Integrating motivational, social, and contextual work design features: A meta-analytic summary and theoretical extension of the work design literature.

Abstract

The authors developed and meta-analytically examined hypotheses designed to test and extend work design theory by integrating motivational, social, and work context characteristics. Results from a summary of 259 studies and 219,625 participants showed that 14 work characteristics explained, on average, 43% of the variance in the 19 worker attitudes and behaviors examined. For example, motivational characteristics explained 25% of the variance in subjective performance, 2% in turnover perceptions, 34% in job satisfaction, 24% in organizational commitment, and 26% in role perception outcomes. Beyond motivational characteristics, social characteristics explained incremental variances of 9% of the variance in subjective performance, 24% in turnover intentions, 17% in job satisfaction, 40% in organizational commitment, and 18% in role perception outcomes. Finally, beyond both motivational and social characteristics, work context characteristics explained incremental variances of 4% in job satisfaction and 16% in stress. The results of this study suggest numerous opportunities for the continued development of work design theory and practice.Keywords: work design, job design, satisfaction, performance, social support Interest in work design has a long history. Early writings focused on how the division of labor could increase worker efficiency and productivity (Babbage, 1835;Smith, 1776). The first systematic treatment of the topic was conducted in the early part of the 20th century by Gilbreth (1911) and Taylor (1911), who focused on specialization and simplification in an attempt to maximize worker efficiency. Yet, one of the problems of designing work to maximize efficiency was that it tended to result in decreased employee satisfaction, increased turnover and absenteeism, and difficulties in managing employees in simplified jobs (Hackman & Lawler, 1971).Reacting to this, researchers developed theories focusing on the motivating features of work (Hackman & Lawler, 1971;Hackman & Oldham, 1975;Herzberg, Mausner & Snyderman, 1959;Turner & Lawrence, 1965). The motivational approach forwarded by these scholars has been influential over the past 30 years (Morgeson & Campion, 2003). For example, the key articles summarizing Hackman and Oldham's job characteristics model and measures have been cited nearly 2,000 times by researchers (ISI Web of Knowledge, 2006). Although the model is more than 30 years old and there are several criticisms of its key propositions and measures (Johns, Xie, & Fang, 1992;Morgeson & Humphrey, 2006;Roberts & Glick, 1981;Taber & Taylor, 1990), it retains a central place in work design theory today. Yet the success of the motivational approach has had two curious effects on work design research over the past 30 years.First, it has focused research attention on a limited set of motivational work features (e.g., skill variety, autonomy). Although these are important work characteristics, other important aspects of work (such as the social environment and work context) have been neglected. As a conseq...

Can job redesign interventions influence a broad range of employee outcomes by changing multiple job characteristics? A quasi-experimental study.

“…Employees in an experimental group of a job redesign intervention who implement job redesign changes will experience greater changes to job characteristics than employees in a control group who are not involved in the job redesign intervention. Specifically, when employees in an experimental group implement changes relating to greater task variety and increased task responsibility they will experience greater job control, and when they implement changes that increase involvement in feedback processes, feedback frequency and clarity of performance criteria they will experience greater feedback quality.Effects of job characteristics on employee outcomes There is strong theoretical and empirical evidence that job characteristics influence affective, behavioral and attitudinal employee outcomes, particularly with regard to the two job characteristics focused on in this study, job control and feedback (Humphrey et al, 2007).Several theories can be used to explain the effects of job control and feedback on well-being, such as the job characteristics model (Hackman & Oldham, 1980) and the job demands-resource model (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiener, & Schaufeli, 2001). Job control can help employees to manage job demand more effectively by enabling employees to remove task obstacles or to tackle demands in new ways (Karasek & Theorell, 1990).…”

“…By aiding goal attainment, job control can promote the experience of positive emotions and generate higher levels of well-being (Lazarus, 1991). Empirical evidence provides strong support for the effects of job control (Humphrey et al, 2007) and feedback (Locke & Latham 1990;London, 2003) on job performance.Previous research shows that job characteristics such as job control and feedback can influence employee attitudes such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Humphrey et al, 2007;Meyer & Allen, 1997;Spector, 1997). There are also strong theoretical reasons to expect these two job characteristics to influence employee attitudes concerned with the psychological contract.…”

“…By aiding goal attainment, job control can promote the experience of positive emotions and generate higher levels of well-being (Lazarus, 1991). Empirical evidence provides strong support for the effects of job control (Humphrey et al, 2007) and feedback (Locke & Latham 1990;London, 2003) on job performance.…”

“…Empirical evidence provides strong support for the effects of job control (Humphrey et al, 2007) and feedback (Locke & Latham 1990;London, 2003) on job performance.…”

“…Considerable empirical evidence exists to support these theoretical explanations, such as the meta-analysis by Humphrey et al (2007) which found job control and feedback to have positive associations with well-being.…”