Motivation and performance theories in organizational psychology tend to have a predominantly individualistic scope, relating characteristics of individual tasks to personal work outcomes of individuals (e.g., the Job Characteristics Model [JCM]). The present study goes beyond the realm of individual job characteristics by examining the effects of two interpersonal characteristics: task and outcome interdependence of team members. Subscales for the measurement of these social job dimensions were developed. The results support the hypothesis that, in addition to the JCM variables, the interdependence dimensions influence the employees' sense of responsibility and personal work outcomes. More specifically, the interdependence dimensions influence experienced responsibility for the others' work and thus account for a separate part of the variance in team members' personal work outcomes.
A questionnaire study in 17 school and 24 engineering teams examined affective reactions to task and goal interdependence at the group and individual level of analysis. Group‐level task interdependence was positively related to group members' job and team satisfaction. Within‐group differences in the degree of task interdependence were unrelated to affective responses. Interactions revealed that within‐group task interdependence is positively related to both job and team satisfaction only if the degree of goal interdependence in the work team is high.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.