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

Abstract

SummaryThis 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.

Job change without changing job? Exploring job crafting in Spain

“…The profound changes in the nature of work in recent years have afforded new perspectives on classic work design (Grant and Parker, 2009;Oldham and Hackman, 2010). Previous approaches had already pointed towards a degree of freedom for employees to redesign their jobs by making self-initiated changes, either with or without the involvement of their organisations' management (Kulik et al, 1987).…”

Moderating Effect of Job Type on Job Characteristic—Worker Outcome Relationships

“…Furthermore, prior research has not studied job characteristic-worker outcome relationships on a large scale cross-cultural study involving a diverse set of jobs with a multilevel design. Oldham and Hackman (2010) discuss how the context of work is changing and their model must be used in novel ways, as has Parker (2014). Our study follows this call to move work design research forward.…”

“…Though this study answers the recent call that has been put forth by multiple researchers (Morgeson et al, 2010;Oldham & Hackman, 2010;Parker, 2014) for large-scale, multilevel, cross-cultural work design study that examines additional moderators of job characteristic-worker outcome relationships, this is an initial study toward this purpose. We did find that job type moderates some job characteristic-worker outcome relationships.…”

Employee Maintenance: Examining Employment Relationships from the Perspective of Managerial Leaders

“…Grant and Parker (2009) argue that in an era that is characterized by rapid and continuous technological innovation, frequently changing customer preferences, and uncertain geo-political and economic developments (that are relevant to the growing number of firms that operate globally), organizations are increasingly counting on more flexible and customized employment relationships. Defining features of twenty-first century jobs include some mix of (a) involvement in project teams whose membership changes over time or comes from different organizations altogether (e.g., suppliers, customers, & consultants), (b) flexible reporting lines, employment contracts, work schedules, and role responsibilities, and (c) varying means by which work is accomplished (e.g., virtual interaction with coworkers and customers and telecommuting; Oldham & Hackman, 2010).…”

“…This is not to suggest that managerial leaders can or should reduce their maintenance load by eschewing all involvement in the job redesign process. Allowing each and every employee to independently design their jobs may produce coordination problems (Oldham & Hackman, 2010). Managerial leaders can reap the benefits of employee proactivity by negotiating job redesign with their direct reports (Hornung et al, 2010).…”