Showing papers on "Job design published in 1981"

Structural Relationships, Job Characteristics, and Worker Satisfaction and Performance.

Abstract: This research is based in part on a Ph.D. dissertation completed by the author while a student at the University of Illinois. The author wishes to express his deep appreciation to his committee, Greg Oldham (Chairman), Michael Moch, and Charles Hulin. Hank Sims and Denise Rousseau also provided helpful comments on an earlier draft. This research investigates the role of job characteristics as possible mediating variables in the relationships between the organization's structural context and the attitudes and behaviors of individual employees. The organization is conceptualized as a network of task positions interrelated on the basis of workflow transactions. Three structural relationships of task positions are investigated: (1) the centrality of a task position; (2) the degree to which a task position is critical to the workflow; and (3) the transaction alternatives availableto a task position. The results indicate significant relationships between these three relational measures and job characteristics. Further, the findings support the hypothesis that job characteristics mediate the relationship between structure and individual responses.

Task Interdependence and the Theory of Job Design

Abstract: In this article I develop the concept of task interdependence and integrate it in the blackman and Oldham [1976] theory of job design. I differentiate between initiated and received task interdependence according to the direction of workflow in relation to the job incumbent. Each of these dimensions includes the elements of scope, resources, and criticality. Experienced responsibility for one's own work outcomes is differentiated from experienced responsibility for dependents' work outcomes. Testable hypotheses derived from the elaborated theory are set forth.

Effects of Role Stress-Job Design-Technology Interaction on Employee Work Satisfaction

Abstract: The interaction effects of each of three role stress variables—role conflict, ambiguity, and overload—and job design characteristics on employee satisfaction with work are examined across different...

Sources of Job Related Ambiguity and Their Consequences Upon Salespersons' Job Satisfaction and Performance

Abstract: This study presents a conceptual model relating four sources of job related ambiguity and two individual difference variables locus of control and need for clarity to salesperson job satisfaction and job performance. Previous research related to the model is briefly reviewed. Then, drawing data from a multicompany sample of industrial salespersons and their managers, behavioral research methods are used to clarify the nature and strength of the relationships in the model. The analysis reveals that ambiguity concerning family expectations is positively related to performance, but ambiguity regarding sales manager and customer expectations is negatively related to performance. Lower levels of satisfaction are explained primarly by ambiguous managerial expectations. The individual difference variables are shown to be related to job outcomes even after adjusting for different levels of perceived ambiguity. The individual difference variables, however, do not moderate the relationships between sources of ambiguity and job outcomes.

A New Look at Job Satisfaction in the Small Firm

Abstract: The widely accepted view that job satisfaction is higher among workers in small firms than their large-firm counterparts, especially in terms of non-monetary and expressive aspects of work, is critically examined. Workers employed in small and large firms in the printing and electronics industries were surveyed using a semistructured interview strategy. Job satisfaction was related to work environment and also nonwork influences such as family life-cycle position. The findings show that when such factors as the specific characteristics of the industry and age and marital status of respondents are taken into account, size of firm is not, in itself, an important factor in explaining differences in levels of job satisfaction. It merely interacts with these other influences, sometimes to raise and sometimes to lower, perceived levels of satisfaction.

An empirical test of a trait-oriented job analysis technique

Abstract: A trait-oriented job analysis technique based on a checklist of 33 a priori carefully defined traits that encompass elements of the physical, mental, learned, motivational and social domains of the work world is described. The analysis identifies the relevant traits, their levels and weights, in relation to overall job performance. Results of discriminability tests were supportive of the job analysis technique and indicated that incumbents of jobs requiring a particular trait scored higher on measures (predictors) of that trait than incumbents of jobs not requiring that trait. Implications of the results for personnel selection and placement are discussed.

Work and People An Economic Evaluation of Job-Enrichment

Abstract: The reprint of Henri Savall's classic Work and People, originally published in French in 1974, is part of the Research in Management Consulting series' effort to look backward as well as forward in examining trends, perspectives, and insights_especially from different countries and cultures-in the world of management consulting. Savall's insights into the complexity of organizational life were groundbreaking, articulating the need to examine both economic and social factors as part of the same analysis, assessing technical and behavioral patterns through the lens of an integrated framework. As he has argued, there is a double-loop interaction between "the quality of functioning and economic performance," and underestimating this socio-economic "tension" leads inevitably to reduced performance and losses, which he refers to as "hidden costs." This approach, referred to as the socio-economic approach to management (SEAM), has significant potential for our thinking about organizational diagnosis and intervention. As Savall emphasizes, the North American tendency to cast people as human "resources" misses the essential point that human beings cannot be considered as simply another resource at the organization's disposal. People are free to give or withhold their energy as they desire, depending on the quality of formal and informal contracts and interactions they have with their organizations. As such, the SEAM approach focuses on human "potential", underscoring the need for managers and their organizations to create the conditions under which people will want to maximize their talents on behalf of the organization

