The purpose of this dissertation is to study the facets of job autonomy and the effect that these facets individually have on counterproductive work behavior in organizations.

The study begins by focusing on the issue of counterproductive work behavior which can be described as “the voluntary behavior of organizational members that violates significant organizational norms and, in doing so, threatens the well-being of the organization and/or its members." Counterproductive behavior can pose a real threat to organizations as, in addition to the financial harm it can do to a firm, it can lower employee morale, reduce turnover, decrease productivity, and increase absenteeism. It is important to note that this study examines counterproductive behavior that is classified as organizational deviance, meaning that it is directed at the organization as a whole (and not at individuals within the organization). Continuing, the study describes the impact that each of the facets of job autonomy can have on counterproductive work behavior based on the literature research conducted for the purpose of the current study. These facets being Work Scheduling Autonomy, Work Methods Autonomy and Decision-Making Autonomy.

The research design of this study consists of a within-subjects experiment conducted via a questionnaire in which participated 53 employees, working in both the public sector and private organizations (average age 41,09; 64 % female participants). For the analysis of the collected data multi-level logistic regression models were used.   

The results of the analysis indicate that the estimated probability for an employee to engage in counterproductive behavior decreases when working in an organization that provides high Work Scheduling Autonomy. In the case of Decision-Making Autonomy, the results show that the estimated probability for an employee to engage in counterproductive behavior increases when working in an organization that grants high Decision-Making Autonomy. Lastly, as far as the Work Methods Autonomy is concerned, the results show that it does not have any statistically significant effect on the manifestation of counterproductive behavior among the employees.

The findings of this study contribute to the research on the effects of job autonomy on counterproductive work behavior.