Some jobs are interesting, others boring, some industries are interesting to working with others not. This is partly due to the characteristics of each job. Job designing is the creation of content, structure, tasks and roles and the environment in which they are performed (Borges-Andrade et al., 2019; Morgeson and Humphrey, 2006). It speciļ¬es the content relationship of jobs to ensure productivity, efficiency and quality and to match the job holder’s personal needs, demands with higher standards of engagement (Armstrong and Taylor, 2020).
Job satisfaction is basically a person's feeling of satisfaction with the job. Intrinsic and extrinsic factors can influence job satisfaction, including manager communication, resource support, working conditions, corporate culture, and leadership style (Attridge, 2009; Saad et al., 2021). Many factors influence job satisfaction and employee wellbeing (Bargsted et al., 2019). For example, a monotonous job may not be satisfying, may not make it feel like the job is meaningful and worthwhile, but it may be a job with a variety of activities. However, variety in the job also requires a wide range of skills and competencies. Research has shown that jobs with a high degree of autonomy, variety of tasks, task importance and feedback are more engaging and satisfying (Shantz et al., 2013).
The job design must be based on the work requirements (Armstrong and Taylor, 2020). It is a challenge to design a job that makes a person more meaningful, emotionally, psychologically, and cognitively engaged in order to perform better (Bailey et al., 2017; Osibanjo et al., 2020). The common job design strategies are job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment, and job simplification (Rungrueang et al., 2020). When designing jobs, understanding the physical environment and the task environment must be considered (Morgeson and Humphrey, 2006).
The most important job characteristics are autonomy, diversity of skills, the importance of tasks, feedback on task identity, all contribute to job satisfaction (Ali et al., 2014). These five main job characteristics lead to three critical psychological states: experience of meaningfulness, responsibility, and knowledge of results. There is a link between the workplace and the employee in terms of skills, experience and employee characteristics. Therefore, employee participation in job design or redesign can improve job characteristics (Guan and Frenkel, 2018; May et al., 2014). Further, employees are more likely to get involved in job crafting when they engage well (Clegg and Spencer, 2007; Wrzesniewski and Dutton, 2001). Research has shown that the work engagement of public-sector workers can be improved by just redesigning their jobs (Hernaus et al., 2017).
However, job satisfaction is mainly determined by intrinsic job components (Huang and Van de Vliert, 2003; Borzaga and Tortia, 2006). Factors such as respectful treatment, recognition and personal achievement are less critical for job satisfaction in countries with low social security, high power distance and high in countries characterized with prosperity and low power distance (Huang and Van de Vliert, 2003). Therefore, careful attention is required when designing jobs in order to make jobs exciting and motivating.
The Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ) can help design jobs (Borzaga and Tortia, 2006).
The four main elements of the job-Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ) are;
1. Task characteristics: autonomy, task variety, task significance, task identity, feedback from job,
2. Knowledge characteristics: Job complexity, information processing, problem-solving, skill variety, specialization,
3. Social characteristics: social support, interdependence, interaction outside the organization, feedback from others,
4. Contextual characteristics: ergonomics, physical demands, work conditions, equipment use.
In addition to job satisfaction, increasing the job's complexity has positive and robust effects on stimulating skills development (Russo, 2017). Therefore, redesigning jobs considers including complex and more challenging tasks with high demands. Oftentimes, it is easier to redesign individual tasks or add some suitable quality tasks to a job to redesign it than to design from scratch, as designing and redesigning come at a cost (Sonnentag et al., 2017).
Job characteristics are important in attracting top talent as highly skilled people may look for autonomous and challenging jobs without micromanagement. However, in the public sector, job descriptions or duty lists are flexible for some officers; for instance, field officers enjoy higher autonomy.
References:
Ali, S.A.M., Said, N.A., Yunus, N.a.M., Kader, S.F.A., Latif, D.S.A. and Munap, R. 2014. Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Model to Job Satisfaction. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 129, pp.46-52.
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S. 2020. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice.
Attridge, M. 2009. Measuring and Managing Employee Work Engagement: A Review of the Research and Business Literature. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health. 24(4), pp.383-398.
Bailey, C., Madden, A., Alfes, K. and Fletcher, L. 2017. The Meaning, Antecedents and Outcomes of Employee Engagement: A Narrative Synthesis. International Journal of Management Reviews. 19(1), pp.31-53.
