High Technology Letters ISSN NO : 1006-6748

IMPACT OF JOB DESIGN ON MEANINGFUL WORK AMONG COLLEGE

TEACHERS

S. Girija*Research Scholar, Annamalai University, Chidambaram

Dr. K.K. Sabarirajan** Associate Professor, Annamalai University, Chidambaram

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of job design on meaningful work in
the Arts and Science colleges of Puducherry and which factors of job design highly influence
on meaningful work in the institutions. The study was conducted by using a random sample of
three arts and science colleges in Puducherry. Assistant and Associate professors are
considered as respondents. The questionnaire of the study was of good quality after assuring
reliability and validity. Data were collected from 100 respondents which was 100% response
rate. In order to test the hypothesis with relationship between job design and meaningful work
the Pearson Correlation was applied. The results of the study showed a significant and positive
relationship between job design and meaningful work in the colleges. Found relationship was
significant (correlation coefficient was .683 that was significant at 0.01 level) implying that
college should adopt an effective task identity, autonomy and feedback in order to improve
teachers’ meaningful work in the colleges.
Keywords: Job design, College teachers, Meaningful work.

Introduction

Meaningful work refers to work that employees perceive as significant in that it serves an
important purpose (Pratt & Ashforth, 2003). In the field of social sciences, meaningful work is
often described as the job characteristic that employees value the most (Grant, 2007; Harpaz &
Fu, 2002). Some scholars make a stronger statement about meaningful work and regard it as a
fundamental right (Frankl, 1959; Yeoman, 2014). Meaningless work, in contrast, is described
by scholars as disengaging, alienating and disfranchising (Nair &Vohra, 2009; Shantz, Alfes,
& Truss, 2014).

Steger et al. (2012) state that meaningful work comprises more than that which their work
means to people (i.e. meaning). Their definition of meaningful work includes meaningfulness
because it is significant and positive in valence. The positive valence of meaningful work has
‘a eudemonic (growth- and purpose-oriented) rather than hedonic focus’. Steger et al. (2012)
conceptualised meaningful work in terms of three dimensions, namely psychological
meaningfulness, meaning making and greater good motivations. Psychological meaningfulness
in work is a subjective experience that one’s work matters and is significant. Meaning making

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High Technology Letters ISSN NO : 1006-6748

through work captures the idea that work is a primary source of meaning in one’s life. In this
regard, meaningful work helps people in understanding their selves and the world around them.
Greater good motivations reflect the desire to make a difference and to have a bigger impact
on others.Four factors could contribute to meaningful work (Pratt & Ashforth, 2003). Firstly,
work is meaningful when there is a fit between individuals and the organisation’s values and
mission. Secondly, the nature of the task (e.g. the significance, purposefulness and
comprehensibility thereof) contributes to meaningful work. Thirdly, the camaraderie people
experience in their workplace relationships results in experiences of meaningful work.
Fourthly, meaningful work is associated with work beliefs, for example, whether work is
believed to be a calling (Wrzesniewski, 2012; Wrzesniewski, McCauley, Rozin & Schwartz,
1997). A strong effect of work role fit on teachers’ experiences of meaningful work has been
shown in the study of Janik and Rothmann (2015). Therefore, this study focused on the last
three variables, namely the nature of the task, co-worker relationships and calling as a work
orientation as drives of meaningful work.

Job design
In the view of Opatha (2002), ‘Job design is the functions of arranging task, duties and
responsibilities in to an organizational unit of work’. The working definition for the study
purpose is that, ‘The job design is the way to organize the contents, methods and relationship
of jobs in order to achieve organizational goals and objectives as well as satisfaction of job
holders. There are various approaches to job design. Regarding this Aswathappa (2006)
explained that, various approaches to job design are namely; Job Rotation, Job Engineering,
Job Enlargement, and Job Enrichment.

