14-1

Applied Motivation:
The Job
Characteristics Model
and Job Redesign
(Applying Intrinsic
Motivation to the
leadership / work
setting )
 14-2

--French aviator and

novelist Antoine de
Saint-Exupery (author
of Le Petit Prince).
 14-3

Chapter Outline

 The General Problem –

alienation, lower satisfaction, and
lower motivation / performance.
 Performance-based (financial)
reward practices
 Conceptual Frameworks for
Analyzing Work Tasks/Job design
 Job / Work Redesign, Motivation,
Costs and Productivity and
examples
 The Service-Profit Chain
 14-4
The General Problem:
Modern work and
demotivation
 Modern work can be very demotivating
 Recent research in Hong Kong and elsewhere
has shown that employees feel quite a bit of
stress and are demoralized.
 This is partly due to job security and wages, but
is also because of a lack of intrinsic motivation
and satisfaction with the job itself and bosses’
failure to set goals and help employees toward
measurable outcomes that are significant to
them.
 Also, a lack of understanding of basic job design
principles (‘applied motivation’) hinders
motivation (and performance)

 QUESTION: How do you motivate

subordinates (and even coworkers) if you
have no financial incentives (or the
incentives are not going to work due to the
situation)?
 14-5
Intrinsic Motivation is the general
answer, but these notes give
specifics
Sisyphus & “Loe Fung”
 Intrinsic Motivation was discussed in the motivation
chapter in terms of interesting work and life
interests. There are other ways to build intrinsic
motivation in employees and yourself

 Homer wrote that the (Greek) gods condemned

Sisyphus to ceaselessly roll a rock to the top of a
mountain, whence the rock would roll back down
again. They thought with some reason that there is
no more dreadful punishment than futile and
hopeless labor – no hope of success or a sense of
accomplishment. --from Albert Camus

 The lack of identifying with such a “difficult” task (no

identifiable outcome), and no significance to the task
can highly demotivate and even create a sense of
hopelessness.
 The Axis powers used this approach during WWII
with prisoners in Europe and SE Asia.
--They forced prisoners of war to dig large holes and fill
them up again.
--Prisoners also would build brick walls and then knock
them down.
 14-6

Sisyphus
 14-7

老奉
“ Loe Fung”

Hong Kong people tell me

that many bosses 老奉
老細成日老奉要我做咁多口野！
i.e. the Boss takes me for
granted, expects everything to
be done with no recognition
or thanks.
*Refers to 奉旨 (fung ji – the
emperor’s instruction or command
in old China)
It seems to be that this one is true:
能者多勞 (Nang je do louh)
--The ones who can do, are given
more work.
 14-8

Catch crabs up a big

hill

上山捉蟹 [séuhng
sāan jūk háaih](To
catch crabs on a hill) –

Almost too difficult to

do
 14-9

Demotivation,
dissatisfaction and
alienation
 Demotivating and discouraging to do
tasks (and jobs) that are not given any
recognition hurts performance –
concept of dignifying work (Service
Master video case).
 Lack of job significance (“higher
meaning”) hurts motivation and
performance
 No feedback on performance hurts
performance
 No goals also hurt performance
 Sisyphus – the ‘god’ of futile and
hopeless labor, no job significance and
no task identity
 14-10
Job Satisfaction is Slipping
(similar numbers in HKG)
 14-11

Financial Reward
Practices
 Financial rewards --
fundamental part of
employment relationship
 Pay has multiple meanings
– symbol of success
– reinforcer and motivator
– reflection of performance
– Signals organization direction,
values
 Cultural values influence the
meaning and value of money
and the importance of equity
in societies (North Europe
and North America place
more emphasis on equity
© Corel Corp. With permission. than many other places;
Hong Kong tolerates {at least
on the surface} more inequity
6-11
and emphasizes merit).
 14-12

Performance-
Based Rewards

• Profit sharing
• Share ownership
Organizational • Stock options
rewards • Balanced scorecard

Team • Bonuses
rewards • Gainshare

• Bonuses
Individual • Commissions
rewards • Piece rate
• Competencies
(skills) learned
• Learning opportunities

6-12
 14-13
Improving Reward
Effectiveness
 Link rewards to
performance (as with
Expectancy theory)
 Ensure rewards are valued
(needs and job interests)
 Team rewards for ‘team’
jobs (e.g. quality control,
overall production, cost
control for office workers)
 Watch out for unintended
consequences – i.e. need
a quality control check on
financial rewards (even
banks like UBS and
Berings overlooked this)
© Corel Corp. With permission.