Bargsted, M., Ramirez-Vielma, R. and Yeves, J. 2019. Professional Self-efficacy and Job Satisfaction: The Mediator Role of Work Design. Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology-Revista De Psicologia Del Trabajo Y De Las Organizaciones. 35(3), pp.157-163.
Borges-Andrade, J.E., Peixoto, A.L.A., Queiroga, F. and PƩrez-Nebra, A.R. 2019. Adaptation of the work design questionnaire to Brazil. Revista Psicologia OrganizaƧƵes e Trabalho. 19(3), pp.720-731.
Borzaga, C. and Tortia, E. 2006. Worker motivations, job satisfaction, and loyalty in public and nonprofit social services. Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly. 35(2), pp.225-248.
Clegg, C. and Spencer, C. 2007. A circular and dynamic model of the process of job design. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. 80, pp.321-339.
Guan, X.Y. and Frenkel, S. 2018. How HR practice, work engagement and job crafting influence employee performance. Chinese Management Studies. 12(3), pp.591-607.
Hernaus, T., Vujcic, M.T. and Aleksic, A. 2017. Changing Work Engagement: The Longitudinal Effect of a Job Redesign Intervention Among Public Sector Employees. Strategic Management. 22(2), pp.3-8.
Huang, X. and Van de Vliert, E. 2003. Where intrinsic job satisfaction fails to work: National moderators of intrinsic motivation. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior. 24(2), pp.159-179.
May, G., Maghazei, O., Taisch, M., Bettoni, A., Cinus, M. and Matarazzo, A. 2014. Toward Human-Centric Factories: Requirements and Design Aspects of a Worker-Centric Job Allocator. In: Advances in Production Management Systems: Innovative and Knowledge-Based Production Management in a Global-Local World, APMS 2014, PT III. pp.417-424.
Morgeson, F.P. and Humphrey, S.E. 2006. The Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ): developing and validating a comprehensive measure for assessing job design and the nature of work. Journal of applied psychology. 91(6), p1321.
Osibanjo, A., Adeniji, A., Salau, O., Atolagbe, T., Osoko, A., Edewor, O. and Olowu, J. 2020. Bolstering human capital management and engagement in the health sectors. COGENT BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT. 7(1).
Rungrueang, A., Khantanapha, N. and Piriyakul, R. 2020. Study on elements of job design to develop high-performance workforce in the Thai garment industry. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences. 7(8), pp.65-73.
Russo, G. 2017. Job Design and Skill Development In The Workplace.
Saad, M.M., Gaber, H.R. and Labib, A.A. 2021. Investigating the impact of human resource management practices on employee engagement, and the moderating role of strategy implementation in Egypt. SA Journal of Human Resource Management. 19.
Shantz, A., Alfes, K., Truss, C. and Soane, E. 2013. The role of employee engagement in the relationship between job design and task performance, citizenship and deviant behaviours. International Journal of Human Resource Management. 24(13), pp.2608-2627.
Sonnentag, S., Venz, L. and Casper, A. 2017. Advances in recovery research: What have we learned? What should be done next? Journal of occupational health psychology. 22(3), p365.
Wrzesniewski, A. and Dutton, J.E. 2001. Crafting a job: Revisioning employees as active crafters of their work. Academy of management review. 26(2), pp.179-201.
I agree with you Ravi. A well-written, informative job description helps the source, sourcing software, and the candidate understand the job role better (Cappelli & Keller, 2014). Generic job descriptions merely confuse all parties engaged in the hiring process, resulting in a flood of ineffective applications (Caplan, 2013).
ReplyDeleteNicely explained article Ravi. Morgeson and Humphrey (2006) states that, when employees find their work monotonous and undemanding, it leads to psychological distress and disengagement as human resources become useless. Simultaneously, when people have interesting and challenging job duties, they feel inspired to invest their energies at work (Crawford et al., 2013).
ReplyDeleteI agree with your views Ravi. Effective job design is a complex process that must be viewed from several points. Organizational goals, employee aspirations performance standards and work environment are some of the major factors that need to be taken in to consideration during the job design process (Manpreet Randhawa,2020).
ReplyDeleteHi Ravi, I second your thoughts. Further job design defines both kinds of rewards available and what as an individual must do to obtain the rewards and all. Moreover the job design will also impact on employee motivation and engagement in order to perform well and to achieve the personal goal as well as the organizational goal (David, 1979).
ReplyDeleteHi Ravi, agreed, All managers should strive to keep their employees engaged. In addition to being more productive, engaged employees are also happier and healthier — and they’re less likely to look for other work. (Allen 2007)
ReplyDelete