According to the job characteristics model (Hackman & Oldham, 1980), various job
characteristics, namely autonomy, task identity, skill variety, task significance and feedback,
might affect experienced meaningfulness. Autonomy refers to using personal initiative and
judgment to perform tasks. Task identity entails doing an entire piece of work from beginning
to end. Skill variety relates to the complexity of competencies that an individual has to master
at work. Task significance refers to the opportunity to perform significant tasks. Feedback
entails knowing whether individuals perform well. High levels of these characteristics lead to
experiences of meaningful work. Research by May et al. (2004) as well as Janik and Rothmann
(2015) confirmed that the above-mentioned job characteristics had direct positive effects on
teachers’ experiences of psychological meaningfulness. Also, Grant (2008) pointed out that a
job that positively impacts the lives of others (which is possible in teaching jobs) will enhance

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High Technology Letters ISSN NO : 1006-6748

its significance. Job characteristics could affect the significance of teachers’ jobs as well as
deepened purposes that underlie greater good motivations (Kahn & Heaphy, 2014).

Aim and hypotheses

The objective of this study was to investigate whether Job Design significantly relates to
Meaningful work for College Teachers in Puducherry. To find out the effectiveness of college
teachers meaningful work towards job design. The following hypotheses were set for this
study:

Hypothesis 1: A good job design is positively associated with meaningful work.

Hypothesis 2: A good job design has a significant relationship between meaningful work.

Research Methodology

To fulfil the set objective of the proposed study, the data shall be collected through both
primary and secondary sources.

Research Design: Descriptive type of research method will be utilized in the study. Overall
the study will be descriptive in nature implying natural observation of the characteristics of the
research subject without deliberate manipulation of the variables or control over the settings.

Data collection sources: To get a complete knowledge of the construct of Job Design, its
operation and implications, primary and secondary data from every possible source will be
obtained. Primary data will be collected by using questionnaire. And most of the secondary
data literature will be studied from books, journals, case studies, Universities websites, and
educational publications, newspapers and researches done on this construct and data shall also
be collected from internet websites, which will facilitate recent trends and information in this
area of research.

The study population: The study will cover teaching workforce employed in Colleges in
Puducherry. Puducherry comprises of Private Colleges affiliated to Pondicherry University.

Sampling technique and sample size: Respondents will be drawn from colleges located in
Puducherry. These colleges have been selected as it has maximum number of teaching staff in
its area. For the purpose of better representation, quota sampling technique will be followed to
draw the sample. The respondents will be drawn from both the types of colleges. The sample
will consist of approximately 100 respondents well spread into all categories.

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High Technology Letters ISSN NO : 1006-6748

The Research Instrument: Data will be collected using a structured questionnaire to be

designed for fulfilling each of the objectives. The standardized instrument Job Diagnostic
Survey Questionnaire will be used for measuring Job design. This measure is consisting of 10
items aiming to know the scale from 5(Strongly Agree) to 1(Strongly Disagree).

Statistical Analysis: The filled in questionnaires will be checked for completeness and then
analysed with the help of SPSS. Other appropriate statistical techniques and tests will also be
used according to the need and usage of scales in the data collection instrument to arrive at
authentic conclusions.

Figure: 1 Schematic Diagram of the Research Framework

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Job Design Meaningful Work

The Revised Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS, Hackman and Oldham 1975) is the second variable
used to measure individuals’ reactions to job characteristics. These are considered with five
categories namely Skill variety, Task identity, Task significance, Autonomy and Feedback.
Based on the pretests and references made with 10 components were included in the instrument,
these includes certain statements depending on the perception of the job design of teachers at
Arts and Science college, Puducherry. These 10 components were presented to the respondents
in the form of 10 statements. The respondents were asked to indicate the extent of agreement
/ disagreement in the five point Likert scale (1= strongly disagree, 5= strongly agree). Using
the 5 point scale, the minimum score obtained was 10 and the maximum score was 50. The
totality of this scale represents the intensity of job design faced by the teachers in Arts and
Science College, Puducherry. In addition, scores of 38 to 50 indicate that respondents were
facing high level of job characteristics; Scores of 24 to 37 indicate that respondents were facing
medium level of job characteristics; Scores of 10 to 23 indicate that respondents were facing
low level of job characteristics.

