An introduction to contemporary work psychology

Edited by Mario C.W. Peeters, Jan de Jonge and Toon W. Taris

2014
Chapter 3

By: Derya van Berkel

Chapter 3: The model that made job design
3.1 Background of job design
Job design: is concerned with the activities of workers, and relates to the duties and tasks required to
perform their work, and how those tasks and duties are structured and scheduled.

Used to be politically and religion based, then the division of labour became popular (Taylorism) and it
was the basis of scientific management. Karl Marx argued that the division of labour was a process
through which owners/managers could extract the maximum amount of ‘surplus value’ from workers,
because it pushes down the price of labour. After economic and political thinking, the Western Electric
Company started with psychological thinking on job design. Motivational and social factors became
important and it was found that workers needed cognitively and socially enriched working environments
to be productive. Others came up with: worker participation in decisions, use of skills, delegated
authority to workers and production processes that preserved social relationships in the workplace. This
resulted in new models.

3.2 The job characteristics model

The job characteristics model (JCM) is developed by Hackman and Oldham and is concerned with
developing jobs that are motivating, satisfying and performed well. The model concentrates on five key
features or characteristics of work:

 Skill variety (SV): Jobs with more skill variety require workers to use a range of skills.
 Task identity (TI): Jobs with task identity allow the worker to produce or deliver an identifiable,
complete outcome.
 Task significance (TS): More significant jobs have an impact on other people, both inside and
outside the organization.
 Autonomy (AU): Jobs with more autonomy allow the worker to make decisions concerning how
to perform tasks, when and where to perform tasks, and even how success in performing work
tasks is evaluated.
 Feedback from the job (FB): Jobs that provide feedback give an indication on how well the
worker is performing.

These five characteristics produce three critical psychological states:

 Experienced meaningfulness of work: Influenced by skill variety, task identity and task
significance.
 Experienced responsibility for the outcomes of work: Influenced by autonomy.
 Knowledge of the results of work activities: Influenced by feedback from the job.

In turn, the critical psychological states make work more satisfying and because the work is satisfying,
workers gain an intrinsic motivation to perform
the work well to experience more satisfaction. The
motivating potential of the work influences
workers to work more effectively and turn up at
work.
 SV +TI +TS
Motivational potential score: ∗AU∗FB
3
These scores can be derived by filling in the job siagnostic survey (JDS).

The individual difference is known as growth need strength and is the extent to which people have need
to develop and grow psychologically. People with high growth need strength will benefit more from
improvements in the five job characteristics. It is a therefore a moderator. See picture.

Evaluation of the JCM: Research has shown that the five core job characteristics are related to factors
such as job satisfaction and intrinsic motivation, although it is less clear on whether the critical
psychological states actually translate the key job characteristics into the outcomes. It is not just the
motivating potential of job characteristics that can lead to motivation, job satisfaction and performance.
The model only examines a narrow range of job characteristics, ignores the social elements of work and
concentrates on the positive features of work.

3.3 The demand-control-support model

The demand-control-support model (DCSM) is developed by Karasek and Theorell and addresses
negative as well as positive features of work and the social elements of work. It is primarily concerned
with health but also says something about work performance. Originally the model had just two
components, job demands and decision latitude. Job demands: have many components, but are
primarily related to expending psychological effort. Decision latitude: is a combination of skill use and
job control. The two dimensions, job demands and decision latitude, are combined to produce four
classes of jobs:

 Passive jobs: Low job demands and low decision latitude

(watchman)
 High-strain jobs: High job demands and low decision latitude (call
center operator)
 Low-strain jobs: Low job demands and high decision latitude
(photographer)
 Active jobs: High job demands and high decision latitude (physician)

The model has evolved to concentrate on job control rather than the
broader concept of decision latitude, and also to include workplace social
support. Workplace social support: is characterized by helpful
interactions with supervisors and co-workers. Iso-strain jobs: jobs that
are low on support and job control, but high on job demands, they are
particularly harmful to health. To place the characteristics, workers fill in
the job content questionnaire (JCQ). The DCSM has two key hypotheses:
the strain hypotheses and the active learning hypotheses.

The strain hypothesis: indicates that job control and social support can
offset the detrimental effects of job demands on health. High job demand can lead to stress, which can
result in a depression and heart diseases. Job control and social support buffer the adverse impact of job
demands on psychological and physical health.
The active learning hypothesis: solving problems leads to workers learning how to solve problems faster
and more effectively, to build skill levels and so to become more productive. Moreover, as learning and
skills accumulate, workers become more confident, leading to improvements in mood and further
inhibiting the effects of job demands on health, that is, learning impedes strain. Because job control and
social support facilitate coping, they may facilitate one particular form of coping related to better
productivity, called active coping.

Evaluation of the DCSM: Reviews indicate that high job control, high social support and low job
demands are associated with the best psychological and physical health. Job control is reliably linked to
learning outcomes, although the evidence is less clear concerning whether job demands have negative
or positive impact on learning outcomes. These reviews indicate that there tends to be little support for
the notion that job control and social support can offset the adverse consequences of high levels of job
demands. Not full support because job control, social support and job demands are too broad concepts,
focus is needed. Furthermore, DCSM has been tested by assessing how much job control and social
support workers have I their jobs rather than examining what it is that workers actually do in response
to job demands. Research indicates that in order to create healthy work, jobs should be redesigned to
minimize job demands (too far leads to boredom and reduced motivation) as well as increase job control
and social support.

