Complex Job Design and Layers of Hierarchy

Giovanni Russo () and Gijs Van Houten ()
Additional contact information
Giovanni Russo: European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop)
Gijs Van Houten: Eurofound - European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

No 14455, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The main function of hierarchies is to coordinate activities within an organisation, but a hierarchical structure also provides work incentives, by offering the prospect of hierarchical mobility. An alternative way for organisations to motivate workers is through job design. In organisations offering rewarding jobs, the incentivising role of hierarchies may become obsolete, and the number of hierarchical levels can be reduced. Two job design features are particularly relevant: autonomy and problem solving. We investigate the relationship between the number of hierarchical layers and job design features empirically using the European Company Survey (ECS 2019). We find that the extent of the adoption of both complex job design and autonomous teamwork are negatively associated with the number of hierarchical layers. However, the association between complex job design and the number of hierarchical layers is weakened, and in some cases disappears, in larger organisations where hierarchies have a more important coordination role and it is weakened when the knowledge acquisition costs are high. The use of autonomous teams is robustly negatively associated with the number of hierarchical layers.

Keywords: job complexity; hierarchies; job design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L20 M50 M51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2021-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published - published in: Polachek, S.W., Tatsiramos, K., Russo, G. and van Houten, G. (eds.), Workplace Productivity and Management Practices (Research in Labor Economics, Vol. 49), Emerald Publishing Limited, 2021, 85-106.

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp14455.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14455

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().