Five-core characteristic of a good job design can be referring to the study by Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham. They can up with a concept called Job Characteristic Model. According to Hackman and Oldham, the characteristic of job is important because it will give a psychological impact to the person and leading to the specific outcomes in the work environment. In the study, there are 5 important characteristic that must be there during designing a job which are skill variety, job identity, job significance, autonomy and feedback. According to Tammi Sufficool, job design can impact in term of job satisfaction, influence performance, and affect both mental and physical health.
Skill Variety
Specialization maybe good to improve productivity by having workload divided into several task and each employees working on the small portion of repetitive task. However, as we know in the end boredom may occur and employees may have potential to feel demotivated or worst case high turnover rate in the organization. Therefore, it is important to build in skill variety characteristic when designing a new job. Skill variety refers to degree which the job requires an employee to use varieties of challenging different skill, knowledge, abilities and talents. A good job design must contain skill variety characteristic so the employee can feel the challenges and motivation, trying out something different to discourage boredom and which the outcomes can be higher productivity and lower turnover rate or absenteeism. Skill variety incentives can be from job rotation, job enlargement or job enrichment depending on the suitability in the organization.
Job Identity
Job identity concern on doing a complete set of job from starting until the end by the person or employees rather than completing a small-small incomplete task which they may not see the outcomes. It is also the degree to which a job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work. Employees may not like to be jack of all trade which at the end they cannot master skills, knowledge, and have recognition from the completion of the job. If the job is separated and manages by different party, employee cannot hold the responsibility and they perceived that their job function or scope is very small. In summary, good job design must have the clear job identification to all people in the organization. According to Tammi, separation of specific job duties and creation of well-written job description (JD) helps to promote better job or task identity in the organization.
Job Significance
Job significance sees to what extent the job or the outcome of a specific job can influence or influencing others. Job or task significance also sees the degree to which the job has a perceivable impact on the lives of others, either within the organization or the world at large. If the job is very important and can affect others significantly or can contribute to the organization or team tremendously, the employees will feel that they are very important person and what task or job responsibilities they do is very important in the organization.
Autonomy
Autonomy as a characteristic is job design means incorporating of freedom to do the work as one sees fit as long it follows the general guidelines and the outcomes is as expected. In the job itself, it is the degree that the job gives the workers freedom and independence in managing their work, setting the course and determines how the work will be carried out to accomplish the main objective. Autonomy in job or what we called empowerment can help to create job satisfaction because employees feel that they have responsibility to ensure the outcomes are congruent to the goals and they will own the final results of their task whether it is positive or not. Higher satisfaction level will reduce the potential turnover rate and absenteeism in the organization, so these characteristic is very important in the modern job design.
Feedback
Last scope or characteristic in job design is there must be a feedback as a mechanism to provide information to employees on the outcomes of their job or performance. Without feedback employees will not know what level are their outcomes of the work they perform, what is the improvement needed and what their future directions are. He or she must be able to get this feedback either from the job itself or through others and understanding of one’s capabilities is important for their personal gratification and satisfaction. Monetary feedback and positive feedback will help to motivate employees to perform more in the organization.
In conclusion, there are five major job characteristic that we must consider when designing a task or job in the organization. This is because our main goals for effectively designing job is to create job satisfaction, create and maintain job performance, reduction of negative side impact such as turnover rate, absenteeism and sickness in the organization that can deter its productivity and progress as well.
Skill Variety
Specialization maybe good to improve productivity by having workload divided into several task and each employees working on the small portion of repetitive task. However, as we know in the end boredom may occur and employees may have potential to feel demotivated or worst case high turnover rate in the organization. Therefore, it is important to build in skill variety characteristic when designing a new job. Skill variety refers to degree which the job requires an employee to use varieties of challenging different skill, knowledge, abilities and talents. A good job design must contain skill variety characteristic so the employee can feel the challenges and motivation, trying out something different to discourage boredom and which the outcomes can be higher productivity and lower turnover rate or absenteeism. Skill variety incentives can be from job rotation, job enlargement or job enrichment depending on the suitability in the organization.
Job Identity
Job identity concern on doing a complete set of job from starting until the end by the person or employees rather than completing a small-small incomplete task which they may not see the outcomes. It is also the degree to which a job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work. Employees may not like to be jack of all trade which at the end they cannot master skills, knowledge, and have recognition from the completion of the job. If the job is separated and manages by different party, employee cannot hold the responsibility and they perceived that their job function or scope is very small. In summary, good job design must have the clear job identification to all people in the organization. According to Tammi, separation of specific job duties and creation of well-written job description (JD) helps to promote better job or task identity in the organization.
Job Significance
Job significance sees to what extent the job or the outcome of a specific job can influence or influencing others. Job or task significance also sees the degree to which the job has a perceivable impact on the lives of others, either within the organization or the world at large. If the job is very important and can affect others significantly or can contribute to the organization or team tremendously, the employees will feel that they are very important person and what task or job responsibilities they do is very important in the organization.
Autonomy
Autonomy as a characteristic is job design means incorporating of freedom to do the work as one sees fit as long it follows the general guidelines and the outcomes is as expected. In the job itself, it is the degree that the job gives the workers freedom and independence in managing their work, setting the course and determines how the work will be carried out to accomplish the main objective. Autonomy in job or what we called empowerment can help to create job satisfaction because employees feel that they have responsibility to ensure the outcomes are congruent to the goals and they will own the final results of their task whether it is positive or not. Higher satisfaction level will reduce the potential turnover rate and absenteeism in the organization, so these characteristic is very important in the modern job design.
Feedback
Last scope or characteristic in job design is there must be a feedback as a mechanism to provide information to employees on the outcomes of their job or performance. Without feedback employees will not know what level are their outcomes of the work they perform, what is the improvement needed and what their future directions are. He or she must be able to get this feedback either from the job itself or through others and understanding of one’s capabilities is important for their personal gratification and satisfaction. Monetary feedback and positive feedback will help to motivate employees to perform more in the organization.
In conclusion, there are five major job characteristic that we must consider when designing a task or job in the organization. This is because our main goals for effectively designing job is to create job satisfaction, create and maintain job performance, reduction of negative side impact such as turnover rate, absenteeism and sickness in the organization that can deter its productivity and progress as well.
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