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DOI: 10.1177/00187267060641712006; 59; 267Human Relations
Kevin DanielsRethinking job characteristics in work stress research
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Rethinking job characteristics in work stress research
Kevin Daniels
A B S TRA C T In work stress research, consistent relationships between job charac-
teristics and strain have not been established across methods for
assessing job characteristics. By examining the methods used to
assess job characteristics in work stress research, I argue that this is
because different methods are assessing interrelated, yet distinct,
facets of job characteristics: latent, perceived and enacted facets. The
article discusses the implications for work stress research of differ-
entiating these facets of job characteristics.
KE YW ORD S job characteristics measurements stress stressors
Within post-positivist approaches to organizational research, methods areseen as fallible and triangulation of results across methods is recommended
(e.g. Cook & Campbell, 1979). But what happens if researchers’ presump-
tions about multi-method triangulation are wrong and different methods
produce diverging results? What if different methods are assessing different
yet interrelated phenomena? Could a critical examination of methods used
evoke more insight and help develop more sophisticated approaches to
research and theory? By examining methods used in research on work stress
to assess the causes of strain, it is the aim of this article to illustrate how this
might be so.The methods used in this arena are important for several reasons. First,
many dominant theoretical models that guide work stress research accord
psychosocial aspects of the work environment, known as job characteristics,
2 6 7
Human Relations
DOI: 10.1177/0018726706064171
Volume 59(3): 267–290
Copyright © 2006
The Tavistock Institute ®
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with powerful causal status in determining health reactions, well-being and
job satisfaction (e.g. Karasek & Theorell; 1990; Warr, 1987). Such environ-
mental aspects are sometimes also known as stressors. Second, in spite of
this assumed causal status, there is little evidence of triangulation of results
across methods assessing job characteristics (Spector & Jex, 1991; Spector
et al., 1988). Third, it is not clear whether the dominant method used to
assess job characteristics – the self-report questionnaire – is better than other
methods at assessing the causes of work-related strain (Morrison et al.,
2003), or whether other methods actually assess the same constructs as self-
reports (Spector, 1992, 1994).
Noting weaknesses with how self-reports and the alternatives have
been used, I propose a multi-level approach to conceptualizing job charac-teristics, comprising latent, perceived and enacted facets. This differentiation
of job characteristics has implications for the methodologies stress
researchers employ, the interpretation of results and the research questions
they might begin to ask.
The contributions of this article are twofold. First, and most generally,
the article illustrates the need for researchers to think carefully on the con-
sonance of theory, operational definitions and methods, lest attempts at
triangulation of findings lead to conflicting results emerging in an area of
research. Second, and more specifically, the article shows that by carefullyconsidering different approaches to measuring job characteristics, it is
possible to develop a much richer appreciation of how organizational, social
and individual factors combine to influence what is experienced at work, and
how this might relate to the processes that produce strain.
Self-reports and alternatives
Self-report measures of job characteristics have become the predominant
means through which researchers link objective working conditions to
psychosomatic and psychological strain. The assumption underlying their
use is that perceptual measures reflect, at least partially, the objective work
environment: that is, the objective work environment is thought to cause
perceptions of work.1 Some have argued that self-report measures can be
problematic and their use can lead to unwarranted inferences from research
into work, strain and health (e.g. Spector, 1994). Some of the major criti-
cisms of self-report measures of job characteristics include:
1) Self-reports are subject to a number of biases, including transient mood
effects, that systematically bias both reports of job characteristics and
outcome measures (Brief et al., 1995; Spector, 1992);
Human Relations 59(3)2 6 8
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2) Self-reports and strain are mutually influenced by trait affect or
temperament – failure to control for trait affect seriously undermines
the strength of conclusions drawn from studies using self-reports (e.g.
Brief et al., 1988);
3) Self-reports of job characteristics are influenced, through social inter-
action, by the attitudes, opinions and perceptions of others, rather than
just the nature of the job itself (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978).
There are several alternative strategies to simple self-reports of job
characteristics. Examples are: a) using someone other than the incumbent to
rate the incumbent’s job characteristics, such as managers, colleagues or
researchers; b) using aggregate ratings of a job across several incumbents; c)using large databases or documents that contain information on the charac-
teristics of a particular class of job; and d) assessing the impact of interven-
tions designed to change job characteristics. The assumption underlying these
strategies is that the objective work environment, at least to some extent, is
reflected in the assessments obtained.
