Job Design Research Research Articles

Support or Neglect: Is the Effect of Job Autonomy Conditional on Trust Towards the Supervisor?

In job design research, autonomy has generally been portrayed as a predictor of positive attitudinal and behavioral work outcomes. Some studies, however, have indicated that job autonomy under certain condition can yield ambiguous results. We therefore hypothesize that the social context can change employees’ perception of granted autonomy. Using responses from 451 matched pairs of PhD candidates and PhD supervisors, we explored the effect of job autonomy on attitudinal (satisfaction) and behavioral (performance) work outcomes and the role of interpersonal trust in this relation. We found that job autonomy had a positive effect on performance partially mediated by job satisfaction. In addition to that, our results show that this indirect effect is moderated by the level of trust in the supervisor. More specifically, our study suggests job autonomy to be beneficial only if there is a certain level of trust between the supervisor and supervisee.

The moderating effects of job design on human capital and NPD performance

PurposeIn response to calls for the extension of job design research for the strategic team particularly in high-velocity environment, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating roles of job design in the relationships between project team viewed as human capital resources and new product development (NPD) performance in the short and long run. Based on survey data from 117 NPD project teams in high-technology multinational companies (MNCs) in Thailand, this research finds that job design (i.e. autonomous, task identity and feedback) moderates the effects of human capital resources on NPD project success. In addition, job design works in concert with human capital resources to affect managing NPD project-to-project in the long run. Designing jobs by providing autonomy, identity and feedbacks could trigger the stronger contribution not only for fostering knowledge creation in the NPD project team, but also encouraging intrinsic motivation to commit extra effort to achieve NPD goals. This research contributes to the job design literature of how job design works for NPD project team to achieve short-and long-run NPD performance. Implications for these results are discussed.Design/methodology/approachBased on survey data from 117 NPD projects in high-technology MNCs in Thailand, this research uses hierarchical regression to do analyses.FindingsThis research finds that job design (i.e. autonomous, task identity and feedback) moderates the effects of human capital resources on the short-run project performance. In addition, job design works in concert with human capital resources to affect managing project-to-project in the long run.Research limitations/implicationsThis research contributes to the job design literature of how job design works for NPD project team to achieve short-and long-run NPD performance.Originality/valueInvestigating the moderating roles of job design in the relationship between human capital resources and NPD performance in the short and long run.

Unpacking the combined effects of job scope and supervisor support on in-role performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how the relationship between job scope and in-role performance is contingent upon the level of social support (i.e. supervisor support) received in the workplace.Design/methodology/approachA total of 640 questionnaires were distributed to employees of Pakistani companies, yielding 328 useable responses for analysis. Regression analysis was used to test for both hypotheses.FindingsThe results support the role of supervisor support as a moderator in the relationship between in-role performance, a dimension of job performance and job scope. The findings show that a higher job scope would facilitate higher job performance from employees who receive high levels of supervisor support.Practical implicationsThe results provide useful insights for managers and consultants, especially HR professionals involved in job design and redesign. Organizations that encourage high levels of social support can help employees improve their job performance as they foster an environment where employees can get direct assistance and advice from their supervisors.Originality/valueThis paper makes three key contributions to the literature on job design. First, this inquiry shows that a strong link does exist between job scope and job performance; previous studies have failed to find a strong relationship. Second, it highlights how social context, especially in highly challenging work settings, can shape employees’ proficiencies and behaviors. Third, this paper offers a novel perspective in job design research by incorporating a contextual moderator (i.e. supervisor support).

Pathways to Green(er) Pastures: Reward Bundles, Human Capital, and Turnover Decisions in a Semi-Profession

This study brings together turnover and job design research to investigate how reward bundling and job fit generate staying and leaving decisions among one particular group of “semi-professionals”: urban schoolteachers with different types of human capital. Using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), I analyze survey and interview data from 40 middle and high school teachers in one urban school district: 20 stayers and 20 leavers. The analysis identifies combinations or “bundles” of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards that work together to motivate staying and leaving decisions. For all stayers, administrative support appears to serve as a compensating differential for the absence of other rewards. For all leavers, reward bundles simultaneously lacking student attachment and collegiality, or combining more stable teacher human capital resources in the school with the lack of administrative support, each promote leaving decisions. Further, results suggest that teachers with different types of human capital react to these bundles differently. This paper explores three of the fourteen bundles specific to teachers with selective college backgrounds, high SAT scores, or National Board Teaching Certification. The findings have implications for semi-professions in which workers carefully weigh their often contradictory set of working conditions and are prone to leave their workplace or occupation for any kind of “greener pasture.”

