PART > MOTIVATING INDIVIDUALS IN ORGANIZATIONAL SETHINGS 59 5. ANEW STRATEGY FOR JOB ENRICHMENT J. Richard Hackman, Greg Oldham, Robert Janson, and Kenneth Purdy Practitioners of job enrichment have been living through a time of excitement, even euphoria. Their craft has moved from the psychology and manage- ment journals to the front page and the Sunday supplement, Job enrichment, which began with the pioncering work of Herzberg and his associ~ ates, originally was intended as a means to increase the motivation and satisfaction of people at work--and to improve productivity in the bar- sin." Now itis being acclaimed in the popular press as a cure for problems ranging from inflation to drag abuse, Much current writing about job enrichment is enthusiastic, sometinics even messianic, about what it can accomplish, But the hard questions of exactly what should be done to improve jobs, and how, tend to be glosted over. Lately, because the harder questions have not been dealt with adequately, crit- ical winds have begun to blow Job enrichment has been described as yet another “management fad,” as “nothing new” even as a fraud. And reports of job- ‘entichment Gillures ate beginning to appear in ‘management and psychology journals. ‘This article attempts to redress the excesses that have characterized some of the recent writings about job enrichment.As the technique incteases in popularity as a management tool, top managers in- evitably will find themselves making decisions about ity use:The intent ofthis paper isto help both ‘managers and behavioral scientists become better able to make those decisions on a solid bass of fact and data, Succinetly stated, we present here a new strategy for going about the redesign of work. The strategy is based on three years of collaborative work and cros-fertiliation among the authors—two of ‘whom afe academic researchers and two of whom are active practitioners in job enrichment. Our ap- proach is new, but it has been tested in many orga- nizations. It draws on the contributions of both management practice and psychological theory, but, it is firmly in the middle ground between them. Ie builds on and complements previous work by ‘Hersberg and others, but provides for the first time aset of tools for diggnosing existing jobs—anda map fox translating the diagnostic results into specific ac- tion steps for change. ‘What we have, then, is the following: 1. A theory that specifies when people will get person- ally “turned on” to theit work.’The theory shows ‘what kinds of jobs ace most likely to generate excite- ‘ment and commitment about work, and what kinds of employees it works best for. 2, set of action steps for job entichment based on the theory, which prescribe in concrete terms what to do to make jobs more motivating for the people who do thom. ‘3, Evidence that the theory holds water and that ican, ‘be used to bring about measurable—and sometimes ‘deamatic—improvements in employee work behav jog, in job satisfaction and in the financial perfor- mance of the orgenizational unit involved. “A New Strategy for Job Enrichment by J. Richard Hickman, Greg Oldham, Robert pnuon and Kenneth Purdy Copyright ©1975 by the Regents ofthe University of California Reprinted rom the Calfola Managenent Resi, Vol. 17 No.4.By permision of The Regens.GO DIMENSIONT * INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE: WHY AND HOW WE WORK THE THEORY BEHIND THE STRATEGY What Makes People Get Turned on to Their Work? For workers who are really prospering in their jobs, work is likely to be a lot like play. Consider, for ex- ample, a golfer at a driving range, practicing to get tid of a hook. His activity is meaningfil to him; he has chosen to do it because he gets a “kick” from testing his skills by playing the game. He knows that he alone is responsible for what happens when he hits the ball. And he has knowledge of the results within a few seconds. Behavioral scientists have found that the three “psychological states” experienced by the golfer in Cote Job Dimensions Critical Paychologieal States the above exemple also are critical in determining a person's motivation and satisfaction on the job. 1, Experienced meaningfunes:"The individual mast per- ceive his work as worthwhile or important by some system of values he accepts 2. Experienced responsibility: He must believe that he ‘personally is accountable forthe outcomes of href forts, 3. Knowledge of resis: He must beable to determine, on some fairy regular basis, whether ot not the out- ‘comes of his work are satisfactory ‘When these three conditions are present, a person tends to fecl very good about himself when he per Personal and ‘Work Outcomes Employee Growth and Strength FIGURE 5.1 Reationsrips Among Core Job Dimensions, Citcal Psychological States, and Onstheseb Outcomes,PART» MOTIVATING INDIADUALS IN ORGANIZATIONAL SETTINGS 61 forms well. And those good feclings will prompt him to try to continue to do well—to he can con- tinue to earn the positive feelings in the fature.That 5s what is meant by “internal motivation” —being turned on to one’ work because of the