ABSTRACT
A full appreciation of job characteristics theory requires an understanding of a parallel theoretical thread that operated in the time period, spawned the author's research, and exerted a certain amount of influence as the Hackman-Oldham theory developed. One of the major strengths of job characteristics theory is that its variables are amenable to relatively easy operationalization. Job enrichment has had intense appeal for organizational behavior, and has attracted both theorists and researchers in substantial numbers. The approach to which the author now turns, job characteristics theory, emerged originally out of the collaboration of Edward Lawler and Richard Hackman. The first major effort at measurement of job enrichment was conducted by Joseph Mallord William Turner and Lawrence who developed a number of scales to be used in rating jobs. This chapter discusses the correlation between motivating potential score and outcome variables moderated by growth need strength and context satisfactions.