Job design research and theory: Past, present and future

This article reviews the research and theory that have focused on the design of jobs in organizations. We begin by summarizing some of the earliest work on this topic and then move to a discussion of several approaches to job design that attempted to address the shortcomings of this work. Next, we discuss several streams of contemporary research that have expanded the scope or deepened our understanding of job design. We conclude with a discussion of some future directions for research with an emphasis on job crafting, the effects of new work arrangements on the design of jobs, generational differences and reactions to job design, cultural differences and job design, and the impact of job design on organizational structures and employees’ personal characteristics.

Integrative Review of the Social Aspects of Job Design

The increasing prevalence of teams and social interaction in organizations highlights the significance of creating motivational job designs within the social context of work. Based on a review of social job design research, I propose a new framework that can be integrated with previous job characteristics models that include social aspects in order to expand the scope of research being conducted in this area. The main contributions of my framework are the additions of task significance, autonomy, task identity, task variety, and social construction. In order to incorporate these characteristics into social job design, I propose a cross-level interaction between the individual and team-level outcomes. This review also includes an overview of theoretical frameworks, emerging issues, and practical implications of social job design research.

Task Performance Among Employees Above Age 65: The Role of Cognitive Functioning and Job Demand-Control

Owing to the aging of Western societies, an increasing number of people over age 65 are now working in bridge employment. Research is needed to understand how job characteristics in bridge employment should be designed to support older employees’ productivity, considering potential declines in intra-individual resources. Drawing on lifespan development of resources and job design models, we investigated the interplay of cognitive functioning, job demands, and job control, and their impact on task performance, in a sample of workers in bridge employment. In total, 228 employees from a Dutch temporary employment agency that contracts workers aged 65 years and older participated in this longitudinal study, with a 1-year time lag. Of the panel, 74.1% of the respondents were male, and the mean age was 69.02 years (range 65–80 years). Cognitive functioning, job demands, job control, and task performance were assessed two times with thoroughly validated self-report measures. Good cognitive functioning emerged as an essential intra-individual resource in order to maintain good task performance for employees aged 65 years and older. After including the influence of job demands and job control, positive effects of cognitive functioning on task performance remained significant only in a high-strain job (with high job demands and low job control). This outcome suggests that age-related changes in cognitive functioning among employees above the age of 65 years only affect productivity at work when the job demands are too high relative to the available job control. Implications for retirement research and lifespan perspectives of job design research are discussed.

The Future of Job Design Research: To Reflect and Advance Practice

Traditional job design is a major area of Organizational Psychology and the most well-known and dominant model is the Job Characteristics Model introduced by Hackman & Oldham (1976). In modern reality however, organizations are reacting and adapting to their changing surroundings, with jobs becoming more flexible, dynamic, virtual, and collaborative, resulting in informal bottom-up work design, such as job crafting, being increasingly recognised (Hornung, Rousseau, Glaser, Angerer & Weigl, 2010; Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). Organizations are changing their work structures and jobs without any input from academia i.e., practice is running ahead of and independently of research. The area of research into job design is therefore in danger of becoming moribund, with significant fragmentation between academic research and practice within evolving organizations. This symposium presents current research on the future of job design and discusses new opportunities, ideas, models, trends, techniques and insights for job design in the 21st century. Following an introduction to the area and the need for change in job design research, with particular regard to changing business models, the presentations aim to highlight a number of different approaches to job design. This includes the consideration of individual values and goals, the ability and issues around co-crafting in a collaborative manner, and the challenges of job design within entrepreneurial roles. An interactive discussion assesses the best way to approach future job design research and ensure links with practice, for example is there a ‘one size fits all’, top-down approach vs. customised, bottom-up approach, or can there be a combination of these perspectives. Co-crafting Jobs in Collaborative Work Presenter: John Cordery; U. of Western Australia Customised Job Design through Employee Self-Concordance Presenter: Kerrie Unsworth; U. of Western Australia Presenter: Elisa Adriasola; U. of Western Australia A Socio-Technical Approach to Job Design: Linkages with Changing Organizational Business Models Presenter: Lucy Elisabeth Bolton; Leeds U. Business School Presenter: Chris W. Clegg; U. of Leeds Presenter: Lauren C Beaumont; U. of Leeds Job Design and Entrepreneurship Presenter: Michael Frese; National U. of Singapore

Not what it was and not what it will be: The future of job design research

AbstractThis summary commentary explores the likely future directions of research and theory on the design of organizational work. We give special attention to the social aspects of contemporary work, the process by which jobholders craft their own jobs, the changing contexts within which work is performed, and the increasing prominence of work that is performed by teams rather than individuals. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Illusion of Will in Organizational Behavior Research: Nonconscious Processes and Job Design