positive in ternal feelings that are generated by doing well, ther than being dependent on external factors Guch as incentiyg pay or compliments from the boss) for the motivation to work effectively. ‘What if one of the three psychological states is missing? Motivation drops markedly. Suppose, for ‘example, that our golfer has settled in at che driving range to practice for a couple of hours. Suddenly a {fog drifts in over the range. He can no longer see if the ball starts to til off to the left a hundred yards out, The satisfaction he got fiom hitting straight down the middle—and the motivation to try t0 correct something whenever he didn't—are both ‘gone. Ifthe fog stays, it likely that he soon will be packing up his clubs ‘The relationship between the three psycholog- ical states and on-the-job outcomes is illustrated. in Figure 5.1. When all three are high, then inter- tal work motivation, job satisfaction, and work guality are high; and absenteeism and turnover are What Job Characteristics Make It Happen? Recent reseatch has identified five “core” character istics of jobs that clict the prychological states do~ scribed above.* These five core job dimensions pro- vide the key to objectively measuring jobs and to changing them so that they have high potential for motivating people who do them. ‘Toward Meaningful Work. Thace of the five core di- mensions contribute to a job's meaningfulness for the worker: 1. Skill vriety—the degree to which ajob requires the ‘worker to perform activites that challenge his skills and , When even a single skill i involved, there is at least a seed of potential meaningfilnes. ‘When several ate iavolved, the job has the potential of appealing to mote ofthe whole person, and also of avoiding the monotony of performing the same task repeatedly, no matter bow much sil may re- quire, 2, Task identity —the degree to which the job requizes completion of a “whole” and identifiable piece of ‘work-—doing a job from beginning to end with a visible outcome. For example, itis clearly more meaningfl to an employee to build complete toatt- xs than to attach electrical cord after electrical cord, especialy ifhe never sees a completed toaster. (Note tha the whole ob, in this example, probably would involve greater skill variety as well a task idemtiy) 3. Task sgnificance—the degree to which the job hat 2 substantial and perceivable impact on the lives of other people, whether in the immediate organiza- tion or the world a large. The worker who tightens nuts on aircraft brake astemblies is more likely to perceive his work as significant than the worker who fills small boxes with paper clips-even though the stil levels involved may be comparable Bach of these three job dimensions represents an ‘important route to experienced meaningfulness. If the job is high in all thtee, the worker is quite likely to experience his job as very meaningfil It is not necessary, however, for a job to be very high in all three dimensions. Ifthe job is low in any one of them, there will be a drop in overall experienced meaningfalness. But even when two dimensions ate Tow the worker may find the job meaningful ifthe third is high enough. ‘Toward Personal Responsibility. A fourth core di- ‘mension leads a worker to experience increased re~ sponsibility in his job.This is autonomy, the degree to which the job gives the worker freedom, inde- pendence, and discretion in scheduling work and determining how he will carry it out. People in highly autonomous jobs know that they are per- sonally responsible for successes and failures. To the ‘extent that their autonomy is high, then, how the ‘work goes will be felt to depend more on the indi-62 DINENSIONT + INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE: WHY AND HOW WE WORK Presence of the “Core” vidual’s own efforts and initiatives—rather than on detailed instructions from the boss or fom a man- ual of job procedures. ‘Toward Knowledge of Results, The fifth and lat core dimension is feedback, This is the degree to which a ‘worker, in carrying ont the work activities required by the job, gets information about the effectiveness of his efforts. Feedback is most powerful when it comes directly ffom the work itself—for example, when 2 worker has the responsibility for gauging. and otherwise checking 2 component he has just finished, and learns in the process that he has low~ cred his reject rate by meeting specifications more consistently. ‘The Overall ‘Motioating Potential” of «Job. Figure 5.1 shows how the five core dimensions combine to af- fect the psychological tates that ae critical in deter- ‘mining whether or not an employee will be inter nally motivated to work effectively. Indeed, when ‘using an instrument to be described later, itis possi- ble to compute a'*motivating potential score” (MPS) FIGURE 5.2. The Moderating Effect of Employee Gronth Need Strength for any job’ The MPS provides a single summary ine dex of the degree to which the objective character istics of the job will prompt high internal work mo- tivation, Following the theory outlined above, a jeb high in motivating potential