Job Characteristics Model

The job characteristics model is one of the most influential attempts to design jobs with increased motivational properties.[340]Proposed by Hackman and Oldham the model describes five core job dimensions leading to three critical psychological states resulting in work!related outcomes. Figure 6.3.

The Job Characteristics Model has five core job dimensions.

Skill variety refers to the e"tent to which the job re#uires a person to utili$e multiple high!level skills. % car wash employee whose job consists of directing customers into the automated car wash demonstrates low levels of skill variety whereas a car wash employee who acts as a cashier maintains carwash e#uipment and manages the inventory of chemicals demonstrates high skill variety. Task identity refers to the degree to which a person is in charge of completing an identifiable piece of work from start to finish. % &eb designer who designs parts of a &eb site will have low task identity because the work blends in with other &eb designers' work( in the end it will be hard for any one person to claim responsibility for the final output. The &eb master who designs an entire &eb site will have high task identity. Task significance refers to whether a person's job substantially affects other people's work health or well!being. % janitor who cleans the floors at an office building may find the job low in significance thinking it is not a very important job. However janitors cleaning the floors at a hospital may see their role as essential in helping patients get better. &hen they feel that their tasks are significant employees tend to feel that they are making an impact on their environment and their feelings of self!worth are boosted. [341] Autonomy is the degree to which a person has the freedom to decide how to perform his or her tasks. %s an e"ample an instructor who is re#uired to follow a predetermined te"tbook covering a given list of topics using a specified list of classroom activities has low autonomy. On the other hand an instructor who is free to choose the te"tbook design the course content and use any relevant materials when delivering lectures has higher levels of autonomy. %utonomy increases motivation at work but it also has other benefits. )iving employees autonomy at work is a key to individual as well as company success because autonomous employees are free to choose how to do their jobs and therefore can be more effective. They are also less likely to adopt a *this is not my job+ approach to their work environment and instead be proactive ,do what needs to be done without waiting to be told what to do- and creative. [342] The conse#uence of this resourcefulness can be higher company performance. .or e"ample a /ornell 0niversity study shows that small businesses that gave employees autonomy grew four times more than those that did not.[343] )iving employees autonomy is also a great way to train them on the job. .or e"ample )ucci's /1O 2obert Polet points to the level of autonomy he was given while working at 0nilever P3/ as a key to his development of leadership talents.[344] %utonomy can arise from workplace features such as telecommuting company structure organi$ational climate and leadership style. [345] Feedback refers to the degree to which people learn how effective they are being at work. .eedback at work may come from other people such as supervisors peers subordinates and customers or it may come from the job itself. % salesperson who gives presentations to potential clients but is not informed of

the clients' decisions has low feedback at work. 4f this person receives notification that a sale was made based on the presentation feedback will be high. The relationship between feedback and job performance is more controversial. 4n other words the mere presence of feedback is not sufficient for employees to feel motivated to perform better. 4n fact a review of this literature shows that in about one!third of the cases feedback was detrimental to performance. [346] 4n addition to whether feedback is present the sign of feedback ,positive or negative- whether the person is ready to receive the feedback and the manner in which feedback was given will all determine whether employees feel motivated or demotivated as a result of feedback. %ccording to the job characteristics model the presence of these five core job dimensions leads employees to e"perience three psychological states5 They view their work as meaningful they feel responsible for the outcomes and they ac#uire knowledge of results. These three psychological states in turn are related to positive outcomes such as overall job satisfaction internal motivation higher performance and lower absenteeism and turnover. [347] 2esearch shows that out of these three psychological states e"perienced meaningfulness is the most important for employee attitudes and behaviors and it is the key mechanism through which the five core job dimensions operate. %re all five job characteristics e#ually valuable for employees6 Hackman and Oldham's model proposes that the five characteristics will not have uniform effects. 4nstead they proposed the following formula to calculate the motivating potential of a given job5 [34 ] Equation 6.1. MPS = ((Skill Variety + Task Identity + Task Signi i!an!e" # 3" $ %utono&y $ Feed'a!k

%ccording to this formula autonomy and feedback are the more important elements in deciding motivating potential compared to skill variety task identity or task significance. 7oreover note how the job characteristics interact with each other in this model. 4f someone's job is completely lacking in autonomy ,or feedback- regardless of levels of variety identity and significance the motivating potential score will be very low. 8ote that the five job characteristics are not objective features of a job. Two employees working in the same job may have very different perceptions regarding how much skill variety task identity task significance autonomy or feedback the job affords. 4n other words motivating potential is in the eye of the beholder. This is both good and bad news. The bad news is that even though a manager may design a job that is supposed to motivate employees some employees may not find the job to be motivational. The good news is that sometimes it is possible to increase employee motivation by helping employees change their perspective about the job. .or e"ample employees laying bricks at a construction site may feel their jobs are low in significance but by pointing out that they are building a home for others their perceptions about their job may be changed. 9o all employees e"pect to have a job that has a high motivating potential6 2esearch has shown that the desire for the five core job characteristics is not universal. One factor that affects how much of these characteristics people want or need is growth need strength. )rowth need strength describes the degree to which a person has higher order needs such as self!esteem and self!actuali$ation. &hen an employee's e"pectation from his job includes such higher order needs employees will have high!growth need strength whereas those who e"pect their job to pay the bills and satisfy more basic needs will have low!growth need strength. 8ot surprisingly research shows that those with high!growth need strength respond more favorably to jobs with a high motivating potential. [34!] 4t also seems that an employee's career stage influences how important the five dimensions are. .or e"ample when employees are new to an organi$ation task significance is a positive influence over job satisfaction but autonomy may be a negative influence.[350]