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

2013/09/09 by Sharon K. Parker · 16 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Health Professions · Decision Sciences · #Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior #Occupational Health and Safety Research #Complex Systems and Decision Making

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

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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• The motivational mechanisms underlying active and high-strain work: consequences for mastery and performance
• A multi-layered perspective on algorithmic control systems: managerial design choices and worker legitimacy judgments
• Algorithms as work designers: How algorithmic management influences the design of jobs
• The future of employee development
• 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
• Industrial and organizational psychology [wikipedia]
• Sharon K. Parker [wikipedia]
• Work design [wikipedia]

Related

• Integrating motivational, social, and contextual work design features: A meta-analytic summary and theoretical extension of the work design literature.
• Individual work design as a job demand: The double-edged sword of autonomy
• The double‐edged sword of job crafting: The effects of job crafting on changes in job demands and employee well‐being
• The Role of Work Context in Work Motivation: A Public Sector Application of Goal and Social Cognitive Theories
• Why we need employees back at the office : the effect of workplace design on creativity in organizations