6-13
 14-14

Evaluating
Organizational
 Positive effects
Rewards
– Creates an “ownership culture”
– Adjusts pay with firm's prosperity
– Scorecards align rewards with several
specific organizational goals and outcomes
 Concerns with performance-based
pay – its not always about the money
– Weak connection between individual effort
and rewards
– Reward amounts affected by external forces
– Quality check on the output (be sure they are
not producing “junk” or doing a bad job fast,
just to make more money).
 QUESTION: how do you motivate when
more money is not available (or seems
that money is not the answer, as Butler
and Waldroop remind us in their Job
Sculpting HBR article)?
6-14
 14-15
Job / Work
Redesign (and
intrinsic
motivation)
 Helps to expand on two key
categories of employee ‘needs’ –
interesting work, and job
involvement (and better explain the
Army Ranger question, also the
motivation without more money
question).
 Explain the job characteristics
model (JCM)
 Additional Job Redesign options:
Job Rotation, Job Enrichment and
Job Enlargement
 Describe how a job can be enriched
 Compare Reengineering
 14-16

Exercise Question: How is a Navy

Seal or army ranger (e.g. special
forces) motivated to do a very
difficult and dangerous job? (same
for most military, firemen, but also
other tough and dirty jobs). i.e. ‘what
motivated you to charge up that hill,
or into a burning building?’

Two main reasons, but one is a very

big motivating factor
 [hint – as leaders and bosses, we need
to learn how to do this better / i.e.
make this clearer to the subordinates /
coworkers]
 See The Pacific short video, also
 P+G video (or SWA commercial)
 14-17
Job Design and the Job
Characteristics Model
(JCM -- including job
Employee growth
interests)
(via needs + job interests)

Critical Personal
Core job
psychological and work
dimensions
states outcomes

Skill variety (interests) Experienced High general

Task identity meaningfulness motivation/engagement;
Job significance of the work (who less stress, better health
is your work for)

Higher work motivation

Autonomy Experienced & work-performance
(involvement) responsibility
for outcomes
of the work Higher satisfaction
with work

Feedback (advice) Knowledge of the Lower absenteeism,

(recognition+learning) actual results turnover, pilferage
& goal achievement (e.g. Men’s Wearhouse has
of work activities .5% shrinkage rate / year
with no electronic
devices)
 14-18
Designing Jobs That Motivate: The
Job Characteristics Model
components - definitions
1. Skill variety – the extent to which a job
requires a variety of skills to carry out
the tasks involved (improved through job
rotation and job enrichment  also
Butler+Waldroop’s job interests /
Interesting work).
2. Task identity – the degree to which a
job requires completing a “whole” piece
of work from beginning to end, or at
least recognizing the job or its product.
3. Job significance – the extent to which
the job and your work has an important
impact on the lives of other (specific,
knowable) people (the recipients of your
work). You ‘know’ the person getting
your work and you feel some obligation
to that person (a form of reciprocity
also)
 Task identity and Job significance improves
meaningfulness and being in on things/ appreciation,
 14-19
Designing Jobs that
Motivate: The Job
Characteristics Model
(continued)

