Contemporary Views on Job Design PDF

Contemporary Views on Job Design New job characteristics: ○ ○ ○ ○ Task - Focus on the 5 JCM characteristics (see above) Physical - New physical features of tasks and the broader environments in which employees perform their tasks (eg office environment) Knowledge - Complexity, information processin...

Contemporary Views on Job Design New job characteristics: ○ ○ ○ ○ Task - Focus on the 5 JCM characteristics (see above) Physical - New physical features of tasks and the broader environments in which employees perform their tasks (eg office environment) Knowledge - Complexity, information processing, problem-solving, skill variety, and specialization required for a job Social - Interpersonal connections, interactions, and relationships embedded in assigned responsibilities New moderators, mediators, and outcomes: ● Uncertainty - Effects of job control contingent on organizational and industrial contexts ○ High uncertainty in production -> job control leading to satisfaction and intrinsic motivation ● Proactivity - Employees take initiative to shape job designs ○ Leaving behind focus on jobs and moving toward an emphasis on roles, autonomy of building own role -> enhances job performance ○ Employees play proactive role in shaping job designs & altering their position ● Dynamism - Spirals of changes in job characteristics, relationships, and performance over time ○ Focused on role of trust and competence in employee performance ○ Emphasizes dynamic interrelationship between job design and performance ○ Integrated knowledge and motivational mechanisms ○ Cycle of enhanced performance and trust created by role expansion ■ 1 Employees perform effectively -> Supervisors interpret it as sign of competence ■ 2 Increased trust in employee leads to role expansion -> increased motivation and opportunity to learn ■ 3 Higher performance leads to cycle starting again (also applies to poor performance) ■ Critics: Clegg and Spencer (2007) - Vicious/virtuous cycles unlikely to continue into perpetuity ● Performance may reach "ceilings" or "floors" beyond which it is no longer possible to escalate ● Creativity - Tasks sequenced to stimulate original, flexible thinking ○ Creativity-relevant outcomes: Employees working in enriched jobs (ie, high scores on the JCM attributes) were rated as more creative, produced more patents, and offered more suggestions ○ Works best for employees with Creative personalities or Supportive/noncontrolling supervision - Oldham & Cummings (1996) ○ Elsbach and Hargadon (2006) - "workday design" framework