Theorizing and research in organizational behavior implicitly or explicitly assumes that behavior is the product of conscious will. However, an extensive body of literature suggests that much of human behavior is automatic and that nonconscious thoughts and feelings are primary drivers of reactions and behavior. Relying on propositions in use in job design theory and research as a critical case in point, the author reviews the literatures on automatic thought and nonconscious emotions and their implications. Based on these literatures, the author develops alternative propositions for job design theory and research that are based on more realistic assumptions about the mind and human functioning. In addition to discussing implications of nonconscious processes for job design, the author draws broader implications for the field of organizational behavior.

Employees without a Cause: The Motivational Effects of Prosocial Impact in Public Service

ABSTRACT Public service employees often lack opportunities to see the prosocial impact of their jobs—how their efforts make a difference in other people's lives. Drawing on recent job design theory and research, I tested the hypothesis that the motivation of public service employees can be enhanced by connecting them to their prosocial impact. In a longitudinal quasi-experiment, a group of fundraising callers serving a public university met a fellowship student who benefited from the funds raised by the organization. A full month later, these callers increased significantly in the number of pledges and the amount of donation money that they obtained, whereas callers in a control group did not change on these measures. I discuss the implications of these results for theory, research, and practice related to work motivation in public service.

New model of job design: motivating employees' performance

PurposeThe paper aims to identify the key issues of job design research and practice to motivate employees' performance.Design/methodology/approachThe conceptual model of Hackman and Oldham's job characteristics has been adopted to motivate employees' performance.FindingsThe paper finds that a dynamic managerial learning framework is required in order to enhance employees' performance to meet global challenges.Practical implicationsTraditional outcomes will certainly remain central to the agenda. But some wider developments are to be incorporated within organizational systems so as to motivate employees for better performance.Originality/valueThe paper may be of value to researchers and practitioners in the management development field for offering enhanced jobs to employees leading to improved performance.

Employee Performance as a Function of Job Orientation and Job Design

Two weaknesses in previous job design research were examined: the overuse of self-report measurements and the questionable use of Growth Need Strength as a moderator between job characteristics and employee performance. Job orientation was hypothesized to moderate the relationship between job characteristics and employee performance. Results indicated that job orientation moderated the relationship between job characteristics and quality of performance but not between job characteristics and quantity of performance, job involvement and satisfaction with work.

MINIMIZING TRADEOFFS WHEN REDESIGNING WORK: EVIDENCE FROM A LONGITUDINAL QUASI‐EXPERIMENT

Although cross‐sectional job design research highlights a tradeoff between motivational and mechanistic work design, the redesign literature is more equivocal. We develop a work redesign process that suggests the tradeoffs can be minimized if both motivational and mechanistic approaches are explicitly considered when work is designed and the ultimate outcomes of the design effort (e.g., satisfaction, efficiency, or both) are taken into account when work is redesigned. In a longitudinal quasi‐experiment, we examined how jobs can be differentially changed in terms of their motivational and mechanistic properties. Results showed at least partial support for all expected relationships. This suggests that the tradeoffs previously considered inherent in job design may not always occur, particularly if conceptual and methodological consideration is given to their minimization.

A longitudinal study of the job perception–job satisfaction relationship: A test of the three alternative specifications

Although past job design research has demonstrated that job perception and job satisfaction are related, there is considerable debate on the causal direction of this relationship. Three alternative specifications of the causal direction can be deduced from three different theories: (1) job perception is the cause (deduced from the job characteristics model); (2) job satisfaction is the cause (deduced from social information‐processing theory); and (3) the two constructs are reciprocally related (deduced from cognitive social learning theory). Past studies have not provided a comparative test of these three alternative specifications. Thus, the causal relationship between these two constructs remains nebulous. A longitudinal design was employed to examine the relationship between job perception and the different components of job satisfaction (i.e. overall, intrinsic and extrinsic) with data collected over a two‐year time span. Structural equation modelling was conducted to investigate the cross‐lagged relationships between job perception and job satisfaction. Results indicated that job perception was reciprocally related to overall and intrinsic job satisfaction. Implications for job design research and practices are discussed.

Sources of satisfaction in hospital nursing practice. A guide to effective job design.

