Executive work design: New perspectives and future directions

摘要

Several conclusions can be garnered from this review of executive work characteristics. First, there is substantial overlap between existing executive behavior research and work design characteristics. This observation is promising because it illustrates how macro and micro literatures inform one another in complementary ways. Second, there is substantial work remaining that is informed by existing work design models (e.g., Morgeson & Humphrey, 2006, 2008). Our review touched on a fraction of known work characteristics in an effort to highlight prior work, and effective work design largely is dependent upon exploration of other characteristics in the executive context.rnFor example, we know little about the effects of executive task significance (i.e., the extent to which a job impacts others' lives), feedback (i.e., the extent to which a job provides information on performance), interdependence (i.e., a preference for dealing with others to accomplish work), and social support (i.e., the extent to which a job provides opportunities for assistance and advice from others) as they influence executive well being, decision making, conflict, and organizational performance.rnThese questions are important because organizations tend to reflect the characteristics of their top management (Hambrick, 2007), and work design is a viable tool for better understanding and advancing the functional performance of executives. Relatedly, executive research informs work design by expanding the focus of criterion variables from individual outcomes (e.g., satisfaction, motivation, efficiency) to aggregate outcomes (e.g., social responsibility, financial performance, innovation). Such balancing is necessary to move these respective paradigms forward.