Preview

Organizational Behaviour and Design

Best Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2388 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Organizational Behaviour and Design
NEWCASTLE BUSINESS SCHOOL

Organizational Behaviour and Design

Argumentative Essays for Organizational Behaviour

The argumentative chosen for this essay is:

“Designing jobs that meet the characteristics of skill variety, autonomy and feedback, can result in improved motivation and work effectiveness”. Discuss the pros and cons of this argument.

I. INTRODUCTION

It seems that the argument derives from the Job Characteristics Theory (JCT) model developed by Hackman and Oldham (1980) who attempt to define the association between core job dimensions (characteristics of a person's job) and work outcomes. According to JCT, organizations with sufficient levels of all the five characteristics to their employees in job setting will lead to improved motivation and work effectiveness. But apparently the characteristics mentioned in the argument are only three out of the five which are required under the JCT model. With wide literature review and empirical evidence check from researches, this paper examines its pros and cons for this argument and conducts further critical analysis. II. Argumentative Analysis

2.1 Brief introduction to the argument and its theoretical origin
It seems that the argument statement derives from the Job Characteristics Theory (JCT); therefore it is necessary have a quick review of the JCT model. The model has five core job dimensions (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback) as shown in the figure below.

The 5 characteristic dimensions affect the psychological states which in turn affect work outcomes such as internal motivation and better performance (Jex and Britt, 2008).
Skill variety refers to the extent to which multiple high-level skills are required for a job.
Autonomy is the level of freedom or authority on which an employee can decide how to perform tasks for a job.
Feedback refers to the degree about how an employee gets the information about their

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Gvnvnc

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages

    5.Skill variety, task identity, task significance and autonomy are major factors necessary for job enrichment. True…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Utilizing the two previous methods of motivation based on the needs of staff, a manager can then create jobs by assigning the required tasks to those individuals who are appropriate to accomplish job performance and job satisfaction for themselves as well as the organization. To make the future changes the organization is anticipating it is essential that the managers utilize their skills to “tailor job design” (Lombardi, Schermerhorn, 2007), to fit the strengths of staff with their own specific qualities and needs, this includes four specific areas, one, job simplification: identifying work processes and tasks for staff to work in clearly defined and specialized tasks. Managers can utilize lesser skilled staff to perform duties of lesser complexity, allowing others with higher skill levels to focus on areas of greater need. Job rotation allows the manager to create flexibility and understanding of other areas, creating a better relationship and moral between departments. Job enlargement integrates or combines tasks previously done by separate workers, this is an option that a manager should do with caution because it could have an opposite reaction to the motivation they are trying to create. The final alternative in job design is job enrichment which is essentially delegating some of the responsibilities of the manager to another individual creating a broader scope to their current position and…

    • 1266 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The job characteristics model has five components that enhance employee jobs – skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Give an example illustrating how each component can be used to improve the organization and the job of the employee. (Suggestion: Consider your present or a recent job to answer this question.)…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    To understand what motivates the workforce it is important to look at the relevant theories behind the issue. According to Agarwal (2010) the main theories can be categorised under…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Job Enrichment

    • 1546 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Workforce involvement in decision-making may also be consistent with job enrichment practices (Spence Laschinger et al. 2004). Job enrichment involves providing increased levels of responsibility to lower level employees, including the delegation of work tasks previously undertaken by supervisors, and the provision of increasingly skilled tasks to line employees. The theoretical basis for enrichment efforts is Hackman and Oldham 's (1975) 'job characteristics ' model, which explores how a combination of specific job characteristics such as skill variety and task significance affect the individual 's experience of meaningful work and their sense of responsibility for work outcomes. These characteristics have, in turn, been linked to improvements in work motivation, job satisfaction and work quality, reduced absenteeism and lower labour turnover (Ford 1969; Hackman et al. 1975).…