4. Autonomy – the degree to which the

job allows an individual to make
decisions about the way work will be
carried out. [similar to the ‘in on things’
of what workers want]
5. Feedback (recognition+learning)- the
extent to which a person receives clear
information about performance
effectiveness from the work itself.
[directly concerning performance – most
closely linked to goal setting]. Also,
when the job is tough, tell the employee
it is tough (good empathy from EI – i.e.
don’t downplay).
More on task identity / job significance14-20
 Task identity, job significance and other
actions in the Job Characteristics Model (JCM)
not only improves the employee’s motivation,
but increases satisfaction thus decreasing stress,
burnout and turnover (studies on teachers, sales
people, fundraisers, radiologists, customer
service positions facing customers all show good
results like this – across a range of professions
and ages)
1) The recipient of your work or product can
also benefit by being enabled to say ‘thanks.’
Research on gratitude shows that people’s
mental and physical health improves by keeping
a regular (e.g. weekly) ‘gratitude diary’
2) Recognition (for a good job) + feedback
(coaching, correction) is also important.
Recognition from boss/firm is very high on what
workers want. So is coaching. Even doctors
want their dept head to recognize their work.
For example, Radiologists (doctors) report they
get frustrated with low job significance and little
feedback regarding their work (‘the surgeon gets all
the credit’)
 14-21
The Empirical evidence for
Job redesign, motivation
and satisfaction is strong
 i.e. seeing (or being aware of) the
full job (task identity), ‘meeting or
knowing’ the customer or client or
coworker, and understanding their
needs’ (job significance) – leads to
higher motivation and better
performance, also lower turnover,
absenteeism and other negative
behaviors in organizations. This is
true even for high-level
professionals.
 And it also helps the recipient of the
work (your colleague or customer)
 14-22
Case Example -- Making a
job more significant: The
voice of the customer
Rolls Royce (Aircraft)
Engine Services in
California introduced
“Voice of the Customer,”
an initiative in which
customers talk to
production staff about how
the quality of these
engines are important to
them. “It gives employees
with relatively repetitive
jobs the sense that they're
not just working on a part
but rather are key in
keeping people safe”
explains a Rolls Royce
executive.
6-22
 14-23
Several major
experiments to show the
Motivational (and
performance) efficacy of
the Job Characteristics
Model for motivating
behavior and
performance
 Charity fundraising
 Healthcare and handwashing
 Diagnoses and report writing by
doctors
 Question: Generally speaking, how
can you use the first three main
components of the Job
Characteristics Model (Skill variety /
Job Interests; Task Identity; Job
Significance) to increase
motivation+satisfaction ?
 14-24
Example1: Charity / university
fundraisers
 Callers asking the university’s alumni
to give donations

– 350% annual turnover of callers

– Repetitive calls
– Standardized script
– Frequent rejections

 What 5-minute intervention could

increase motivation and performance:
i.e.:
– 500% increases per caller in weekly
revenue raised?
– 23 callers to bring in an extra $38,000 in
a matter of days?
 14-25
That is, how to motivate the
Charity Fundraisers (so work
harder, less turnover, and
improve performance)?
Remember that fundraising
was one of the best paid
non-academic jobs on
campus
 Pay-for-performance?
 Promotions?

 Those are extrinsic. How

about intrinsic motivators?
 14-26
Charity
Fundraising
Experiments

 Callers divided into two

groups:
Group 1 -- No exposure to
scholarship students
Group 2 – 5 minute
contact with scholarship
student (a short speech
from the student to the callers)

 Tracked changes in...

1) Persistence: time on
phone, number of calls
2) And Performance: Money
raised from donors
 14-27

Base level of phone calls

made by the fund raiser
Number of Calls Made in Month

100%
(base
level)
 14-28
5 minutes of contact with the
scholarship students led to
2.5x more phone calls (ie
harder working / motivated)by
the fund raiser)
250%
Number of Calls Made in Month

100%

No Contact Contact with

Scholarship Students
 14-29
Persistence
(motivation): number of
Calls Per Hour doubled
7
Met with
Scholarship
6 Student
Calls Per Hour

4
No
Exposure
3 to student

1 week 1 month
(pre- (post-intervention)
intervention)

Source: Grant, 2008, IPMJ

 14-30

Persistance-2 – Asking for

the donation more than
once
Average times asking for the donation

3.1

1.2

No Contact Contact (nearly 3x as

much with the
contacted staff)
 14-31
How about donation
amounts (work
performance)? Donation
also went up from from the
base level
Amount of Donation Raised

100%

No Contact Contact
 14-32
Much higher performance -- 5
times as much money raised in
the one-month period when
there was 5 minutes of contact
with 1 scholarship student
500%
Amount of Donation Raised

100%

No Contact Contact with

scholarship student (5
minute presentation)
 14-33
Question: What three components
of the job characteristics model
were improved in the charity fund-
raising case by showing the
employee the scholarship and
meeting with the scholarship
student?

