Untangling the Relationship Between Red Tape and Job Satisfaction: The Role of Self-Efficacy and High-Individualistic Culture

Abstract

Although red tape remains a significant policy concern and despite meta-analytical research showing that it impacts employee and performance outcomes, research elucidating why and under which conditions it does so remains scarce. Using social cognitive theory, we first hypothesize that the relationship between red tape and job satisfaction is mediated by self-efficacy. Second, we argue that red tape is particularly harmful for job satisfaction in high-individualistic cultures. Using a survey dataset of 110,746 teachers across 45 countries, we find that self-efficacy is a statistically significant mediator in the red tape—job satisfaction relationship, explaining about 8% of the relationship. Self-efficacy does not offer a particularly potent mechanism explaining the red tape—job satisfaction relationship, though it does matter. Importantly, we also corroborate assumptions about the role of culture in red tape and public administration research, by finding that red tape is much more harmful for job satisfaction in high-individualistic cultures.