Arooj Arshad

Reg #07151511001
MBA (1.5)

Proposal of Job Design and Creative Work Involvement

Supervisor
Dr. Arfeen

1
 Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3
Problem Statement ................................................................................................................. 4
Research Objectives and Aims ............................................................................................... 5
Research Questions ................................................................................................................ 5
Justification ............................................................................................................................ 5
Scope of the Study.................................................................................................................. 6
Job Autonomy and Creative Work Involvement.................................................................... 7
Task Identity and Creative Work Involvement ...................................................................... 8
Feedback and Creative Work Involvement ............................................................................ 9
Creative Self-efficacy as Mediator ....................................................................................... 10
Research Methodology ............................................................................................................ 12
Procedure and Population..................................................................................................... 12
Data Collection Method ....................................................................................................... 12
Sampling............................................................................................................................... 13
Measurement and Instrument Selection ............................................................................... 13
Tentative Plan .......................................................................................................................... 14
References ................................................................................................................................ 15

2
 Introduction

As of fast changing and turbulent work environments of todays, it becomes more and

more important for organizational effectiveness to have employees who search for new

opportunities and who try out unconventional ideas at work. It means the need of creativity

and researcher have defined creativity as generation of novel and useful idea (Amabile,

1988). Creativity is one of the important factor of organizational innovation, effectiveness

survival and to gain competitive advantage. In this paper the focus is on the creative work

involvement which is one of a component of creativity. According to Atwater and Carmeli

(2009), creative work involvement is defined as “the extent to which an employee engages

his or her time, effort and resources in creative processes associated with work”. Creative

work involvement focus upon one’s own assessment of involvement in creative work. It is

argued by researcher to not only focus on outcomes but to gain knowledge about employees

evaluation of creative work involvement is also important ( Kark and Carmeli, 2009).

Creative work involvement is also an important factor of creativity because it leads to

creative performance and innovation.

For engaging employees in creative work involvement job autonomy is an important

predicator. According to Hackman and Oldham (1975) job autonomy is defined as the degree

to which the job provides freedom, independence, and discretion of task to the individual and

scheduling of work. Job autonomy will lead to effective work outcomes. Employees with job

autonomy can take all the relative useful information and implement them in doing tasks and

activities on job. Employees with the job autonomy can take it as a responsibility in doing

work and carrying out tasks that will lead to effective work outcomes (Hackman and Oldham,

1976). So job autonomy is one of the most important factors of effective work outcomes

which will lead to creative output.

3
 Along with the job autonomy task identity is an important factor for creative output.

According to Lunenburg (2011), task identity is defined as “degree to which a job requires

completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work”. It means that doing work from start

till end. When employees does whole work by himself with visible outcome he feel sense of

completion and responsibility of the whole work. For example, dress designers will have high

task identity if they do everything related to making the whole dress (e.g., measuring the

client, selecting the fabric, cutting and sewing the dress, and altering it to fit the customer).

The work done by the person gives him identity and sense of self-worth also. It means that a

job in which person can identify himself will give him feeling of importance and more

energetic of putting efforts. Success of the organization is depend on how well its employees

are performing (Choge, Chepkiyeng and Chelimo, 2014).

Feedback has also an important effect on performance of employees along with job

autonomy and task identity. According to Lunenburg (2011), feedback is defined as “degree

to which carrying out the work activities required by the job provides the individual with

direction and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance.” Feedback

gives information about the correctness, accuracy and capability of work behaviours.

According to Hackman and Oldham (1976) feedback is necessary element for imparting

sense of competence, accomplishment and control in employees. The employee’s

performance can be improved through providing regular feedback. When employees receive

feedback from supervisor it will lead them to the motivation and generation of new and

useful ideas related to work and applying them on the job.

Problem Statement

Today’s world of competitiveness and globalisation organization face the need of not

only increasing productivity among their workers but the creativity for the future

development. The increasing pace of technological change as well as globalization has put

4
pressure on companies to be first to capture the market, solve the problem and ready to

develop new ideas for products. Companies have facing challenge of how to motivate their

employees to be involved in creative work. To design jobs in that way so employees engage

most of their time and effort in involvement in creative work.

Research Objectives and Aims

The objectives of the study are described briefly as follows

 To identify the importance of job autonomy in creative work involvement

 To check the impact of feedback on creativity

 To explore the relationship between task identity and creative work involvement

 To check the relationship of job autonomy, feedback, task identity and creativity in

teaching industry.

