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ABAS: Annals ofBusiness AdministrativeScienceVol. 1, No. 1, April 2002

TAKAHASHI, N.

1

WI, John H.

9HELLER, Daniel A.

17

The degree of self-determination and job satisfaction of white-collar workers inJapanese firms.

Organization strategy of established firms for adapting to a change in productarchitecture: The dynamic management of subunits inside an organization.

Learning from a strategically allied firm: Incorporating a teaching perspective.

http://www.gbrc.jp© 2002 Global Business Research CenterAnnals of Business Administrative ScienceVol.1, No. 1, April 2002

CHIEF EDITOR

Junjiro Shintaku

University of TokyoEDITORIAL BOARD

Makoto Abe
University of Tokyo
Takahiro Fujimoto University of Tokyo
Makoto Kasuya
University of Tokyo
Hotaka Katahira
University of Tokyo
Nobuo Takahashi University of Tokyo
Technical Editor: Maki Nishida, Global Business Research Center

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Annals of Business Administrative Science Vol.1, No.1 (April 2002)

The Degree of Self-Determination andJob Satisfaction of White-Collar Workers inJapanese Firms
Nobuo TAKAHASHI
Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo
E-mail: nobuta@e.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Abstract: In most Japanese major companies, white-collar workers are engaged inlifetime employment system and seniority-based pay system. Since noncontingent
money payments do not decrease intrinsic motivation, those companies provide afavorable and unique opportunity to observe and test intrinsic motivation. The
present study tests a version of E. L. Deci’s (1975) hypothesis that, if a person’s
feeling of self-determination is enhanced, his or her job satisfaction will increase.
With a measure of self-determination which was first developed, the hypothesis wasis supported by data from 10,916 white-collar workers in 385 organizational units of
46 Japanese major companies: There is a strong linear relationship between the job
satisfaction and the degree of self-determination.
Keywords: self-determination, job satisfaction, white-collar workers

Deci’sSimilarly, Deci (1975) asserted that people engaged

cognitive evaluation theory stated that if a person's

in many behaviors in order to feel competent andfeeling of competent and self-determination wereself-determining;enhanced, his or her intrinsic motivation wouldreferred to one’s ability or capability to deal

increase, and vice-versa (Deci, 1975, Proposition II).

effectively with his or her surroundings (White,De Charms (1968) stated that a person’s primary1959). Thus competence has a same meaning as

motivational propensity is to be effective in

self-determination if it is traced back to its origin,producing changes in his or her environment.

and then Deci’s above proposition is restated asThefundamental

propositionoftheconceptofcompetence1Takahashi
service increases in the lifetime employment system.

follows.
Hypothesis.

Ifaperson’s

feeling

Deci’s (1975) finding stated that noncontingent

ofmoney

self-determination is enhanced, his or her job

payments

did

notdecrease

intrinsic

motivation. Therefore Japanese major companies

satisfaction will increase, and vice-versa.

can provide a favorable and unique opportunity to

The idea that self-determination enhances job

observe and test intrinsic motivation. Takahashi

satisfaction has a long history in psychology under(1993, 2001) developed a measure of “propensity tovarious names, forjobchange” in order to explain the lukewarm feeling inenrichment, participation, and so forth. It was

Japanese firms, and found that the propensity tocertainly not discovered by Deci but goes back atchange and intrinsic motivation were significant forleast to Argyris (1957) and Herzberg et al. (1959).

organizational

Many studies, including those based on Hackman(Takahashi, 1992).

example,autonomy,activationinJapanesefirms

To test our hypothesis, we conducted 11and Oldham (1980), have confirmed that job

surveys of white-collar workers in Japanese firms

satisfaction is related to autonomy.
It is nice to have a cross-cultural replication,

all of which have never modified the lifetime

though this may have been done by others also.

employment system even in the present economic

Moreover, Japanese major companies can provide a

difficulties in Japan. The first survey in 1990 wasfavorable

intrinsic

made to develop a measure of degree ofmotivation. It is difficult to test Deci’s hypothesis inself-determination (DSD), and then we made thea company without expectation of permanent

follow-up surveys in 1991 to 2000 by using theemployment because an employee might come tosame measures of self-determination and job

feel that the only significant reward is salary andsatisfaction as the first survey. Through these 11

positions. Deci (1971, 1972) hypothesized thatsurveys, we obtained 10,916 white-collar workers’

rewards contingent on a high level of task

data from 385 organizational units of 46 Japanese

performance should have a negative effect on

major companies.

intrinsic

opportunity

motivation.

toMostobserve

Japanesemajor

companies have pinned their success on so-called

Developing a Measure ofthree “sacred treasures”: the lifetime employment

Self-Determination

system, the seniority-based pay system, andIn 1990, before the first survey, we made acompany unionism. There is still a tendency topreliminary survey of head offices at two Japanese

follow the seniority tradition that the white-collar

manufacturing companies in order to selectworker's salary increases as the number of years ofquestions from among our preceding surveys’ 1002Degree of Self-Determination
yes-noquestions.

