Critically evaluate the theory and evidence behind the 'job characteristics model' of job re-design

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

- - Zeest Akhund

Critically evaluate the theory and evidence behind the ‘job characteristics model’ of job re-design

Job design is defined to be “the process of combining tasks and responsibilities to form complete jobs and relationships of jobs in the organisation.” (Bratton., et al 1999). There are various approaches to jobs design including the long-standing views of Smith and Taylor, who believe in job fragmentation and specialization; and more recent views of job redesign, which have come about in the 1960s and 1970s and believe in “satisfying the social need of achievement with the incorporating of controlling and monitoring tasks with a job structure that permits some social interaction” (Bratton., et al 1999). Hackman and Oldham’s Job Characteristics Model is one of the most influential theories of job redesign. This essay will define the Job Characteristics Model and the advantages and short comings that it presents in relation to other models and I will also assess its limitations.

Job design came about in the eighteenth century, when Adam Smith argued that the division of labour leads to an improvement in economic growth as productivity rises, and encourages innovation of new machinery. Since then there have been various theories of job design which agree with Smith’s view and broaden his theories. One of the people who extended Smith’s ideas was Frederick Winslow Taylor, who changed the nature of factory work, by taking control and decision-making away from shop floor employees and passing it to managers (Beardwell. I., et al 1997). The key to Taylorism is maximum job fragmentation, where the job is divided into the smallest task possible, so to achieve maximum efficiency. The disadvantage of this is workers will get extremely bored and suffer from alienation. Taylor also advocated the separation of planning and manual work, which meant all decisions were undertaken by management. This was understandable at that time, as there was high level of illiteracy in employees. However, it is very unfavourable, as workers feel like slaves, with no room to have views and opinions but to obediently follow instructions on what and how to do a task, and when to do it. . Other principles of Taylorism was the emphasis of a monetary reward and the reduction of material handling to a minimum, which again did not help the worker immensely but benefited management by increasing company profits.

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After Taylorism there were other theories of job design, such as Fordism which took the main principles of Taylorism but also installed specialised machines and perfected assembly line flow so to control and maximise worker speed through technology(Bratton., et al 1999). This system has all the disadvantages of Taylorism and leads to a workers being extremely bored in their monotonous roles. During the 1960’s and the early 1970’s there was a job redesign movement; which disagreed with Taylorism and stated that a job should be ‘enriched’ and making work more appealing to the worker can enhance motivation. This refers to the different processes of rotating, aggregating and enlarging jobs. Following these processes would mean that workers have more variety in their jobs and as they know what the end product would look like, and they would happily finish their task efficiently. However, there are disadvantages to this model, such as the fact that even if workers do various other tasks all the other task would also be boring and monotonous and therefore there will be no point in job rotation. On the other hand, job enlarging might not suit worker skills which would lead to job dissatisfaction and increased costs for firms as they would have to retrain staff.

The advantage of the Job Characteristics Model is the fact that it is on the other end of the spectrum compared to Taylorism and ensures that the inhumane manner in which workers are treated in Taylorism is not replicated in any shape or form. Another advantage of the Job Characteristics Model is the fact that it looks at psychological states of the worker and the different outcomes that arise from the various job characteristics, which will give employers more motivation to follow the job characteristic model. Oldham and Hackman’s Job Characteristics Model argued that enriched or complex jobs are associated with job satisfaction, motivation and work performance. More specifically they assumed that five core job characteristics influence three psychological state, which in turn effect work outcomes (Kirmeyer. S et al., 1986)

The Job Characteristics Model of Job Re-design

The five core characteristics of the model are:

Skill variety – The extent to which a job requires a number of different activities and makes use of different skills and talents.
Task Identity – The extent to which the job requires the completion of an entire piece of work.
Task Significance – The extent to which we believe our job is important.
Autonomy – The degree to which the job provides substantial freedom, independence and discretion to the worker in scheduling the work and in determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out
Feedback – The extent to which the job provides information of the actual result of the worker’s performance.

The model suggests that these will lead to favourable outcomes because the worker will be content and satisfied with their job. In my opinion, the main job characteristic is autonomy, which includes collective control over the pace of work, distribution of tasks, organisation of breaks and the independence in scheduling the work (Wall. T., et al 1986). Greater autonomy will lead to the employee working harder because they feel they have to achieve the best they can because of the position of trust they are in and they would also collaborate with his colleagues to find out more about the end product and therefore the significance of their task. Therefore, the job characteristic model has the advantage over the other models of job design due to the considerations it places on the workers. Due to these characteristics, the employee will be motivated to perform better and achieve their best potential.

However, the job characteristic model has limitations. One of the principal one is the fact that it does not take into consideration the environment, such as a workplace’s internal environment. If a factory is noisy with improper lighting and an inadequate ventilation system then the worker will always feel discontented with their job regardless of what type of job model their employer is following. The environment issue is closely related to the quality of equipment that the workplace has, for example if an office is poorly designed with uncomfortable chairs and bad keyboards employees might get back pains and RSI, which would lead to discontentment and work performance will suffer. Therefore, if the job characteristic model is being followed and a survey of the employees is taken to determine how happy the workers are, the survey would always get unhappy workers because of the environment.

Another limitation of the job characteristic model are the criticisms that have been raised by Salancik and Pfeffer (Fried. Y., et al 1987), who argue that employee statements about their own jobs, needs and levels of satisfaction are influenced by social cues and by attributional biases. Failures to take this into account would lead researchers to misunderstand the ways in which job redesign actually affects attributes and behaviours. Therefore, one has to take into consideration how much of what the employees state can be taken to face value, when deciding on the outcomes of the model.

One of the biggest problems encountered with the job characteristics models is the fact that it seems to be targeted towards high skilled jobs such as consultant or programmers who will benefit from autonomy and increased trust; compared to an unskilled worker whose job is to spray paint cars. There is only a certain amount of autonomy this worker can have and although they can see the finished product and they know the significance of their job, it is still almost impossible to be completely content with the job unless they really love spray painting cars al the time.

Autonomy is hugely affected by the amount of unionisation in the company. If unions are quite influential in the company then that would mean management may resort to formalisation of policies and practices, to ensure the uniform treatment of employees across all jobs, this may lead to centrally coordinated work and disciplinary rules (Kirmeyer S., et al 1986). Therefore, it is hard to implement the job characteristic model fully. Another reason why it might be difficult to fully implement the job characteristics models is when there is an established hierarchy in the firm with various managers and supervisor already in place. Therefore, it would be very costly to transfer these people and unfeasible to demote them to shop floor workers.

In conclusion, the job characteristic model of job redesign is beneficial to workers and to organisations as it leads to increased motivation and therefore, increased productivity and in turn an increase in profits. However, there are limitations to the model and perhaps it would be beneficial for firms to employ a mixture of models or one of the recent job redesign model which state that working in small teams to produce a complete product is the most productive and employee satisfying route to take. What model will give an organisation the most reward will also depend on the size of the organisation and the type of industry that they operate in.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beardwell. I., Holden. L., (1997) Human Resource Management: A contemporary perspective London: Pitman

Bratton. J., Gold. J. (1999) Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice Basingstoke: Macmillan

Wall. T., Kemp. N., Jackson. P., Clegg. Chris (1985) Outcomes of autonomous workgroups: a long-term field experiment, Academy of Management Journal, 29

Kirmeyer. S, Shirom. A. (1986) Perceived job autonomy in the manufacturing: effects of the unions, gender and substantive complexity, Academy of Management Journal, 29

Fried Y., Ferris G. R. (1987) The validity of the Job Characteristic Model – A review and Meta-analysis, Personnel Psychology 40