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Employee reactions to job

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ARTICLE in JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY MARCH 1975
Impact Factor: 4.31 DOI: 10.1037/h0076548

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Arthur Brief
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Ramon Aldag
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Retrieved on: 20 June 2015

Journal ol Applied Psychology

1975, Vol. 60, No. 2, 182-186

Employee Reactions to Job Characteristics:

A Constructive Replication
Ramon J. Aldag
Graduate School of Business,
University of Wisconsin

Arthur P. Brief
Department of Business Administration,
University of Kentucky

Hackman and Lawler's conceptual model involving relationships between job

characteristics and employee affective reactions was investigated by a partial
replication. Subjects, 104 emplos'ees occupying jobs aimed at rehabilitating
inmates, completed a questionnaire involving their (a) perceptions of job core
dimensions; (b) internal work motivation; (c) general job satisfaction; (d)
job involvement; (e) higher order need strength; and (f) specific satisfactions
measured by Job Descriptive Index items. Significant, positive correlations
were found between job dimensions and employee reactions. While the results
were in the direction of Hackman and Lawler's finding that higher order need
strength moderated the job characteristics-employee reaction relationship, the
role of higher order need strength was found to be more complex.

Several researchers have argued that shortcycle, repetitive jobs cost an organization in
terms of increased job dissatisfaction, absenteeism and turnover, and difficulties in
effectively managing employees who perceive
their jobs as monotonous (e.g., Blauner, 1964;
Guest, 19SS; Walker, 19SO; Walker & Guest,
19S2). In response to these arguments against
simplified work, numerous students of worker
behavior have called for the vertical and
horizontal expansion of jobs (e.g., Ford,
1969; Lawler, 1969; Sheppard & Herrick,
1972).
Of interest to the psychologist are questions concerning whether enriched jobs do, in
fact, affect employee motivation and, if so,
how, and in particular, under what circumstances and for what categories of workers
(e.g., Blood & Hulin, 1967; Hulin, 1971;
Hackman & Oldham, 1974; Hulin & Blood,
1968; Lawler, Hackman, Si Kaufman, 1973;
Turner & Lawrence, 196S; Wanous, 1973).
In 1971 Hackman and Lawler set forth a
conceptual model to aid in answering these
questions. They specified the conditions under which jobs would facilitate the development of internal motivation for effective performance and described 13 different telephone
company jobs on four core dimensionsvariRequests for reprints should be sent to Arthur P.
Brief, College of Business and Economics, University
of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506.

182

ety, autonomy, task identity, and feedback.

"Variety" indicated the degree to which the
job required employees to perform a wide
range of operations in their work and/or the
degree to which employees had to use a
variety of equipment and procedures in their
work. "Autonomy" referred to the extent to
which employees had a major say in scheduling their work, selecting the equipment they
would use, and deciding on procedures to be
followed. "Task identity" referred to the
extent to which employees did an entire or
whole piece of work and could clearly identify
the results of their efforts. "Feedback" indicated the degree to which employees received
information as they were working which revealed how well they were performing on
their job. Hackman and Lawler (1971) also
measured the strength of desire for the satisfaction of "higher order" needs (e.g., obtaining feelings of accomplishment, personal
growth). They predicted and found that when
jobs are high on the four core dimensions,
employees who were desirous of higher order
need satisfaction tended to have high motivation and high job satisfaction, to be absent
from work infrequently, and to be rated by
supervisors as doing high-quality work.
The purpose of this paper is to report the
results of a study designed to "constructively"
replicate parts of Hackman and Lawler's
(1971) preliminary efforts to test their con-

EMPLOYEE REACTIONS TO JOB CHARACTERISTICS

ceptualization. A constructive replication is a
study which, if successful, extends the generalizability of the research after which it is
modeled, by avoiding the exact duplication of
the first researchers' methods (Lykken, 1968),
The following propositions derived from
Hackman and Lawler (1971) were investigated in this study:
1. The worker's perceptions of his job's
core dimensions are positively related to various affective responses to his job (e.g., level
of internal work motivation, general job satisfaction, and job involvement).
2. Jobs perceived as high on all four core
dimensions are associated with maximum internal work motivation, general job satisfaction, etc,
3. Relationships between perceptions of the
four core dimensions and the worker's affective responses to his job are stronger for those
individuals having greater higher order need
strength (desire for higher order needs) than
for those individuals having less higher order
need strength.
4. Workers from rural backgrounds have
greater higher order need strength than workers from urban backgrounds.
METHOD
The subjects were 104 employees of a Division of
Corrections in a midwcstern state, occupying a variety of jobs whose ultimate purpose was the rehabilitation of inmates. The subjects were participants in
a division-sponsored training program in which the
data collection was performed. The average age of
the subjects was 41.1 years with 78% of the sample
being male. The average length of employment with
the division was 7.1 years, and the average time on
the job being measured was 4.7 years.
This subject population was selected because of its
assumed differences from the telephone company
employees studied by Hackman and Lawler (1971).
For example, one might expect youth counselors and
correctional officers working in a publicly operated
rehabilitation institution to differ from operators
and cable splicers employed by a large, profit-oriented
organization, in terms of their motives for remaining
on the job and/or the kinds of work accomplishments experienced.