564

white-collar

Q2. “Has authority been delegated to you by yourworkers

superior?” 1=yes, 0=no.

completed questionnaires (response rate was 84.1%).

Q3. “Do you believe your opinions are given due

We selected 35 questions from among those 100

consideration?” 1=yes, 0=no.

questions by multivariate analysis and theoreticalQ4. “Are you able to see the desirable shape which

examination.

your company will take in the 21st century?”

Using these 35 questions, we made the first

1=yes, 0=no.

survey in 1990. First we selected nine JapaneseJapan

Q5. “When you are thoroughly convinced that you

following

have made a good decision, are you confident

industries: motor vehicles and equipment (3),that the others will be as equally so?” 1=yes,

telecommunication (1), railways (2), petroleum

0=no.

companies

whowereProductivity

Centermembers(JPC)intheofproducts (1), banking (2). The member companies

The questionnaire was written in Japanese.

of Japan Productivity Center are the biggest largest

These questions are intended not to have direct

and representative firms of Japan. Most of them arerelationship with job satisfaction, that is, they arelisted on the First Section of Tokyo Stock Exchange

related only to the feelings of self-determination.

and satisfy the high-level initial listing requirement.

For these questions, “yes” means a high degree ofThen we selected from each company one or

self-determination, and “no” means a low degree ofmore organizational units. We investigated all theself-determination. The yes-no answer to thewhite-collar workers in 39 organizational units. The

question Qi can be quantified and represented by aresearch was carried out from September 5 to 10,
1990

throughthedelivery-collection

dummy variable Di, i=1,...,5. The dummy variable

andtakes only two values, zero and one, which signify

self-recording method. The questionnaires werethat the observation belongs to one of two possible

completed by 853 white-collar workers (responsecategories. A dummy variable Di is coded as 1 forrate was 88.9%). 80.8% were men, 44.3% were

“yes” and 0 for “no.” The means of D1 to D5 weremanagers, average age was 34.9 years, and most0.508, 0.531, 0.633, 0.458, 0.588, and the standard

had college degrees.

deviations of D1 to D5 were almost equal: 0.500,

To measure the degree of self-determination by0.499, 0.482, 0.498, 0.492.

multivariate analysis, five questions were selected

Byfrom among 35 yes-no questions as follows:

principal

component

analysisonstandardized variables, we obtained eigenvalues

Q1. “As you work on your job, do you continually

2.258, 0.919, 0.682, 0.644, 0.498 for D1 to D5.

keep in mind the policies of top management?”

Only the first eigenvalue exceeded unity and the1=yes, 0=no.

rest fell short of it. The corresponding vector of the3

Takahashi
first principal component was (0.464, 0.479, 0.476,potential third variables that may influence the0.379, 0.430). Although the weight of D4 wasrelationship.

slightly small, we could conclude that the degree of

response-response problem, in each survey, we usedself-determination was calculated as the equally

the questionnaire having 60 or more questions, andweighted sum of D1 to D5.

most of them except for Q1 to Q5 and Q6, whichInordertoavoid

thiswill be stated later, were replaced by new questions

Therefore the degree of self-determination

every year.

(DSD) is defined and calculated as the sum of theThe research was carried out from August to“yes” replies to all five questions:
DSD = D1+D2+D3+D4+D5.

September of every year. We obtained 10,916

DSD of a person is an integer from 0 to 5.

respondents’ data from the questionnaires (total
response rate was 89.3%). 78.4% were men, 20.2%

Follow-Up Surveys

were managers, average age was 36.4 years, andBy using the same questions Q1 to Q5, we made 11

most had college degrees.

follow-up surveys in 1991 to 2000. In total of 1990
to 2000, we selected 385 organizational units of 46

Results

Japanese major companies who were JPC’s

In the 11 surveys, job satisfaction was measured bymembers

means of the following question on job attitude:

fromthefollowingindustries:

construction (4), petroleum products (2), chemicalQ6. “Are you satisfied with your job?”products (1), pharmacy (2), textile mill products (1),1=yes, 0=no.

computer (3), machinery (4), heavy industries (1),motor vehicles and equipment (3), cement (1),

48.5% of the total respondents answered “yes,”

tobacco (1), electric service (1), telecommunicationand 51.5% answered “no.” The ratio of “yes” to(1), railways and road passenger transportation (4),total respondents of question Q6 is called the jobbanking (8), life insurance (1), retail trade (1),satisfaction ratio.

hotels (1), consultant (1), real estate development

We calculate the degree of self-determination(2), security (1), service (2). 14 companies wereand job satisfaction ratio, and then obtain Table 1.

investigated twice or more but their organizational

As been stated, in Japanese firms, there is theunits were different in each survey.

lifetime employment system and the seniority-based

When perceptions are measured on the same

pay system where wages are not tied to behavior.

questionnaire using basically the same item format,

From the standpoint of intrinsic motivation, we are

the correlation between variables obtained isafraid that in this situation self-determination would

potentially inflated because of a large number ofbe very high and held relatively constant at a high4Degree of Self-Determination

Table 1. Pooled Results of 11 Surveys in 1990 to 2000
Q6. “Are you satisfied with

Degree of self-determination (DSD)

your job?”

