Why job autonomy matters for young companies' performance: company maturity as a moderator between job autonomy and company performance

Although the positive impact of job autonomy has been widely shown for individual-level employee outcomes, research on job autonomy and company-level outcomes has been surprisingly scarce. Therefore, among 3,311 companies in the Netherlands, we investigate the relationship between employees' job autonomy and company performance growth (revenue, profit). Moreover, we investigate the moderating effect of company maturity (young vs. older companies) in this relationship. Results indicate that job autonomy is positively related to growth of company revenue and this relationship is stronger for young companies. Job autonomy was positively related to company profit but only for young companies. These results suggest that it is important for young companies especially, to provide their employees with job autonomy and its supporting practices. Implications for theory and practice will be discussed.