The Moderating Role of Job Autonomy in the Relationship between the Use of Performance Appraisals and Job Satisfaction

Christian Grund () and Anna Nießen ()
Additional contact information
Christian Grund: RWTH Aachen University
Anna Nießen: RWTH Aachen University

No 18191, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We explore the moderating role of job autonomy for the link between the use of performance appraisals and employees’ job satisfaction. Results based on German linked employer-employee panel data show that performance appraisals are linked to higher job satisfaction at moderate levels of job autonomy, whereas this positive relationship weakens at both low and high levels of autonomy. Moreover, the interplay between performance appraisals and job autonomy appears sensitive to broader institutional and contextual factors, such as the existence of employee representation, perceived job security, and design of the performance appraisals. Our findings highlight the complex role of job autonomy in shaping employee responses to performance management, underscoring the need for context-aware human resource practices.

Keywords: job satisfaction; performance appraisals; job autonomy; German Linked Personnel Panel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J28 M12 M5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-eur, nep-hrm, nep-inv and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp18191.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18191

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().