Others’ ratings of focal jobs (e.g. Fox et al., 1993). The logic here is
that others’ reports are not subject to the same perceptual biases that limit
the strength of conclusions drawn from studies using self-reports of job
characteristics. Other raters could include managers, colleagues or membersof the research team.
However, manager and colleague ratings may become subject to other
biases – such as ‘halo’ or ‘horn’ effects – thus introducing a new set of
problems to interpreting results. For example, some evidence indicates that
people exhibiting high strain are rated by others as being less attractive (Staw
et al., 1994), which may generalize through stereotyping effects to awarding
those people high ratings on undesirable job characteristics (e.g. make little
effort to participate in decisions, self-impose heavy workloads). In thisexample, the ‘horn’ effect has served to inflate an association between
measures of job characteristics and strain.
Observers from the research team have also been used to assess job
characteristics (e.g. Frese, 1985). One problem here is that independent
observers rarely get the chance to spend extended periods with the target
person. Unless every possible job behaviour is witnessed within the period
of observation, then the observer is likely to miss some potentially import-
ant aspects of the job. Another limitation is that independent observers may
not be allowed to witness clandestine or otherwise sensitive job activities –a criticism that can also apply to managers and colleagues. Also, unless
observers spend many months in an organization, they could remain largely
unaware of the social context and perhaps misattribute some behaviour from
their own frame of reference, rather than the frame of reference of those
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observed. For example, what passes for ‘bullying’ or ‘mobbing’ may be very
different in a military context to that of a university, and might vary from
person to person.
Perhaps the most important limitation is that independent observers
are only able to observe manifest behaviour – such as hours spent in work
– that are just some of the elements that a job comprises. Independent
observers are less likely to be able to obtain an accurate picture of cognitive
processes such as planning and decision-making – yet such cognitive activity
might be critical to how job characteristics such as complexity and autonomy
come to be. This criticism also applies to managers’ and colleagues’ ratings.
What we can be sure of, however, is that rating by observers – whether
managers, colleagues or researchers – represents someone’s perception of thefocal job. These perceptions are unlikely to reflect cognitive activity at all
accurately and possibly not reflect sensitive activities or activities incumbents
keep hidden for other purposes.
Aggregate ratings. Another approach to remove biases inherent in self-
reports is to aggregate ratings from several individuals, all in the same job
(e.g. Vahtera et al., 1996). The assumption underlying aggregation is that
variations in perceptions of jobs will be cancelled out (Jones & James, 1979),
therefore reducing the impact of biases associated with particular individuals.
Jones and James provide four criteria for justifying aggregation:
(a) significant differences in aggregated or mean perceptions across
different organisations or subunits; (b) interperceiver reliability or
agreement; (c) homogeneous situational characteristics (e.g., similarity
of context, structure, job type, etc.); and (d) meaningful relationships
between the aggregated score and various organisational, subunit, or
individual criteria.
(Jones & James, 1979: 208)
Criteria a) and b) can be demonstrated empirically in any study,
through analysis of variance techniques and correlational indices of inter-
rater reliability respectively. Criterion c) can be justified through examining
people with the same contractual status, job descriptions, etc. However, the
greatest question concerns the theoretical interpretation of results inherent
in criterion d). If a significant relationship is found between an aggregated
measure of work demands and individual measures of strain, it cannot be
concluded that ‘objective’ work demands influence an individual’s strain.There exist commonalties of perception in any social grouping (Thompson
et al., 1990), and perceptions of job characteristics might be conditioned by
social information processing to some extent (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978).
Human Relations 59(3)2 7 0
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Moreover, there is also evidence that affective tone in work groups is linked
to convergence in trait affect in work groups (George, 1990), indicating that
aggregation might further compound some of the biases inherent in self-
reports of job characteristics.
It is then possible that any association between strain and aggregated
measures of job characteristics reflects a shared perception of job character-
istics, rather than any ‘objective’ reality. This is not to say that this approach
is meaningless, only that aggregated measures by themselves cannot help
construct unambiguous interpretations of results concerning objective job
characteristics.
