Job Characteristics Theory

Job Characteristics Theory

• Developed by J. Richard Hackman and Greg R. Oldham.
• First introduced in 1975 and expanded in 1980.
• Rooted in Frederick Herzberg's two-factor theory of motivation.
• Focuses on identifying job conditions that motivate individual employees.
• Motivation stems from how a job is structured.

Core Job Characteristics

• Five core characteristics determine a job's motivational potential.
  • Skill Variety: The extent a job requires different activities and skills.
  • Task Identity: Completing a whole, identifiable piece of work from start to finish.
  • Task Significance: The degree a job impacts the lives of others.
  • Autonomy: Freedom and independence in scheduling work and determining procedures.
  • Feedback from the Job: Receiving information about the effectiveness of one's performance.

Critical Psychological States

• Core job characteristics impact an employee's motivational condition via three psychological states.
  • Experienced Meaningfulness of Work: Influenced by skill variety, task identity, and task significance.
  • Experienced Responsibility for Outcomes: Influenced by autonomy.
  • Knowledge of Actual Results: Influenced by job feedback.

Personal and Work Outcomes

• Psychological states affect personal and work outcomes.
  • Internal Work Motivation: High when work is important and challenging.
  • Satisfaction with Work: High when the employee is comfortable in the workplace
  • Absenteeism and Turnover: Low when employees are satisfied with their work.
  • Quality Work Performance: High when the employee is trying to improve

Job Enrichment

• Job enrichment involves positively changing an existing job.
• Hackman and Oldham recognized that not every employee responds positively to job enrichment.
• The model incorporates three moderators that affect how employees respond to job enrichment.

Moderators

• Employee Growth Needs Strength: An individual's desire for self-direction, learning, and personal accomplishment.
  • It is similar to Herzberg's motivation factors and Maslow's esteem/self-actualization needs.
• Knowledge and Skill: Employee capabilities that fit the demands of the enriched job.
• Context Satisfaction: Satisfaction with aspects like salary, supervision, relationships, and working conditions.
  • Similar to Herzberg's hygiene factors.

Paramedic Example

• Paramedics in a big city work provides high variation in skills demanded.
• They pick up a patient and deliver them to the hospital, which provides task identity.
• It is a task of significance to the person receiving help.
• Paramedics must autonomously evaluate situations and decide whom to rescue first, providing a sense of responsibility.
• They receive direct feedback from the patient, the relatives of the patient, and the hospital.

Absenteeism Example

• Widespread employee absenteeism can be addressed by examining core job characteristics and moderators.
• Management has a responsibility to create job content that fulfills employee needs.

Criticism

• The model recognizes that employees have different needs and that not all employees want to fulfill their needs at work.
• It is difficult to know exactly what motivates individual employees, therefore, each employee must be treated individually
• This is a very time-consuming process.
• It can be difficult to transfer the model to a team or group of employees.
• The model provides a solid overview of employee motivation through job enrichment.