Mathematical Equations or Processing Routines

Abstract: Within the context of this conference, we want to know the factors which affect human ability to detect and diagnose process failures, as a basis for console and job design. Understandably, human factors engineers want fully specified models for the human operator’s behaviour. It is also understandable that these engineers should make use of modelling procedures which are available from control engineering. These techniques are attractive for two reasons. They are sophisticated and well understood. They have also been very successful at giving first-order descriptions of human compensatory tracking performance in fast control tasks such as flying. In this context they are sufficiently useful for the criticism, that they are inadequate as a psychological theory of this behaviour, to be irrelevant for many purposes. Engineers have therefore been encouraged to extend the same concepts to other types of control task. In this paper we will be considering particularly the control of complex slowly changing industrial processes, such as steel making, petrochemicals and power generation.

Self-Report Measures of Job Characteristics and Affective Responses: An Examination of Discriminant Validity

Abstract: This paper reports an exploration of the discriminant validity of job design as measured by the JDS and JCI and job satisfaction as measured by the JDI, MSQ, IOR, and Stogdill’s satisfaction with w...

Participative Performance Appraisal Effects Upon Job Satisfaction, Agency Climate, and Work Values: Results of a Quasi-Experimental Study in Six State Agencies:

Abstract: Three matching pairs of test and control agencies were carefully selected for the assessment of a new participative performance appraisal system. The design for this pilot study evaluation was base...

Work and People: An Economic Evaluation of Job-Enrichment

Abstract: The reprint of Henri Savall's classic Work and People, originally published in French in 1974, is part of the Research in Management Consulting series effort to look backward as well as forward in examining trends, perspectives, and insights - especially from different countries and cultures - into the world of management consulting. Savall's insights into the complexity of organizational life were groundbreaking, articulating the need to examine both economic and social factors as part of the same analysis, assessing technical and behavioral patterns through the lens of an integrated framework. As he has argued, there is a double-loop interaction between "the quality of functioning and economic performance," and underestimating this socio-economic "tension" leads inevitably to reduced performance and losses, which he refers to as "hidden costs." This approach, referred to as the socio-economic approach to management (SEAM), has significant potential for our thinking about organizational diagnosis and intervention. As Savall emphasizes, the North American tendency to cast people as human "resources" misses the essential point that human beings cannot be considered as simply another resource at the organization's disposal. People are free to give or withhold their energy as they desire, depending on the quality of formal and informal contracts and interactions they have with their organizations. As such, the SEAM approach focuses on human "potential," underscoring the need for managers and their organizations to create the conditions under which people will want to maximize their talents on behalf of the organization. Work and People focuses on the ramifications of this reality, as dysfunctions - the difference between planned and emergent activities and functions - can quickly lead to a series of costs that are "hidden" from an organization's formal information systems (e.g., income statements, balance sheets, budgets). As his insightful work underscores, as organizations begin to accumulate dysfunction upon dysfunction, they inadvertently undermine their performance and create excessive operating costs, with lower productivity and less efficiency than they could achieve. As readers will discover, the frameworks, tools and ways of thinking about organizations, people and management in this volume - in essence the background to the socio-economic approach to organizational diagnosis and intervention - continue to hold great promise for our attempts to create truly integrative approaches to management and organizational improvement efforts. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Preface to the 2010 Reprint. Foreword to the Second Edition. Preface to the Second Edition. Foreword to the First Edition. Preface to the First Edition. Introduction: Work and People in the Twenty-First Century ? Origins and Development of the Socio-Economic Approach to Management. Introduction to the First Edition. PART I: The Problem of Job Design. PART II: Experimental Solutions. PART III: The Strategy of Change. Conclusion. Names Quoted and Bibliography. About the Author.

The academic job search: The experiences of a new PhD in the job market.

