5 Important Job Characteristics Model

Job characteristics model relates the various aspects of a job or task to final performance-related outcomes like motivation, satisfaction, quality of performance delivered etc. It is a model that outlines five crucial job or task characteristics which determine three psychological states that the performer of the job can experience or go through, and these psychological states in turn influence the desired outcomes related to the performance of the job.

The five important task characteristics as outlined by this model are task variety, task identity, task significance and degree of autonomy and feedback about the task performance. These characteristics are discussed in detail below:

- Task variety – it implies a scope of getting assigned to

A greater sense of fulfillment is experienced when employees feel that they are contributing to the accomplishment of a larger part of a job.

- Task Significance – it implies how significant or meaningful the work is that an employee is performing, how far-reaching its consequences are, to what extent this work is helping the organization in attaining its goals, whether the work is producing a positive impact on the society etc. When task significance is high, employees’ motivation and morale is also high.

- Autonomy – Autonomy over one’s job fosters creativity and innovation since in absence of too much supervision and control, employees feel free to do the work the way they deem to be best, or to try out new techniques and procedures for accomplishment of the job. Employees also feel like job owners and that leads to a greater sense of responsibility and accountability for the

These outcomes can be work related motivation, job satisfaction, satisfaction about one’s professional growth, performance of superior quality, low absenteeism, a higher level of employee engagement etc. When an employee feels his work to be meaningful and enriching, his level of engagement, level of effort, motivation, satisfaction from the job etc. increases and he perceives the job as one that provides him with ample chances of professional growth. Similarly, the feeling of ownership of a job makes an employee more responsible and it can implicitly be concluded that the employee will strive to put forth a much superior performance for the accomplishment of the job, will show relatively high level of engagement, and will get more satisfaction from the job since it’s done in his way. Knowledge about the outcome helps one to improve his or her performance thereby leading to a growth in his career, heightens the motivation to stick to the job etc.

So, the Job Characteristics model discusses at length on the core job characteristics that ultimately become the determinants of the final work related outcomes that are desired by any and every