Job characteristic theory

Job characteristic theory says that different jobs have different characteristics which affect how much someone will enjoy doing the job. Imagine you are playing with different toys - some toys are more fun than others, right? It's kind of like that with jobs.

When we talk about job characteristics, we are looking at five different things:

1. Skill Variety - how many different skills you need to use in a job
2. Task Identity - how much control you have over your work and can see the finished product
3. Task Significance - how important your job is to others or the organization you work for
4. Autonomy - how much control and freedom you have in deciding how to do your job
5. Feedback - how much information you get about how well you're doing in your job

Jobs that have a lot of these five characteristics tend to be more satisfying for people to do. Think about doing a job where you get to use many different skills, decide things for yourself, see how your work fits into the big picture, and get regular feedback about your progress - that would be a pretty cool job, right?

So, in summary, job characteristic theory is all about how different jobs have different characteristics that can affect how much someone will enjoy doing the job. It's like having different toys to play with, but for grown-ups!