Abstract: This article describes the experiences of a new PhD seeking an academic job. The author's observations are drawn from job interviews with 12 psychology departments in Canada and the United States. Topics discussed include where to apply, who is invited for an interview, the importance of publications, receiving the interview invitation, the visit — the schedule of events, the pace, whom you see, questions you are asked and should ask. and the job talk — alternatives to a tenure track position, rejections, the elements of an ideal visit, what to do when you receive an offer, and how to make a decision. Recommendations are made that should benefit prospective applicants and prove useful to departments about to recruit new junior faculty. Seeking an academic job can be a frustrating and demoralizing experience. Kiesler (1979) confirmed that positions in good U.S. departments are in especially high demand and that while 53% of graduating PhDs wanted academic appointments, at most 40% could hope to acquire one. The situation for new Canadian PhDs is undoubtedly worse because there are far fewer available positions; some departments receive as many as 100 applications for a single position. Moreover, while U.S. candidates may be readily considered for Canadian positions once the list of appropriate Canadian applicants is exhausted, the reverse relationship does not necessarily hold. U.S. departments are less familiar with the procedures for hiring foreign nationals and are reluctant to attempt to do so unless the applicant is truly unique and outstanding. Scarcity is not the only problem. Some job descriptions are so specific they eliminate the majority of prospective candidates. Moreover, sometimes departments are not satisfied with any of their applicants and decide to try again next year. Job seekers are competing then, not only with each other, but with a department's idealistic conception of the type of assistant professor they would prefer to join their ranks. An applicant may be asked to visit only one or two universities. Rarely is it possible to gain much advance practical knowledge of the interview process and one can hardly afford to learn through trial and error. Several articles and comments (Madell & Madell, 1979: Mathews & Mathews, 1979; Perlman, 1976) have appeared in the literature that describe some of the problems new PhDs have securing employment. Darley and Zanna (1981) have described the hiring process from the employer's vantage point and have made many useful recommendations: and Petersdorf (1978) provides an entertaining account of faculty recruitment in a medical school setting. However, no one has provided detailed insight into the exacting academic job market from the candidate's perspective. This article summarizes my observations following a two-year search for a tenure track assistant professorship. Although my area of specialty is clinical, new PhDs in other areas of psychology may find my chronicle instructive. I also hope that departments will plan their interview procedures with some attention to the candidate's point of view. I have no way of knowing how representative my experiences have been; however, my exposure to the job market was rather broad. I applied to over 40 schools and visited 12, including two Canadian universities and ten in the U.S. |four of which were ranked in the top 10 psychology departments in the recent Ladd and Lipsett study (quoted by Scully, 1979)]. I turned down four additional invitations for interviews and eventually chose from among seven job offers.

The effect of importance upon the relation between perceived job attributes, desired job attributes and job satisfaction

Abstract: A sample of 133 employees from a large oil company was used to investigate the theory that job satisfacion is a function of the discrepancy between what a person wants from a job and what the person gets from the job. Five job attributes—skill-utilization, influence, variety, pressure, and interaction—were used. The hypothesis that the discrepancy between the desired and perceived levels of the job attributes would be a better predictor of job satisfaction, if weighted by the importance of the job attribute, received only slight support. Attempts to overcome methodological problems associated with previous tests of the hypothesis also had little effect on the ability to predict job satisfaction. Overall, the best predictor of job satisfaction was the perceived level of the job attributes, especially skill-utilization. The subjective ratings of the importance of job attributes were found to differ from an empirical determination of importance. The results suggest a need to further investigate work...

The Relationship between Perceived Influence and Job Satisfaction among Assembly Line Employees

Abstract: This study investigated the relationship. between perceived influence in decision making and job satisfaction with a sample of 192 assembly line employees at an Adelaide food factory. It also examined the way in which the influence-job satisfaction relationship was moderated by desired influence, need for control and need for participation. New scales were developed for measuring influence and desired influence as it was considered that previous scales were either unreliable or deficient in range. Job satisfaction was measured using the Job Description Index which had separate scales for satisfaction with work, pay, promotions, supervision and co-workers. It was found that influence had a moderate positive association with work and promotion satisfaction. This association was not moderated by desired influence or personality factors. There was a negative correlation (-0.22) between perceived and desired influence. Influence was not the dominant predictor of job satisfaction, as skill utilisation, pressure...

Managers and their organizations: An interactive approach to multidimensional job satisfaction

Abstract: Individual and structural characteristics were combined in this multidimensional study of managerial job satisfaction. One thousand, one hundred and fifty-eight managers from three organizations were given the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire. A factorial nested analysis of variance was used to test hypotheses. Independent variables were age, education, and hierarchical level; and the dependent variables were four specific job satisfaction factor scores plus a global dimension. Results indicate that the structural characteristic of hierarchical level has the most significant pervasive effect on managers' job satisfaction; and that, when individual characteristics do have significant effect, it is most frequently within the top level of management. Results also indicate a very strong relationship between satisfaction with personal progress and development and overall job satisfaction.

