• Understand how job characteristics theory can enhance worker motivation
• Recognize how goal setting can improve worker performance

Job Design

Job design involves specifying the contents, responsibilities, objectives, and relationships required to satisfy the expectations of the role. Job characteristics theory identifies five core characteristics that managers should keep in mind when they are designing jobs. The theory is that these dimensions relate to, and help satisfy, important psychological states of the employee filling the role, with the results of greater job satisfaction and motivation and less absenteeism and turnover.

1. Skill variety: Doing the same thing day in, day out gets tedious. The solution is to design jobs with enough variety to stimulate ongoing interest, growth, and satisfaction.
2. Task identity: Being part of a team is motivating, but so, too, is having some ownership of a set of tasks or part of the process. Having a clear understanding of what one is responsible for, with some degree of control over it, is an important motivator.
3. Task significance: Feeling relevant to organizational success provides important motivation for getting a task or job done. Knowing that one’s contributions are important contributes to a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
4. Autonomy: No one likes to be micromanaged, and having some freedom to be the expert is critical to job satisfaction. Companies usually hire people for their specialized knowledge. Giving specialists autonomy to make the right decisions is a win-win.
5. Feedback: Finally, everyone needs objective feedback on how they are doing and how they can do better. Providing well-constructed feedback with tangible outcomes is a key component of job design.

Job Design Options

As a motivational force in the organization, managers must consider how they can design jobs that lead to empowered, motivated, and satisfied employees. Below are a few established methods to accomplish this objective:

• Job rotation: As noted in the above model, it’s not particularly motivating to do the exact same thing every day. As a result, rotating jobs and expanding employees’ skill sets accomplish two objectives: increased employee satisfaction and broader employee skills.
• Job enlargement (horizontal): Giving employees the opportunity to improve the efficiency of their processes and assume responsibility for additional tasks at the same level of the organizational hierarchy is a way to reduce boredom. Because the employee’s overall level of responsibility remains the same, this is a horizontal expansion.
• Job enrichment (vertical): It’s important for managers to delegate some of their planning to seasoned employees as they grow into their roles. By gaining some degree of authority, employees are challenged by their additional responsibilities, feel a strong sense of engagement, progress in their career, and ownership of their work outcomes. Because the employee is gaining decision-making and planning responsibilities that have been delegated to them from a higher level, this is a vertical job expansion.

Schedule Flexibility

As companies try to meet the needs of a diverse workforce and retain quality employees while remaining competitive and financially prosperous, managers are challenged to find new ways to keep workers motivated and satisfied. Increasingly popular are alternatives to the traditional work schedule:

• Flextime allows employees to decide what their work hours will be. Employees are generally expected to work a certain number of hours per week but have some discretion as to when they arrive at work and when they leave for the day.
• A compressed workweek gives employees the ability to have a three-day weekend and avoid commuting during peak traffic hours. Employees work the traditional 40 hours, but fit those hours into a shorter workweek. Most common is the 4-40 schedule, where employees work four 10-hour days a week. Organizations that offer this option claim benefits ranging from increased motivation and productivity to reduced absenteeism and turnover.
• Some employers offer a four-day workweek where employees work only four days a week, the same as a compressed workweek, but work 32 hours or less.
• Job sharing is a scheduling option that allows two individuals to split the tasks, responsibilities, and work hours of one 40-hour-per-week job. Though used less frequently than flextime and the compressed workweek, this option can also provide employees with job flexibility. The primary benefit to the company is that it gets “two for the price of one”—the company can draw on two sets of skills and abilities to accomplish one set of job objectives.

Location Flexibility

Remote working or telecommuting is a work-scheduling option that allows employees to work from home via a computer that is linked with their office, headquarters, or colleagues. Often employers will use a mix of these scheduling options depending on the situation. This kind of work arrangement has become much more common as a result of workplaces closing during the COVID-19 pandemic and employers needing to pivot operations to allow employees to work from home. Splitting time between working remotely and working at the company’s offices in a hybrid work arrangement is also more common now. A 2021, out of over 700 U.S. employers, 87% reported that they will adopt hybrid work models after the pandemic while in a survey of employees, 30% they would prefer to work remotely or in a hybrid arrangement.^[1]

Recognition and Empowerment

Formal recognition of superior effort by individuals or groups in the workplace is one way to enhance employee motivation. Recognition serves as positive feedback and reinforcement, letting employees know what they have done well and that their contribution is valued by the organization. Recognition can take many forms, both formal and informal. Some companies use formal awards ceremonies to acknowledge and celebrate their employees’ accomplishments. Others take advantage of informal interaction to congratulate employees on a job well done and offer encouragement for the future. Recognition can take the form of a monetary reward, a day off, a congratulatory e-mail, or a verbal “pat on the back.” Recognition does not have to come from superiors to be meaningful, however. At The Motley Fool, a financial services company dedicated to helping people invest better, employees use the app YouEarnedIt to recognize the contributions of coworkers. In the app, employees are given “gold” to spend by thanking or complimenting one other along with a statement of what the recipient did to earn it. The recipients cash in the gold for real prizes or gift cards. Employees say this type of recognition may be better than management recognition.^[2]

Employee empowerment, sometimes called employee involvement or participative management, involves delegating decision-making authority to employees at all levels of the organization, trusting employees to make the right decision. Employees are given greater responsibility for planning, implementing, and evaluating the results of decisions. Employees are capable of contributing much more of their skills and abilities to organizational success if they are allowed to participate in the decision-making process and are given access to the resources needed to implement their decisions.

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