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Motivationmodel Hackman

Hackman and Oldham developed the Job Characteristics Model to understand how to design satisfying jobs. The model identifies five core job dimensions - skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback - that influence three critical psychological states and lead to positive work outcomes. Testing of the model found it had strong validity in predicting job satisfaction and motivation. The model provides a framework for enriching jobs through strategies like job enlargement, increased autonomy and feedback.

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39 views5 pages

Motivationmodel Hackman

Hackman and Oldham developed the Job Characteristics Model to understand how to design satisfying jobs. The model identifies five core job dimensions - skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback - that influence three critical psychological states and lead to positive work outcomes. Testing of the model found it had strong validity in predicting job satisfaction and motivation. The model provides a framework for enriching jobs through strategies like job enlargement, increased autonomy and feedback.

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ricknl20029079
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Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics

Understanding the Basis of Job Enrichment


If you can provide satisfying work, then you're more likely to have happy
and highly motivated workers. That's why it's so important to design
work so that people's jobs are as satisfying as possible.
But how can you create this job satisfaction? That isn't quite so clear,
and many ideas and theories have emerged over the years. J. Richard
Hackman and Greg Oldham looked at many of these job motivation the-
ories in 1976, and developed a key model of work design called the Job
Characteristics Model. It has since become the basis for many job en-
richment strategies.

The Background
Many motivational theorists believe that enriching people's work is key
to developing a sense of motivation within them. They argue that this
then translates into increased job satisfaction and productivity.
Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_74.htm started the
push toward work redesign by describing a variety of motivating factors,
such as recognition and promotion opportunities, that must be present
in a job for it to be motivating.

These job enrichment


http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_81.htm theories were
supplemented with findings from people like Clayton Alderfer
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_78.htm. He found that
motivating factors are very individualized. In other words, when design-
ing motivating jobs, you must pay attention to individual needs.

The Job Characteristics Model


The Job Characteristics Model starts at this point. It suggests five core
job dimensions that must be present to generate positive work out-
comes. These then lead to three psychological states, and these states
influence desirable work outcomes.

The model is made up of these elements:

Core Job Dimensions

How satisfying a job is can be measured according to these five dimen-


sions:

• Skill variety – This describes the range of skills and activities neces-
sary to complete the job. The more a worker is challenged to use
a wide variety of skills, the more satisfying the job is likely to be.
Jobs that ask workers to make decisions and solve problems will
usually be more satisfying than jobs with tasks that are routine
and predictable.

• Task identity – This dimension measures the degree to which a per-


son can complete an activity or job in full. Workers who are able
to take an activity from start to finish are usually more satisfied.
For example, sewing an entire dress would be more satisfying
than just sewing buttons onto it.

• Task significance – This looks at the impact and influence of a job.


Jobs are more satisfying if workers believe that they make a dif-
ference, and are adding real value to co-workers, the organiza-
tion, or the larger community. For example, if a worker is inter-
ested in sports, constructing signs for the Olympic games would
be more satisfying than constructing signs for a new business
park.

• Autonomy – This describes the amount of individual choice and dis-


cretion involved in a job. More autonomy leads to more satisfac-
tion. For instance, a job is likely to be more satisfying if people
are involved in making decisions, instead of simply being told
what to do.

• Feedback – This dimension measures the amount of information a


worker receives about his or her performance, and the extent to
which he or she can see the impact of the work. The more that
people are told about their performance, the more interested
they'll be in doing a good job.

Critical Psychological States

According to Hackman and Oldham, these core job dimensions lead, to


a greater or lesser extent, to three different psychological states. These
are:

• Experienced meaningfulness of the work – This is the extent to


which people believe that their job is meaningful, and that their
work is valued and appreciated.

• Experienced responsibility for the outcomes of work – This is the


extent to which people feel accountable for the results of their
work, and for the outcomes they have produced.

• Knowledge of the actual results of the work activity – This is the


extent to which people know how well they're doing.
According to the model, where people experience these states to a
great extent, they improve their outcomes, do higher quality work, and
contribute more meaningfully to the organization. This is what every
manager wants!

Motivating Potential Score (MPS)

Using the five core job dimensions, you can score each job by its poten-
tial to motivate people. This is shown by the equation below:

From this equation, we can see that autonomy and feedback carry more
weight than any of the first three job dimensions. For instance, a job can
be low on skill variety and still have a reasonable MPS if autonomy or
feedback are high. A job that's low on either autonomy or feedback,
though, will be scored significantly lower.
Note 1:

The model is strongly affected by individuals' needs for personal growth.


People who have high growth needs will respond more positively to a job with
a high MPS. Perhaps they care more about their work!

Note 2:
Assessment of these dimensions is necessarily quite subjective. When using
this approach, make sure that you're as consistent as possible in your judg-
ment when you're comparing one job with another.

Testing the Model


To test the Job Characteristics Model, Hackman and Oldham created a
Job Diagnostic Survey that measured the key variables described in
their model. They administered this survey to 658 workers, in 62 jobs,
across seven industrial and service organizations.

The survey asked workers to describe their jobs objectively, and re-
searchers also observed the jobs for one or two hours. Then the super-
visors and researchers rated the jobs themselves. Finally, managers
were asked to rate worker performance. These results were then corre-
lated, with the results that the Job Characteristics Model was found to
have strong validity.

Using the Model


Using this model, you can do the following to improve and enrich jobs in
your organization:

• Combine tasks to increase skill variety and improve task identity.


Job enlargement and job rotation are popular strategies for ac-
complishing this.

• Assign larger, more significant tasks to people, so that they feel con-
nected to and accountable for results. This increases task iden-
tity and significance.

• Ask workers for their ideas and perceptions related to task signifi-
cance. If the job itself isn't socially significant, you can find ways
to contribute to the community through workplace fundraising and
other events.

• Increase participation in decision-making, and delegate more respon-


sibility in order to improve autonomy.
• Open channels of communication to improve the frequency and qual-
ity of feedback.

• Share feedback from customers, clients, and other stakeholders.


See our article on job enrichment
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_81.htm for more
ideas on improving job design, and see our self-test "How Good are
Your Motivation Skills?
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_67.htm" for more on
motivating people.

Limits of the Model


The Job Characteristics Model considers only job-related factors that
can be changed to increase the positive work behaviors and outcomes
(such as higher performance and less absenteeism). It doesn't look at
how relationships and other interpersonal issues affect job satisfaction
and performance. (See our articles on Sirota's Three Factor Theory
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_57.htm, and Motivat-
ing Without Bonuses
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_31.htm for more on
these.)

Also, it does not address teamwork, simply because the survey was de-
signed to assess individual work. Since this model was introduced, it
has been tested in team settings, and the basic ideas hold true.

Key Points
The Job Characteristics Model provides us with a foundation for creat-
ing and designing jobs that people will want to do well. The model has
been rigorously tested, and shown to outline key strategies for making
work more satisfying and motivating.

Key to this is providing jobs in which people can use many different
skills, that are significant in scope, and that people are proud of. Provid-
ing feedback and allowing workers to take significant responsibility for
their work are also important. Other factors will ultimately influence job
performance, but if you use these characteristics as a starting point,
you'll be on the right track.

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