must be high in at leat cone (and hopefully mote) of the three dimensions that lead to experienced meaningfillness and high in ‘both autonomy and feedback as well. The MPS pro: vides a quantitative index of the degree to which thi isin fact the case (see Appendix for detailed formubl As will be seen later, the MPS can be very usefl i dignosing jobs and in asessing the effectiveness job-enrichment activities. Does the Theory Work for Everybody? Unfortunately not. Not everyone is able to be internally motivated in his work, even when the tivating potential ofa job is very high indeed. ‘Retearch has shown that the psychological people are very important in detormining who: (and who cannot) become internally motivate ‘work. Some people have strong needs for pPART B+ MOTIVATING INDIVIDUALS IN ORGANIZATIONAL SETTINGS 63 Pitcomplishment, for lesrning and developing Alieinelves beyond where they are now, for being ‘wimulated and challenged, and so on.These people ate high in “growth-need strength.” Figure 5.2 shows diagrarnmatically the propo sition that individual growth needs have the power to moderate the relationship berween the characteristics of jobs and’ work outcomes, Many. workers with high growth needs will turn on ea- gerly when they have jobs that ate high in the core dimensions. Workers whote growth needs are not so strong may respond less eagerly—or, at first, even balk at being “pushed” or “stretched” 100 fa: Psychologists who emphasize human potential argue that everyone has within him atleast a spark ‘ofthe need to grow and develop personally Steacily accumulating evidence shows, however, that unless that spatk is pretty strong, chances are it will get snuffed out by one’s experiences in typical organi- zations. So, a person who has worked for twenty years in stltifying jobs may find it diffcule or im- Possible to become internally motivated overnight when given the opportunity.” ‘We should be cautions, however, sbout creating rigid categories of people based on their meanued growth-need strength at any particular time. Its tue that we can predict fom these measures who is ikely to become internally motivated on 2 job and who will be fess wiling oF able to do so. But what we do not know yet is whether or not the growth-need ‘spark’ can be rekindled for those individuals who have had their growth needs dampened by years of ‘rowth-depressing experience in their organizations. Since itis offen the organization that is respon sible for currently low levels of growth desites, we believe that the organization also should provide ¢he individual with the chance to reverse that trend ‘whenever possible, even ifthat means putting a per son in ajob where he may be"stretched” more than hhe wants to be. He can always move back later to the old job—and in the meantime the embers of his growth needs just might burst back into flame, to his surprise and pleasure, and forthe good ofthe or- ganization, FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE: TECHNOLOGY FOR JOB ENRICHMENT. ‘When job entichment fails it often fails because of inadequate diggnosis of the target job and em- ployees’ reactions to it. Often, for example, job enrichment is assumed by management to be a solution to “people problems” on the job and is implemented even though there has been no di- agnostic activity to indicate that the root of the problem is in fact how the work is designed. At ‘other times, some diagnosis is: made—but it pro- vides no concrete guidance about what specific aspects of the job require change. In either case, the success of job entichment may wind up de- pending more on the quality of the intuition of the change agent—or his luck—than on a solid base of data about the people and the work. In the paragraphs to follow, we outline a new technology for use in job enrichment which ex- plicitly addresses the diagnostic as well as the ac~ ion components of the change process.TThe tech- nology has two patts: (I) a sot of diagnostic tools that are useful in evaluating jobs and people's re- actions to them prior to change—and in pin- pointing exactly what aspects of specific jobs are ‘most critical to a successful change attempt; and (2) a set of “implementing concepts” that provide concrete guidance for action steps in job enrich- ‘ment.The implementing concepts are tied directly to the diagnostic tools; the output of the diagnos- tic activity specifies which action steps are likely to have the most impact in a particular situation. The Diagnostic Tools Ceritral to the diagnostic procedure we propose is a package of instruments to be used by employees, supervisors, and outside observers in assessing the target job and employees reactions to it. These in- struments gauge the following: 1. The objective characteristics of the jobs themselves, including both an overall indication of the “motivat- ing potential” of the job as it exists (that, the MPS64 DIMENSION» score) and the score of the job on each of the five core dimensions described previously, Because knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the job is critical to any work-redesign effort, assessments of the job sro made by supervisors and outtide ob- servers as well asthe employees themsclves—and the final asessment of job uses data from all three sources 2. The current levels of motivation, satisfiction, and ‘work performance of employees on the job. In addi- tion to satisfaction with the work itself, measures are taken of how people feel about other aspects ofthe ‘work setting, such as pay, supervision, and teation- ships with coworkers. 