Job Autonomy and Job Satisfaction of Crowdworkers: Mediating Effects of Self-Efficacy and Meaningfulness of Work

With the rise of the platform economy, a new form of labor known as crowdwork is expanding rapidly. Despite criticisms of low pay and social insecurity, the autonomy associated with crowdwork makes it appealing. Using job characteristics theory and self-determination theory, this study examines the positive impact of job autonomy on job satisfaction among crowdworkers and the mediating roles of self-efficacy and meaningfulness of work. A survey of 941 South Korean crowdworkers was conducted to test our hypotheses. Our results show that job autonomy is significant for job satisfaction among crowdworkers. Furthermore, we find that job autonomy positively influences crowdworkers’ job satisfaction through self-efficacy and meaningfulness of work. This study confirms the importance of human relations management within the limitations of crowdsourcing, which is characterized by impersonality and information asymmetry. Crowdsourcing platforms can leverage our findings to design tasks that offer crowdworkers a higher degree of autonomy. Platform operators can also use empowerment practices and positive feedback to improve the self-efficacy of crowdworkers.