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High Technology Letters ISSN NO : 1006-6748

Table 1: Categorization of respondents based on level of opinion about Job design Category

Category Frequency Percent

Bad 38 38.0

Fair 42 42.0

Good 20 20.0

Total 100 100.0

Figure 1: Categorization of respondents based on level of opinion about Job design Category

45
42%
40 38%
35
30
Percentage

25 20%
20
15
10
5
0
Bad Fair Good
Job Design

The table 1 and Fig. 2 specifies the number of respondents in each category, categorized based
on their level of opinion about job design. Out of the total 100 respondents, 42% respondents
were found to be with fair opinion about job design, 38% respondents were found to be with
bad opinion about job design and the rest of 20% respondents were found to be with good
opinion about job design. As a result, majority of the respondents (42%) were found to be with
fair opinion about job design.

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High Technology Letters ISSN NO : 1006-6748

Table 2: Descriptive Statistics of Job Design factors among college teachers Meaningful
work

S.D MEAN RANK

Factors

Task Identity .889 3.84 4

Task Significance .748 3.98 2

Feedback .705 3.92 3

Skill Variety .508 4.08 1

Autonomy 1.304 3.17 5

(Source: Primary Data)

Table: 3 Correlation between Job Design and Meaningful Work

Correlation between the Pearson Correlation .683

Job Design and
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
Meaningful Work among
teachers N 100
(Source: Primary data)

According to table Pearson correlation is 0.683 suggesting that there is a positive relationship
between Job Design and Meaningful work. As the significant value (0.000) is smaller than the
desired level of significance (0.005), the found correlation coefficient (0.683) is statistically
significant. Hence alternative hypothesis can be accepted while rejecting the null hypothesis.
Therefore, there is statistical evidence to claim that there is a significant relationship between
Job Design of an institution and meaningful work.

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High Technology Letters ISSN NO : 1006-6748

From the table 2 it is found that for the purpose of enhancing quality level of Job Design it is
essential to work on all 5 dimensions, i.e., Skill Variety, Task Identity, Task Significance,
Autonomy and Feed Back.

A finding derived from univariative analysis if the data was that quality level of Job design in
colleges is high implying that it some degree of improvements are needed to reach the level of
very high. The dimensions of skill variety, task significance are very high level in terms of
quality. Regarding other three elements namely- task identity, feedback & autonomy are just
high level in terms of quality under the univariative analysis. An implication is that more
attention has to be given to improving task identity, feedback & autonomy so as to improve
quality level of Job Design for college teachers that they can improve their employees’
performance in achieving quality students.

Conclusion

The results identified in this study are the prediction made by the researchers regarding a
significant and positive relationship between Job Design and meaningful work of College
Teachers. The teachers in these institutions must have the task identity to enrich the work given
by the management. The autonomy plays a vital role in handling a job, hence the management
should encourage innovative decisions taken by each and every individual in the institution
which enhances the feedback. This enriches the improvement of quality of Job design and
meaningful work in the institution.

References:

1. Aswathappa.K, (2006), ‘Job Analysis and Job Design’, Human Resource and Personal
Management, 4th Edition, pp.93-125, India: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company
Limited.
2. Opatha.H.H.D.N.P, (2002), Performance Evaluation of Human Resource, 1st Edition,
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3. Wrzesniewski, A. (2003). Finding positive meaning in work. In K. S Cameron, J. E.

Dutton&R.E.Quinn(Eds).The Oxford handbook of positive organizational scholarship
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Cameron&G.MSpreitzer(Eds.),The Oxford handbook of positive organizational sc
holarship (pp. 45–56). New York: Oxford University Press.

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4. Steger, M.F., Littman-Ovadia, H., Miller, M., Menger, L., & Rothmann, S. (2013).
Engaging in work even when it is meaningless: Positive affective disposition and
meaningful work interact in relation to work engagement.
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5. Pratt, M.G., & Ashforth, B.E. (2003). Fostering meaningfulness in working and at
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6. Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and

disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 692–724. Kahn, W.A.,
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7. Grant, A. M. (2008). The significance of task significance: Job performance effects,

relational mechanisms, and boundary conditions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93,
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8. Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1980). Work redesign. Reading, MA: Addison-
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