3, The level of growth-need strength ofthe employees. AAs indicated earlier, employees who have strong ‘growth needs are more likely to be more responsive to job enrichment than employees with weak growth needs. Therefore, itis important to know at the out- seejust what kinds of satisfactions the people who do the job are (and are not) motivated to obtain from their work, This will make it possible to identify which persons are best to start changes with and ‘which may need help in adapting to the newly en- riched job, ‘What then, might be the actual steps one would ‘take in carrying out a job diagnosis using these took? Although the approach to any particular di- agnosis depends upon the specifics of the particular ‘work situation involved, the sequence of questions listed below is fairly typical. ‘Step 1. Are Motivation and Satlsfacion Central to the Protlem? Sometimes organitations undertake job enrichment to improve the work motivation and satisfaction of employees when in fact the real problem with work performance lies elsewhere— for example, in a poorly designed production sys- tem, in an error-prone computer, and so on. The first step is to examine the scores of employees on the motivation and satisfaction pottions of the di- agnostic instrument. (The questionnaire taken by the employees is called the Job Diagnostic Survey and will be referred to hereafter as the JDS.) Ifmo- tivation and satisfaction are problematic, the change TNDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE: WHY AND HOW WE WORK agent would continue to Step 2; if not, he wo ook to other aspects of the work situation toch tify the real problem. ‘Step 2.1 the Job Low in Motivating Potential? To : swer this question, one would examine the me vating potential score of the target job and comp: it to the MPS% of other jobs to determine whet or not the job itself is 2 probable cause of the mo vational problems documented in Step 1. Ifthe j turns out to be low on the MPS, one would co tinue to Step 3;iFit scores high, attention should) given to other possible reasons for the motivation difficulties (Gach as the pay system, the nature of s pervision, and 50 on). ‘Step 3, What Specific Aspects of the Job Ave Causing Difficulty? This step involves examining the job o each of the five core dimensions to pinpoint th specific strengths and weaknesses of the job 2s iti currently structured, It is uscfl at this stage to com- struct a “profile” of the target job, to make visualy apparent where improvements need to be made.An illustrative profile for wo jobs (one “good” job and ‘one job needing improvement) is shown in Figure 53. Job A is an engineering maintenance job and high on all ofthe core dimensions; the MPS oft job isa very high 260. (MPS scores can range 1 to about 350; an “average” score would be ab 425.) Job enrichment would not be recommend for this job; if employees working on the job unproductive and unhappy, the reasons ae likey have litte to do with the nature or design of| ‘work itself Job B, on the other hand, has many probl This job involves the routine and repetitive cessing of checks in the “back room” of a ‘The MPS is 30, which is quite low—and it would be even lower if it were not for the ately high task significance of the job. (Task icance is moderately high because the P handling large amounts of other people’ and therefore the quality oftheir efforts pote hhas important consequences for their ul} PART» MOTIVATING INDIVIDUALS IN ORGANIZATIONAL SETTINGS 65 nts) The job provides the individuals with very le direct feedback about how effectively they are ng it; the employees have litde autonomy in they go about doing the job; and the job is [moderately low in both skill variety and task iden- tity. }- ForJob B, then, there is plenty of room for im- “provement—and many avenues to examine in ‘planning job changes. For still other jobs, the av- enues for change often turn out to be consider ably more specific: for example, feedback and au- tonomy may be reasonably high, but one or more ‘of the core dimensions that contribute to the ex- petienced meaningfulness of the job (ckill variety, task identity, and task significance) may be low. In 4 such a case, attention would turn to ways to in- ‘crease the standing of the job on these latter thrce dimensions. ‘Step 4, How “Ready” Are the Employees for Change? Once it has been documented that there is need for improvement in the job—and the particularly trou- blesome aspects ofthe job have been identified then itis time to begin to think about the specific action steps which will be taken to ensich the job. An im- portant factor in such planning