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Making Work More Enjoyable
Publication: Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (Vol. 28, 2008)
Article: Changing less-preferred duties to more-preferred: A potential strategy for improving supervisor work enjoyment
Authors: C. W. Green, D. H. Reid, S. Passante, V. Canipe
Reviewed By: Liliane de Aguiar-Rocha, Queens College, CUNY
Do you dread certain tasks in your workday? Do you feel more and more annoyed by some little duties that seem senseless? There is hope. Changing some features of work tasks can make those tasks more enjoyable, and also improve your overall level of enjoyment at work. Green, Reid, Passante and Canipe (2008) found that this can be done without any decrease in work quality.
In an attempt to increase supervisory work enjoyment, Green et al. asked four supervisors in three different residences for people with severe multiple disabilities to rate how much they enjoyed the various tasks associated with their daily routine, and then to rank them in order of preference. Based on these ratings and rankings, a task enjoyment motivation protocol (TEMP) was established. This protocol consisted of two components: the first component was a participative management process which helped determine which aspects of a job task were less enjoyable; the second component involved adding enjoyable components to the act of completing a task. For example, for one of the supervisors, completing regular employee observations was one of the least preferred tasks. The TEMP determined that one reason this task was not enjoyable for the supervisor was because employees seemed to dislike being observed.
The solution was to create a lottery system and link it to employee observations, making employees want to get observed in order to get a chance to earn entrance into the lottery for a prize. This shift in employees becoming more enthusiastic about being observed made the task less aversive to the supervisor. For each supervisor, preference ratings and task rankings for the targeted tasks increased when the TEMP was in effect.
Amazingly, there were no observed decreases in work quality. All participants rated the TEMP intervention as impacting their quality of work life and wanted to continue the program. This study suggests that changing little things in a work task can have a big impact on the quality of work-life. The strategies described here inspire the use of participative management practices, and environmental rearranging as valuable tools in increasing job satisfaction without any detriment to productivity and work quality.
Green, C., Reid, D., Passante, S., & Canipe, V. (2008). Changing less-preferred duties to more- preferred: a potential strategy for improving supervisor work enjoyment. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 28, 90-109.