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The Academy of Management Review Vol. 6, No. 3 (Jul., 1981) , pp. 499-508 (10 pages) Published By: Academy of Management https://doi.org/10.2307/257385 https://www.jstor.org/stable/257385 Read and download Log in through your school or library Read Online (Free) relies on page scans, which are not currently available to screen readers. To access this article, please contact JSTOR User Support. We'll provide a PDF copy for your screen reader.With a personal account, you can read up to 100 articles each month for free. Get StartedAlready have an account? Log in Monthly Plan
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Abstract In this article I develop the concept of task interdependence and integrate it in the Hackman 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. Journal Information The Academy of Management Review, now in its 26th year, is the most cited of management references. AMR ranks as one of the most influential business journals, publishing academically rigorous, conceptual papers that advance the science and practice of management. AMR is a theory development journal for management and organization scholars around the world. AMR publishes novel, insightful and carefully crafted conceptual articles that challenge conventional wisdom concerning all aspects of organizations and their role in society. The journal is open to a variety of perspectives, including those that seek to improve the effectiveness of, as well as those critical of, management and organizations. Each manuscript published in AMR must provide new theoretical insights that can advance our understanding of management and organizations. Most articles include a review of relevant literature as well. AMR is published four times a year with a circulation of 15,000. Publisher Information The Academy of Management (the Academy; AOM) is a leading professional association for scholars dedicated to creating and disseminating knowledge about management and organizations. The Academy's central mission is to enhance the profession of management by advancing the scholarship of management and enriching the professional development of its members. The Academy is also committed to shaping the future of management research and education. Founded in 1936, the Academy of Management is the oldest and largest scholarly management association in the world. Today, the Academy is the professional home for more than 18290 members from 103 nations. Membership in the Academy is open to all individuals who find value in belonging. Rights & Usage This item is part of a JSTOR Collection.
The degree to which a job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people.AutonomyThe degree to which a job provides substantial freedom and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and in determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out.FeedbackThe degree to which carrying out the work activities required by a job results in the individual obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of her or her performance.Motivating Potential Score (MPS)A predictive index that suggests the motivating potential in a job.Job Rotation
The periodic shifting of an employee from one task to another.Job EnrichmentThe vertical expansion of jobs, which increases the degree to which the worker controls the planning, execution, and evaluation of the work.FlextimeFlexible work hours.Job SharingAn arrangement that allows two or more individuals to split a traditional 40-hour-a-week job.TelecommutingWorking from home at least two days a week on a computer that is linked to the employer's office.Employee InvolvementA participative process that uses the input of employees and is intended to increase employee commitment to an organization's success.Participative ManagementA process in which subordinates share a significant degree of decision making power with their immediate superiors.Representative ParticipationA system in which workers participate in organizational decision making through a small group of representative employees.Variable-pay ProgramA pay plan that bases a portion of an employee's pay on some individual and/or organizational measure of performance.Piece-rate Pay PlanA pay plan in which workers are paid a fixed sum for each unit of production completed.Merit-based Pay PlanA pay plan based on performance appraisal ratings.BonusA pay plan that rewards employees for recent performance rather than historical performance.Skill-based PayA pay plan that sets pay levels on the basis of how many skills employees have or how many jobs they can do.Profit-sharing PlanAn organization-wide program that distributes compensation based on some established formula designed around a company's profitability.GainsharingA formula-based group incentive plan.Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)A company-established benefits plan in which employees acquire stock, often at below-market prices, as part of their benefits.Flexible BenefitsA benefits plan that allows each employee to put together a benefits package individually tailored to his or her own needs and situation.The first three dimensions—skill variety, task identity, and task significance—combine to create meaningful work the incumbent will view as important, valuable, and worthwhile. From a motivational standpoint, the JCM proposes that individuals obtain internal rewards when they learn (knowledge of results) that they personally (experienced responsibility) have performed well on a task they care about (experienced meaningfulness). the more these three psychological states are present, the greater will be employees' motivation, performance, and satisfaction, and the lower their absenteeism and likelihood of leaving.jobs with high autonomy give incumbents a feeling of personal responsibility for the results; if a job provides feedback, employees will know how effectively they are performing. Individuals with a high growth need are more likely to experience the critical psychological states when their jobs are enriched—and respond to them more positively—than are their counterparts with low growth need.The first three dimensions—skill variety, task identity, and task significance—combine to create meaningful work the incumbent will view as important, valuable, and worthwhile. From a motivational standpoint, the JCM proposes that individuals obtain internal