1--Task identify (“this money is

scholarship money for students” –
ie the type of scholarship and how
it can be used)
2--Job significance (who is actually
getting your work—this student and
what are his / her needs)
3—Feedback on outcome (why
does it matter to the student, and
what is the possible outcome {what
is the student studying). Adds to
subsequent satisfaction for the
fund raiser.
 14-34

Ok, that was just for fund raisers.

How about motivating highly-paid
professionals like doctors to do a
better job. Can little things like the
JCM matter?

QUESTION: How about getting the

doctor and other healthcare
workers to wash their hands more
regularly at work?
 14-35

Example2: Doctors and

handwashing (task
identity, job significance)
 It took almost 40 years for medical doctors
and nurses to start washing their hands
before surgery, etc. (40 years after evidence
emerged that they should do this)
 But that was more than 100 years ago, wasn’t
it?
 Yes, but using evidence is still a problem
today (even in healthcare). Today, there is
more evidence about washing hands between
seeing patients, but many doctors (2/3) still
do not regularly comply.
 Consider a specific example from Evidence-
based Medicine (and the Job Characteristics
Model)
 14-36

Recent research shows doctors wash

their hands only about 1/3 of the
amount they should.

Question: What should a sign (in the

hospital) say to encourage them to wash
more?
Signs Reinforcing Everyday Impact
 14-37

Motivating doctors and other

health workers to wash their
hands

or
 Results of the two safety posters placed
in the washrooms of the hospitals
testing this (and a control)
[the next thing to study is how much illness is
prevented by a 50% increase in hand-washing]

100

80

55%
% 60
doctors
and
nurses
40
washing 35% 40%
their
hands
(and the 20
change
after
poster 1
0
or 2 were
displayed Poster 1 Poster 2
) Original (‘prevents (‘prevents
(control) levels you from patients
catching from
Source: Adam Grant
disease’) catching
& David A. Hofmann, 2011 disease’)
 14-39

There is one pretty immediate force

at work here, the motivation of job
significance outcome (maintaining
patient health). A second more
distant (‘distal’) force is the
influence principle ‘consistency. ‘

The doctors and nurses increased their

hand washing primarily due to the
motivating factor of job significance (the
outcome from the user –ie the patient). A
related factor is an influence factor, that
is, the consistency principle from
influence (i.e. Drs promised to ‘do no
harm’ that is, they committed to that, and
washing hands helps them follow
through on that promise).
 14-40

Example3
Ok, that is just hand washing. How
about some other performance
measures for physicians –can
these intrinsic motivators really
help?
-- Improving the radiologists’
diagnosis of patients’ CT scans
[a common problem for radiologists –
they often don’t see the patient (little
job significance), and don’t get the
‘feedback’ from the results till later].

Exercise--How to use the Job

Characteristics Model (task identity
and job significance and feedback)
to improve motivation and the
performance of the radiologists
looking at X-Rays, CT scans etc?
 Radiologists’ diagnosis of
patients’ CT scans

100%

80%

% who 60%
detected
an
abnorm
ality 40%

20%

0%
Radiologists Group 2 –saw
Group 1 – no the patient
patient photo photo
Radiologists’ diagnosis of the same
patients’ CT scans 3 months later
(long enough they didn’t recall the
patient)
100%

80%

% who 60%
detected
an
abnorm
ality 40%

20%

0%
Radiologists Group 2 –no
Group 1–saw the patient photo
patient photo
 Radiologists’ writing a report

10

Pages 6
of
report
about a
patient 4

0
Report length Report length
-no photo -photo
 Radiologists’ catching a key
diagnostic finding

100%

80%

% who 60%
Diagnosed
a key
(major)
finding 40%

20%

0%
Correctly made a Correctly made a
major diagnosis major diagnosis
-no photo -saw patient
photo first
Source: Adam Grant. 2013. Give and Take.
 Radiologists’ catching a key
diagnostic finding

100%

80%

% who 60%
Diagnosed
a key
(major)
finding 40%

20%

0%
Correctly made a Correctly made a
major diagnosis major diagnosis
-no photo -saw patient
photo first
Source: Adam Grant. 2013. Give and Take.
 Radiologists’ correcting a mistake –
attention better focused with job
significance