 To check whether these independent variables (i.e. autonomy, task identity, feedback)

will increase the employees engagement in creative work or not.

 To identify how self-efficacy mediates the relationship of job autonomy, feedback,

task identity and creative work involvement.

Research Questions

 How job design will effect creative work involvement?

 How creative self-efficacy mediates the relationship between job design and

creative work involvement?

Justification

The first reason to conduct present study is to fulfil the existing gap. Volmer, Spurk

and Niessen (2012) identify a gap which exist in the study of creative work involvement with

respect to job characteristic model. It states that job characteristic model (e.g. task identity)

also plays a significant role in leader member exchange and creative work involvement. So

5
other job characteristic model like feedback, task identity and job autonomy should be check

in relation to creative work involvement. High quality of leader membership exchange

relationship which is related to number of working outcomes is not sufficient if employees

are facing constraint in job designs (Ilies, Nahrgang and Morgeson, 2007). That’s why the

leader membership exchange is excluded from this framework and include only the factors of

job characteristic model to check the impact on creative work involvement.

The second reason to conduct this study is to identify the solution of the problem that

exist in today’s world. Due to increasing pace of technology, globalization and

competitiveness organization wants their workforce to be creative to beat the competition and

for future development also. Companies are facing difficulties in motivating their employees

to be creative. So this study will help to find the solution of the problem.

Scope of the Study

The geographical scope of the present study is that it will be conducted in Mirpur the

district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. From the industry point of view the present study will

focused on service sector industry. There are different types of service sector industry like

hospital, hotel and teaching. The service industry which is chosen in present study is

teaching. The main purpose of choosing this specific industry is that study in this area is

lagging behind and in Pakistan this industry is not targeted with the respect of creative work.

In today’s world of knowledge based economy this industry paly a very important role in the

creation of creative thinking workers. In the teaching industry the private sector is taken into

consideration. And in private sectors the teachers of primary, secondary and higher secondary

level are the main focus of this study.

Literature Review

6
Job Autonomy and Creative Work Involvement

Creative behaviours are defined as new procedures or processes for carrying out tasks

and also identifying products or services that better fulfil needs of customers. Any changes in

existing form of process and procedures to increase efficiency is also included in creative

behaviours. For example reducing resources needed to complete tasks or introducing new or

alternative process or procedure that are more efficient (Gong , Huang and Farh, 2009).So the

creative work behaviours included all those task or activities which are performing in new

way to enhance productivity and save resources.

Amabile (1983) developed well known model of creativity. The basic model explores

three factors on employee creativity. These are domain-relevant skills, creativity-relevant

processes, and task motivation. Domain-relevant skills defined as task, knowledge and

technical skills and depend on inputs such as cognitive skills and education. Creativity-

relevant skills refers to things such as knowledge of heuristics for generating ideas and

depend on training and experience. The final component is task motivation. Task motivation

is defined the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of performing task. Here we take the

creativity relevant skills as creativity relevant skills include cognitive style favourable to see

new perspective of problems, application of heuristics for exploration of new ideas and

working style should be conducive and supportive. As the above definition explain that

working style should be supportive for creativity. So job design model is check in relation to

creativity that how job design motivate the employees to be involved in creative behaviours.

From the job design model job autonomy is one of the most important factor which

has influence on creative work involvement. Job autonomy is one of the core component of

job characteristic model which give employees the opportunity to try new and useful ideas

related to work procedure (Wang and Cheng, 2010). According to Shalley and Gilson (2004)

when job autonomy increases it give employees the chance to find best solution of the

7
problems of routine day activities. So, job autonomy not only have impact on creative work

involvement but it shows positive relationship among them. The more job autonomy is given

to employees the more they exhibit creative behaviours. Employees working in this

environment have greater opportunity to develop new and useful ideas and to demonstrate

originality at work.

Parker and Sprigg (1999) demonstrates the relationship of job autonomy and creative

work involvement. He states that employees with greater job autonomy feel responsible

towards their job and therefore likely to engage in creative work involvement. Employees

who have high job autonomy in their job are more creatively involved in their work (Volmer

et al., 2012). So it states when job autonomy is given to employees from their organization

they feel privileged and consider it is the responsibility to engage in creative work.