It might be argued that where there is no direct contact between incum-
bents – such as where they are situated in different locations or on differentshifts – then this social information processing explanation may not be valid
(Semmer et al., 1996). However, common institutional factors present at
national, sector, industry and organizational levels will serve to condition
perceptions within physically separated jobs (Scott, 1995). For example,
selection of similar people, and then socialization into particular job roles
through the actions of others and common experiences (e.g. through contact
with managers, trades unions, trainers, and educators), inculcates and
reinforces particular perceptions of work (Schneider, 1987). This socializa-
tion process might be especially strong in institutionalized arenas with stronglegislation, strong organizational cultures and proscribed training or
education (such as medical professions, accountancy, strongly unionized
industries; DiMaggio & Powell, 1983).
Using large databases or documents. Another approach is to determine
job characteristics from documentary evidence associated with job titles. In
the United States, the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and, more
recently, the O*NET databases allow researchers to match job titles to a
number of job characteristics in an extensive database of job analyses (Roos& Treiman, 1980, used by Spector & Jex, 1991; Spector et al., 1995).
Whilst attractive given the rigour with which such databases are assem-
bled and their breadth of coverage, there exist problems with these methods
too. First, job analyses may quickly become out of date, especially in current
economic environments of hypercompetition, accelerated innovation,
frequent organizational change and rapid developments in information tech-
nology. However, perhaps the greatest limitation is that national databases
represent the occupation not the job – that is local peculiarities of a job are
ignored, especially changes individuals themselves make to their job charac-teristics (Parker et al., 2001; Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). This makes it
difficult to draw unambiguous inferences about the stressors associated with
a particular job in a particular organization.
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A related approach to determine job characteristics is for job descrip-
tions to be rated by expert raters (either job incumbents not sampled, HR
managers or the research team, e.g. Spector et al., 1995). The same problems
of inferring cognitive processes and social norms could apply here as to
reports from managers, colleagues or observers, as could problems concern-
ing job descriptions becoming out of date if a given context changes.
Therefore, databases and documents do not necessarily provide pure
reflections of ‘objective’ job characteristics. Rather such methods may better
reflect a job as it has become institutionalized in documentary form, rather
than how a job is evolving in the present.
Interventions. One solution to problems with self-report, other-report,
aggregation, databases and documentary measures is to examine interven-tions only. In this approach, a structural, managerial or technological change
is made in an organization that is hypothesized to change job characteristics
so as to make the job more psychosocially ‘hygienic’ (e.g. increase levels of
job control; Wall et al., 1986). If strain reduces, then it could be concluded
this is a result of the changes in job characteristics bought about by organiz-
ational change. Notwithstanding problems of design associated with inter-
vention studies (Cook et al., 1990), there are at least three other problems
with this approach.
First, from a practical point of view, some other assessment of jobcharacteristics is needed. Prior to the intervention, assessment of job charac-
teristics is needed to determine the levels of aversive job characteristics
present in the environment, and therefore which job characteristics need to
be altered through intervention. Then, subsequent to the intervention, assess-
ment is needed to ensure that the intervention changed the target job charac-
teristics (i.e. a manipulation check). Without these data, it would be
impossible to know whether the intervention changed what it was supposed
to and, therefore, whether correct inferences are being drawn. Therefore,even if researchers were to concentrate on interventions, they would still be
a practical need to assess job characteristics independent of interventions.
Second, interventions can change many job characteristics and
personal skills. For example: the introduction of semi-autonomous work
teams could increase support from co-workers, work autonomy and work
variety. Further, in this example, Cotton (1993) considers training of workers
to be an important factor in the success of semi-autonomous work teams. In
these circumstances, it would be impossible to infer whether changes in strain
could be attributed to changes in levels of particular job characteristics,training or some combination of job characteristics and training.
Third, organizational changes are an obtrusive way of researching
work stress. Without first conducting unobtrusive research in natural
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settings, there would be no ecologically valid and empirical basis for the
intervention. As such, the chances of an intervention producing unintended
and harmful consequences would be increased. This raises serious questions
about the ethics of this approach in isolation from other research.
Conclusions on alternative strategies: Why triangulation does
not work
If all methods are flawed to some degree, then what strategies are available
to researchers? Perhaps the most commonly prescribed strategy is that of
triangulation – if a job characteristic produces an association with strainacross several different measuring techniques, then it can be reliably inferred
that there is an association between the job characteristic and strain. That
is, because methods measure the relevant phenomena imperfectly (see, for
example, Frese & Zapf, 1988), by using several independent methods in a
study or research programme, the errors in measurement can be assumed to
mitigate each other (Cook & Campbell, 1979).
