Motivating by job design: the job characteristics model (JCM)

• Job design: way the elements in a job are organized.

• Job characteristics model (JCM): model that proposes that any job can be described in terms of five core job dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback.

  • Five core dimensions

    • Skill variety: degree to a which a job requires a variety of different activities.

    • Task identity: degree to which a job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work.

    • Task significance: degree to which job has substantial impact on the lives or work of other people.

    • Autonomy: degree to which job provides substantial freedom and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and in determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out.

    • Feedback: degree to which carrying out the work activities required by a job results in the individual obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his/her performance.

  • Motivating potential score (MPS): predictive index that suggests the motivating potential in a job.

  • How can jobs be redesigned?

    • Job rotation: periodic shifting of an employee from one task to another.

    • Job enrichment: vertical expansion of jobs, which increases the degree to which the worker controls the planning, execution and evaluation of work.

    • Relational job design: making employees see the effects their job.

  • Alternative work arrangements

    • Flexi-time: flexible work hours, hours a week are obligatory but can be chosen when to invest those hours.

    • Job sharing: arrangement that allows two or more individuals to split a traditional 40-hour-a-week job (one from 8 to 12, the other from 1-5).

    • Teleworking: working from home at least two days a week on a computer that is linked to the employers office.

Employee involvement

• Employee involvement: participative process that uses the input of employees and is intended to increase employee commitment to an organization’s success.

  • Examples of employee involvement programs

    • Participative management: process in which subordinates share a significant degree of decision-making power with their immediate superiors.

    • Representative participation: system in which workers participate in organizational decision making through a small group of representative employees.

Using rewards to motivate employees

• What to pay: establishing a pay structure

• How to pay: rewarding individual employees through variable-pay programs

  • Variable-pay program: pay plan that bases a portion of an employee’s pay on some individual and/or organizational measure of performance.

    • Piece-rate pay: pay plan in which workers are paid a fixed sum for each unit of production completed.

    • Merit-based pay: pay plan based on performance appraisal ratings.

    • Bonuses: pay plan that rewards employees for recent performance rather than historical performance.

    • Skill-based pay: pay plan that sets pay levels on the basis of how many skills employees have or how many jobs they can do.

    • Profit-sharing plan: organization-wide program that distributes compensation based on some established formula designed around a company’s profitability.

    • Gainsharing: formula-based group incentive plan to determine amount of money allocated.

    • Employee stock ownership plans (ESOP): company-established benefits plan in which employees acquire stock, often at below-market prices, as part of their prices.

• Flexible benefits: developing a benefits package

  • Flexible benefits: benefits plan that allows each employee to put together a benefits package individually tailored to their own individual needs and situation.

• Intrinsic rewards: employee recognition programs

  • Rewards are intrinsic in the form of employee recognition

  • Extrinsic in the form of compensation systems