oa Work characteristics and the emergence of a sustainable workforce: Do job design principles matter?

Work characteristics and the emergence of a sustainable workforce: Do job design principles matter?

Doris Fay & Alexandra Kamps, Gedrag & Organisatie, Volume 19, June 2006, nr. 2, pp. 184.

Today's organisations require a workforce with high levels of adaptability and flexibility, that is, a sustainable workforce. Drawing on the notion of socialization through work, this study looks at the potential role of job design for building a sustainable workforce. Drawing on data from 335 individuals from the new German countries, we tested whether levels of desirable attitudes and behaviours are associated with the application of Tayloristic design principles. Perceptions of work characteristics (job control, complexity, task completeness, prescription of one-best-way of doing the job) were used to create groups of work places that differed in degree of Taylorism. Comparison of jobs with high versus low levels of Taylorism showed that individuals with Tayloristic jobs had lower work-related self-efficacy, lower personal initiative, innovativity and readiness to change, and higher levels of control rejection and depression than individuals in less Tayloristic jobs. Implications for changing job demands and future work are discussed.