isthe level of growth needs of the employees, since employees high on growth needs usually respond more readily to job ‘enrichment than do employees with litle need for ‘growth. The JDS provides a direct measure of the FIGURE 5.3. The JDS Diagnostic Profle for a“Good” and a "Bad" Job.66 DIMENSIONT = INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE: WY AND HOW WE WORK growth-need strength of the employees. This mea- sure can be very helpfal in planning how to into- ce the changes to the people (for instance, cau- tiously versus dramatically), and in deciding who should be among the first group of employees to have their jobs changed. In actual use of the diagnostic package, addi- tional information is genefated which supplements and expands the basic diagnostic questions out- lined above. The point of the above discussion is merely to indicate the kinds of questions which we believe to be most important in diagnosing a job prior to changing it. We now turn to how the di- agnostic conclusions are translated into specific job changes. The Implementing Concepts Five “implementing concepts” for job enrichment are identified and discussed below.'® Each one is a specific action step aimed at improving both the ‘quality of the working experience for the individ- wal and his work productivity. They are (1) forming. satutal work units; (2) combining tasks; (3) estab- lishing client relationships; (4) vertical loading; (5) ‘opening feedback channels. The links between the implementing concepts and the core dimensions are shown in Figure 5.4— which illustrates our theory of job enrichment, ‘ranging from the concrete action steps through the core dimensions and the psychological states to the actual personal and work outcomes. After completing the diagnosis of ajob,a change agent would know which of the core dimensions ‘were most in need of remedial attention. He could then tun to Figure 5.4 and select those imple- ‘menting concepts that specifically deal with the ‘most troublesome parts of the existing job. How this would take place in practice will be seen below. Forming Nataal Work Units. The notion of distib~ uuting work in some logical way may seem to be an “obvious part ofthe design of any job. In many cases, however, the logic is one imposed by just about any consideration except job-holder satisfaction and motivation. Such considerations include techno- logical dictates, level of worker training or experi- ence,"efficiency” as defined by industrial engineer- ‘ng, and current workload, In many cases the cluster ‘of tasks a worker faces during a typical day or week is natural to anyone but the worker, Por example, suppose that a typing pool (consist. ing of one supervisor and ten typists) handles all work for one division of a company, Jobs are deliv. eted in rough ‘draft or dictated form to the supervi- sor, who distributes them as evenly as possible among the typists, In such circumstances the individual lee tors, reports, and other tasks performed by a given typist in one day or week are rindomly assigned, These is no basis for identifying with the work orthe person or department for whom it is performed, ¢ for placing any personal value upon it. The principle underlying natural units of work, by contrast, is “ownership”—a workers sense of continuing responsibility for an identifiable body of ‘work, Two steps are involved in creating natural work units. The first isto identify the basic work items. In the typing pool, for example, the items ight he “pages to be typed."The second step isto group the items in natural categories. For example, each typist might be assigned continuing responi- bility forall jobs requested by one or several specific departments. The assignments should be made, of course,in such a way that workloads are about equ in the long run. (For example, one typist might end up with all the work from one busy department, while another handles jobs from several sits.) how the job-design principles relate to the core mensions (cf. Figure 5.4). The ownership by natural units of work can make the differen between a feeling that work is meaningful and warding and the feeling that itis irrelevant andl ing. As the diagram shows, natural units of work: directly related to two of the core dimensions: identity and task significance. A typist whose work is assigned naturally than randomly-—say, by departments—has @ sreater chanice of performing a whole job toPART B= MOTIVATING INDIVIDUALS IN ORGANIZATIONAL SETTINGS 67 ABE icxplementing Core Job i Concepts imensions cael Personal and Peychological asaipats States snead FIGURE 5.4 The Full Model: How Use ofthe Implementing Conceps Can Lead to Poskive Outcomes pletion, Instead of typing one section ofa large re~ ort, the individual is likely to type the whole thing, with knowledge of exactly what the product of the work is (task identity). Furthermore, over time the typist will develop a growing sense of how the work affects coworkers in the department ser- viced (task significance). Combining Tasks, The very existence of a pool made up entirely of persons whose sole function is