Applying Job Characteristics Model to Nursing Profession

Bhavna R. Shetty¹, Dr. Rajashree Gujarathi²

¹Assistant Professor, Shri. S P Kothari & Smt. G S Kothari Institute of Computer Science & Technology Management, Nashik Road – 422101. Maharashtra, India

²Professor, Sinhgad Institute of Business Management, Chandivali, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

*Corresponding Author Email: shetty.bhavna@gmail.com

ABSTRACT:

In occupations and jobs that have profound negative effects on employees, job design and characteristics can make the entire difference between effective and ineffective employee performance. Hospital job designs have significant consequences on nurses’ job performance and more considerably on their job satisfaction; both of which are very important for hospitals’ efficient functioning. This research aimed at diagnosing a nurse’s job using Hackman’s and Oldham’s Job characteristics model within public hospitals of India and to understand impact of job characteristics on motivation and satisfaction levels of nurses. Results showed that nurses experienced greater meaningfulness of their job; however experienced responsibility was low while knowledge of actual results was satisfactory but could be further improved through constructive feedback. High growth need was also sensed among the nurses. The motivational potential of nursing job was low due to absence of autonomy and productive feedback, despite high levels of variety, identity or significance. Thus for enriching and making nursing profession more satisfactory, hospitals need to focus on these two job characteristics. The findings of this study could be helpful to hospitals in the field human resource management for designing and offering enriched jobs to nurses leading to enhanced individual and organizational performance.

KEYWORDS: Job Characteristics, Job Satisfaction, Motivational Potential, Nurses, Public Hospitals.

INTRODUCTION:

The shift from industrial age to information age has resulted in several major consequences; opening up a whole new spectrum of opportunities as well as multi facet challenges to be faced. This change over in human history has had tremendous impact on employee and organizational functioning. Jobs have become too demanding and stressful putting employees’ capabilities to test. In occupations and jobs that have profound negative effects on employees, job design and characteristics can make the entire difference between effective and ineffective employee performance. The nursing profession is one such job that demands working in an environment that can cause anxiety, depression, health, fatigue and stress.

Hospitals should thus aim at designing nursing job so as reduce stress related disorders and physical and emotional strain and job dissatisfaction.

Job satisfaction is crucial as it has substantial impact on employee’s performance. Earlier research has shown that job satisfaction is associated with work environment and job design. Job design as a process organizes tasks, duties and responsibilities into a single unit of work to achieve set objectives. Job design on one hand must be in line with organisational objectives and on other hand must be organized so as to reduce job fatigue, stress and human error. Among various factors affecting job design process, task and job characteristics are of more relevance for efficient designing. Hospital job designs have significant consequences on nurses’ job performance and more considerably on their job satisfaction; both of which are very important for hospitals’ efficient functioning. It may also impact nurses’ productivity, absenteeism and turnover intentions and their psychological health and well being. Motivated and satisfied nurses are vital to hospitals.

Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham (1980) proposed one of most influential job characteristics theory that described the relationship between job characteristics and individual responses to work ^[1]. They provided an approach to work redesign based on theoretical model of what job characteristics lead to the psychological states that produce high internal work motivation. Their theory recommended organizations to analyse jobs using five core job characteristics and then redesign jobs to maximize employee motivation. The five core job characteristics are skill variety, task identity, task significance autonomy and feedback from the job. The first three characteristics are related to psychological state of “experienced meaningfulness of work”, job autonomy is related to “experienced responsibility for outcomes of the work” while feedback is related to “knowledge of actual results of the work activities”. These three psychological states would in turn result into outcomes like high internal work motivation, high satisfaction with the job and with one’s growth on the job, and high work effectiveness would result. As Faturochman (1997) mentions, all three psychological states must be experienced by an individual if desirable outcomes are to emerge ^[2]. If any of the three psychological states is not present, several outcome variables such as motivation and satisfaction will be weakened. The Motivating Potential Score (MPS) is calculated by combining the five core job characteristics for a particular job. MPS a single index, can be used as an index of how likely a job is to affect an employee's attitudes and behaviors. The formula for MPS is (Skill Variety + Task Identity + Task Significance) / 3 x Autonomy x Feedback.

