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Job design

About: Job design is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 9218 publications have been published within this topic receiving 426180 citations.


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TL;DR: Task-specific human capital as mentioned in this paper is the idea that some of the human capital an individual acquires on the job is specific to the tasks being performed, as opposed to being specific to a firm.
Abstract: Since Gary Becker’s (1964) seminal work, the theoretical and empirical literature on human capital has focused almost exclusively on general-purpose and firm-specific human capital. In this paper we discuss the implications of a third type of human capital, which we call task-specific, and which we believe is potentially as commonplace and as important as the two classic types. By task-specific human capital we mean that some of the human capital an individual acquires on the job is specific to the tasks being performed, as opposed to being specific to the firm. In other words, task-specific human capital is the simple but plausible idea that much of the human capital accumulated on the job is due to task-specific learning by doing. The idea of task-specific human capital is closely related to occupationand industryspecific human capital. In each case, human capital is specific to the nature of the work, not specific to the firm. Hence, when capital is accumulated, multiple firms value the capital, so most (or even all) of the value of the capital will be reflected in the worker’s wage. The main difference between the idea of task-specific human capital and occupationand industryspecific human capital is in how the idea is applied. We argue that task-specific human capital has much wider applicability than suggested (so far) by the occupationand industry-specific human-capital literatures; the specific issues we address are cohort effects, job design, and promotions. Another argument in the literature closely related to ours is the classic argument of Adam Smith (1776) in the Wealth of Nations concerning returns to specialization. Smith’s argument was that, due to learning-by-doing at the level of the task, productivity can be enhanced by having each job entail fewer tasks. We believe that Smith was correct in focusing on learningby-doing at the level of the task as an important idea for thinking about organizations. The goal of our paper is to describe some of the other implications of this idea for the design and operation of organizations.

379 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The dual-factor theory of motivation was first proposed by Herzberg, Mausner and Snyderman as mentioned in this paper, who reported that man has two sets of needs: his need as an animal to avoid pain, and his need to grow psychologically.
Abstract: In. 1959, Herzberg, Mausner and Snyderman reported research findings that suggested that man has two sets of needs: his need as an animal to avoid pain, and his need as a human to grow psychologically. These findings led them to advance a "dual factor" theory of motivation. Since that time, the theory has caught the attention of both industrial managers and psychologists. Management training and work-motivation programs have been installed on the basis of the dual-factor theory. Psychologists have both advanced criticisms and conducted substantial research relevant to the dual-factor theory. The purpose of this paper is to review the theory, the criticisms, and the empiric investigations reported to date, in an effort to assess the validity of the theory. Whereas previous theories of motivation were based on causal inferences of the theorists and deduction from their own insights and experience, the dual-factor theory of motivation was inferred from a study of need satisfactions and the reported motivational effects of these satisfactions on 200 engineers and accountants. The subjects were first requested to recall a time when they had felt exceptionally good about their jobs. The investigators sought by further questioning to determine the reasons for their feelings of satisfaction, and whether their feelings of satisfaction had affected their performance, their personal relationships, and their well-being. Finally, the sequence of events that served to return the workers' attitudes to "normal" was elicited. In a second set of interviews, the same subjects were asked to describe incidents in which their feelings about their jobs were exceptionally negative—cases in which their negative feelings were related to some event on the job.

379 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Modeling within-individual job satisfaction as a function of job change patterns to determine if individual work attitudes change systematically with the temporal turnover process supported the proposed honeymoon-hangover effect.
Abstract: Recent research suggests that the turnover process is not fully captured by the traditional sequential model relating job dissatisfaction to subsequent turnover. The present study contributes to this research by modeling within-individual job satisfaction as a function of job change patterns to determine if individual work attitudes change systematically with the temporal turnover process. Specifically, the authors hypothesized that low satisfaction would precede a voluntary job change, with an increase in job satisfaction immediately following a job change (the honeymoon effect), followed by a decline in job satisfaction (the hangover effect). Though this pattern is suggested in the literature, no prior research has integrated and tested this complete temporal model within individuals. Findings based on a sample of managers supported the proposed honeymoon-hangover effect.

378 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that happiness provides a number of positive benefits for not only the happy individuals themselves, but also for those with whom they come in contact, and that happiness is almost a responsibility to ourselves, to be happy.

377 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper reviewed and summarized two decades of empirical literature concerned with both direct and moderating variable-based analyses of the relationship of organizational stress with job satisfaction and job performance and provided four guidelines for improving the quality of both theoretical rigor and methodological robustness in this important area of organizational inquiry.

377 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023162
2022285
2021118
202097
2019123
2018141