Beyond Motivation: Job and Work Design for Development, Health, Ambidexterity, and More

2013/09/09 by Sharon K. Parker · 726 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Decision Sciences · Engineering · Health Professions · Psychology · #Ambidexterity #Applied psychology #Complex Systems and Decision Making #Computer science #Engineering #Flexibility (engineering) #Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior #Job design #Job performance #Job satisfaction #Knowledge management #Management #Occupational Health and Safety Research #Perspective (graphical) #Psychology #Quality (philosophy) #Social psychology #Work (physics) #Work systems

paper · pdf · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115208

published in Annual Review of Psychology 65(1), 661-691 (Annual Reviews)

openalex publication_date 2013/09/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Much research shows it is possible to design motivating work, which has positive consequences for individuals and their organizations. This article reviews research that adopts this motivational perspective on work design, and it emphasizes that it is important to continue to refine motivational theories. In light of continued large numbers of poor-quality jobs, attention must also be given to influencing practice and policy to promote the effective implementation of enriched work designs. Nevertheless, current and future work-based challenges mean that designing work for motivation is necessary but insufficient. This review argues that work design can be a powerful vehicle for learning and development, for maintaining and enhancing employees' physical and mental health, and for achieving control and flexibility simultaneously (for example, in the form of ambidexterity); all these outcomes are important given the challenges in today's workplaces. The review concludes by suggesting methodological directions.

Citations

• A Meta-Analytic Test of the Challenge Stressor–Hindrance Stressor Framework: An Explanation for Inconsistent Relationships Among Stressors and Performance
• Changing Workplaces to Reduce Work-Family Conflict
• Two Types of Bureaucracy: Enabling and Coercive
• Integrating motivational, social, and contextual work design features: A meta-analytic summary and theoretical extension of the work design literature.
• Job Demands, Job Decision Latitude, and Mental Strain: Implications for Job Redesign
• The unbearable automaticity of being.
• The Call of the Wild: Zookeepers, Callings, and the Double-edged Sword of Deeply Meaningful Work

Cited by

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• Achieving Effective Remote Working During the COVID‐19 Pandemic: A Work Design Perspective
• Design Considerations for Human Oversight of AI: Insights from Co-Design Workshops and Work Design Theory
• Quality work in the future: New directions via a co-evolving sociotechnical systems perspective
• Artificial intelligence and work design: implications for frontline service employees and future research
• Home and away: personal autonomy limitation in the liminal work context of fly-in-fly-out camps and psychological distress
• Conscientiousness and perceived ethicality: Examining why hierarchy of authority diminishes this positive relationship
• Can We Have Fun at Work and Still Be Competent and Engaged? Multilevel Pathways from Playful Climate to Work Engagement
• How work redesign interventions affect performance: An evidence-based model from a systematic review
• Designing innovative jobs: a fuzzy-set configurational analysis of job characteristics
• Individual Resilience at the Heart of Work Design: Public Servants’ Job Satisfaction and Emotional Exhaustion in a Context of Adversity
• The double‐edged sword of job crafting: The effects of job crafting on changes in job demands and employee well‐being
• One hundred years of work design research: Looking back and looking forward.
• Work Design Influences: A Synthesis of Multilevel Factors that Affect the Design of Jobs
• Automation, Algorithms, and Beyond: Why Work Design Matters More Than Ever in a Digital World
• Poor work design begets poor work design: Capacity and willingness antecedents of individual work design behavior.
• Can High-Quality Jobs Help Workers Learn New Tricks? A Multidisciplinary Review of Work Design for Cognition
• The Autonomy Tussle: AI Technology and Employee Job Crafting Responses
• The relationship between sleep and work: A meta-analysis.
• CURBING THE LABOUR MARKET DIVIDE BY FOSTERING INCLUSIVE LABOUR MARKETS THROUGH A JOB GUARANTEE SCHEME
• Job demands, not resources, predict worsening psychological distress during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic
• Industrial and organizational psychology [wikipedia]
• Sharon K. Parker [wikipedia]
• Work design [wikipedia]

Related

• Good work design for all: Multiple pathways to making a difference
• Integrating motivational, social, and contextual work design features: A meta-analytic summary and theoretical extension of the work design literature.
• Work Design Influences: A Synthesis of Multilevel Factors that Affect the Design of Jobs
• 7 Redesigning Work Design Theories: The Rise of Relational and Proactive Perspectives
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