Comprehending these critical job characteristics, organizations can then derive key components of job design and redesign it to improve motivation and satisfaction levels. Jobs need to be restructured to enable skill variety, create autonomy, increase meaningfulness and responsibility and to connect employees to job outcomes.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Understanding relationship between employees and their job has been a very basic topic of interest in organisational psychology. Literature mentions two theoretical approaches to restructure organizational process, that is job design and system redesign (Dienemann and Gessner, 1992) ^[3]. Job design focuses on roles, tasks and processing methods, encompassing the overall job content (Holman et al. 2002; Birnbaum and Somers, 1995) ^[4,5]. System redesign is concerned with the entire restructuring of department or organization. According to Dienemann et al. (1992) job design strategies are more feasible in nursing; as redesigning nursing jobs would not have significant impact on other professional groups or jobs within hospitals ^[3]. System redesign comparatively would be more challenging due to its implications not only on nurses’ role but also on roles and relationships of other health care professionals.

Hackman’s and Oldham’s job characteristics model generated a lot of interest and has been extensively researched by various studies. The model has shown its practical applicability in healthcare sector also. Edgar (1999) tested relationship of nurses’ job satisfaction and motivation with their job characteristics and found meaningful applicability of Hackman’s and Oldham’s (1980) job characteristics model to nursing care delivery system. The study further added four attributes that contributed to nurses’ job satisfaction and motivation, support for autonomy, communication, adequate time for patient care and environmental uncertainty ^[6].

Loice et al. (2013) in their exploratory survey to examine effects of selected job characteristics on nurses’ performance concluded that task identity and autonomy had positive significant impact on nurses’ performance ^[7]. Jonge and Schaufeli (1998) in their study tested curvilinearly relation of three job characteristics (job demands, job autonomy and workplace social support) with three key indicators of employee well-being (job satisfaction, job-related anxiety, and emotional exhaustion). Their research concluded that job demands were negatively, but only linearly related with job satisfaction; job autonomy had small but significant linear relationship with job satisfaction while work social support had positive relation with job satisfaction, but negative relation with job-related anxiety and emotional exhaustion ^[8]. While a study that aimed to understand role of hospital staff nurses by using job characteristic model concluded that there was no significant correlation between total job satisfaction score and job dimensions. Highest dissatisfaction was expressed with the degree of autonomy ^[9]. Nurses perceived autonomy as their ability to accomplish patient care goals in a timely manner by using their knowledge and skills to understand and contribute to the overall plan of care and not just as independent practice and decision making (Stewart et al. 2004) ^[10]. Nurses’ job also requires high collaboration and team work; thus task clarity and identify play an important role. As stated by Tonges (1998) role ambiguity can lead to vague task definition and inconsistency ^[11,12]. Hall et. al (2000) study stressed that there was a need to examine and clarify work roles and perceptions for all caregivers as part of any work redesign process; as it had consequences for both, quality care and employee outcomes ^[13].

Kahya (2007) mentions that unpleasant environmental conditions can both direct and indirect effects on employee job performance. If an employee is exposed to these conditions, his concentration to tasks can decrease leading to low employee performance including productivity, quality, emotional stress, and in turn causes high cost ^[14]. Thus this study was an attempt to find out job characteristics affecting nursing profession; a much ignored topic within Indian public hospitals.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY:

Nurses have maximum face to face interaction with patients and therefore can contribute to delivery of high quality patient care. Nurses also form the largest group of healthcare professional in any hospitals. Thus hospitals need to look out for opportunities and alternatives which can increase nurses’ satisfaction; as nurses’ performance is dependent on the level of their job enrichment and satisfaction. Job design plays an important towards making a job more enriched and satisfactory. Thus this research aimed at diagnosing a nurse’s job using Hackman’s and Oldham’s Job Diagnostic model. The study examines nurses’ perception about their job characteristics that influences their motivation and satisfaction levels. To the best of researchers’ knowledge there is paucity of research in this subject within Indian context.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

Which of the five job characteristics of Hackman’s and Oldham’s model strongly influence hospital nurses’ work motivation and satisfaction?

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

· To understand the applicability of Hackman and Oldham job characteristics model for nurses’ profession

· To study the influence of the five job characteristics skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback on motivation levels of hospital nurses.