Measures
The questionnaire completed by the subjects included a shortened and slightly revised version of
that used by Hackman and Lawler (1971). This
revised version has been used by Lawler, Hackman,
and Kaufman (1973) and is reported by Hackman

183

TABLE 1
JOB CORE DIMENSIONS : MEANS AND
STANDARD DEVIATIONS
Job core dimension

SD

Skill variety
Task identity
Task significance
Autonomy
Feedback from job

5.62
4.53
6.13
4.99
4.63

1.04
1.37
.95
1.32
1.37

(1973). The job dimensions measured in the revised

version include those originally reported by Hackman and Lawler: skill variety (5 items with an
internal scale reliability of .62), task identity (S
items with an internal scale reliability of .63), autonomy (5 items with an internal scale reliability
of .69), and feedback from the job itself (3 items
with an internal scale reliability of .63). The average
correlation between the dimensions was .38 (see Table
1 for scale means and standard deviations).
Also incorporated from Hackman and Lawler's
revised questionnaire were their measures of various
affective responses (level of internal work motivation, general job satisfaction, and job involvement)
and a measure of higher order need strength (referred to by Hackman, 1973, as need strength measure A ) .
In lieu of the specific satisfaction items investigated by Hackman and Lawler, the Job Descriptive
Index (JDI) was used to measure satisfaction with
pay, promotion, supervision, type of work, and the
people on the job (Smith, Kendall, & Hulin, 1969).
TABLE 2
GENERAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN JOB
CHARACTERISTICS AND EMPLOYEE
REACTIONS
Job core dimensions
Employee reactions

Level of internal
motivation
General job satisfaction
Job involvement
Specific satisfaction
Work
Supervision
Co-workers
Pay
Promotion

* f < .05.

Variety

Task
Auton- idcn- Feedomy
tity back

.26*
.31*
.35*

.32*
.51*
.34*

.06
.34*
.20*

.37*
.37*
.40*

.37*
.19*
.16
.24*
.20*

.51*
.38*
.37*
.21*
.23*

.39*
.30*
.12
.12
.02

.35*
.41*
.20*
.07
.20*

184

AUTHUK P. BRIEF AND RAMON J. ALDAG

TABLE 3
MODERATING EFFECTS ov HIGHER ORDER NEED STRENGTH FOR TUB
EMPLOYEE REACTION-JOB CHARACTERISTICS RELATIONSHIPS
i Higher order need
!
strength
High"

Lo\v

| High"

Lo\v b

Task identity

Variety
.47"
.47"
.42=

.40"

.20'1
.16
.06
.09

.01

.20

.63"

.28
.26

Autonomy
Level of internal \vork motivation
General job satisfaction
Job involvement
Specific satisfaction
Work
Supervision
Co-workers
Pay
Promotion

Higher order need

strength
Employee reaction

Employee reaction

Level of internal work motivation

General job satisfaction
Job involvement
Specific satisfaction
Work
Supervision
Co-workers
Pay
Promotion

'[
j

Level of internal work motivation

General job satisfaction
|
Job involvement
!
Specific satisfaction
|
Work
Supervision
Co-workers
Pay
Promotion

.07
.40"
.36

-.06
.33
.15

.40"
.37
.26
.31
.14

.35"
.00
-.26
.16
.17"

.44"
.36"
.52"

.36"

Feedback
.32
.53"

.39"
.62"
.23
.41'
.11
-.13

.36
.33

.28
.33d
.46"

Level of internal work motivation

General job satisfaction
Job involvement
Specific satisfaction
Work
Supervision
Co-workers
Pay
Promotion

.52"
.40"
.31
.18
-.15

.46"

.30

.18
.43"
.13
.19
.37"'

a The high need-strength group is composed of those subjects whose higher order need-strength scores were in the top third
of bthe need-strength score distribution.
The low need-strength group is composed of those subjects whose higher order need-strength scores were in the bottom
third
of the need-strength score distribution.
L
Correlation
is significant at /> < .05.
cl
Difference between the correlations is significant at /> < .05, two-tailed test.

Analyses
For easier comparisons between results, the data
analysis procedures used generally corresponded to
those used by Hackman and Lawler (1971).