Task Identity and Creative Work Involvement

Task identity means that a person complete the whole identifiable work by himself

from start till end. When an employee know that the task is performed well by himself so it

will lead to the internal satisfaction of employee. The internal satisfaction will directly leads

towards the motivation and increased performance (Choge et al., 2014).

Lawrence (1965) said that when job gives to employees the attributes like autonomy,

identity and feedback it will lead towards increase in motivation and rises in job outcomes

like performance and job involvement. So when task identity is given to employees they will

be more motivated in performing their task, their job involvement level will be increases and

it is ultimately leads towards the showing of creative behaviours in organization with respect

to problem solving, generation on useful ideas etc.

Task characteristics plays a very important role to increase the motivation of

employees towards their work. Over the year much evidence have been found that task

identity will lead to increase the motivation of people towards their task (Choge et al., 2014).

8
Hackman and Oldham (1976) suggest that jobs are more motivated if the features of job

characteristic model are present in job i.e. skill variety, task identity autonomy. Amabile

(1996) proposes that when jobs are more motivated they will leads towards the creativity. So

when the task identity characteristic is present in job employees will be more motivated in

performing their tasks. The work done by themselves give them identity and sense of

ownership. So they take it as responsibility to engage in creative solution of the problems and

generation of novel ideas in their daily working activities.

Feedback and Creative Work Involvement

Feedback is defined as degree to which work itself provide a feedback to employees.

Feedback can also come from supervisor and co-workers working in the organization.

Feedback can also have important effect on creativity. Feedback that is given from supervisor

can influence the relationship of creativity. When feedback is provided to employees

regarding their work they are more motivated toward performing their role. They build a

perception that when a new idea or solution to a problem is introduced it will be supportive

by their employers. Feedback from employers will enhance attention of workers towards

completion of task and build their learning and development skills and solve difficult

problem, all of these component will lead towards creativity (Hon, Chan and Lu, 2013).

Fodor and Carver (2000) states that when employee have high job autonomy and

receive feedback from employer will leads towards creative work involvement. It also states

that people with high need of achievement show high creativity. So when employees receive

feedback they feel sense of accomplishment and that their employers have trust in their work

and appreciate their ways of doing task. As a result of this they are more likely to exhibit the

creativity and much more involved in creative task. Feedback is having a positive impact of

the employee’s involvement in creative works.

9
 According to Farr and Ford (1990) employees who continually receive feedback

about their work are more likely to engage in finding new ways of performing as building

perception in mind that employer will encourage them for doing their work and implement

the new things successfully on the job. By reviewing all of the above statement given by

different authors it is concluded that regular and positive feedback of the performance will

lead towards the generation of new ideas (i.e. creativity). Feedback receiving employees are

more likely to engage in creative work involvement as compared to those who don’t receive

feedback.

Creative Self-efficacy as Mediator

Self-efficacy defined as belief in one’s abilities and skills to organize and performing

the courses of action that produced desired results (Bandura, 1997). So it’s about having

confidence in one’s own ability of performing different tasks in different situations. Creative

self-efficacy is belief that a person has knowledge and skills to produce creative outcomes

(Tierney and Farmer, 2002). Creativity is high risk activity and people who are involved in

generating ideas sometimes fail. So, self-efficacy will provide guidance in fulfilling the

challenging and creative activities (Gist and Mitchell, 1992). As Phelan and Young (2003)

states that people with high self-efficacy will take more challenging activities and involve in

more creative ideas and problem solving approach as compared to people with lower self-

efficacy. Bandura theory of self-efficacy also states that people with self-efficacy are greatly

involved in challenging tasks.

Self-efficacy has also impact on job autonomy. When job autonomy is given to

employees they feel supervisor has confidence in their abilities and it shows positive effect on

employee’s self-efficacy. Wang and Netemeyer (2002) test the effects of job autonomy and

self-efficacy. The result showed a positive association between job autonomy and self-

efficacy. The higher job autonomy leads to higher confidence in performing the task.

10
Bandura (1982) states that tasks that are completed from beginning till end, provide

performance feedback are likely to enhance the self-efficacy.

Theoretical Framework

After analysing the variables background and the problem which is facing by many of

the organization in today’s turbulent environment. And also analysing the gap which is

identified by the researcher the following proposed framework is suggested for research.

Job Autonomy

Task identity Creative work

Feedback

Hypothesis

H1: Job autonomy has impact on creative work involvement.