· To identify job characteristics that highly influence job satisfaction levels of hospital nurses.

· To calculate the motivating potential score for the nursing profession

THEORETICAL MODEL:

Hackman and Oldham (1980) model (refer figure 1) relates five job characteristics (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback) to three psychological outcomes (experienced meaningfulness, experienced responsibility for outcomes, and knowledge of the actual results) and these in turn influence personal and work outcomes (high internal work motivation, high satisfaction with the job and growth on the job, and high work effectiveness).

Hackman and Oldham (1980) argue that ‘meaningfulness of work’ the degree to which employee finds work meaningful; is derived from first three job characteristics. ‘Skill variety’ is the extent to which the job requires an employee to utilize multiple high-level skills to carrying out the work. It provides opportunity to use a number of valued skills and abilities but high skill variety can be overwhelming as in case of nursing profession. ‘Task Identity’ provides opportunity to employees to identify with work as whole and complete; it is the degree to which an employee is in charge of completing an identifiable piece of work from start to finish. ‘Task significance’ is the degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people, refers to whether a person’s job substantially affects other people’s work, health, or well-being. In addition to five characteristics, two identical dimensions were also found to be useful in understanding jobs and employees’ reactions to it. These are ‘Feedback from agents’ (from seniors or co-workers) about the performance on job and ‘Dealing with others’ the degree to which employee is required to work closely with others.

Figure1. Hackman’s and Oldham’s Job Characteristics Model

Source: Hackman and Oldham, l980

Responsibility’ the degree of experienced accountability; is derived from ‘autonomy’ which is the level of freedom employee has to decide how to perform the tasks. ‘Knowledge’ of effective job performance and outcomes is acquired from ‘feedback’ a degree to which employees learns how effective they are at work.

Internal Work Motivation measures the degree to which the employees experience positive internal feelings and are self-motivated to perform effectively on the job. Job satisfaction measures satisfaction with job security, pay and other compensation, peers and co-workers, supervision and opportunities for personal growth and development. Hackman and Oldham’s model also proposed that all five characteristics will not have same effect on every employee, as the growth need of employee will act as a moderator to a job’s motivating potential.

HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY:

This study within the nursing profession aimed at testing following hypothesis:

H1: The five job characteristics of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback will be positively associated with nurses’ work motivation.

H2: The five job characteristics of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback will be positively associated with nurses’ job satisfaction.

SUB HYPOTHESES:

H1a: Higher Skill Variety will be positively associated with job satisfaction of nurses

H1b: Higher Task Identity will be positively associated with job satisfaction of nurses

H1c: Higher Task significance will be positively associated with job satisfaction of nurses

H1d: Greater Autonomy will be positively associated with job satisfaction of nurses

H2e: Higher Feedback will be positively associated with job satisfaction of nurses

MATERIAL AND METHOD:

Participants:

The data for this study was collected from 450 registered female nurses from public hospitals of Mumbai.

Measures:

A self report questionnaire was adopted from Job Design Survey developed by Hackman and Oldham (1975); that exhibits high reliability for all the scales. The questionnaire measured the five job dimensions and in addition two more dimensions of ‘feedback from agents; and ‘dealing with others’, three psychological states, nurses’ affective responses to the job (internal motivation and satisfaction) and finally growth need of nurses.

RESULTS:

The total participation rate for the study was 53% and the completely filled in forms were used for final data analysis and drawing results. All respondents were female nurses working with public hospitals in Mumbai. 20% belonged to 21 to 30 years age group, 67% were in 31 to 40 years and 13% were above 40 years of age. Maximum respondents (61%) had 5 to 10 years of professional experience whereas the just few (12%) were in the nursing profession for more than 15 years.

Results related to ‘Core Job Dimensions’:

Skill Variety: 87% respondents agreed that their profession required a combination of variety of skills to do their job effectively and efficiently. 93% also approved that their job is not at all simple; but required complex and different high level skills to deal with every patient.

Task Identity: 78% respondents agreed that nature of nursing job involved doing the entire set of activities completely from beginning to end and that it was not a small part of the overall job. 85% said that they had the responsibility to completely finish their job.

