Good Work Toolbox

GWT Analyst’s summary: Hackman and Oldham’s Work Redesign explores the ways in which organizational development, industrial engineering, and psychology interact in the workplace. Most of the book is aimed at workplaces where there is manual production work being performed. The desired outcome for redesigned work is to have workers with high levels of internal motivation towards their jobs. This motivation, they argue can only be achieved by workers achieving the following critical psychological states:

• Experiencing meaningfulness of the work
• Experiencing responsibility for outcomes of the work
• Gaining knowledge of the actual results of the work activities

These psychological states can be attained by redesigning work. The new work should be designed with a focus on skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. The expected personal outcomes for internally motivated workers are greater levels of satisfaction with a job and their personal growth. The expected organizational benefits are an increase in quality of output and effectiveness of teams.