The Electricity of Job Enrichment
The Hackman and Oldham model explains more precisely how managers can enrich people's jobs. In this activity, you will have a chance to consider a person's job as it relates to the core job dimensions of Hackman and Oldham's model and decide whether or not the job leads to high motivation based on the five core job dimensions.
Following Herzberg's work, Hackman and Oldham proposed a more complete model of job design. Exhibit 13.7 in the text illustrates their model. Well-designed jobs lead to high motivation, high-quality performance, high satisfaction, and low absenteeism and turnover. These outcomes occur when people experience three critical psychological states (noted in the middle column of the figure):
1. They believe they are doing something meaningful because their work is important to other people.
2. They feel personally responsible for how the work turns out.
3. They learn how well they perform their jobs.
These psychological states occur when people are working on enriched jobs; that is, jobs that offer five core job dimensions: (1) skill variety, (2) task identity, (3) task significance, (4) autonomy, and (5) feedback. The most effective job enrichment increases all five core dimensions.
Read the case below and answer the questions that follow.
Michaela works as an electrician and was recently sitting with a friend and explaining her job. "When I enter a job site, there is virtually nothing except the framing and a few walls. I'm responsible for pulling the electric from the main source, wiring the site, putting in the breakers, working with the customers to identify their lighting and electrical needs, and then installing the lights, the plugs, and anything else they may need like timers. By the time I leave, there is lighting throughout the site. It's pretty great, seeing something go from nothing to completion. I also really like how I have full control over the process—when I'm sent out on a job, it's just me to make all the decisions. It's just me and the electricity. If I make a mistake along the way, it tells me—I either get shocked, there won't be power, or the lights will work! No questions there, that's for sure! Yes, it's hard work, and I never know exactly what my day will involve. Sometimes, I'm talking with clients in an effort to find out just what they want. Other days, I'm doing paperwork costing out jobs and monitoring how we're doing on expenses. Then, on some days, I'm actually out in the field on site doing the kind of job I described earlier, where I'm handling everything from cradle to grave. Many people think being an electrician is just a boring, blue-collar job. But in reality, electricity is something that is very, very important for people, and if I do it well, they'll be happy. If I do it poorly, their lives are at stake. Can you imagine if I did a poor job and one day the building had an electrical fire?"
1. Identify which core job dimension from the Hackman and Oldham Model motivates Michaela when she states she handles "everything from cradle to grave".
task identity
skill variety
task significance
2. Which of the core job dimensions is indicated by Michaela's ability to complete paperwork, communicate, problem solve, and install electrical wiring and component parts?
coordination
expectancy
skill variety
3. Michaela stated that "...electricity is something that is very, very important for people…". Which of the core job dimensions is met by this statement?
task significance
hygiene factors
task identity
4. When Michaela describes how she has full control over a job and she gets to make all of the decisions, she is experiencing which part of the job design model?
task identity
task significance
autonomy