TITLE:
Division of Labour and Self-Reported Mental Requirements in Human Services: Retail Sale Jobs
AUTHORS:
Ulrike Pietrzyk, Sarah Rodehacke, Winfried Hacker
KEYWORDS:
Division of Labour, Task Identity, Retail Sale Tasks, Task Analysis
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.10,
August
19,
2014
ABSTRACT: Significant
associations between self-reported “whole units” of work and self-reported
mental task requirements as well as personal outcomes are well known. Also of
interest is, however, whether a significant association also exists between the
underlying objective assignment of tasks, i.e. the division of labour, and
self-reported mental requirements. Such an association would represent a
concrete starting point for job design or redesign. We analyzed this question
for retail sale jobs as an example of the numerous human service jobs, which
usually consist of customer- and object-centred tasks. The study (N = 558
employees) evaluated the potential association between documented assignments
of customer-centred and goods-centred activities and employees’ perceived
mental requirements, skill utilisation, and learning on the job, as well as
mental difficulties. A significant association of moderate effect size between
the objective division of labour and self-reported mental job requirements was
shown. Theoretical and practical consequences of this association are also
discussed.