Lecture 10 - Workplace performance

Question 1

What is Oldman’s job characteristics model?

Answer 1

• One of the only approaches to job design that focusses on person-fit theory
• An individuals personality, behaviours and task accomplishments are considered to describe the perfect fit for the job
• It helps us fill in the gaps in which lead to job satisfaction that CANNOT be explained by the pay alone
• Model is composed of 5 job characteristics that is combined with 3 psychological characteristics to determine the personal and work outcome

Question 2

what 5 core job characteristics is Hackman and Oldman composed of?

Answer 2

1. feedback from job
2. autonomy
3. task identity
4. skill variety
5. task significance

Question 3

What 3 psychological states is each of the core characteristics composed of?

Answer 3

• each job characteristics is composed of 3 psychological states which determine personal an work outcome
  1. meangingfullnss to job
  2. responsibility of outcomes
  3. knowledge of actual results of the work

Question 4

What is skill variety?

Answer 4

• skill variety refers to the amount of diversity an individ has within his/her job. diversity in job means that the individual has different tasks given to them

Question 5

Give an example of a type of work discussed in lectures that has low skill variety

Answer 5

Give an example of a type of work discussed in lectures that has low skill variety

• Good example of a job that has very low levels of skill variety is the workers working in the Chiken factory
  
  • The workers work for extended hours doing the same tasks with little variety
• Note: just because a job has low skill variety -> it does not mean that it immediately results in job DISSATISFACTION
  
  • Some people are happy having jobs with little skill variety

Question 6

What is the psychological state associated with this?

Answer 6

• meaningfulness to work

- people who love a challenge are satisfied from jobs witth high skill variety

Question 7

What is the outcome of skill variety?

Answer 7

• high internal work motivation

Question 8

What is task identity and which psychological state is associated with this?

Answer 8

• Task identity is jobs that involves distinct tasks that the employee must complete
• The amount the job requires an employee to finish the completion of a product or process from beginning to end
  
  • Requires completion of a whole or identifiable piece of work
• psychological state: meaningfulness

Question 9

Give an example of how task identity characteristic may be increased within an organisation

Answer 9

putting individuals in groups in order to work on one whole job instead of giving individuals small seperate tasks
- for example managers of car companies could put their employees into groups to build a car and thus work on one whole job together instead of assigning seperate tasks to individuals such as putting seatbelt in or attaching tyres to the car

Question 10

Give an example of how task identity characteristic may be increased within an organisation

Answer 10

Car industry may increase task identity by putting workers in a team so they can produce a whole car not just ONE aspect of the car (putting seatbelt on)

Question 11

What is task significance and what psycholigcal state is associated with this?

Answer 11

• jobs in which involves the employees to have a significant impact on other people and their work whether in the organisation or the outside world
• i.e. has a substantial impact on the lives or work of others

Question 12

What kind of people have job satisfaction with jobs that have high task significance?

Answer 12

• people who have job satisfaction with jobs with jobs with high task significance are those who care about social responsibility

Question 13

What psychological state is associated with task significance?

Answer 13

meaningfulness to work

Question 14

What is autonomy? What is the psycholigcal state associated with this?

Answer 14

• autonomy refers to the job characteristic that allows individuals to have freedom in terms of how they approach their jobs and handle tasks/deadlines
• for example Nadine has lectures to write as well as essay,s, meetings - high autonomy means she has full responsible in how she handles all of her tasks

Question 15

What is feedback from the job and what psycholigcal state is associated with this?

Answer 15

• Provides knowledge to the employee about how they are doing within their position
  
  • i.e. progress and performance is easily seen in task activities
• Psychological state: knowledge of results

Question 16

Give an example of a job that has high feedback from job characteristics

Answer 16

• Cleaning company requires feedback from customers to ensure they are meeting the required standards -> this allows workers to understand if they are going a good job or not
• This job therefore has high feedback from job characteristics

Question 17

what is a job diagnostic survey

Answer 17

• Can be used to survey the 5 elements to determine where a particular job falls within the characteristic model
  * When job is labelled appropriately -> the employee with similar characteristics can be placed within that position

Question 18

What is the most important thing to consider when interpreting Oldman’s job characteristics model?

Answer 18

• every individual is different
• i.e. not everyone will be satisfied by the same job characteristics
• for example some individuals may be happy without high skill variety and instead are content with a 9-5 job
• others however need high skill variety to be satisfied with their job `

Question 19

What is job involvement attitude?

Answer 19

• People with high job involvement identity themselves with their jobs
• Care deeply about what they do for their jobs

Question 20

what factors (antecedents) contribute to job involvement ?

Answer 20

• Personality: internally motivated
• Job characteristics: challenging
• Supervisor behaviour: partcipitative -> supervisor/manager asks for the employees input in certain things
• NOTE: there are other antecedents (see figure below) but these are the most important

Question 21

What are some consequences (both + and -ive) of high/low job involvement?

Answer 21

• Positive consequences: performance + organisational commitment
• Negative consequences: turnover intensions + absenteeism

Question 22

What is the organisational commitment attitude?

Answer 22

• When individuals are committed to their orgaisation and refers to how much time/effort/work individuals puts into their jobs
• Involves being inline wiht organisational goals
• Good relationship between workers/supervisors within the organisation

Question 23

what are the three types of commitment

Answer 23

CAN

1. continuance commitment
2. Affective commitment
3. Normative commitment

Question 24

How do we measure organisational commitment?

Answer 24

• Organisational Commitment Questionairre may be used to measure organisational commitment
• Involves individuals rating from 1-5 on statement such as
• “I would be very happy to stay in this job for the rest of my life” - Affective
• “It would be very hard for me to leave this organisation right now, even if I really wanted to”: - continuance
• “The organisation deserves my loyalty” - normative