Techniques exist for triangulation of results, both within studies (multi-
trait-multi-method matrices, latent variable modelling, e.g. Bagozzi & Yi,
1990) and between studies (meta-analysis, e.g. Hunter & Schmidt, 1990).Triangulation of results might work only if different methods produce the
same results. If different methods were to produce contradictory results, then
any benefits of triangulation are lost. Further, if triangulation occurred only
in some circumstances (only for some job characteristics, some jobs or some
organizational settings), and not in others – pursuing a strategy of triangu-
lation would limit severely the scope of theory and practical application of
work stress research.
What is clear is that triangulation across data sources is often difficult(e.g. Sanchez et al., 1997). In a study using latent variable analysis to aggre-
gate multiple self-reports and multiple observer ratings of job characteristics
and strain (Semmer et al., 1996), the best fitting models indicated differences
in how observers and incumbents rated the characteristics of focal jobs. Other
studies have indicated that different methods of assessing job characteristics
produce different associations with indices of strain (Morrison et al., 2003;
Spector & Jex, 1991). In one study, self-reports of work control and human
resource managers’ ratings of incumbent’s work control were not highly corre-
lated (r = 0.41), yet both contributed independently to predicting subsequentindicators of coronary heart disease (Bosma et al., 1997). Even in the most
controlled settings of a laboratory study, Jimmieson and Terry (1997) were
unable to triangulate findings from objective manipulations of the features of
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a simulated job task with those of perceptual measures taken during the
course of the experiment.
Of course, it could be argued that discrepancies within and between
studies are due to differential predictive validity of measures of job charac-
teristics, as well as imperfect validity of measures of strain. However, even
where triangulation is possible, any results might be theoretically meaning-
less. For example, triangulated evidence of an association between job
control and strain merely tells us that there is an association – not why there
is an association.
Perhaps the best approach is to be clear on the kind of information
provided by each approach to measuring job characteristics. This might help
to achieve a better level of explanation and help to avoid any difficulties if triangulation does not occur. That is, because different methods might be
assessing different phenomena, we need to examine more closely the
construct validity of different methods. From above, it is clear that it is
possible to collect information: a) on people’s perceptions of their own job
characteristics (self-reports); b) on people’s perceptions of others’ job charac-
teristics (other-reports); c) on collective perceptions of job characteristics
(aggregate reports); and d) on the more institutionalized aspects of job
characteristics (databases cross-referenced across documentary data on job
titles, analysis of job descriptions, interventions). This might lead us tosuppose that job characteristics comprise of many different subjective and
institutionalized facets that might be interrelated in some way.
Differentiating facets of job characteristics
It has been suggested that much research on job characteristics and strain
gives the impression that people are more passive receivers of informationfrom the environment than we know is the case (Briner et al., 2004). It is the
idea that people are active in interpreting their jobs, and consequently in
shaping their jobs (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001), which leads to consider-
ing an aspect of job characteristics hardly mentioned in the literature – that
is enacted job characteristics. By this, it is meant that people are likely to
enact those job characteristics that they perceive are part of their job, should
be part of their job or otherwise might help them achieve something at work
(Weick, 1995). For example, a person, who believes that they have enough
autonomy over work to reschedule some tasks, may enact this autonomy byrescheduling tasks in such a way to spend more time on aspects of work they
enjoy and avoid undesirable features of work. A person, who believes a
supervisor would offer sympathy, might be more likely to confide in that
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supervisor as a source of social support. As well as enacting desirable job
characteristics – people can also enact undesirable job characteristics. For
example, associations between achievement-oriented pressured type A
personality and workload (Spector & O’Connell, 1994) could be explained
by type As taking on more workload to achieve ambitious career goals and
status symbols.
The job incumbent is not the only person capable of enacting job
characteristics. Given their power over others (Braverman, 1974), it is possible
that managers enact the job characteristics that they believe are characteristics
of a given person’s job (for example, by asking subordinates to perform
certain tasks, achieve certain objectives, prescribing ways in which tasks are
to be performed or providing levels of resources that constrain how sub-ordinates can meet work objectives). Professional and organizational norms
are also likely to reflect on how colleagues and subordinates enact the working
environment, in such a way as to encourage or proscribe the enactment of
certain job characteristics (Scott, 1995). Of course, managers, colleagues and
subordinates can enact positive job characteristics (such as support, allowing
autonomy, participation) or they can enact negative job characteristics (such
as creating a greater workload, role conflict).