Task Significance: A very high percent of respondents (93%) agreed that nursing job was very significant in terms of having effect on others’ life or wellbeing of patients. 91% agreed that nursing profession held an important place in overall healthcare services and that a large number of people can be affected by how well a nurse performs the job.

Autonomy: 81% respondents believed that their profession as nurses did not provide any autonomy to take decisions related to their job. 91% believed that their job lacked any opportunity to take personal initiatives and freedom in how to do work.

Feedback from the job itself: 87% respondents felt that their nursing job itself provided them with the feedback and information about their performance. Feedback from agents: However only 67% respondents received feedback from seniors or doctors about their performance on the job.

Dealing with others: 91% agreed that nursing is a profession where one is required to work closely and in collaboration with colleagues and doctors. Most respondents opined that nursing is not a profession where one can work all alone without checking with others.

Respondents score on various job dimensions are shown in table 1.

Table 1: Mean scores of Job Characteristics

Job Characteristics	Mean ± SD
Skill Variety	6.1 ± 0.20
Task Identity	5.7 ± 0.27
Task Significance	6.0 ± 0.19
Autonomy	4.1 ± 0.31
Feedback from job itself	5.5 ± 0.19
Feedback from agents	4.7 ± 0.21
Dealing with Others	5.8 ± 0.23
Experienced meaningfulness of work	5.7 ± 0.18
Experienced responsibility for the work	5.7 ± 0.21
Knowledge of results	5.6 ± 0.17
Internal work motivation	4.9 ± 0.19
General Satisfaction	4.7 ± 0.22
Pay satisfaction	4.1 ± 0.21
Security satisfaction	3.8 ± 0.23
Social satisfaction	4.6 ± 0.21
Supervisory satisfaction	3.9 ± 0.21
Growth satisfaction	4.2 ± 0.20

The Motivation Potential Score (MPS) calculated was 133, which was a rough indication of nursing job’s motivational potential; as different nurses may respond differently to various job characteristics.

Results related to ‘Experienced Psychological states’:

Experienced meaningfulness of work: 83% of respondents agreed to usefulness of their work and seemed to experience its meaningfulness. 88% also believed that other nurses too experienced the importance of the profession and the job.

Experienced responsibility for outcomes of work: 68% felt a high degree of responsibility for their work as they believed that whether or not the job gets done is their responsibility. However, only 56% felt that they should personally take credit or blame for results of the work done on the job. 73% felt that others nurses did not seem to realize the personal responsibility for their job.

Knowledge of actual results of the act: 74% thought that they had an idea of how well they were doing on the job and whether their work was satisfactory or not. 78% felt that other nurses had no difficulty in getting feedback about results and they had a good idea of how well their job was being done.

Results related to ‘Outcomes’:

Internal Work Motivation: An indication of nurse’s self motivation to perform effectively on the job. 81% experienced a great sense of personal satisfaction and opinion about self improved when they did their job well. 77% felt that their quality of work directly affected their feelings. However 62% felt that the same was not true for other nurses; whose feelings seemed to remain unaffected by their work.

General Satisfaction: An overall measure of the degree to which a nurse is satisfied; a measure that also indicates turnover and absenteeism. A low percent 58% felt satisfied with the job and the kind of work being done. 79% frequently thought about quitting their job. 78% agreed that this feeling of dissatisfaction was also experienced by other nurses.

Specific Satisfaction: a) Pay: 78% respondents were dissatisfied with the amount of pay and benefits received, b) Job security: 76% were not sure of the future security provided by their job at the hospital, c) Social: 86% experienced high social satisfaction as their job provided an opportunity to know and help other people while at work. d) Supervision: Respondents were either dissatisfied or chose to remain neutral on quality of supervision, support and guidance received. e) Personal growth: 77% seemed to be slightly dissatisfied with personal growth and development and the amount of individual thoughts and actions that could be exercised.

Results related to ‘Individual Growth Need Strength’:

‘Would like’ characteristics The analysis of job characteristics that nurses would like to have (refer table 2), showed a very strong preference for jobs featuring worthwhile accomplishment (94%), personal growth and development (93.4 %), chances to exercise independent thoughts (93%) and opportunities to learn new things from work (91%).

