AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE PERCEPTUAL DIMENSIONS OF JOBS

HAL GORDON GUEUTAL, Purdue University

Abstract

This research investigates the perceptual dimensions of jobs. Several job design theories have suggested that perceptual job characteristics may be used to predict work outcomes such as job satisfaction and internal work motivation. A review of the development of these models (e.g., Turner and Lawrence, 1965; Hackman and Oldham, 1974) is undertaken with the conclusion that none of these is based on an empirically derived set of task characteristics. Therefore, the adequacy of these previous sets of task characteristics for representing the perceptual dimensions of jobs cannot be demonstrated. Using multidimensional scaling techniques, the present study develops an empirically based set of job dimensions. The pilot study, involving eighty-eight undergraduate management students, developed a set of stimulus job titles and aided in refining the data collection procedures used in the main investigation. The main investigation consisted of asking subjects (158 undergraduate and graduate management students) to rate the similarity of the stimulus job titles to one another in terms of the "work activities of incumbents performing the jobs." Subjects also rated the stimulus job titles on a standard job characteristics questionnaire and completed measures of several individual difference variables. The similarity data are scaled in accordance with the Horan Scaling Model. Subjects are randomly divided into three groups, termed replications. Scalings of each replication are compared with one another and a very high degree of convergence is found. This is interpreted as evidence for the stability of the scaling solutions across the samples. The replications are then collapsed into a single group and the final scaling solution derived. The ratings of the stimulus jobs on the job characteristics measure are correlated with the job title coordinates on the recovered dimensions to aid in assigning descriptive labels. It is concluded that jobs are viewed along three dimensions, representing "professionalism," "interaction with the public," and "physical labor/cleanliness." In addition, evidence is not found to warrant the conclusion that the individual difference variables--field independence/dependence, cognitivie complexity, and degree of prior work experience--affect the dimensionality of job perceptions. The results of the present study suggest that previous job design models have employed task characteristics sets which describe only the "job complexity" dimension. Revisions of existing job characteristics measures are suggested in order to more adequately sample the perceptual space of jobs, and thereby increase the criterion-related validity of such measures.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Management

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