Questions: Work Design and Job Characteristics

Question 1

According to the Job Characteristics Model, which of the following job changes would most increase experienced meaningfulness of work?

• A. Installing a performance dashboard that gives real-time production data (feedback)
• B. Allowing the worker to choose their own schedule and methods (autonomy)
• C. Expanding the job to include a wider range of tasks, completing a whole identifiable piece of work, and making the impact on end users visible (skill variety + task identity + task significance)
• D. Adding a second worker to share the same tasks (social support)

Answer: (C)

In the JCM, experienced meaningfulness is produced by three core dimensions: skill variety (using different skills and talents), task identity (completing a whole, identifiable piece of work from beginning to end), and task significance (the job has a meaningful impact on others). These three dimensions are combined in the Motivating Potential Score formula: MPS = ((SV + TI + TS) / 3) x Autonomy x Feedback. The averaging of the three meaningfulness dimensions means that increasing any one of them contributes to meaningfulness, but the multiplicative relationship with autonomy and feedback means that meaningfulness alone is insufficient — high meaningfulness with zero autonomy or zero feedback still produces an MPS of zero.

Question 2

Job crafting differs from job enrichment in that job crafting is initiated by the employee rather than designed by management. A factory worker who has no authority to change their tasks cannot engage in any form of job crafting.

• T. True
• F. False

Answer: False

Wrzesniewski and Dutton's (2001) job crafting model identifies three forms: task crafting (changing the scope or nature of tasks), relational crafting (changing who you interact with and how), and cognitive crafting (changing how you perceive and interpret the meaning of your work). Even in highly constrained jobs, cognitive crafting is available — a hospital janitor who reframes their work as contributing to patient healing rather than merely cleaning rooms has crafted the cognitive boundaries of the job without changing any tasks. Relational crafting is also possible in most settings — choosing to interact more with certain coworkers, patients, or customers. The key insight is that job crafting recognizes employees as active agents who shape their work experience, not passive recipients of managerial job design.

Question 3

Herzberg's two-factor theory and Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Model both address what makes work motivating. How do their prescriptions differ, and which has stronger empirical support?

Model answer: Herzberg distinguished 'motivators' (achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement) from 'hygiene factors' (company policy, supervision, salary, working conditions) and claimed only motivators produce satisfaction while hygiene factors only prevent dissatisfaction. Hackman and Oldham specified five measurable job characteristics that predict motivation through three psychological states, with individual moderators. The JCM has stronger empirical support because it is more precisely specified and testable: the five dimensions can be measured with the Job Diagnostic Survey, the psychological states can be assessed, and the moderating role of growth need strength can be tested. Herzberg's two-factor structure has not held up well — pay and working conditions can function as motivators, and the motivator-hygiene distinction appears to be an artifact of Herzberg's critical incident methodology. However, both theories agree on the central prescription: enriching job content (more autonomy, variety, significance) is more effective for motivation than improving peripheral conditions.

The JCM meta-analysis by Fried and Ferris (1987) found that the five core dimensions correlate with satisfaction (.39-.68) and internal motivation (.32-.46), supporting the model's basic predictions. However, the multiplicative MPS formula is not clearly superior to additive combinations, and the mediating role of the three psychological states has received mixed support. The model works better as a diagnostic tool (identifying which dimensions are low) than as a precise mathematical formula. Modern work design research has expanded beyond the JCM to include social characteristics (interdependence, social support, interaction outside the organization) and knowledge characteristics (job complexity, information processing, problem solving, specialization) that the original model underemphasized.