THE 3 MYTHS OF EMPLOYEE AUTONOMY
Employee autonomy is becoming one of the latest trends in business management with many industries failing to implement and benefit from the change successfully. The article debunks 3 myths of employee autonomy and provides solutions to utilise when it comes to addressing autonomy in the workplace.
As digitisation is accelerating the pace of business, assigning accountabilities to employees, rather than relying on organisational structure to direct them, is becoming an idealised pathway to organisational agility1 . In other words, having responsible and self-directed employees on board comprises a promising asset for organisations in an uncertain and dynamic world. Business magazines have long written about ways to promote employee autonomy, as seen in the many articles about Google’s 20% time2 , the HR policy of Netflix3 or Spotify’s unique approach to work4 . But these companies are not alone in their quest to empower employees and obtain agility5 .
In a knowledge-based economy where organisations must deal with constantly changing business conditions, employee autonomy and distributed leadership . Although employee autonomy is undoubtedly important for navigating in these turbulent times, many organisations fail in their efforts to foster employee autonomy. Many of these failed efforts can arguably be blamed on the prevalence of 3 tenacious myths of employee autonomy. Therefore, fully understanding and rejecting these popular misconceptions comprise a first step in leveraging the true potential of your employees . The 3 myths are illustrated in the figure below, and the following will both explain the myths as well as actively bust them.