As the healthcare system restructures, changes are being made that appear to influence nurses' jobs and satisfaction, yet little is known about effects on job characteristics and related outcomes. The authors present findings from a research project designed to identify links between specific aspects of hospital staff nurse (SN) practice and perceived job characteristics and psychological states, thought to have motivational consequences. The Job Characteristics Model (JCM) is the dominant paradigm in contemporary job design theory and research. Although generally well-supported, the JCM has limitations that constrain its usefulness: first, the Job Diagnostic Survey used to assess perceived characteristics does not indicate the specific aspects of activities that lead to these perceptions, and second, the JCM, based primarily on manufacturing research, does not include interpersonal job characteristics that seem important in human service jobs. Two studies were conducted using a similar methodology. Focus groups of SNs were held to identify links between specific activities and characteristics and sources of satisfaction in SNs' job content. The Staff Nurse Job Characteristics Index (SNJCI) was developed to assess the presence of certain elements and activities in a nurse's job. An initial sample of 63 and a second sample of 146 SNs from Medical/Surgical and Coronary Care units completed the SNJCI, the JDS, and a demographic form through a mail survey. Internal consistency reliabilities (Cronbach's alpha) for eight of the nine SNJCI scales were acceptable. Correlation analysis indicates that job characteristics are meaningfully related to psychological states and job satisfaction. Findings support the hypothesis that specific aspects of SNs' jobs are reliably related to characteristics. Aspects of SNs' jobs important to their satisfaction include continuity in nurse-patient relationships, authority to initiate independent nursing actions, individual accountability for clinical outcomes, and regular performance feedback from managers.

Participant characteristics and organizational processes: a Hong Kong case study.

Explores relationships between relevant work setting variables in a Hong Kong organization. The study examined a set of Western assumptions in terms of structural properties of centralization and formalization and the view that they will be negatively associated with workplace responses of motivation, job satisfaction and organizational commitment, while an enriched job content will be positively related to employee responses. There was empirical support for most of the connections of this framework, but formalization was observed to have positive relationships with employee perceptions and affections. In addition, there was evidence that the responses of the incumbents were influenced by the assessed demographic characteristics. These results provide further evidence that organizational members pay moderate attention to demographic attributes, yet this factor has not been a prominent component of contemporary job design research. The findings are reported in terms of the need to consider both demographic and sociocultural effects when explaining responses of individual employees.

Expert Systems Usage: Task Change and Intrinsic Motivation

What motivates use of an expert system? Recent studies have found that the anticipated performance benefits of using an expert system -- such as increases in decision quality, consistency, and speed of decision making -- can lead to increases in expected usage. But is motivation limited to performance benefits? Findings in job design theory suggest that other factors -- such as increasing a user's sense of control over a task or making a task less routine -- might also have an impact. If so, understanding these factors could be extremely valuable to managers seeking to build expert systems that will be readily accepted by users. This paper synthesizes findings from expert systems, information systems, and job design research to model how the task change experienced by an expert systems user during adoption can affect that user's motivation to continue using the system. Using existing task constructs from the job design literature, a simplified version of the model is operationalized and tested on a data set of expert systems (all constructed in the early and mid-1980s) for which extensive quantitative and qualitative task change data was available, as well as data on systems usage. The findings suggest significant relationships between the nature of the task changes associated with adoption and long-term usage of the systems, all consistent with the predictions of the job design literature. The study, therefore, concludes that a job design perspective of expert systems adoption can be a valuable tool in predicting user acceptance and, ultimately, systems usage.

The effect of primary nursing job design dimensions on caregiving technology and job performance in nursing homes.

Primary nursing job design, ie permanent assignment and increased job autonomy and communication, has been suggested as especially appropriate for long-term care. The present study examined its effects on nursing home assistants' (N = 248) job performance and technology perceptions. Job design was found to have a significant effect on caregiving technology, even after controlling for individual differences. In particular, increased autonomy was significantly related to increased task variability which suggests that nursing assistants who have more job autonomy provide more customized care. Unexpectedly, increased duration of assignment was significantly related to increased homogeneity of tasks. Suggestions for future job design research in long-term care are made.

Job design within a human centred (system) design framework

Abstract This paper describes the job design research of the Human Centred Office Systems Project (funded by the SERC/ESRC), which is working with a local government department. The originality of the research involves the application of human centred ideas, which have until recently only been used to address the situation of male skilled workers, eitherin British engineering or Scandinavian contexts. Our approach adapts these ideas in relation to the design of women clerical workers’ jobs. Feminist perspectives on women in work are also drawn upon. This approach represents a break with other research on job design within computerization, most of which has been informed by socio-technical theory and human-computer interaction. We draw upon new case-study research involving design groups who have tackled job design using a bottom-up approach. The study involves women clerical workers, both defining their particular skills and how they would wish a new computer system to complement and enhance them. The met...