Question

Applying the Job Characteristics Model, how motivating are Uber’s jobs for drivers?

Answer 1

The Job Characteristics Model (also know as Jobs Characteristic Theory) enables you to improve employee performance and job satisfaction by means of adjusting the job itself. The model states that if you do this successfully you can create the conditions for an employee to thrive in their role. By thrive, we mean that the employee will be motivated, perform to a high level, and be satisfied by their role.

Five Core Job Characteristics

1. Skill Variety

Refers to the degree to which the job requires different skills and talents.

Think of a job that requires lots of different skills and talents, and compare that with a job that is repetitive. Job Characteristics Theory states that a job having more variety and thus requiring more skills and talents will result in an employee feeling that they are doing more meaningful work.

Being Uber's driver

• There are about 150 000 drivers worldwide, in several different categories. In Norway this is divided into two categories; luxury cars with private driver-permit (Uber Black) and newer private cars without a permit (Uber Pop)
• In order to be allowed to be an Uber driver, you must have a valid background check from the police, a newer four-door car and pass an interview. This is equivalent to what is required of taxi drivers

2. Task Identity

This refers to the degree to which the tasks of the job are clearly identifiable, and have a visible outcome.

The theory states that if the employee understands what needs to be done, understands when they are finished, and are able to see the outcome of what they achieved at the end, then they will feel that they are doing meaningful work.

At Uber

• Both passengers and drivers are rated after each trip on a scale from 1 to 5. If the driver gets an average of less than 4.2, he or she is called in for a meeting with Uber management and is at risk of being cut out of the service. Passengers who are rated poorly, under 3 is low, risk not getting a car when requesting one, as drivers can only see the address and rating of the person requesting the ride. This system ensures that people can't be assholes. In addition to the rating, the Uber app has a report feature. If something happens during the ride, and it is reported via the app, the local management gets an alert on their phone immediately. This ensures that drivers have a clean car, behave well and don't take inopportune routes to the destination or behave poorly.

3. Task significance

Refers to the degree to which the task has impact. Impact can mean a lot of different things. It could mean that the task has impact within the organization. It could mean that the task has impact to the bottom line or even to society as a whole.

Think of two employees, both part of a team building a web based software tool. The first employee is responsible for the part of the system which interacts with the user, and the second employee is responsible for ensuring data is stored efficiently behind the scenes in a database. The theory states that it is the first worker who will find the work more meaningful as they are more likely to understand the impact on the end user.

As Uber's driver

Anyone with an Uber Partner app can take on passengers. Normally an Uber Pop-driver works no more than maybe ten hours a week and can still expect to earn substantial money in addition to a regular income. This is a nice added income for a student or someone with a early stage startup. In Oslo a Uber Pop driver makes about $25 in hour on average.

4. Autonomy

Autonomy is the degree of freedom an employee has to complete their work. It is the degree to which the employee is free to choose how to go about doing specific tasks, and the degree to which they can choose how to schedule their tasks.

The Job Characteristics Theory states that employees with more autonomy will have a greater sense of responsibility towards the results of their work, and therefore do a better job.

5. Feedback

Refers to the degree to which the employee is kept informed about how well they are doing in their role.

The theory states that more feedback leads to increased knowledge for the employee about the results of their work. If an employee is given good feedback about the work they are doing then their self-esteem will be boosted and they’ll be motivated to keep doing what they are doing (see our reward power article for further information on the power of positive feedback).

If an employee receives negative feedback quickly then this provides them the opportunity to make adjustments and corrections to their work before any major consequences are experienced.

Job Characteristics Model Equation

By combining all of these core job characteristics, Job Characteristics Theory comes up with an equation showing the potential for a given job to be motivating. NB: MPS = Motivating Potential Score.

One conclusion we can draw from this equation is that feedback and autonomy matter more to motivation than any one of skill variety, task identity, or task significance.

In essence, what this equation is trying say is that the only way for an employee to experience all three psychological states, is for the job to score highly on each of the five core job characteristics.