Low Variety Low High Autonomy Figure example essay topic

Outline I- Introduction II- Definition of the Theory - "A multivariate test of the job characteristics theory of work motivation" Study done by Joseph E. Champoux... IV- "The Interactive effects of variety, autonomy and feedback on attitudes and performance". Study Done By Nancy G. Dodd and Daniel C. Ganster. V- Conclusion on the Two Studies VI- Interview with Mr Jihad H. Sabbagh Product Manager at Warner Lambert S.A.L. VII- Summary. I- Introduction The job characteristics theory of work motivation formulated by Hackman and Oldham in 1980 has undergone several studies. In which different and contradicting results found that the theory to be in some instances, accurate in predicting relationships between the 5 job dimensions of the task performed and the level of the 3 psychological states experienced by the employee and in other instances to be far from offering any significant evidence on the interaction between these variables.

During our research we came across two significant studies made in this field the first is presented by Joseph E. Champoux, the study conduct a multivariate test of the theory to determine whether there was a significant relationship among the variables and a regression analysis to evaluate the effects and the interactions. The second made by Nancy G. Dodd and Daniel C. Ganster and published in 1996, where three out of the five job dimensions were objectively manipulated to evaluate their effect on perceptions of job characteristics and job outcomes. II- Definition of the Theory: The theory expects a set of five Core Job Characteristics to affect the level of a set of three Critical Psychological States. Skill variety, task identity and task significance should be most strongly associated with experienced meaningfulness of the work. Autonomy is predicted to be most strongly associated with experienced responsibility for work outcomes.

Feedback from the job itself is predicted to be most strongly associated with knowledge of the actual results of work activities. The psychological states are then expected to influence the levels of affective and behavioral outcomes. -"A multivariate test of the job characteristics theory of work motivation". Study done by Joseph E. Champoux. 1- Objectives of the study. The analysis in this study will determine if the relationships predicted by the theory exists and will also find other relationships not predicted by the theory.

Five Job Dimensions Psychological States Affective Outcomes 1-Skill Variety 1-Experienced meaningfulness of the Job 1-High internal work 2-Task Identity motivation 3-Task Significance 2- Experience responsibility for the job outcomes 2-High quality work performance 4-Autonomy 3-High satisfaction with the work 5-Feedback 3- Knowledge of the actual results of work activities 4-Low absenteeism and turnover 2- Conditions of the experiment Sample The sample consisted of 247 employees of a state agency in the United States. The sample had the same number of men and women, more than 70% of them were aged 30 or older of which about 60% of the sample had worked for the agency for five years or more and slightly less than 60% had some college education. Data collection and processing The data used in this analysis were collected from employees of a state agency in the United States using the long form of the Job Diagnostic Survey (Hackman and Oldham 1975, 1980) the long form measures all variables in the job characteristics Theory. Also the "would like" format was used to assess the Growth Need Strength.

The multivariate analysis was done on the following set of variables: Job Characteristics and affective outcomes Job characteristics and critical psychological states Critical psychological stages and affective outcomes 3- Outcomes of the study The results of the analysis gave broad general support for the job characteristics theory of work motivation. The pattern of main effects of the five core job characteristics was close to the theory predictions. The interactions between the job characteristics and the GNS followed directly from the predictions of the theory except one where the theory has not been explicit about the form of the interaction for those with low GNS, the results showed that people with weak GNS responded negatively to jobs high in autonomy, or from high feelings of experienced responsibility. The major challenge in identifying the causal effects of job characteristics is to ensure that their objective levels are not confounded by other factors.

Most problematic among these are contextual factors such as pay, occupational status, supervision, and even social cues about the work from other members of the work group. The authors hypothesized that the presence of one characteristic will enhance the impact of the other characteristics (positive interaction), therefore the objective of this study is to assess the additive and interactive effects of Variety, Autonomy, and Feedback on both satisfaction and performance. 2- Conditions of the experiment Sample The sample consisted of 197 volunteer undergraduate students enrolled in upper division summer courses at the University of Nebraska. Females accounted for 56% of the sample, and subject age ranged from 18 to 42 years, with a mean of 22.8 and a standard deviation of 3.7 years. Design In an effort to attain extreme reality like settings inside the laboratory the study chose to use a word processing job because it accounted for the majority of typing and clerical positions (thousands of workers occupy such position) plus these jobs can be easily simulated in a laboratory setting (including the actual equipment used in the real work setting). The text editor used is a software tailored to provide the intended levels of Variety, autonomy and feedback across the conditions of the experiment.

Volunteers will be randomly distributed to different types of text editing tasks with high and low levels of variety, autonomy, and feedback. In order to measure job perceptions and job satisfaction 2 special forms were employed that the volunteers had to fill. To measure performance they only had to count the number of text errors that were successfully identified and corrected plus an Office Skills Test was administered to all volunteers to Asses their abilities. 3- Outcomes of the Study The results of the experiment came as follows: 4.5 4.3 (A) 4.1 3.9 3.7 (B) 3.5 A: High Variety 3.3 B: Low Variety low high Autonomy Figure. 1 Interaction between variety and autonomy to predict Satisfaction. Figure.