rewards when they learn (knowledge of results) that they personally (experienced responsibility) have performed well on a task they care about (experienced meaningfulness). Individuals with a high growth need are more likely to experience the critical psychological states when their jobs are enriched—and respond to them more positively—than are their counterparts with low growth need..Strengths of job rotation are that it reduces boredom, increases motivation, and helps employees better understand their work contributions. Indirect benefits include employees with wider ranges of skills that give management more flexibility in scheduling, adapting to changes, and filling vacancies. Some weaknesses of job rotation include disruptions, a need for extra time for supervisors addressing questions and training time, and reduced efficiencies..Exhibit 8–2 shows guidelines for job enrichment. Job enrichment expands jobs by increasing the degree to which the worker controls the planning, execution, and evaluation of the work.The first guideline is combining tasks that puts fractionalized tasks back together to form a new and larger module of work. Second is forming natural work units that make an employee’s tasks create an identifiable and meaningful whole. Third, establishing client relationships increases the direct relationships between workers and their clients. (Clients can be internal as well as outside the organization.) Fourth, expanding jobs vertically gives employees responsibilities and control formerly reserved for management. Finally, opening feedback channels lets employees know how well they are doing and whether their performance is improving, deteriorating, or remaining constant.,Alternative work arrangements are also used to boost motivation. They include flextime, defined as flexible work hours like those shown in Exhibit 8-3. This allows employees some discretion over when they arrive at and leave work. Benefits include reduced absenteeism, increased productivity, reduced overtime expense, reduced hostility toward management, and increased autonomy and responsibility for employees. A major drawback is that it’s not applicable to all jobs or all workers..There are reasons for and against telecommuting. The advantages include a larger labor pool of workers, higher productivity, less turnover, improved morale, and reduced office-space costs.Disadvantages of telecommuting for the employer include less direct supervision of employees, difficulty coordinating teamwork, and difficulty evaluating non-quantitative performance. Disadvantages for the employee include that he or she may not be as noticed for his or her efforts.The job characteristics model shows most employees are more motivated and satisfied when their intrinsic work tasks are engaging.Having the most interesting workplace characteristics in the world may not always lead to satisfaction if you feel isolated from your co-workers, and having good social relationships can make even the most boring and onerous tasks more fulfilling. Research demonstrates that social aspects and work context are as important as other job design features.Some social characteristics that improve job performance include interdependence, social support, and interactions with other people outside work.The work context is also likely to affect employee satisfaction.To assess why an employee is not performing to her best level, look at the work environment to see whether it’s supportive..Employee involvement draws on several of the theories on motivation that we discussed in Chapter 7. Theory Y is consistent with participative management. Theory X aligns with autocratic style. The two-factor theory aligns with employee involvement programs in providing intrinsic motivation. And extensive employee involvement programs clearly have the potential to increase employee intrinsic motivation in work tasks..Now, let’s talk about using rewards to motivate people, and specifically, what to pay employees. As we saw in Chapter 3, pay is not a primary factor driving job satisfaction. However, it does motivate people, and companies often underestimate its importance in keeping top talent. A 2006 study found that while 45% of employers thought pay was a key factor in losing top talent, 71% of top performers called it a top reason.So, what should an organization do? How should the pay structure be established? The answer is not easy – it’s a complex process that entails balancing internal equity and external equity. Some organizations prefer to pay leaders by paying above market. Keep in mind that paying more may net better-qualified and more highly motivated employees who may stay with the firm longer..Rewarding individual employees through variable-pay programs is becoming more common in the workplace. A number of organizations are moving away from paying solely on credentials or length of service. Piece-rate plans, merit-based pay, bonuses, profit sharing, gain sharing, and employee stock ownership plans are all forms of a variable-pay program, which base a portion of an employee’s pay on some individual and/or organizational measure of performance. Individual earnings therefore fluctuate up and down..The second variable pay method is the merit-based pay plan. These plans are based on performance appraisal ratings. Their main advantage is that they allow employers to differentiate pay based on performance, and so create perceptions of relationships between performance and rewards. Most large organizations have merit pay plans, particularly for salaried employees. Limitations to merit-based plans include that they are based on annual performance appraisal, that the merit pool fluctuates based on economic conditions, and that unions typically resist merit-based pay plans... The incentive effects of performance bonuses should be higher than those of merit pay because rather than paying for performance years ago, which was rolled into base pay, bonuses reward recent performance. When times are bad, firms can cut bonuses to reduce compensation costs. The downside of bonuses is that employees’ pay is more vulnerable to cuts.Skill-based pay is also called competency-based or knowledge-based pay and is an alternative to job-based pay that bases pay levels on how many skills employees have or how many jobs they can do. For employers, the lure of skill-based pay plans is that they increase the flexibility of the workforce, because