The Western Australian test of invariant factorial structure in the work autonomy scale between managerial and non-managerial employee classifications

ABSTRACT This paper explores the conceptualisation of work autonomy through an investigation of the factorial structure stability of the Global Work Autonomy Scale at different employee levels. After administering the Global Work Autonomy Scale (Breaugh, 1985) to employees in a public sector organisation, analysis of responses confirmed an a priori three-factor model of work autonomy (method autonomy, scheduling autonomy and criteria autonomy) in a group of non-managerial employees (n = 193). A subsequent multi-sample analysis was conducted to test the invariance of the three-factor model for a group of managerial employees (n = 205). After constraining factor loadings and factor covariances, the hypothesised model continued to provide a reasonable fit to the data, confirming the generalisability of the three-factor model to both employee classifications. The methodological and theoretical implications for research into work autonomy are discussed.