It is possible, then, to differentiate between enacted job characteristics
– what actually happens – and perceived job characteristics (self-perceptions,other perceptions). To some degree, enacted job characteristics are a product
of one or more persons’ perceptions of what a job entails. However, earlier
I referred to institutionalized elements of job characteristics. These are
embedded in the contractual elements of job descriptions, technology,
organizational structures and the networks of social relationships embedded
in job design, organizational structures and reporting relationships. These
elements could serve to limit what is possible for various people to enact
within a particular job (for example, we might expect: professional workersto report greater autonomy than non-professional workers; assembly line
work to limit job autonomy, skill use and variety; workers in matrix organiz-
ations to experience greater role ambiguity and conflict). Since these institu-
tionalized elements serve to proscribe limits – they are referred to as latent
job characteristics.
On the basis of this discussion, it is possible, then, to define three
different facets of job characteristics as follows:
• Latent job characteristics2 are those aspects of job characteristicsembedded in organizational and technical processes. They are inde-
pendent of activity or perception, but remain dormant unless there is
an incumbent doing a job.
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• Perceived job characteristics are someone’s generalized perceptions of
job characteristics.
• Enacted job characteristics3 are the events that job incumbents, and
those that come into contact with the incumbent, enact. They comprise
the emergent and dynamic characteristics of the job.
Latent job characteristics
Latent job characteristics comprise the institutional and technological pres-
sures that influence work, and are reflected in techniques usually considered
to be furthest from the perceptions and actions of individuals in work – and
therefore are often considered to be the most ‘objective’ indicators of jobcharacteristics (Spector & Jex, 1991). They might include details of contract
lengths or notice periods as indicators of job security, contractual hours –
rather than actual hours worked – as an indicator of work demands or
machine-paced work as an indicator of lower job autonomy. Suitable
methods to assess latent job characteristics might be analysis of large data-
bases such as the O*NET, or analysis of documents such as job descrip-
tions, employment contracts, operating manuals and organizational charts.
Latent job characteristics might also be inferred, at least partially, from
interventions that change job descriptions, employment contracts, operat-ing manuals, organizational structures, work processes or technology.
However, latent job characteristics, in themselves, are unlikely to provide
the basis of explaining links between work and strain. Evidence indicates it
is factors much closer to individuals that have the closest links to strain
(Lazarus, 1999; Suh et al., 1996).
Perceived job characteristics
Several kinds of observers can form judgements and make reports about the
characteristics they usually associate with a job. Therefore, many current
measures of job characteristics used in survey research reflect the generalized
perceptions of incumbents, line managers, co-workers, some aggregate
thereof or researchers – depending on who is doing the rating. With the
exception of researchers’ perceptions, links might be expected between latent
job characteristics and perceived job characteristics.
The first way in which latent job characteristics could influence
perceived job characteristics might be through direct judgement. Here, indi-viduals make inferences concerning how the nature of work is dictated by
factors such as technology, organizational processes and employment
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contracts. That is, factors that might serve to influence incumbents’ and
others’ perceptions of work characteristics include production or service
delivery technology, extent of teamworking, information systems, perform-
ance management practices, reward structures and job descriptions (see, for
example, Parker et al., 2001). Indeed, changes in factors indicative of latent
job characteristics have been found to be associated with subsequent changes
in self-reports of job characteristics (Parker, 2003; Parker et al., 2002).
Clearly, shared experience could lead to commonality in perceptions of job
characteristics amongst a group.
However, there are other indirect routes by which latent job charac-
teristics might influence perceived job characteristics and promote conver-
gence of perceptions. These concern observation and discussion with others.For example, during socialization into a new job, incumbents may come to
judge levels of job characteristics by discussion with line managers (Ostroff
& Kozlowski, 1992). Further, shared stories and discourses about work that
reinforce a shared perception of that job may be passed around incumbents
with the same job title, their line managers and others with whom they come
into contact (Feldman & Rafaeli, 2002). In this way, others’ perceptions may
come to influence an incumbent’s perception of his or her job.
Others’ perceptions may come to converge with incumbents’ percep-
tions in a manner more or less independent of latent job characteristics too.This might occur through socialization practices that reflect shared training,
especially where early training is carried out in organizations, such as
universities, largely independent of the eventual working environment
(DiMaggio & Powell, 1983). It might also occur where powerful groups of
workers with common interests are able to claim the right to certain job
characteristics, such as skill use, regardless of job descriptions, technology
and other factors related to latent job characteristics (Noon & Blyton, 1997).
