The Importance of Work and Job Autonomy and Independence to Professional Staff employed in Local Government at Different Career Stages

Mrs. Tina Eaton-Walley and Dr. Martyn Lowe

Abstract

An employed professional draws much of his or her job satisfaction from work characteristics, which provide feelings of control over work and independence of decision-making. A group of senior professional staff with management experience were approached to give their view on what degree of autonomy and independence they perceived they had, and therefore, what degree of satisfaction. The local government managers were grouped in terms of their age and organisational tenure to determine whether their experience of job autonomy and independence was different at stages in their career.

Those younger staff with less than five years tenure experienced far lower levels of satisfaction than their older colleagues with longer service. Older staff, those over forty years of age, experienced higher satisfaction than those colleagues younger than forty. Those staff intending to leave their current jobs reported experiencing greatly lower levels of satisfaction with their autonomy and independence than those reporting their intention to stay in their current employment.

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