Work is changing as a result of hybrid work models, digital technology, and an ageing workforce. But are we ensuring this work is healthy, meaningful, and productive? Given rising levels of worker burnout, combined with economic challenges, creating quality work is more important than ever. This book synthesizes research on work design, or the nature and organization of people's tasks, responsibilities, and relationships at work. Eminent authors in the field unpack evidence about the value of well-designed work for motivation, well-being and performance, and discuss new directions for research and practice, including how to redesign work.
How do we create healthy, meaningful, and productive work in the face of hybrid work models, shifting careers, technological advances, an aging workforce, and other such major contemporary changes? Transformative Work Design explores this crucial question by presenting a thorough, evidence-based view of work design. With contributions from 49 highly eminent authors in the field across 25 chapters, it synthesizes research on how work design influences critical outcomes like worker motivation, mental health, well-being, and job performance for individuals and teams.
The book also covers key methodologies for studying work design and explores new areas of research. For instance, authors explore how work design can shape identity and personality development, moving beyond the usual focus on wellbeing and performance outcomes. Additionally, the book shifts the traditional emphasis from understanding the outcomes of work design to unpacking the antecedents of work design. Chapters explore how various individual, team, organizational, and global factors shape the way people's work is designed, laying the foundation for understanding how to successfully redesign work.
Picking up this perspective, several chapters focus on how to change work design. By discussing 'top down' work redesigns, such as self-managing teams, and 'bottom up' approaches like playful work design and job crafting, pathways to creating better work are identified. A final section highlights critical issues raised by large-scale technological and demographic shifts, such as remote working trends, population aging, and rapid digitalization.
