-source projects for fun that benefit others in their free time without getting paid for it.

These examples are further discussed in Dan Pink’s Ted Talk.

3 Simple Domains That Increase Autonomy at Work

There are three simple domains that increase autonomy at work. Below we will define each of them and give you some examples of how it can be applied.

1. Personnel

Good leader increasing empowerment and autonomy at work

The personnel domain refers to whether and how much employees are denied or given autonomy by their co-workers and especially their boss. Do employees have the freedom to bring his/her genuine self at work? Are employees given goals and empowerment to work on their own to achieve them? 

Example: A leader leads by example and is his genuine self, which encourages his employees to be their authentic selves. His employees believe they have the autonomy to be whoever they want to at work.

2. Outcomes

This domain refers to the goals and tasks that employees are expected to achieve at work. Paradoxically, employees don’t want too much freedom; they would rather have clarity. Employees want solid and explicit information on what they’re expected to achieve. They must be clear about the outcomes and have goal ownership, feeling like the goal is their own.

Example: Stewardship or steward leadership allows employees to take responsibility for their own goals. For instance, in the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen Covey explains how he wants his son to water the lawn and keep the trash picked up. Instead of directly telling him this, he asked his son to keep the lawn green and clean. He delegated that responsibility to him and explained the desired outcome. Therefore, his son took ownership of this task and became the steward of the lawn.

3. Process

The process domain refers to the method or procedure that employees use to achieve their goals. This domain includes being able to choose how they do the tasks, with whom they do tasks, and when and where they do them.

Example: Allowing employees to complete their tasks with little rules or regulations, also letting your employees achieve the tasks where and when they want, such as working from home or on their schedule.

Learning to Follow the 3 Domains for Autonomy at Work

Practicing autonomy with your employees at work will increase their overall happiness, satisfaction, and productivity. Moreover, autonomy at work also significantly increases motivation and creativity, as shown by the products of Google’s 20% time and Wikipedia. It will also allow you more time, garner you more respect, and reduce your stress levels.

It’s critical to go over the three domains listed above and follow them to the best of your ability. By allowing your employees to express who they are and feel comfortable in their environment (personnel), being clear and direct with goals (outcome), and giving them the trust to complete it on their own (process) is the path to ultimate success.

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