100%

80%

Corrected 60%
a mistake

40%

20%

0%
no photo, corrected saw photo,
a mistake corrected a
mistake

Source: Adam Grant. 2013. Give and Take, and various

Job enrichment (higher job involvement and
responsibility) and job enlargement (more / higher
level tasks) also yields higher job satisfaction –
common in healthcare today (giving more control and
more tasks to the nurses. And doctors often don’t
mind giving up those more routine medical decisions)
100%

80%

Satisfaction
60%

40%

20%

0%
Base rate Enriched
nursing job

Source: Job redesign in healthcare

 The JCM matters, especially task
identity, job significance, and feedback
– i.e. the results, or likely results of the
work – especially when it helped
someone and / or the company – tell
people about it, especially your
subordinates (they want to hear this –
feedback is a key criterion people want
from their jobs).

In addition, the job characteristics

model facilitates disruptive innovation
(i.e. job redesign allows the less
specialist workers to use the ‘simpler’
disruptive innovation to try to do some
tasks – ie empowering the lower end of
an organization, so the specialists can
focus on the higher-end specialty tasks
(very common in health care today).
Job redesign in healthcare – empowering nurses to do some
of the more routine tasks that physicians had to do before
(e.g. a list of 25 illnesses that nurses can now prescribe
medicine for)

Providing the lower end of firms more job involvement and

responsibility can facilitate the use of disruptive innovation
– lower end technologies and techniques that are more
available to the less trained employee or user – this will
lower the cost of, say, healthcare – empowering the lower
end to do some healthcare procedures.
 What about job satisfaction itself,
how does the Job Characteristics
Model help and what are the
model’s other outcomes (ie
beyond motivation and
specific performances)?

 Certainly providing feedback

(of results) help – doctors
complain they often don’t
know what happens to the
patient later (especially
radiologists – they say the
surgeon gets all the ‘credit’
from the patient’s family etc).
Service-Profit Chain (Job characteristics model
improves job satisfaction–has good outcomes)
 Job redesign (e.g. task identity, job significance, behavioral
feedback, responsibility, interesting work) improves employee
motivation and performance, but also satisfaction and
loyalty. This leads to other good outcomes beyond satisfaction
(less turnover, more repeat business), which also later return to
reinforce employee satisfaction and loyalty (recursive, reinforcing
relationship)
 Higher job satisfaction comes from
good JCM and ability to meet customer
needs (involvment+feedback)
Higher job satisfaction then leads
to low turnover turnover
 Low worker turnover hi customer satisfaction

Be careful not to change a major account to a ‘house account’ where no

sales/service person is dedicated to that account. Customers like to deal with
the same sales and service person – they are generally more satisfied.
 Higher job satisfaction in the service industry
especially leads to improved productivity, reduced job-
turnover (and other lower costs) and finally, improved
customer retention and sales (Hai Di Lao in restaurant)
 Hai Di Lao in the restaurant industry is a clear
example of improved employee satisfaction, leading
later to repeat business and strong inclination to
recommend the company (positive recommending is
a very strong marketing performance indicator).
 14-61
A few additional example: Task Identify & Job
Significance at General Motors
 Consider this story, from Maryann Keller's
excellent book Rude Awakening, about a GM plant
in Van Nuys, California. A supervisor there saw a
pair of assembly-line workers who kept failing to
install a bracket that held the car's sunshade in
place. If the bracket wasn't installed, at the end of
the line the car's carpet had to be torn out first and
the bracket welded into place.
 The supervisor decided to use some task identity
and job significance. He brought the two assembly
line ladies to the end of the line and said, “Look,
this is what happens when you miss one of those
[install the bracket incorrectly].“
 The supervisor then introduced the assembly line
ladies to the repair guy, who had to really work
hard to fix the problem. He showed them how he
had to tear out the carpet to fix the bracket
problem, and then replace the carpet.
 One woman then said, “You mean to tell me that
bracket holds the sunshade?” She had been doing
this job for two years and nobody had ever told her
what part she was welding (no task identity at all).
 Task identity was increased by showing her the
end product (carpet, sunshade, etc. in the car).
 Job significance was increased when the
supervisor introduced the assembly line workers to
the repair guy and the extra work he had to do to
fix their mistakes, and lost money for them.