01

2

3

4

5

Total

Yes (A)

165

407

686

1114

1311

1474

5157

No

635

1004

1251

1151

874

565

5480

Total (B)

800

1411

1937

2265

2185

2039

10637

20.6%

28.8%

35.4%

49.2%

60.0%

72.3%

48.5%

shows

that

delegation, Q3 on participation, and Q5 on groupself-determination is almost normally distributed.

cohesion. They are clearly not homogeneous. But

The mean of the degree of self-determinationthese five items can be loaded on one factor, that is,(DSD) is 2.91 and the variance is 2.36.

self-determination because Figure 1 shows a strong

Job satisfaction ratio (A/B)

level.

However,Table

1linear relationship.

The graph of the job satisfaction ratio versus
DSD in Figure 1 supports our hypothesis andsuggests a straight line relationship. A linear model
is fitted to the data and we regress job satisfactionFigure 1. Graph of the Job Satisfaction
Ratio Versus the Degree of SelfDetermination

ratio on DSD. The estimated coefficient of DSD is10.44 (t =18.23) and significant at p<0.0001. The
estimated constant is 18.28 (t =10.54) andsignificant at p=0.0005. In other words, for each80%

expected to increase by 10%, thus the job

70%
Job Satisfaction Ratio

degree increase in DSD, the job satisfaction ratio is

satisfaction ratio is almost 50% at 3 degrees.
The high value 0.9881 of R2 (adjusted R2 is0.9851) indicates a strong linear relationshipbetween the job satisfaction ratio and DSD at

60%
50%
40%
30%
20%

significant level p<0.0001 (F=332.30). Therefore

10%

DSD can be used to forecast the job satisfaction

0%0ratio.

1234

Degree of Self-Determination (DSD)

The scale used seems a very strange one. Q1and Q4 seem focused on the issue of vision, Q2 on
55Takahashi

Discussion

was rewards contingent not only on the highTo prevent overgeneralization, it is important toperformance of task but also the completion of anstress that our hypothesis was supported when theactivity. A salient reward is thus a necessary

white-collar workers of Japanese firms were tested.

condition under which an extrinsic reward may

In our 11 surveys, we have investigated only

decrease intrinsic motivation (Ross, 1975). The

full-time workers, that is, regular workers. Even in

results of Calder and Staw’s (1975) experimentJapaneseareshowed that the introduction of money decreased

excluded from the lifetime employment system andsatisfaction when the task was initially interesting

the seniority-based pay system.

and that the introduction of money increased

companies,

part-time

workers

satisfaction when the task was initially neutral.

In 1992, through JPC’s consultation activity,
we obtained data from all of the employees at a

Since part-time workers received salientJapanese industry machinery company, Company A,

rewards and their tasks were considered as initially

includingandmore neutral than regular workers’, it was expectedblue-collar workers) and part-time workers. 1,914

that simultaneous with a reduction of the feelings ofregularself-determination

regularworkers

workersand213(white-collar

part-timeworkers

camearecoveryofjob

completed questionnaires, and response rate wassatisfaction. Thus even in Japan, the existence of

97.4%. Unfortunately, JPC’s version of questions

workers such as part-time workers would prevent

Q1 to Q5 and DSD formula were used: Hence, we

the researchers from determining the relevance ofcannotofour hypothesis. In fact, by dropping part-time

self-determination of this case with those of theworkers from the data of Company A, there exists apresent study. Nonetheless, in Company A, welinear relationship between the job satisfaction ratio

found that part-time workers had very low mean ofand the degree of self-determination, which isdegrees of self-determination which was 31% lesssimilar to Figure 1, that is, the part-time workers

than that of regular workers. On the other hand, thecan be regarded as outliers.

exactly

comparethedegrees

job satisfaction ratio of part-time workers wasaverage 47.3% although that of regular workers was

Acknowledgments

lower at 39.0%. The part-time workers might derive

I wish to express my thanks to the Academy ofjob

Management

satisfaction

notfromfeelingsofself-determination but from extrinsic rewards.

Development

attheJapan

Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Planning.

Kruglanski, Friedman, and Zeevi (1971) andLepper, Greene, and Nisbett (1973) showed that anecessary condition to decrease intrinsic motivation
6Degree of Self-Determination

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