IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ausman/v47y2022i4p705-728.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The importance of relational work design characteristics: A person-centred approach

Author

Listed:
  • Caroline Knight

    (Centre for Transformative Work Design, Future of Work Institute, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia)

  • Matthew J W McLarnon

    (Department of General Management and Human Resources, Bissett School of Business, Mount Royal University, Calgary, AB, Canada)

  • Ramon Wenzel

    (Faculty of Business and Law, School of Management, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia)

  • Sharon Parker

    (Centre for Transformative Work Design, Future of Work Institute, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia)

Abstract

Adopting a person-centred approach, we integrate the job demands-control-support model with relational work design theory to investigate employee work design profiles involving autonomy, workload, social support and prosocial characteristics (representing the combined influence of task significance and beneficiary contact). For a sample of Australian not-for-profit employees ( N  = 2421), we identified four work design profiles: ‘active connected’, ‘passive disconnected’, ‘high strain disconnected’ and ‘controlled disconnected’. The most favourable profile, active connected, demonstrated the highest vigour and social worth, and was predicted by people being in higher managerial positions and having permanent employment contracts. The high strain disconnected and controlled disconnected profiles were associated with greater psychological exhaustion. Longer working hours predicted membership of the high strain disconnected profile. JEL Classification: L31, L30, L20, L29

Suggested Citation

  • Caroline Knight & Matthew J W McLarnon & Ramon Wenzel & Sharon Parker, 2022. "The importance of relational work design characteristics: A person-centred approach," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 47(4), pages 705-728, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:47:y:2022:i:4:p:705-728
    DOI: 10.1177/03128962211073021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03128962211073021
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/03128962211073021?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Job demands-control-support model; latent profile analysis; person-centred approach; prosocial characteristics; relational characteristics; work characteristics; work design;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship
    • L30 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - General
    • L20 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - General
    • L29 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Other

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:47:y:2022:i:4:p:705-728. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.agsm.edu.au .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.