Keller, Maryann. 1990. Rude awakening : the rise, fall, and struggle for
recovery of General Motors. New York : HarperPerennial.
 14-62
Task Identity -- USS Astoria
On the night and early
morning of August 8th and
9th 1942, the life of nineteen-
year-old Signalman 3rd Class
Elgin Staples of Akron, Ohio
was saved by someone over
8,000 miles away.
The USS Astoria was the first U.S. cruiser (small
battleship) to engage the Japanese during the
Battle of Savo Island, a night action fought August
8-9, 1942 off Guadalcanal island in the southwest
Pacific. It was fighting to cover the landings and
supply of US Marines on Guadalcanal.

About 2am Signalman 3rd Class Elgin Staples was

swept overboard by the blast when the number one
8-inch gun turret exploded. He was kept afloat by a
narrow life jacket that he managed to activate.

At around 6am, Staples was rescued by a passing

destroyer and returned to the Astoria, whose
captain was attempting to save the cruiser by
beaching her. The effort failed, and Staples, still
wearing the same life belt, found himself back in the
water. Picked up again, he was one of 500 survivors
in that difficult naval battle.
 14-63

Task Identity -- USS Astoria

On board the transport ship, he closely examined
the life jacket that had served him so well. It
had been manufactured by the Firestone Tire
and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio, and
bore a number – number 7.

Given leave much later in the US state of

Ohio, Staples asked his mother, who worked
for Firestone, about the purpose of that
number on the belt. She replied that the
company insisted on personal responsibility for
the war effort, and that the number was unique
and assigned to only one inspector.
Elgin Staples remembered everything about the
life jacket, which was very durable andvhad
saved his life. He noted to his mother the
number 7. It turned out it was his mother's
personal inspection code which was affixed to
every item she approved (She knew
everything about the product very well). She
had quality-control inspected the very life
jacket which saved her own son’s life.
Early US WW2 motivation poster
14-64
 14-65

In Russian (USSR) aviation

factories – powerful aviation
of the country
UK WW1 motivation poster (job significance)
14-66
 14-67
A Job in Need of Redesign
 14-68
Job Redesign:
Some additional practical job
enlargement and enrichment examples
How does management enlarge and enrich a job
(ie more control/ownership and {life} interest to
the employee)?
 Combine (or reassign) tasks. This increases skill
variety and task identity, reduces alienation and
increases satisfaction (reengineering-employee sees
more of task).
 Create natural work units or teams. This increases
employee “ownership” of the work so they can their
work as meaningful. This can also increase skill
variety. Put employees that have the life interest of
managing people in charge.
 Establish client relationships. This increases skill
variety, job significance, and feedback for the
employee. Let them know the customer or client
and the outcome.
 Increase responsibility & reward for good performance
within that responsibility (Service Master – give a ‘floor’
to a cleaner). Goals are important here.
 Aggressive socialization and the creation of a strong
corporate culture - improve task identity and job
significance (SWA freedom ad). Workers care more.
 Open feedback channels – coaching
 Understand employees‘ Job Interests
(Butler+Waldroop)
These little steps all add up to better
satisfaction, less turnover, better client
satisfaction and retention, lowered costs, and
better overall performance (including market
performance for the firm).
 14-69
Summary and Implications
for Leaders and Managers
 An understanding of job design and the JCM
can help managers design jobs that positively
affect employee motivation, satisfaction, while
increasing productivity, employee health, and
helping to control several costs.
 Working conditions and design variables
directly influence employee (dis)satisfaction.
 Task identity, job significance, and feedback
especially (knowing the results, getting some
praise) are something that employees
regularly say they do not get much from their
jobs and their boss / clients, etc. Try to improve
on this in your organization.

