Effects of Communication Direction on Job Performance and Satisfaction: A Moderated Regression Analysis.

High levels of job performance and job satisfaction occur when congruence of individual needs (growth need strength) and job characteristics (job scope) exists. Downward communication received some statistical support as both moderator and predictor of job performance and job satisfaction in low individual-job congruence situations. Upward and lateral communication had some support as predictors but lacked support as moderators of job performance and job satisfaction in high individual-job congruence situations. These conclusions are derived from this research that examines the moderating effects of communication direction on individual-job congruence and work outcomes (performance/satisfaction). Data from 302 employees who reported job scope, growth need strength, job performance, job satisfaction, and communication direction (upward, lateral, downward) were used for the study. Moderated regression analysis was the statistical technique applied.

Keywords: Direction of Communication, Job Characteristics Model, Job Performance. Job Satisfaction, Organizational Communication

The Job Characteristics Model (JCM) by Hackman and Lawler (1971) and Hackman and Oldham (1976, 1980) proposes that the relationship between job characteristics and work outcomes is moderated by employees' growth need strength (GNS), a measure of employees' desire to obtain growth satisfaction from their work. The JCM implies that when individuals' GNS is matched with job scope or job characteristics, higher performance and satisfaction will result (Hackman & Oldham, 1976; Pierce, Dunham, & Blackburn, 1979; Fried & Ferris, 1987; Bhuian, Al-Shammari, & Jefri, 1996). Although the individual-job congruence proposition or JCM model has received some support (Spector, 1985; Graen, Scandura, & Graen, 1986; Fried & Ferris, 1987), the evidence is inconsistent (Graen, Scandura, & Graen, 1986; Tiegs, Tetrick, & Fried, 1992; Johns, Xie, & Fang, 1992).

Such inconsistency has prompted some researchers (Oldham, Hackman, & Pearce, 1976; Clayton, 1981; Van der Vegt, Emans, & Van de Bliert, 1998) to investigate the moderating effects of other organizational variables on the JCM. One research effort (Pettit, Goris, & Vaught, 1997) investigated organizational communication as a moderator of the association between job performance and job satisfaction. But no study examines organizational communication as a moderator in the JCM. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating impact of communication direction on the Job Characteristics Model.

Rationale for Study

Desired work outcomes such as performance and satisfaction result, according to the JCM, when individuals experience three psychological states: (a) experienced meaningfulness--a job perceived as being important, valuable, and worthwhile; (b) experienced responsibility--a job perceived as providing autonomy; and (c) knowledge of results--a job perceived as providing feedback about how effectively the work is being performed (Robbins, 2001). Experienced meaningfulness, experienced responsibility, and knowledge of results are fostered by certain core characteristics of the job. The JOM proposes that experienced meaningfulness emerges from the following three job characteristics: task significance, task identity, and skill variety. On the other hand, job autonomy and job feedback are the job characteristics expected to produce the psychological states of experienced responsibility and knowledge of results, respectively.

Thus, task significance, task identity, skill variety, autonomy, and task feedback are expected to lead to the psychological states of experienced meaningfulness, experienced responsibility, and knowledge. These states hypothetically will lead to high levels of performance and satisfaction when they are matched with appropriate levels of growth need strength (Tiegs, Tetrick, & Fried, 1992). Using meta-analysis, a comprehensive review of nearly 200 studies of the JCM found support for the proposed relationships between job characteristics and both psychological and behavioral outcomes (Fried & Ferris, 1987).

Other studies, however, have shown results that are inconsistent with the JCM. For instance, a literature review conducted by Graen, Scandura, and Graen (1986) revealed that 10 of 21 tests concerning the association between individual-job congruence and job satisfaction were statistically insignificant. Of 13 studies of the relationship between individual-job congruence and job performance, only three showed significance. More recently, applying univariate and multivariate hierarchical moderated multiple regression analyses, Tiegs, Tetrick, and Fried (1992) found no support for GNS as a moderator of the JCM. This last finding appears consistent with the conclusion made by Graen, Scandura, and Graen (1986).

Because of the reported inconsistent results, new approaches for investigating the JCM are emerging. Adopting a curvilinear approach to the study of the model, Champoux (1992) reported that the results of his investigation pointed "... to adding a curvilinear effect of Job Scope to the basic Job Characteristics Theory" (p. 107). Also, Xie and Johns (1995) detected evidence of a U-shaped curvilinear relationship between job scope and employees' stress. Zeffane (1994) explored the relative effects of both task characteristics and demographics, sub-unit structure, technology, uncertainty, and work-group performance on job satisfaction and found that not only task-related factors but also other organizational constructs might affect job satisfaction.

Some authors (e.g., Porter, Lawler, & Hackman, 1975; Clayton, 1981; Brousseau, 1983) have suggested that an individual's reaction to his or her job may be influenced not only by the properties of the job and his or her needs but also by the work context or the organizational "milieu" surrounding the job. Van der Vegt, Emans, and Van de Bliert (1998) report that task and outcome interdependence of team members may influence the way the JOM functions. Other variables such as interpersonal relations, security, pay, and need for independence also have been shown to moderate the relationship between individual-job congruence and performance and satisfaction (Oldham, Hackman, & Pearce, 1976; Clayton, 1981). Consequently, research (Zedeck, 1971) has examined in what manner organizational and individual facets exert their influence and alter the relationship among target variables in the JCM.

The individual-job design-organizational structure congruence model theorized by Nemiroff and Ford (1976) and Porter, Lawler, and Hackman (1975) provides a rationale for expecting direction of communication--upward, downward, and lateral communication--to moderate the JCM. This model predicts high performance and high satisfaction when the individual has high growth needs, the job is enriched, and the organizational design is organic. Alternatively, it predicts that a congruent condition will be present when the individual has low growth needs, the job is simple, and the organizational design is mechanistic.

In mechanistic systems, according to Burns and Stalker (1961), the

interaction within management tends to be vertical. . . . Management, often visualized as the complex hierarchy familiar in organization charts, operates a simple control system, with information flowing up through a succession of filters, and decisions and instructions flowing downwards through a succession of amplifiers. (p. 7)

In organic structure, according to Burns and Stalker (1961), "Inter-communication between people of different ranks tends to resemble lateral consultation rather than vertical command" (p. 6). Information flow in mechanistic and organic systems has also been examined by other organizational theorists (e.g., Schuler, 1977; Huseman & Alexander, 1979). Specific dimensions of information flow found to characterize mechanistic and organic systems have been shown to correlate with job characteristics (Burns & Stalker, 1961; Woodward, 1965; Penley & Alexander, 1979; Pierce, Dunham, & Blackburn, 1979; James, 1981).

Burns and Stalker (1961) and Woodward (1965) found that written, vertical communication is more effective in mechanistic structures with unchanging, simple tasks, while both horizontal and vertical flows of communication are more effective in organic structures with changing, complex tasks. Penley and Alexander (1979) found that "as work group technology becomes less routine, emphasis shifts from downward to upward communication and finally to lateral communication" (p. 332). In a laboratory study, James (1981) investigated the effects of vertical and lateral task-related information flow on the JCM. He reported strong evidence to support the main effects of growth need strength and communication flow on measures of job satisfaction. Pierce, Dunham, and Blackburn's 1979 study of 397 employees of an insurance company found the highest levels of performance and satisfaction among individuals with strong growth needs who performed complex jobs within organic (i.e., open communication) organizational units. Thes e researchers concluded that "full effects of job design cannot be understood without knowledge of both the worker and the organization" (p. 239).