Specific: Well-defined, clear to anyone who has basic knowledge of the task
Measurable: Know if the goal is obtainable and how far away completion is. Know when it has been achieved.
Achievable: Agreement of stakeholders about what the goals should be. Make sure it is possible.
Relevant: The goal you set needs to matter – to the individual setting it and/or the organization.
Time Based: Enough time to achieve the goal, but not too much time.
See page 173. The job characteristics theory looks at describing any job in terms of five core job dimensions. These job dimensions include skill variety which is the degree to which the job incorporates a number of different skills and talents. Task identity is another dimension that looks at the degree to which the job requires a completion of whole and identifiable piece of work. Task significance is included and looks at how the job impacts the lives of others. Autonomy, the fourth dimension, identifies how much freedom and independence workers have over their jobs. And finally, feedback is how much the job generates direct and clear information about the worker’s performance.
7.2: The Job Characteristics Model: Much evidence supports the JCT concept that the presence of a set of job characteristics—variety, identity, significance, autonomy, and feedback—does generate higher and more satisfying job performance
JCT creates motivational jobs as they are designed to give internal rewards. Positive outcomes are moderated by individual growth needs as each individual will respond differently. In order for the jobs to increase motivation there should be a high degree of autonomy, feedback and a least one meaningfulness factor such as significance, identity or variety. Note that because the JCT is relatively individualistic, job enrichment strategies might not have the same effect in collectivistic cultures as they do in individualistic cultures like the United States.
There are some helpful ways to redesign a job to increase the motivation of the employees. Two common practices are job rotation and job enrichment. In job rotation an organization will shift the employee to different tasks with similar skill requirements but all in the same organizational level.
In job enrichment a manager will expand an employee’s job by increasing the level of control the worker has in planning the job, executing it, or evaluating the work.
Job enrichment is helpful in keeping the worker engaged in their work. There are many actions a manager can take to help the worker. These actions help to achieve core job dimensions. For example if the manager combines tasks for the worker it can help the worker increase the amount of skills that are utilizing and help the worker to identify tasks that need to be completed. This action can help the worker have a better understanding of the job and how it helps the organization complete its goals as well as help the worker enjoy his work more because he is using more of his skill set.
See Table 7.1 on page 177 for forms, examples, and effects of job crafting.
