ABSTRACT
Job characteristics theory is an amalgam of ideas developed by Greg Oldham from the climate then existing at Yale University, the group concepts of Richard Hackman, and the expectancy theory of Edward Lawler (Oldham and Hackman 2005). It also has turned out, as a result of later research, to be a consequence of transformational leadership, and to be positively moderated by perceived high-quality leader-member exchange (Piccolo and Colquitt 2006). This theory is rated as to validity at the four-star level (Miner 2005, Chapter 6; Miner 2007, Chapter 6) with several supporting meta-analyses and other favorable reviews, plus an importance rating from organizational behavior peers of 5.61. Yet the authors themselves say of the theory and its key motivating potential score that it “does indeed make conceptual sense, but it is a psychometrics disaster” (Oldham and Hackman 2005, 168). The problems inherent in this latter evaluation seem to result from the imposition of an essentially conscious and rational theory on a phenomenon that inherently involves unconscious factors as well.