3.4 The vitamin model

The vitamin model (VM) is developed by Warr and it
indicates that some job characteristics can be harmful if
present at levels that are too high or too low. It focuses on
job-related mental health and psychological well-being. In
the VM, mental health is conceptualized in terms of job-
related affective well-being along three dimensions.
Affective well-being: refers to whether we tend to
experience more pleasant emotional states or more negative emotional states. The three dimensions:

 Displeasure-to-pleasure
 Anxiety-to-comfort
 Depression-to-enthusiasm

Warr refers to job demands as externally Constant effect (CE) job Additional decrement (AD)
generated goals, goals that others in an characteristics job characteristics
organization or customers assign to workers to Monotonic pattern Inverted U-shaped
attain. . The constant effect is not purely linear Availability of money Opportunity for control
(low income increase has more effect than high Physical security Opportunity for skill use
income increase). In the table is an overview of Valued social position Externally generated goals
the twelve job characteristics in the VM. Supportive supervision Variety
Career outlook Environmental clarity
Three categories of individual characteristics are Equity Opportunity for
viewed as possible moderators of the effects of interpersonal contact
job characteristics on mental health:

 Values: preferences and motives

  Abilities: intellectual and psychomotor skills
 Baseline mental health: low self-esteem, disposition to excessive worrying

Evaluation of the VM: The VM concentrates on optimizing each job characteristic in the model and is
more comprehensive than JCM and DCSM as it includes a wider range of job characteristics. There can
be no conclusions drawn for the CE job characteristics if they indeed reach a certain constant factor or if
they keep increasing, or will eventually decline. Furthermore, opportunity for control and opportunity
for skill use behave more likely as CE instead of AD.

3.5 The effort-reward imbalance model

The Effort-Reward Imbalance model (ERI) of Siegrist and
colleagues is more sociological focused (stress and
health). It attempts to tie together sociological factors
concerned with labour markets and employment,
psychological factors concerned with differences between
individuals and biological factors concerned with health.

The work role is crucial to the fulfilment of individual, self-regulatory needs (self-esteem, self-efficacy
and self-integration) and links these to the societal structure of opportunities and rewards. Reciprocity:
the employee invests efforts and expects proportionate rewards in return. High effort and low reward
may cause a state of emotional and physiological stress, which increases the risk of physical and mental
diseases. There are three forms of rewards:

 Money: salary
 Esteem: respect and support
 Security/career opportunities: promotion prospects and job security

Effort is evaluated as two components:

 Extrinsic effort or job demands: time pressure, responsibility and physical demands
 Intrinsic effort or overcommitment: overcommitment reflects ambition in combination with a
need for approval and esteem. Highly overcommitment  overestimate own capability 
invest (too) much effort

Thus a mismatch between high extrinsic effort or intrinsic effort and low rewards may lead to adverse
effects on health. Overcommitment is also thought to have a direct effects on health because it is
exhausting because of their level of involvement.

Evaluation of the ERI model: It focusses on factors that are not traditional job characteristics (rewards,
remuneration, career opportunities). The ERI model incorporates elements of job characteristics and
personal behavioral patterns as directly involved in the development of ill-health. What they do affects
their health, not the job characteristics. Research demonstrates that the combination of high effort and
low reward at work is a risk factor for cardiovascular health, depressive symptoms, burnout, sickness
absence and turnover intention. The results of the effect of overcommitment on health are more mixed.
Some issues that are not addressed:

 There is no clear distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic rewards (but there is for effort)
  It is questionable to what extent the overcommitment construct is a stable trait and to what
extent it is related to work environment
 Little attention has been paid to the relation between work and family life as an environmental
factor of possible relevance
 The nature and process underpinning the dynamic relations between effort-reward imbalance
and health need further investigation

3.6 Contemporary socio-technical systems thinking

The contemporary socio-technical systems thinking (STST) framework is developed by Trist and
Bamforth. STST suggests that systems work at their best when social and technical aspects are jointly
optimized. The whole organization is considered as one system, which makes the system more efficient.

Multiple principles have been developed to provide a framework for the design of work and
technologies. Here the most frequently used ones:

 Control of variance at source: This design principle recommends that workers be given the
control, opportunity and training to respond to problems they occur. This way problems can be
solved faster, since employees are allowed to respond and fix it.
 End-user engagement: Hereby, system design, including the design of jobs, should be led and
informed by the users themselves. It improves acceptance of changes, practices and conditions.
 Minimal specification: This principle recommends that job roles and tasks, and the allocation of
task to individuals do not have to be overly specified and prescribed, It leads to more
innovation.
 Support congruence: It suggests that the social structures within an organization need to reflect
and reinforce the behaviours that job design is seeking to promote.
 Multi-skilled or multi-functional: It recommends that work roles and teams provide enlarged
roles, with multiple tasks, allowing skills to be passed along organically. It enriches the work
experience and allows more redundancy.
 Self-management: It recommends that in return for workers being given the skills, expertise and
equipment to perform tasks, they should also be made responsible for the work they perform.

STST is flexible and not every principle applies to every situation.

Evaluation of STST: It has influenced how researchers and managers think about job design and the
interaction of workers and technology. It considers how to optimize workers’ job roles to adapt to the
changing nature of modern workplaces. The broad nature of STST is a strength, but as it allows it to be
applied to many differing situations, it is also a weakness, it is under-specified. Research supports STST
in general, finding benefits for productivity, motivation and well-being, especially popular in semi-
autonomous work groups (SAWGs): groups that were self-managing and divided tasks themselves.
There is little consideration for individual roles in STST.

3.7 Conclusions
JCM, DCSM, VM and STST indicate job autonomy and skill use, but do not provide training. All models
are led top-down, permanent changes to enhance well-being and performance. STST little less top-down
approach. All models concentrate on static changes to job design, DCSM and STST little less static. All
models are developed in not fast changing organizations. JCM focuses only on positive features, DCSM
and VM also included negative characteristics, ERI included personal behaviour patterns.