typing reflects a fiactionalization of jobs that has been a basic precept of “scientific management” Most obvious in assembly-tine work, fractionaliza- tion has been applied to nonmanufacturing jobs as well, Ic is typically justified by efficiency, which is usually defined in terms of either low costs or some time-and-motion type of criteria. Tes hard to find fault with measuring efficiency ultimately in terms of cost-effectiveness, In doing s0, however, a manager should be sure to consider all the costs involved. It is possible, for example, for highly fractionalized jobs to meet all the time-and~ ‘motion criteria of efficiency, but ifthe resulting job is so unrewarding that performing it day after day leads to high turnover, absenteeism, drugs and alco~ hhol, and strikes, then productivity is really lower {and costs higher) than data on efficiency might in- dicate,68 DIMENSION + INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE: WHY AND HOW WE WORK ‘The principle of combining tasks, then, suggests that whenever possible existing and fractionalized tasks should be put together to form new and larger modules of work. At the Medfield, Massachusetts plant of Corning Glass Works the assembly ofa lab ratory hot plate has been redesigned along the lines suggested here, Bach hot plate now is assem- bled from star to finish by one operator, instead of going through several separate operations that are performed by different people. Some tasks, if combined into a meaningfully Jarge module of work, would be more than an dividual could do by himself. In such cases, it is of- tem usefil to consider assigning the new, langer tak ‘to a niall eam of workers—who are given great au tonomy for its completion, At the Ratine, ‘Wisconsin plant of Emerson Electric, the assembly process for trash disposal appliances was restruc- tured this way. Instead of a sequence of moving the appliance from station to station, the assembly now is done from start to finish by one team. Such teams include both men and women to permit switching off the heavier and more delicate aspects of the ‘work. The teatn responsible is identified on the ap- pliance. In case of customer complaints, the team offen drafis the reply. ‘As a job-design principle, task combination, like natural units of work, expands the task identity of the job. For example, the hot-plate assembler can see and identify with a finished product ready for shipment, rather than a nearly invisible junction of solder. Moreover, the more tasks that are combined into a single worker’ job, the greater the variety of skills he must call on in performing the job, So task combination also leads directly to greater skill vari- ety—the third core dimension that contributes to the overall experienced meaningfulness of the work, Establishing Client Relationships. One consequence of fractionalization is that the typical worker hat lit- tle or no contact with (or even awareness of) the ul- timate user of his product or service. By encourag- ing and enabling employees to- establish direct relationships with the clients of their work, im- provements often can be realized simultaneously on hie of the core dimensions. Feedback incresses because of additional opportunities for the individ ual to receive praise or criticism of his work outputs directly. kill variety often increases because ofthe necessity to develop and exercise one’ interper sonal skills in maintaining the client relationship, ‘And autonomy can increase because the individual often is given personal responsibility for deciding how to manage hi reltonshipe wit the cts of is work. Creating client relationships is a three-step process First, the client must be identified. Second, the most direct contact possible between the worker and the client must be established, Thitd, criteria must be set up by which the client can judge the quality of the product or service he re- ceives. And whenever possible, the client should have a means of relaying his jadgments directly back to the worker. ‘The contact between worker and client should be as great as possible and as frequent as necesary Face-to-face contact is highly desirable, t leat oe ‘asionally. Where that is impossible or impractical telephone and mail can suffice. In any case itis portant that the performance criteria by which th ‘worker will be rated by the client must be mut understood and agreed upon, Vertical Loading, Typically the split between the" jing” of ajob and the “planning” and““contrllng" the work has evolved along with horizontal act alization, Its rationale, once again, has been " ciency thtough specialization.” And once again excess of specialization that has emerged has in unexpected but significant costs in motvat morale, and work quality. In vertical loading, the tent is to partially close the gap between the and the controlling parts of the job—and reap some important motivational advantage (Of all the job-design principles, vertical I say be the single most crucial one. In some where it has been impossible to implemet ‘other changes, vertical loading alone has had icant motivational effects