The effectiveness of role autonomy in influencing job pursuit intentions of customer-oriented frontline job seekers

Attracting customer-oriented frontline employee (FLE) job seekers is important for many service organisations, particularly in competitive environments. It is widely accepted that FLEs' customer-focused behaviours are instrumental in organisational success. Numerous studies demonstrate that autonomy plays an important role in supporting FLEs' self-efficacy and in helping to reduce stress attributed to job demands. While autonomy is recognised as a key resource for FLEs, its influence over job pursuit intentions of tertiary-educated FLE job seekers has received little empirical attention. Based on a sample of 120 undergraduates in their final year and postgraduate students in an Irish university we address this question and the possible impact of perceived job complexity on job pursuit intentions of this particular cohort. In addition, we investigate whether the individual difference characteristic of customer orientation (CO) affects the extent to which autonomy influences job pursuit intentions. Results support the importance of autonomy however, the findings suggest that autonomy's effect on job pursuit intentions is influenced by job seekers' individual CO. The results indicate that autonomy has a stronger effect on job pursuit intentions of FLE job seekers (educated to undergraduate level and beyond) with high versus low CO.