Chapter 3 Flashcards
Which models are the foundation of the psychology of job design we know today?
- The Job characteristics model
- The Demand control support model
- The Vitamin model
- The Effort-Reward Imbalance Model
- Contemporary socio-technical systems thinking
Definition of job design
Concerned with the activities of workers, and relates to the duties and tasks required to perform their work, and how those tasks and duties are structured and scheduled
What was the purpose of the modern classic models of job design?
Making jobs somehow more involving, satisfying, and/or health promoting and enhancing job performance through improving the quality of working life.
Explain the Hawthorne studies
This study looked at physical conditions at work by doing tests with lightning changes and rest breaks. The study found that human and social factors such as supportive supervision and informal group relations are pivotal.
What is the JCM concerned with?
Developing jobs that are motivating, satisfying, and performed well.
Explain the JCM
Models main focus is motivation. The model concentrates on 5 core characteristics of work: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback from the job. The 5 job characteristics produce three critical psychological states: experienced meaningfulness of work, experienced responsibility for the outcomes of work, knowledge of the results of work activities. These states make work more satisfying and because the work is satisfying, workers gain an intrinsic motivation to perform the work well to experience more satisfaction (motivating potential of work). The relationship between the job characteristics and the outcomes is moderated by ‘growth need strength’. People with high growth need strength will benefit more from improvements in the job characteristics.
What are the critiques on the JCM?
- Research is not clear on whether the critical psychological states translate the key job characteristics into the outcomes
- The model examines a narrow range of job characteristics, ignoring several other characteristics
Explain the DCSM
The model is primarily concerned with health. Originally it combined job demands with decision latitude, which lead to 4 major classes of jobs. Passive jobs, active jobs, high-strain jobs and low-strain jobs. Currently, the model combines job demands, job control, and workplace social support to create healthy work. The model focuses on two hypotheses: the strain hypothesis and the active learning hypothesis.
What states the strain hypothesis in the DCSM?
Job control and social support buffer the adverse impact of job demands on psychological and physical health.
What states the active learning hypothesis in the DCSM?
Job control and social support facilitate one particular form of coping related to better productivity. Solving problems leads to workers learning how to solve problems faster and more effectively etc. Learning impedes strain, but strain can also impede learning if workers are unable to cope with the demands.
What are the critiques on the DCSM?
- No clear evidence if job demands have a negative or positive impact on learning outcomes
- Little evidence that job control and social support can offset adverse consequences of high levels of job demands
Explain the Vitamin Model
The model indicates that some job characteristics can be harmful if present at levels that are too high or too low. Mental health is affected by job characteristics that are features of the psycho social work environment. In the VM mental health is divided into three dimension: displeasure-to-pleasure, anxiety-to-comfort, and depression-to-enthusiasm. The presence of certain job characteristics leads to an increase in well-being. Beyond a certain level vitamin intake no longer has any positive effects, lastly taking even more of the vitamin can either lead to a constant effect or it can impair mental health (additional decrement). Three categories of individuals characteristics can be moderators of the effects of job characteristics on mental health: values, abilities, and baseline mental health.
Explain the ERI model
The ERI model is based on the principle of social reciprocity: the employee invests efforts and expects proportionate rewards in return. Hence, if you put in a lot of effort and you receive a low reward, this may cause a state of emotional and physiological distress. Money, esteem, and security/career opportunities are seen as rewards. Extrinsic efforts (time pressure, physical demands) and intrinsic efforts (over commitment) are seen as effort.
What are the critiques on the ERI model?
- No clear distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic rewards
- Questionable if the over-commitment construct is a stable trait and to what extent is this related to work environment
- Little attention on the relation between work and family life
- Concerns about the dynamic nature of the model
Explain STST (socio-technical systems thinking)
STST is a set of principles and a framework based on the understanding that systems work most effectively when social and technical aspects are designed to fit together. It is a way of thinking about the design of work and provides an organizing framework to approach problems.