H2: Task identity has impact on creative work involvement.

H3: Feedback has impact on creative work involvement

H4: Creative self-efficacy has impact on creative work involvement

H5: creative self-efficacy mediates the relationship between job autonomy and creative work

involvement.

11
H6: Creative self-efficacy mediates the relationship between task identity and creative work

involvement.

H7: Creative self-efficacy mediates the relationship between feedback and creative work

involvement.

Research Methodology

The purpose of describing research methodology is to identify the different tools and

methods for research purpose. And also choose the best combination of tools and methods,

which can lead towards fulfilling desired outcome and achieving research objectives.

Procedure and Population

The population which is targeted for the collection of data are private sector of

teaching industry. The data will be collected from the private schools of primary, secondary

and higher secondary level with in the district of Mirpur Azad Kashmir. The targeted

population for gathering data are schools namely The Roots School System, The Guidance

House School and College System, The City School, Beacon House, Peace Education

System, Allied School, Educators, OPF school and college , Kashmir Model College, Central

Public School, Crescent Model College and Overseas School.

Data Collection Method

We have to collect data to measure the relationship or to check the result. Data

collection is an important aspect of the research process. There are two kinds of data, primary

data and secondary data. The primary data consist of raw information, collected first time

from respondents through questionnaires, interviews, experiments and observations. While

the secondary data is already available at secondary resources such as published reports,

journal articles, statistical census and website contents and books as well (Clarke, 2005). The

present study will focus on primary data collection method. The questionnaire will be used to

12
collect the data from respondents. The questionnaire will be distributed to teachers of school

by personal visit.

Sampling

From the type of nonprobability sampling the purposive sampling technique will be

used to gather data. The reason of using purposive sampling is that in schools and collages

along with the teaching staff the administrative staff also there. But the present study will

focused only on teaching staff. The number of sample will depend upon the items. For each

item there must be 10 respondents.

Measurement and Instrument Selection

Creative work involvement. Employee involvement in creative work will be

measured by adapting 9-items used by Tierney,Farmer and Graen (1999). Respondents will

be asked to indicate to which extent they exhibit various behaviours that shows their creative

work involvement. For example behaviours included demonstrating originality at work, and

generating novel. Responses will be made on a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from

1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree. The reliability of the scale was high with a

Cronbach's alpha of .93(Carmeli and Schaubroeck ,2007).

Autonomy. The autonomy will be measured by using scale of Morgeson and

Humphrey (2006).7 items will be used to measure job autonomy. Responses will be taken

from individual with the respect to how much power will be given to them in scheduling and

making decision independently. The items will be measured on Five point likert scale 1=

strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree.

Task identity. The task identity will be measured by using scale of Morgeson and

Humphrey (2006).4 items will be used to measure task identity. Responses will be taken from

individual with the respect to what extent the task that is completed by them from beginning

13
till end. The items will be measured on Five point likert scale 1= strongly disagree to 5=

strongly agree.

Feedback. The feedback will be measured by using scale of Morgeson and

Humphrey (2006).5 items will be used to measure feedback. Responses will be asked to rate

on how much feedback will be given by supervisor and work itself. The items will be

measured on Five point likert scale 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree.

Creative self-efficacy. Creative self-efficacy will be measured by adapting a scale of

Chen,Gully and Eden (2001) further rephrased by Carmeli and Schaubroeck (2007).

Responses will be rate on five point likert scale 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree.

Tentative Plan

I started my research thesis in post graduate program. I had selected my topic by

identifying gaps through review of different research papers. After topic selection I wrote my

proposal till 22nd Jan 2016.Than from February onwards I would collect data from selected

organization in a period of almost two months. Than from month of April I shall wrote my

complete thesis and will submit on due date that would be 1st may.

14
 References

Amabile, T.M. (1983). The social psychology of creativity: A componential

conceptualization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol.45, pp.357-376.

Amabile, T. M. (1988). A model of creativity and innovations in organizations. Research in

organizational behaviour. Vol.10, pp.123-167.

Amabile, T.M (1996). The motivation for creativity in organization. Harvard Business

School.

Atwater, L., & Carmeli, A. (2009). Leader–member exchange, feelings of energy, and

involvement in creative work. The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 20 pp.264-275.

Bandura,A (1982). Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. American Psychologist,

Vol.37, pp.122-147.

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman.