1 displays a plot of the autonomy x variety interaction. In a high variety task, increased autonomy led to increased satisfaction, whereas in a low variety task, increased autonomy had a negligible effect on satisfaction. 76 (A) 74 72 (B) 70 68 66 64 A: High Variety 62 B: Low Variety low high Autonomy Figure. 2 Interaction between variety and autonomy to predict Performance The variety by autonomy interaction in Figure 2 suggests that the level of variety affected the impact of autonomy. In the low variety task, autonomy had little effect on performance, whereas its impact was significant in the high variety condition, leading to a 16% improvement in performance. Because of the inherent differences in demands between the low and high variety tasks, the absolute differences in performance levels between the low and high variety conditions are not relevant.

Rather, the comparison should be made within the low or high variety condition. 82 (A) 80 78 76 74 72 70 A: High Autonomy 68 B: Low Autonomy 66 (B) Low High Feedback Figure. 3 Interaction between autonomy and feedback to predict Performance The autonomy by feedback interaction in Figure 3 indicates that feedback had a negligible effect on performance when it was accompanied by low job autonomy. With high autonomy, however, the impact of feedback was very significant, in the present case producing a 16% improvement in performance. V-Conclusion: These two studies managed to explain how the Job Characteristics theory helps in the job design and leads to more motivation for workers with high growth needs and clarified even more the interaction between the main three job dimensions (Variety, Autonomy, Feedback). A remarkable result in the first study calls for more attention and certainly more investigation and that is the effect of the five job dimensions on workers with low growth needs.

Workers with low growth need strength account for a large percentage of the workforce, they remained indifference to all the adjustments introduced by the theory. The first study also detected that people with weak growth needs responded negatively to jobs high in autonomy, or from high feelings of experienced responsibility. Another matter recorded by the first study is, that for relatively simple tasks the most effective way to perform the task would be fairly obvious, and increased participation and discussion would be redundant, perhaps even confusing. Taking these two facts together we can hypothesis that a relationship might exist between them. In other words, it is reasonable to assume that people with relatively simple tasks are those of the "blue collar" type or what is also called "direct labor" and those workers have usually been with the organization for a long time and are already used to a specified order of things, that they have developed a sense of prejudice towards any mechanism of change or development, and can be attributed to the fear of losing that level of safety that they acquired over the years. A solution to this problem can be presented through employees training programs therefore developing their skills further to be able to perform more complex tasks and thus acquiring a stronger sense of achievement from the work done, which will enhance the effects of the job dimensions and will eventually be reflected in terms of production and profitability.

As for the second study it concluded that feedback stimulates individuals to think about hoe they are performing a task, which in turn stimulates further strategy development. Without autonomy, one would unlikely to give much thought to how he or she is performing a task and therefore subsequent strategy development. Also found that information conveyed by specific feedback was used in the forming of a work plan, which then increased an individual's performance. In addition, only self-generated feedback significantly influenced performance. A situation where subjects were involved in generating their own feedback is comparable to a situation involving higher level of autonomy than a situation in which one must passively await available information before being able to continue with one's work.

VI-The interview was with Mr. Jihad Sabbagh Product Manager At Warner Lambert S.A. L Mr. Sabbagh gave us an insight into the organizational aspect of the work at Warner Lambert. He explained to us how many of the theories of work motivation and workers compensation are applied at Warner Lambert through different programs. Warner Lambert is a Pharmaceutical company that also produces in Lebanon chewing gum and candies. Mr. Sabbagh explained that at Warner Lambert the number one rule is safety and they apply the same standards applied worldwide. As for the tasks they differ with the production process but are in general simple and every worker is qualified to do his job properly.

On the level of job significance the workers feel very involved with their jobs and show much concern in the outcomes. Feedback is provided by the company through two performance evaluation during the year according to which workers will be either rewarded or not according to the overall performance. The company also undertakes many motivational plans, and the most effective one according to Mr. Sabbagh is the money based one "raises" for the majority of the workers but there is a part of the workers who are not motivated by money but are looking for more personal growth. Warner Lambert is highly concerned in its workers satisfaction level because it invests considerable amounts to train and maintain its workforce therefore it undergoes continuous motivational plans.

The most frequently used is the compensation benefits. VII -Summary: From a scientific point of view, we found that Warner Lambert's management is not familiar with the Job Characteristics Approach to Job Design as detailed in the previous studies not only to this theory but to other theories of Job Design but rather we found that the jobs inside the company are organized in accordance to the demands of the manufacturing process with some basic notions of job rotation, and job enlargement or job enrichment but merely for purposes of covering any temporary shortage in any stage of the production process. It is most probable that the company find cost ineffective to conduct any study or an evaluation to the work environment it provides its workers in a detailed manner since they are not suffering from high turnover rates or absenteeism, which can be attributed to the high competition in labor market. Therefore in our opinion any expenditures on enhancing workers motivation and satisfaction and performance that might include Job Redesign will only be triggered by a significant decrease in productivity or a major change either in the micro or macro environment of the organization.