‘Preferred Job’ characteristics

87% preferred a job with good pay and benefits package, high job security and good working conditions against a job where creativity could be exercised, 68% preferred a job with pleasant people to work with against a job requiring making important decisions. 77% preferred a job where co-workers where friendly, 85% wanted a supervisor who would not criticize in front of others but would treat with respect.

Table 2 Mean scores of Nurses’ Growth Need:

Would Like’ Characteristics	Mean
Simulating and Challenging work	5.8
Chances to exercise independent thought and action.	6.3
Opportunities to learn new things from my work	6.2
Opportunities to be creative and imaginative in my work	5.9
Opportunities for personal growth and development	6.4
A sense of worthwhile accomplishment in my work.	6.5

Hypothesis testing:

Chi square test at degree of freedom (df) equal to one and five percent significance level was used to test all hypothetical association of the study. H1 hypothesis that assumed positive association between five job characteristics of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback with nurses’ work motivation was accepted; indicating the role of job characteristics as motivators. H2 hypothesis that assumed positive association between five job characteristics and nurses’ job satisfaction was also accepted, indicating these job characteristics as factors generating psychological states resulting in job satisfaction.

Sub hypothesis of higher skill variety being positively associated with job satisfaction was rejected; possibly as nurses perceived requirement of more skill variety as over demanding and stressful. Task identity, task significance, greater autonomy and feedback were found to be positively associated with job satisfaction of nurses.

DISCUSSION:

The purpose of this study was to diagnose the existing job of hospital nurses within Indian context using Hackman’s and Oldham's Job Characteristics Model. The model considers five job dimensions which in turn generate three psychological states that further result into motivation, growth and satisfaction.

Nurses agreed that their profession is a one that requires high skill variety, a complete blend of professional, mental and emotional skills which had significant impact on wellbeing of patients. Nurses perceived their job as holistic in nature, emphasizing on the whole and interdependence of work that necessitated effective dealing with others while performing the job. As nurses scored high on these job dimensions they experienced greater meaningfulness of their job.

High dissatisfaction was experienced with autonomy provided by the job. Though nurses realized a high degree of responsibility for their work, not many agreed to take credit or blame for the results. Lack of autonomy and shared nature of the job could be a possible explanation for the same. Although the job was self sufficient in proving feedback, nurses were not satisfied with the feedback received from seniors. According to nurses patients’ feelings, expressions and emotions helped them figure out how well they were doing their job. Knowledge of actual results of actions was satisfactory but could be further improved through constructive feedback received from seniors and doctors. As a study of critical care nurses’ moral distress in Iran also indicated that an appreciative collaboration between critical care nurses and physicians allows them to value each other as a health care system ^[16].

The motivational potential of nursing job was low due to absence of autonomy and productive feedback, despite high levels of variety, identity or significance. Thus for enriching and making nursing profession more satisfactory, hospitals need to focus on these two job characteristics such that nurses’ experienced responsibility for outcomes and knowledge of results may be improved.

High growth need was sensed among the nurses, with almost all respondents aspiring for jobs that provided challenging work, high respect, greater autonomy, high salary and benefits, job security, quick promotions, opportunity to grow, learn and to be creative, fair treatment from seniors, friendly coworkers and a sense of accomplishment. Nursing profession provided average internal motivation, as dissatisfaction was expressed with autonomy and feedback characteristics of the job.

This study has significant implications within Indian context where most public and private hospitals face dire shortage of healthcare professionals like nurses, doctors and paramedics. Under such scenario it is imperative for hospitals to design jobs that are aimed at reducing profession related stress and tensions, optimize work motivation and satisfaction, foster high quality of work life. The findings of this study could be helpful to hospitals in the field human resource management for designing and offering enriched jobs to nurses leading to enhanced individual and organizational performance.

Future studies could focus on larger population from different parts of the country and similar studies with special focus on rural hospitals and primary healthcare centers would be a great step towards filling the research gap in this field.

REFERENCES:

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[16] Iranmanesh S, Rezaei H, Eslami H and Rafiei H. (2013). Critical care nurses’ moral distress in South-East of Iran. Asian Journal of Nursing Education and Research, Vol 3(3): 129-133

Received on 25.09.2013 Modified on 09.10.2013

Int. J. Adv. Nur. Management 2(1):Jan. - Mar., 2014; Page 06-11