Motivation and job design

The various theories on motivation have helped managers develop strategies for motivating their employees to achieve organizational objectives and for boosting morale within their organizations. Many of these techniques involve job design, which applies motivational theories to the structuring of jobs in order to increase productivity and morale.

Herzberg identified the job itself as a motivational factor. Managers have several strategies that they can use to design jobs and thereby promote employee motivation. Among them is a job characteristic model.

Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Model

J. Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham tried to identify how managers can motivate workers by helping them to achieve more of their higher-level needs. They first identified five job characteristics that determine a job's potential to motivate (Figure 8):

1. Skill variety is the number of diverse activities and skills an employee performs in a job. Jobs perceived as challenging are probably high in variety.

2. Task identity is the degree to which an employee performs a complete job with a recognizable beginning and ending. When workers perform only one part of the entire job, as is common with specialization, they may fail to feel a sense of completion or accomplishment. Expanding the job's tasks may both help workers gain that sense of completion and increase task identity.

3. Task significance is the degree to which an employee perceives the job as important and having an impact on the company or consumers. Feeling that they are doing something worthwhile is important to most people.

4. Autonomy is the degree of control (freedom and discretion) employees have in performing the job. It fosters a sense of responsibility.

5. Feedback is the extent to which employees know how well they are performing the job. People need to know how they are doing so that they can modify their performance appropriately.

Oldham and Hackman's theory suggests that the more of these five characteristics managers can design into jobs, the higher will be employees' motivation.

The job characteristics model also identified three psychological states that affect workplace motivation. When any of these psychological states is low, so is employee motivation.

1. Experienced meaningfulness is the degree to which employees perceive their work as satisfying and rewarding. If you feel, for example, that soldering circuits onto circuit boards is a trivial task, your motivation to perform that task will not be very high, regardless of how much responsibility or feedback you get from that task. Experienced meaningfulness is influenced by skill variety, task identity, and task significance.

2. Experienced responsibility is the extent to which employees feel personally responsible for the quality of their work. It is influenced by autonomy.

3. Knowledge of results is the extent to which employees receive feedback about their performance. It is influenced by feedback.

The influence of the five job characteristics on employees' psychological states results in high work motivation, high work performance, high satisfaction, and low absenteeism and turnover.

Additionally, Oldham and Hackman identified growth-need strength, the extent to which an employee desires a job that provides personal challenges, a sense of accomplishment, and personal growth. Different individuals bring different needs to the workplace. One employee may need to satisfy only low-level needs, while another may need to satisfy the highest-level needs. Managers need to identify employees' needs and design jobs accordingly; this is particularly important when dealing with a culturally diverse work force.

1. Which of these statements expresses the main idea of the text?

1. Job design applies motivational theories to the structuring of jobs in order to increase productivity and morale.

2. J. Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham first identified five job characteristics that determine a job's potential to motivate.

3. The job characteristics model identified three psychological states that affect workplace motivation.

4. Identifying employees' needs and designing jobs accordingly is particularly important when dealing with a culturally diverse work force.

2. Find in the text English equivalents of these words and phrases.

1. проектування роботи		7. вища потреба	13. не мати відчуття завершеності
2. досягти цілі		8. розмаїття вмінь	14. розширення завдань
3. піднімати моральний дух		9. різноманітний, різний	15. одержувати, здобувати
4. застосовувати		10 що сприймається; що усвідомлюється	16. важливість, значущість завдання
5. визначати; установлювати		11. що кидає виклик	17. робити щось хороше, доречне
6. сприяти, стимулювати		12. визначеність завдання	18. автономія, самоврядування
	19. ступінь (2)	28. почуття значущості	37. прогул
	20. свобода, незалежність	29. сприймати, усвідомлювати	38. плинність робочої сили
	21. свобода дій	30. паяти	39. сила потреби зростання
	22. заохочувати; сприяти	31. електрична схема	40. бажати; хотіти
	23. зворотний зв'язок	32. плата електросхеми	41. надавати
	24. видозмінювати	33. банальний, тривіальний	42. особистий виклик
	25. наштовхувати на думку; означати	34. незважаючи на	43. почуття завершеності
	26. психологічний стан	35. почуття відповідальності	44. відповідно
	27. низький; поганий	36. задоволення

3. Are these statements true or false? Correct the false ones.

1. Managers develop strategies for motivating their employees using various theories of motivation.

2. Managers have few strategies that they can use to design jobs.

3. Challenging jobs usually require varied activities and skills.

4. Specialization in one part of the entire job is accompanied by a sense of completion or accomplishment.

5. According to Oldham and Hackman, the more of the five job characteristics are designed into jobs, the higher will be employees' motivation.

6. Feedback that an employee gets when performing a trivial task is certain to enhance his motivation.

7. Employees’ autonomy has an effect on their responsibility for the quality of work.

8. The five job characteristics affect employees' work motivation, work performance, satisfaction, and the rates of absenteeism and turnover.

9. Growth-need strength is the extent to which an employee opposes a job that provides personal challenges, a sense of accomplishment, and personal growth.

4. Answer the questions.

1. What are the goals of managerial strategies?

2. Why does job design apply motivational theories to the structuring of jobs?

3. What was J. Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham’s approach to job design?

4. What is skill variety?

5. What may help workers to gain a sense of completion or accomplishment?

6. Perceiving the task significance is important to employees, isn’t it?

7. Which job characteristic promotes a sense of responsibility?

8. Why is feedback important?

9. What psychological states may affect workplace motivation?

10. What factors does experienced meaningfulness depend on?

11. What is experienced responsibility?

12. What impacts do the five job characteristics have on employees' psychological states?

13. How can employees differ as far as their needs are concerned?

5. Write a summary of the text.

Figure 8