RESULTS
Relationships Between Core Dimensions and
Employee Affective Responses
Hackman and Lawler (1971) found that
an employee's perceptions of each core dimension were significantly (p < .05) related to
his level of internal work motivation (f
.24), general job satisfaction (f = .31), and
job involvement ( f = . 2 0 ) . As indicated in
Table 2, all of this study's correlations between the same variables are also significant
at the .05 level with the exception of the

correlation between task identity and internal

work motivation.
In 1971 Hackman and Lawler reported
that their indices of satisfaction with pay,
coworkers, promotion, and supervision were
not as strongly associated with the core dimensions when compared with their satisfaction items focusing on the work itself. This
study's results yielded the same pattern of
findings utilizing the JDI (see Table 2).
Maximum Affective Responses
Hackman and Lawler (1971) examined
three combination models to determine the
impact of a job being high on all four core
dimensions. As stated earlier in Proposition
2, Hackman and Lawler predicted that jobs
perceived as high on all four core dimensions

EMPLOYEE REACTIONS TO JOB CHARACTERISTICS

are associated with maximum affective responses. The models consisted of (a) correlating the unweighted sum of the core dimensions with each dependent variable, (b) using
the core dimensions as independent variables
in a multiple-regression analysis predicting
each of the dependent variables, and (c)
correlating the product of the four core dimensions with each dependent variable. From
these analyses, the authors concluded that
the viability of the conjunctive model specified by their theory was neither supported
nor refuted. The analysis of this study's data
showed that in all cases the regression model
appeared to perform marginally better than
either of the other comparison models and
therefore tended to replicate Hackman and
Lawler's findings. A job high on all four core
dimensions displayed the maximum associations with internal work motivation, general
job satisfaction, etc.
Higher Order Need Strength
Hackman and Lawler (1971) compared the
relationships between the core dimensions and
each independent variable for those subjects
whose scores fell into the top third of the
higher order need strength distribution with
those whose scores fell into the bottom third
of the distribution. From this analysis, they
concluded that higher order need strength
acts as a moderating variable except for relationships involving task identity. The results,
presented in Table 3, indicated that this
study's findings generally confirmed Hackman and Lawler's (1971) conclusions, since
the correlations are mostly in the expected
direction. However, the lack of many significant differences between correlations and the
occurrence of several unexpected results lead
to questioning of the straightforward role of
higher order need strengths as depicted by
Hackman and Lawler.
To further examine -the effects of higher
order need strength, Hackman and Lawler
calculated the correlations between the product of the four core dimensions and each
independent variable for the third of the
subjects highest in higher order need strength
and the third of the subjects lowest in higher
order need strength. Again, from their analysis, they concluded that a strong case was

185

TABLE 4
MODERATING EFFECTS OF HIGHER ORDER NEED
STRENGTH FOR THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN
THE PRODUCT OF THE IV'OUR CORE DIMENSIONS
AND EMPLOYEE REACTIONS

Employee reaction

Higher order need

strength
High"

Level of internal work motivation

General job satisfaction
Job involvement
Specific satisfaction
Work
Supervision
Co-workers
Pay
Promotion

Low1'

.38"

.37

.56-=
,52 C

.54"
.40

.61'

.33
.32
.11
.34
.49'.''

.41
.36"

.30
-.19

a
The high need-strength group is composed of those subject?
whose higher order need-strength scores were in the top third
of bthe need-strength score distrihution.
The low need-strength group is composed of those subjects
whose higher order need-strength scores were in the bottom
third
of the need-strength score distribution.
0
Correlation is significant at p < .05.
11
Difference between the correlations is significant at p < .05,
two-tailed test.

made for the moderating effects of higher

order need strength. As shown in Table 4, this
study's results may again indicate a more
complex relationship.
Urban-Rural Background
Hackman and Lawler (1971) found that
workers with rural backgrounds had greater
higher order need strength than workers from
urban backgrounds (p < .10). The difference
found in this study between urban and rural
higher order need strengths was in the predicted direction, but not statistically significant, t (102) = .25.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
This study provides strong support for the
presence of positive associations between a
worker's perceptions of his job's characteristics and his affective responses to that job.
However, some questions are raised in regard
to how higher order need strength moderates
these relationships. Individuals high in higher
order need strength display stronger relationships between the core job dimensions and
affective responses involving the work itself
than do individuals lower in higher order need
strength. Yet, individuals lower in higher

186

ARTHUR P. BRIEF AND RAMON J. ALDAG

order need strength display stronger relationships between the core job dimensions and
affective responses more extrinsic to the work
itself (e.g., promotion) than do individuals
high in higher order need strength. Adequate
interpretation of these findings would appear
to require data bearing on the relationship
between higher order and lower order need
strength and on the extent to which levels of
extrinsic rewards vary as a function of the
core dimensions.
In conclusion, there is a need for future
constructive replications which continue to
sample different types of jobs and to use different instrumentation. In addition, different
methods of statistical analysis such as those
outlined by Cohen (1968) appear warranted
for the examination of interaction effects
among the core dimensions.
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