 Job design facilitates the introduction of

disruptive innovation into organizations as it
facilitates the lower levels of the organization
in taking on the higher-level tasks usually
reserved to specialists (empowering the ‘lower
end’ of the organization and sometimes the
customers themselves – conceptually similar
to the original meaning of re-engineering).
 14-70
General take-aways on
Motivation
1) Motivation has two major components extrinsic and
intrinsic (give employees ‘needs tests’ like ‘What
workers want’ and “Finding the Job you Should
want”). The Job
2) Organizations can use multiple motivational ‘levers’
such as goal setting, pay for performance, and
responsibility and control as does Lincoln Electric,
GM, City Telecom (HK).
3) Do not neglect gainshare (sharing cost savings) as
a possible pay for performance lever.
4) Job (life) interests are important ‘free’ motivators
(add to ‘interesting work’). Add those tasks to
people’s jobs to increase motivation.
5) Similarly, the Job Characteristics Model / job
(re)design can also improve motivation and
satisfaction. Job significance, task identity,
feedback, responsibility (job enrichment), control,
and job interests are intrinsic motivators. These
have a real effect on performance. Even doctors’
diagnoses and treatment performance.
6) Many organizations and leaders use motivation
theory components and especially the Job
Characteristics model (see General Motors
exampke earlier and Disney example in appendix--
next slide).
 14-71

Appendix
Example 1– London Daily Mail

 Before WWII, quite a few typos in the

London Daily Mail newspaper
 The publisher tried everything to fix the
problems, ranging from incentive
schemes for reduced defects to
punishments.
 Nothing worked, then he hit upon an
idea.
 14-72

Ex1 --Increase Job Significance

(introducing people to the
“customers” ) - London Daily Mail

 The publisher said, from now on we will

typeset our paper as always, but the first
copy to be run will be printed on special
peach-colored paper.
 It will make the words look extra sharp
with the expensive peach color contrast.
 That special peach-colored newspaper will
be the first paper of the day delivered and
it will be delivered to the King, so it has to
look good.
 Typos dropped considerably after that, and
several papers went out error free.
 The job had been more significant (and
meaningful) to the employees at the Daily
Mail.
 The employees had gotten the job
significance message – their work was for
the King.
Appendix 14-73
Ex-2 - How
Disney
increases task
identify and job
significance
14-74
 14-75

Source: Inside the Magic Kingdom

 14-76
Appendix slides (additional examples)
Example 3 – Motivation and Charity Fund Raising
 Charities can use influence and motivation
principles to raise money.
 If a charity tried to raise money by telling you
how much money it needed to raise in total and
by when, what specifically it is for, why (what
broad purpose or goal) the money is needed,
and how much they need from you, :
– Influence: Goal setting (how much they need in
total and how much is needed from you {or from
the average person}); Also social proof (many
people are giving also – not only you)
– Task identity (what the money is specifically
for– specific job that will be done);
– Job significance (why the money is needed,
the higher purpose – i.e. who will it help and how
will it help them);
– Feedback (you would find out the results – show
pictures of the new building, show progress,
show objectives along the way) and how the
charity is reciprocating
 This could increase the likelihood of charity
giving (there are other approaches as well,
from marketing and social influence).
12 14-77
Summary of Ways to Redesign Jobs to
Increase Motivation Potential of a Job
Change Made Job Dimension Example
Combine tasks so that
Skill variety A production worker is responsible for
worker is responsible
For doing a piece of Task identity assembling a whole bicycle, not just
work from start Job sig. attaching the handlebars.
to finish.
Group tasks into
natural work units so Task identity A computer programmer handles all
that workers are Job sig. programming requests from one division
responsible for an instead of one type of request from
entire set of activities Several different divisions
-Platform / Team
manufacturing
Allow workers to
interact with customersSkill variety A truck driver who delivers photocopiers
or clients, and make Autonomy not only sets them up but also trains
workers responsible Feedback customers in how to use them, handles
For managing these customer billing, and responds to
Job sig.
relationships and customer complaints.
satisfying customers.
Vertically load jobs A corporate marketing analyst prepares
Autonomy marketing plans but also decides when
so that workers have
more control over to update and revise. Life interest of
their work activities influence through language and ideas is
& greater responsibility. satisfied by presenting to top management.
Open feedback
Feedback In addition to knowing how many claims
Channels so that
he handles per month, an insurance
workers know Task identity
adjuster receives his clients’ responses
how they are
to follow-up questionnaires that his
performing their
company uses to measure client satisfaction.
jobs.
 14-78
Job Characteristics Model -- High
and Low range of the 5 core job
dimensions – some more examples

Examples
1. Skill Variety-variation
High variety The owner-operator of a pawn
shop or a restoration and repair shop
Low variety An auto worker who sprays paint
eight hours a day (try to rotate his job).

