Work design
[1] Research has demonstrated that work design has important implications for individual employees (e.g., employee engagement, job strain, risk of occupational injury), teams (e.g., how effectively groups co-ordinate their activities), organisations (e.g., productivity, occupational safety and health targets), and society (e.g., utilizing the skills of a population or promoting effective aging).
[3] However, in addition to executing assigned technical tasks, people at work often engage in a variety of emergent, social, and self-initiated activities.
Scientific management became highly influential during the early 20th century, as the narrow tasks reduced training times and allowed less skilled and therefore cheaper labor to be employed.
[8] Hackman & Oldham's (1976)[10] job characteristics model is generally considered to be the dominant motivational theory of work design.
[1] This contrasts with traditional methods that prioritize the technical component and then 'fit' people into it, often resulting in mediocre performance at a high social cost.
[19] For example, high pressure and demands at work may lead to a range of negative outcomes such as psychological stress, burnout, and compromised physical health.
Instead, this high decision latitude can lead to feelings of mastery and confidence, which in turn aid the individual in coping with further job demands.
[22] The job demands-control model is widely regarded as a classic work design theory, spurring large amounts of research.
[28] Grant's theory makes a distinction between two key components of relational architecture: The learning and development approach to work design, advanced by Australian organizational behavior Professor Sharon K. Parker, draws on the findings of a diverse body of research which shows that certain job characteristics (e.g. high demands and control,[30] autonomy,[31] complex work with low supervision[32]) can promote learning and development in workers.
[1] Parker argues that work design can not only shape cognitive, identity, and moral processes, but also speed up an individual's learning and development.
[38] Additionally, the psychometric properties of the JDS have been brought into question, including a low internal consistency[39] and problems with the factor structure.
[49] These decisions, which usually regard the division of labor and the integration of effort, create work designs in which employees have assigned tasks and responsibilities.
[49] In accordance with the ability-motivation-opportunity model of behaviour,[50] the work design-related decisions of individuals are shaped by their motivation and knowledge, skills, and abilities.
[49] For example, if a manager lacks the power to mobilise necessary resources, perhaps due to a rigid organizational hierarchy, their work design-related actions would be constrained.
By working in a larger scope, as Hulin and Blood state, workers are pushed to adapting new tactics, techniques, and methodologies on their own.
[67] Frederick Herzberg[68] referred to the addition of interrelated tasks as 'horizontal job loading,' or, in other words, widening the breadth of an employee's responsibilities.
[70] Task revision is seen as a form of counter-role behavior in that it is about resistance to defective work procedures, such as inaccurate job descriptions and dysfunctional expectations.
It has been noted that task revision rarely occurs in work settings as this type of resistance is often seen as inappropriate by managers and employees alike.
[72] In the context of job redesign, voice refers to behaviours which emphasize challenging the status quo with the intention of improving the situation rather than merely criticizing.
[70] Idiosyncratic deals, also known as i-deals, is a concept developed by American organizational psychologist Denise Rousseau which refers to individualized work arrangements negotiated proactively by an employee with their employer.
Personal initiative refers to self-starting behaviours by an employee that are consistent with the mission of the organization, has a long term focus, are goal directed and action oriented, and are persistent in the face of difficulty.
