Job Characteristics
Theory Developed by Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham, job characteristics
theorystates that employees will be more motivated to work and more satisfied
with their jobs to the extent that jobs contain certain core characteristics. These
core job characteristics create the conditions that allow employees to
experience critical psychological states that are related to beneficial work
outcomes, including high work motivation.
The strength of the linkage among job
characteristics, psychological states, and work outcomes is determined by the
intensity of the individual employee’s need for growth (that is, how important
the employee considers growth and development on the job).
There are five core job
characteristics that activate three critical psychological states. The core job
characteristics are:
- Skill variety. The degree to which the job requires the person to do different things and involves the use of a number of different skills, abilities, and talents.
- Task identity. The degree to which a person can do the job from beginning to end with a visible outcome.
- Task significance. The degree to which the job has a significant impact on others—both inside and outside the organization.
- Autonomy. The amount of freedom, independence, and discretion the employee has in areas such as scheduling the work, making decisions, and determining how to do the job.
- Feedback. The degree to which the job provides the employee with clear and direct information about job outcomes and performance.
The three critical
psychological states affected by the core job characteristics are:
- Experienced meaningfulness. The extent to which the employee experiences the work as important, valuable, and worthwhile.
- Experienced responsibility. The degree to which the employee feels personally responsible or accountable for the results of the work.
- Knowledge of results. The degree to which the employee understands on a regular basis how effectively he or she is performing the job.
Skill variety, task
identity, and task significance are all linked to experienced meaningfulness of
work, as Figure shows. Autonomy is related to experienced responsibility and feedback
to knowledge of results.
A job with
characteristics that enable an employee to experience all three critical
psychological states provides internal rewards that sustain motivation. These
rewards come from having a job where the person can learn (knowledge of
results) that he or she has performed well on a task (experienced
responsibility) that he or she cares about (experienced meaningfulness). In
addition, this situation results in certain outcomes that are beneficial to the
employer: high-quality performance, higher employee satisfaction, and lower
turnover and absenteeism. Job characteristics theory maintains that jobs can be
designed to contain the characteristics that employees find rewarding and
motivating.