2. Task Identity-see whole job (identify-knows what he is

doing / building, etc.)
High identity The Restoration shop owner sees whole
task and helps with the restoration

Low identity A worker in a furniture factory who

operates a lathe machine solely to make
table legs.

3. Job / Task Significance-knows the result; sees the

customer
High significance Medical professionals
Low significance Cleans hospital floors with little
interaction with other staff or patients
(manager can provide more interaction
with patients and doctors so the cleaners
can understand the significance of their
work is)
 14-79
Job Characteristics Model
-- High and Low range of
the 5 core job dimensions
Examples
4. Autonomy
High autonomy A lawn maintenance worker who
schedules work for the day, makes visits
without supervision, and decides on the
most effective techniques for a particular
installation. Tasks may be geared toward
the employee’s life interests

Low autonomy A telephone operator who must handle

calls as they come according to a routine,
highly specified procedure
5. Feedback
High feedback An electronics factory worker who
assembles a radio and then gets regular
reports on defect levels and output.

Low feedback An electronics factory worker who

assembles a radio and then routes it to an
anonymous quality control inspector who
tests it for proper operation and makes
needed adjustments himself/herself.
6 14-80
Connecting common terms to the Job
Characteristics Model:
Job Enlargement – more tasks, helps with
‘skill variety’ and perhaps job interests

 Increasing the number of tasks a worker

performs but keeping all of the tasks at the
same level of difficulty and responsibility; also
called horizontal job loading.
 Advantage: Adds variety to a worker’s job.
Should be made to fit more with the employee’s
‘life (job) interests.’ Research shows that
employees will be naturally motivated by this.
 Disadvantage: Jobs may still be simple and
limited in how much control and variety workers
have.
 For example, a consultant may be asked to
write up a report rather than just researching.
That may meet the interest of influence through
language and ideas.
 Try to add (swap) tasks that fit the employee’s
job interests (see Butler & Waldroop – HBR
Job Sculpting)
7 14-81

Job Enrichment – provides more

‘autonomy’ (and control)
 Increasing a worker’s responsibility and control
over his or her work; also called vertical job
loading.
 Ways of enriching jobs:
– Allow workers to plan their own work schedules.
– Allow workers to decide how the work should be
performed.
– Allow workers to set key production and defect
goals.
– Allow workers to check their own work.
– Allow workers to learn new skills.
 Advantage: Gives workers more autonomy,
responsibility, control, and sets goals that are
motivating.
 Disadvantages
– Not all workers want enriched jobs
– May be difficult to implement under some
conditions (strong labor unions that do not want to
cooperate as in the airline industry).
 14-82
Job Rotation-
Improved training,
development, + skill variety
 Job Rotation
– The periodic shifting of a worker from one
job to another.
– The strengths of job rotation are that it
reduces boredom and increases motivation
through diversifying the employee’s
activities. Be careful of demotivating an
employee by putting him or her in a new
job that ends up paying less (e.g. the
Quaker Oats takeover of Snapple)
– Job rotation may be very helpful to
employee performance and (reducing)
turnover if the new job fits with that
employee’s life interests.
– This also facilitates teamwork, and sharing
of tasks
 14-83
Appendix: Designing Jobs
That Motivate (continued):
Flexible Work Schedules
Flextime Job Sharing
 A scheduling  A work option in
policy in which which two part-
full-time time employees
employees may carry out the tasks
choose starting
and ending times associated with a
within guidelines single job.
specified by the  Enables an
organization. organization to
 A work schedule attract or retain
that allows time valued employees
for community who want more
and family time to attend
interests can be
school or take
extremely
motivating. care of family
matters.
 C 14-84
Test Your Knowledge

 Adding more tasks to an existing job is

called ____________, while adding more
decision-making authority and
responsibility to jobs is called _________.

A. Job extension; job rotation

B. Job rotation; job enrichment
C. Job enlargement; job enrichment
D. Job enlargement; job rotation