AUTONOMY AT WORK AND ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

Autonomy belongs to interdisciplinary issues; it has been studied in frames of philosophy, psychology and other disciplines. Over decades attention is paid to autonomy at work and organizational context. Research results confirm interconnections of work autonomy with performance, intrinsic motivation, work satisfaction, creativity and innovations as well as with other positive work and organization outputs. A need for autonomy at work is obvious in context of growing importance of knowledge work and increasing demands on organization competitiveness. The goals of mapping survey were focused on identification of autonomy representation at work design and its evaluation by line managers and employees, their subordinates. From analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews emerge the following results. Although the majority of respondents evaluate autonomy as an important factor, autonomy representation at work design was confirmed by the minority of them. Despite the fact, the results have limited validity due to mapping design; autonomy at work probably does not belong to priority topics of Czech organizations. It is desirable to give more attention to autonomy in consideration of proven interconnection and consequences of autonomy at work and organization contexts.