filling staffing needs is easier when employee skills are interchangeable. Skill-based pay also facilitates communication across the organization because people gain a better understanding of each other’s jobs. The disadvantages to skill-based pay are few. However, people can “top out”—that is, they can learn all the skills the program calls for them to learn. Finally, skill-based plans don’t address level of performance—they deal only with whether someone can perform the skill..Gainsharing is a formula-based group incentive plan. Its popularity seems narrowly focused among large manufacturing companies, although some healthcare organizations have experimented with it as a cost-saving mechanism. Gainsharing differs from profit sharing in tying rewards to productivity gains rather than profits, so employees can receive incentive awards even when the organization isn’t profitable. Because the benefits accrue to groups of workers, high performers pressure weaker ones to work harder, improving performance for the group as a whole..Another variable-pay option is the employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. An ESOP is a company-established benefit plan in which employees acquire stock, often at below-market prices, as part of their benefits. Most of the 10,000 or so ESOPs in the United States are in small, privately held companies. Research on ESOPs indicates that they increase employee satisfaction and innovation. ESOPs have the potential to increase employee job satisfaction and work motivation, but employees need to psychologically experience ownership. ESOP plans for top management can reduce unethical behavior. CEOs are more likely to manipulate firm earnings reports to make themselves look good in the short run when they don’t have an ownership share, even though this manipulation will eventually lead to lower stock prices. However, when CEOs own a large amount of stock, they report earnings accurately because they don’t want the negative consequences of declining stock prices..Do variable-pay programs increase motivation and productivity? The answer is a qualified yes. Studies generally support the idea that organizations with profit-sharing plans have higher levels of profitability than those without them. One study found that whereas piece-rate pay-for performance plans stimulated higher levels of productivity, this positive affect was not observed for risk-averse employees. You’d probably think individual pay systems such as merit pay or pay-for-performance work better in individualistic cultures such as the United States or that group-based rewards such as gain sharing or profit sharing work better in collectivistic cultures. Unfortunately, there isn’t much research on the issue. One recent study did suggest that employee beliefs about the fairness of a group incentive plan were more predictive of pay satisfaction in the United States than in Hong Kong. One interpretation is that U.S. employees are more critical in appraising a group pay plan, and therefore it’s more critical that the plan be communicated clearly and administered fairly..Flexible benefits individualize rewards by allowing each employee to choose the compensation package that best satisfies his or her current needs and situation. These plans replace the “one-benefit-plan-fits-all” programs designed for a male with a wife and two children at home that dominated organizations for more than 50 years. Fewer than 10% of employees now fit that image. About 25% are single, and one-third are part of two-income families with no children. Flexible benefits can accommodate differences in employee needs based on age, marital status, spouses’ benefit status, and number and age of dependents..There are three basic types of programs: Modular plans: pre-designed with each module put together to meet the needs of a specific group of employees. Core-plus plans: a core of essential benefits and a menu-like selection of other benefit options. Flexible spending plans: employees set aside pretax dollars up to the amount offered in the plan to pay for particular benefits, such as healthcare and dental premiums. Today, almost all major corporations in the United States offer flexible benefits. They’re becoming the norm in other countries too. A recent survey of 211 Canadian organizations found that 60% offer flexible benefits, up from 41% in 2005. A similar survey of firms in the United Kingdom found that nearly all major organizations were offering flexible benefits programs, with options ranging from private supplemental medical insurance to holiday trading, discounted bus travel, and childcare vouchers..Organizations are increasingly recognizing that important work rewards can be both intrinsic and extrinsic. Rewards are intrinsic in the form of employee recognition programs and extrinsic in the form of compensation systems. Employee recognition programs range from a spontaneous and private thank-you to widely publicized formal programs in which specific types of behavior are encouraged and the procedures for attaining recognition are clearly identified. Some research suggests financial incentives may be more motivating in the short term, but in the long run, it’s nonfinancial incentives. A few years ago, research found that recognition, recognition, and more recognition was key to employee motivation..How does autonomy affect job performance?Results from a summary of 319 studies and 151,134 participants indicate that, overall, job autonomy led to better job performance, mainly by enhancing work motivation but also by reducing mental strain.
Which of the following defines autonomy in the job characteristics model?d) Autonomy is the degree to which a job provides the worker freedom, independence, and discretion in scheduling work and determining the procedures in carrying it out.
Does interdependence contribute to job satisfaction?The empirical results showed that task interdependence significantly and positively influenced team cooperation and job performance, and significantly and negatively influenced relationship conflict.
What is the main strength of job rotation?What is the main strength of job rotation? One of the main benefits of job rotation is the fact that it is an excellent way to transfer specific skills, knowledge, and competencies, leading to human capital accumulation and a more flexible workforce.
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