Hackman, J. Richard. 1985? "Designing work for individuals and for groups." Pp. 242-258 in Perspectives on behavior in organizations, edited by J. Richard Hackman, Edward E. Lawler, and Lyman W. Porter. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Designing work for individuals

Job characteristics model:

Core job characteristics lead to critical psychological states which produce outcomes.

Psychological states:

1. Epxerienced meaningfulness of work

2. Experienced responsibility for outcomes of work

3. Knowledge of the actual results of the work actitivies (feedback)

Internal rewards are obtained by individuals when they learn that they personally have performed well on a task that they care about. The goal is a self-perpetuating cycle of positive work motivation powered by self-generated rewards.

Job Dimensions

1. Skill variety

2. Task identity (requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work)

3. Task significance (substantial impact to lives of other people).

Autonomy

Feedback

Moderators: some don't want highly motivating jobs. Individual growth-need strength and task-relevant knowledge and skill can moderate effects.

Outcomes

High internal work motivation

High "growth" satisfaction

High general job satisfaction

High work effectiveness.

Job Diagnosis

Step One: Are motivation and satisfaction really problems?

Step two: Is the job low in motivating potential?

Step Three: What specific aspects of the job are causing the difficulty.

Step four: How ready are the employees for change?

Step five: What special problems and opportunities are present in the existing work system?

Remember that the problem might not be with the job design at all.

Principles for Enriching Jobs

Principle 1: Forming natual work units

Increases ownership of the work, which helps people view it as meaningful and important rather than as irrelevant and boring.

Principle 2: Combining Tasks

Principle 3: Establish relationships with clients.

This increases feedback, potentially add skill variety

Principle 4: Verticle loading

Responsibilities and controls shifted downward, increases autonomy.

Principle 5: Opening Feedback channels

Best to learn directly as they do the job.

Designing Work for Teams

Design Features

Structure of the Group Task

* high motivating potential

* variety of skills

* make a difference,etc.

Composition of the Group

Put high expertise people on group

Large enough to do work but not much larger

Moderate level of interpersonal skills

Balance between excessive homogeniety and heterogeniety

Group Norms about Performance Processes

Organizational Context

1. Reward System

Reward the group effort.

Specific challenging objectives developed with the group.

2. Educational System

Give them necessary training.

3. Information system

Give clear info about performance requirements and constraings.

Good system encourages active, inventive exploration of strategic alternatives for performing its task.

Group Process Interventions

Effort (affected by commitment, resources, etc.)

Knowledge and Skill (how do you weight individual contributions)

Performance Strategies

Managers can help group "read" task correctly and help develop performance strategies.

Five Step Approach

1. Assessing feasibility

2. Designing the group

3. Forming the group

4. Providing organizational supports

5. Fostering good interpersonal processes.