A Path Analytic Model of Human Capital and Organizational Job Characteristics on Female Job Satisfaction

Abstract: This study attempts to integrate human capital theory (predominantly an economic theory) with the traditional organizational job characteristics found in the behavioral job satisfaction literature. Four human capital variables-formal education, marital status, length of service, and alternative job information-are posited to have direct influence on seven organizational job characteristics-pay, co-worker integration, promo-tional opportunities, job communications, equitable treatment, routiniza-tion, and centralization. These seven variables are then posited to have direct influences on job satisfaction. Human capital theory is found to be a powerful addition to the understanding of job satisfaction among female employees. The multiple relationships posited between human capital resources and job characteristics are quite evident in the path analytic test of the model. Furthermore, increased co-worker integration and reduced routinization were found to directly increase job satisfaction. Implications for ...

Job Involvement of Intrinsically and Extrinsically Motivated Indian Managers: To Each According to His Need

Abstract: This study tests the notion that the attitude of job involvement is a function of the degree of satisfaction with one's salient needs, be they intrinsic or extrinsic. Data from 33 primarily intrinsically motivated and 43 primarily extrinsically motivated managers, selected from a sample of 215 Indian managers, were analyzed to test two hypotheses: (1) the attitude of job involvement will be positively correlated with the satisfaction of salient needs only; and (2) both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated managers will be equally job involved provided their salient needs are met and more job involved than those whose salient needs are not met. Hypothesis 1 was supported. Due to meager data only partial support for hypothesis 2 was obtained. Implications for job designs to promote employee involvement are discussed.

Individual differences as moderators of reactions to job characteristics

Abstract: This paper examines the status of higher-order need strength as a moderator of the relationship between job characteristics and employees' attitudes towards their jobs. It is argued that previous empirical work has been deficient in two important respects: (a) the measurement of the moderator has not been sufficiently independent of the measurement of the other variables in question, thus allowing response consistency to account for the results; and (b) analytical procedures have been employed which are severely restricted in their scope. The present investigation was designed to avoid both these deficiencies, and shows that higher-order need strength moderates the relationship between job characteristics and job satisfaction. Comment is also offered on alternative statistical techniques for analysing data in which repeated measures of the moderator variable are used, or where the moderator is not linear in its effects.

Event and agent: toward a structural theory of job satisfaction

Abstract: This study evaluates a theory of job satisfaction based on two facets: event and agent. These two facets were derived from a study by Schneider and Locke (1971). In the present study, event and agent were conceptualized as two domain facets of a content universe of job satisfaction. On the basis of the above definition, a radex structure was hypothesized. 104 employees from 8 different industrial organizations in Israel were interviewed. They rated (a) their job satisfaction with respect to 11 job factors, and (b) their conception of influence upon these job factors. The intercorrelation matrix of job satisfaction was treated by a Guttman Smallest Space Analysis. The empirical space was interpreted for each facet individually, and then jointly. It is apparent that when job satisfaction is defined by two domain facets, the radex structure is confirmed.

Impact of Industrial Recreation Upon Job Satisfaction and Productivity

Abstract: An important issue to the future growth of employee recreation will be the benefits and impacts that a program has upon the individual in relation to company outcomes. This study examined the relationship between a health and fitness program in a major company and its influence upon job satisfaction and productivity. Findings indicate that employee services have a major impact upon job satisfaction and productivity and service as a device to develop leadership and organizational skills to the benefit of the employee and the company.

Job characteristics, job satisfaction, motivation and satisfaction with growth: a study of industrial engineers

Abstract: Summary.-For the industrial engineering jobs included in the study job characteristics were associated with two of the three outcome variables as predicted by the Hackman-Oldham model. Individual job characteristics had differential impact on outcomes while moderating variables exhibited little or no influence. One of the more promising recent approaches to both a better understanding of employees' motivation and improvement in the quality of work life is an approach to the redesign of jobs associated with the work of Hackman and Oldharn (1975). Basically, the Hackman-Oldham Model concerned the relationship between certain job characteristics (skill variety, task identity, task significance, and autonomy) and several outcome variables (general satisfaction, level of internal work motivation, and degree of satisfaction with opportunities for self-growth). In addition, the model utilizes several moderating variables (job security, pay, relations with co-workers, nature of supervision, and individual growth needs) which are presented as influencing the relationship between job characteristics and the outcome variables. Although a number of studies to date have focused on and reported supporting data on job characteristics and outcomes, less attention has been given to the influence of the moderating variables. This paper reports a study of the application of the Hackman-Oldman model to a group of industrial engineering jobs. Data were collected from