TY - CHAP

T1 - Work Design and Performance

AU - Ohly, Sandra

AU - Venz, Laura

PY - 2025/5

Y1 - 2025/5

N2 - The chapter on work design and performance provides a review of the work characteristics that have been linked to performance outcomes such as proficiency, adaptivity, proactivity/creativity, and safety performance. Using Stephen Humphrey and colleagues’ meta-analysis as a starting point, it provides an update on more recent research and broadens the perspective of relevant work characteristics. As linkage between work characteristics and performance, research on motivation, learning, and cognitive capacity is discussed. Recommendation for future research include a stronger focus on learning and cognitive capacity as explanations of how work design affects performance, incorporating a distinction of primary and secondary tasks into theorizing.

AB - The chapter on work design and performance provides a review of the work characteristics that have been linked to performance outcomes such as proficiency, adaptivity, proactivity/creativity, and safety performance. Using Stephen Humphrey and colleagues’ meta-analysis as a starting point, it provides an update on more recent research and broadens the perspective of relevant work characteristics. As linkage between work characteristics and performance, research on motivation, learning, and cognitive capacity is discussed. Recommendation for future research include a stronger focus on learning and cognitive capacity as explanations of how work design affects performance, incorporating a distinction of primary and secondary tasks into theorizing.

UR - https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197692554.003.0005

M3 - Chapter

SP - 147

EP - 174

BT - Transformative Work Design: Synthesis and New Directions

A2 - Parker, Sharon

A2 - Klonek, Florian Erik

A2 - Knight, Caroline

A2 - Zhang, Fangfang

PB - Oxford University Press

ER -