    • 1546 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Joe Salatino is the President of the 35-year old company, the Great Northern American. Salatino gauges his success by the amount he pays his employees, and so far he has been successful. His sales team is a self-motivated and highly energetic. Their tactic is simple they motivate their 30 person sales staff with commission and bonuses. The quality and dedication of their employees is what has made this company the success it has become. Joe’s employees attribute their personal success to four main factors, ability, effort, task-difficulty, and luck. By this it can be assumed that they will succeed because they were capable of doing the job, that it their ability attribute. The effort attribute is because they logged the time, and worked hard at reaching their client base. Task-difficulty is easily overcome when the necessary effort is being made. This is how their success was achieved, because they overcame the difficulties. Finally consider luck. Even with ability, effort, task-difficulty they have to attribute a certain amount to luck. Consider time and mood of the individual to coincide with the luck of the employee. Joe’s employees do need to understand the importance of how people form perception and makes attributions. “It is not hard to see how the assumption that high job satisfaction leads to high performance came to be popularly accepted.” (Lawler & Porter 2008) It is equally safe to say that job performance and satisfaction is directly affected by ones personality as well. If one is well in control of their thinking and personality characteristics that will directly control their job performance and satisfaction. An example would be Susan, she has…

    • 1542 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Job characteristics are theories identifying how job characteristics affect job outcomes and the characteristics identifies the job characteristics in to five categories. The skill are, autonomy, task significance, task identity and feedback, and the outcomes of high job performance, high job satisfaction, high intrinsic motivation, and low absenteeism or turnover.…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sales Organisation

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The degree to which individuals perform some of the required tasks to the exclusion of others. Individuals can become experts on certain tasks, leading to better performance for the entire organization.…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Exam 3 Study Guide

    • 1769 Words
    • 8 Pages

    * Job characteristics model: an approach that focuses on the motivational attributes of jobs by emphasizing three sets of variables: core job characteristics, critical psychological states and outcomes…

    • 1769 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    job performance

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Ample evidence in previous research suggests that jobs that have high degree of skill variety, task significance, task identity, autonomy and feedback result in higher intrinsic rewards among job incumbents. The theory has been tested in recent studies conducted within contemporary work settings and the outcomes are still consistent with the prior findings (De Varo, et.al. 2001). All these research found that job incumbents tend to experience improved job performance resulting in positive internal reinforcement. This positive reinforcement would then serve as an incentive to further enhance on their job performance. Past studies on job satisfaction also found significant relationships with employee turnover, absenteeism , and organizational citizenship behavior (Organ & Ryan, 2008), and performance and motivation (Ostroff, 2012). That is, job satisfaction is influenced by ‘motivating’ factors such as interesting work, challenging task, opportunities to make decisions and accountability…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Motivation by Job Design

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Most research in job design suggests taking a look at the aspect of job structure. This structure tells us how these elements in a job are organized can act to increase or decrease effort. When I took a look at the Job Characteristics Model (JCM) it describes five core job dimensions that managers should look into to increase motivation within employees. I have heard employees say “I only come to work for this easy check, there is nothing to do here but eat, sleep and the most work if any is when a resident decides to act out. I wondered about those statements and ask myself ' Do they like their job, do they want to be here, and most of all are they committed or can they become committed? This is why I thought, Motivating by Job Design: The Job Characteristics Model was interesting. The dimensions are as follow,…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Spot Collection

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages

    From the Kulik et al (1987) reading, explain in detail the mechanism by which job characteristics influence employee outcomes. Additionally, if you increased the employee’s skill variety in his or her job, what effect…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Job characteristics model: It provides an insight to understand behavioral pattern of individuals and to adjust job accordingly so that individuals could be more productive.…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The job characteristics model offers such a framework. It identifies five primary job characteristics, interrelationship, and impact on employee productivity, motivation, and satisfaction. (Hakman, Lawler, 1994)…

    • 2173 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Job Characteristics Model is the result of two OB researchers, J Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham, who tried to discover how work can be designed to provide internally or intrinsically motivation to employees. [ (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010) ] (pg232) Intrinsic motivation is the internal feeling of accomplishing a good job instead of the pay motivates…

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays