Job Designing: Theories Archetypes and Notions for Future research

Job design or work design refers to the content structure and organization of tasks and activities. It is mostly studied in terms of job characteristics such as autonomy workload role problems and feedback. Throughout history job design has moved away from a sole focus on efficiency and productivity to more motivational job designs including the social approach toward work Herzberg’s two-factor model Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model the job demand control model of Karasek Warr’s vitamin model and the job demands resources model of Bakker and Demerouti. The models make it clear that a variety of job characteristics make up the quality of job design that benefits employees and employers alike. Job design is crucial for a whole range of outcomes including (a) employee health and well-being (b) attitudes like job satisfaction and commitment (c) employee cognitions and learning and (d) behaviors like productivity absenteeism proactivity and innovation. Employee personal characteristics play an important role in job design.