Chen, G., Gully, S. M., & Eden, D. (2001). Validation of a new general self-efficacy scale.

Organizational Research Methods, Vol.4, pp.62-83.

Carmeli, A., & Schaubroeck, J. (2007). The influence of leaders and other referents

normative expectations on individual involvement in creative work. The Leadership

Quarterly, Vol.18, pp.35-48.

Choge,J.P., Chepkiyeng, F., & Chelimo, K.K. (2014). Effects of task identity on employee

motivation: A Survey of Eldoret Polytechnic, Kenya. European Journal of Business

and Management, Vol.6, No.33.

Clarke, R.J. (2005) Research Methodologies, 1st ed, Australia: University of WollonGong.

15
Farr, J.L. & Ford, C.M. (1990). Individual innovation. In: West, M.A., Farr, J.L. (Eds.),

Innovation and Creativity at Work. Wiley, New York.

Fodor, E.M., & Carver, R.A. (2000). Achievement and power motives, performance feedback

and creativity. Journal of Research in Personality Vol.34, pp.380-96.

Gist, M. E., & Mitchell, T. R. (1992). Self-efficacy: A theoretical analysis of its determinants

and malleability. Academy of Management Review, Vol.17, pp.183-211.

Gong, Y., Huang,J. & Farh,J. (2009). Employee learning orientation, transformational

leadership, and employee creativity: The mediating role of employee creative

self-efficacy Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 52, No. 4, pp.765-778.

Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1975). Development of the job diagnostic survey. Journal

of Applied Psychology, Vol. 60, pp.159-170.

Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1976). Motivation through design of work. Test of a

theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, Vol.16, pp.250-279.

Hona,Y.H.A., Chana,H.W.W., & Lu,L. (2013).Overcoming work-related stress and

promoting employee creativity in hotel industry: The role of task feedback from

supervisor. International Journal of Hospitality Management Vol. 33, pp.416-424.

Ilies, R., Nahrgang, J. D., & Morgeson, F. P. (2007). Leader–member exchange and

citizenship behaviors: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol.

92,pp.269-277.

Kark, R., & Carmeli, A. (2009). Alive and creating: The mediating role of vitality and

aliveness in the relationship between psychological safety and creative work

involvement. Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol.30, pp.785–804.

Lawler, E. (1969). Job Design and Employee Motivation in Gruenberg, M. (ed), Job

Satisfaction, Gower Press.

16
Lunenburg, C.F. (2011). Motivating by enriching jobs to make them more interesting and

challenging. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration

Vol. 15, No. 1.

Morgeson, P.F., & Humphrey, E. S. (2006). The Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ):

Developing and validating a comprehensive measure for assessing job design and the

nature of work. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 91, No. 6, pp.1321-1339.

Parker, S. K., & Sprigg, C. A. (1999). Minimizing strain and maximizing learning: The role

of job demands, job control, and proactive personality. Journal of Applied

Psychology, Vol.84, pp.925-939.

Phelan, S., & Young, A. M. (2003). Understanding creativity in the workplace: An

examination of individual styles and training in relation to creative confidence and

creative self-leadership. Journal of Creative Behavior, Vol.37, pp.266-281.

Shalley, C. E., & Gilson, L. L. (2004). What leaders need to know: A review of social and

contextual factors that can foster or hinder creativity? The Leadership Quarterly,

Vol.15, pp.33-53.

Tierney, P., Farmer, S. M., & Graen, G. B. (1999). An examination of leadership and

employee creativity: The relevance of traits and relationships. Personnel

Psychology, Vol.52, pp.591-620.

Tierney, P., & Farmer, S. M. 2002. Creativity self-efficacy: Its potential antecedents and

relationship to creative performance. Academy of Management Journal, Vol.45,

pp.1137–1148.

Volmer,J., Spurk,D.,& Niessen,C. (2012). Leader–member exchange (LMX), job autonomy,

and creative work involvement. The Leadership Quarterly pp.456-465.

17
Wang, G. & Netemeyer, R. (2002). The effects of job autonomy, customer demandingness,

and trait competitiveness on salesperson learning, self-efficacy and performance.

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Vol. 30, No.3, pp. 217-228.

Wang, A.C., & Cheng, B.S. (2010). When does benevolent leadership lead to creativity? The

moderating role of creative role identity and job autonomy. Journal of Organizational

Behavior, Vol. 31, pp.106-121.

18