These groups may then be able to protect that claim and influence percep-tions through regulations that place restrictions on who is allowed to do a
job, as has been the case for some trades unions and professional institutions
(Noon & Blyton, 1997).
The perceptions of researchers are unlikely to be influenced directly by
others’ perceptions. Usually, researchers’ ratings are based on what
researchers can observe. Thus reflecting, partially at least, job characteristics
as they are enacted. We might expect some degree of overlap between
researchers’ ratings of job characteristics and those of incumbents, co-
workers and managers. This is because job characteristics as they are enactedare driven by the perceptions of those with direct influence on a particular
job: incumbents, co-workers and line managers (Weick, 1995). That is,
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incumbents, co-workers and managers enact those job characteristics that
they attribute to the incumbent’s job.
Enacted job characteristics
These are events that reflect jobs as they happen. It is these events that are
proximal to the individual’s experience of strain (Weiss & Cropanzano,
1996). For example, Suh et al. (1996) found that more recent events have a
stronger effect on strain than more distant events. Pillow et al. (1996) found
that the impact of major life events on strain was mediated by daily stress-
ful events caused by the disruption of the life events. Further, work events
are considered the basis upon which several cognitive processes come toinfluence affective experience at work (Daniels et al., 2004). Hence, I
consider enacted job characteristics to be the locus of appraisals and coping
that influence strain, not enduring perceptions of work or structural, techno-
logical or contractual features of work. That is, I consider that the intra-
individual processes that produce strain within people do so because those
processes are influenced by enacted job characteristics.
Enacted job characteristics can take several forms. They can be poten-
tially observable – comprising behaviours or discourse. A behavioural
example might be using several tools to complete a task as enacted skill use.For discourse, an example might be voicing an objection to others’ plans, as
an example of participation in decision-making. Note, even clandestine activi-
ties that are behavioural or discursive are potentially observable by someone
other than the incumbent. Enacted job characteristics might also be cognitive,
and therefore not amenable to direct external observation, whatever the
circumstances. An example of cognitive enactment might be complex
problem-solving, as an example of demands. Enacted job characteristics can
be enacted by the incumbent, or by the actions of others. For instance, roleambiguity can be enacted by managers setting tasks with no clear objectives.
It might be supposed that latent job characteristics in seemingly
restricted environments, such as machine-paced manufacturing, have
stronger relations to other facets of job characteristics than in less restricted
environments, such as managerial work. However, Briner et al. (2004) argue
that even in restricted environments, people still enact the environment and
have some influence over the characteristics of their work (Wrzesniewski &
Dutton, 2001).
The idea of enacted job characteristics echoes episodic eventsapproaches to work and affect (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), where the
interpretations of specific events as they happen cause changes in affect, and
changes in affect subsequently influence attitudes such as job satisfaction.
More widely, concentrating on job characteristics as enacted events allows
Human Relations 59(3)2 7 8
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us to study the processes by which organizational life influences individuals
and how individuals act within organizational contexts (Peterson, 1998).
This is not to say that generalized perceptions or structural, technological or
contractual features of work are not without influence on strain. Rather,
because enacted job characteristics are the locus of intra-individual processes
that produce strain, enacted job characteristics may mediate the relationships
between perceived job characteristics, latent job characteristics and strain –
hence perhaps offering an explanation for associations between indicators of
perceived or latent job characteristics and strain.
As an example of the inter-relationships between latent, perceived and
enacted job characteristics, consider a matrix organization consisting of over-
lapping project teams. Here there is great potential for role conflict where anindividual belongs to more than one project team (latent job characteristic).
Incumbents’ previous experience of working in such structures plus
discussion between them and their managers might lead to the perception of
role conflict within the job (perceived job characteristic). Because managers
may then consider role conflict as an inevitable consequence of working in
such organizational structures, managers may then ask workers to complete
tasks to deadlines without checking on the progress of other tasks against
other deadlines, producing role conflict (enacted job characteristic) which is
subsequently appraised as stressful.Some mutual influence between perceived and enacted job character-
istics might be expected. Mere enactment of a job characteristic might alter
a person’s view of his/her work (Weick, 1995). Extrapolating from the role
conflict example just given – repeated exposure to conflicting priorities given
by managers may create heightened perceptions of role conflict. However,
where there is opportunity to observe or discuss work with others, then
others’ perceptions of the focal person’s job might change too. This is
perhaps likely to be strongest where enactment of job characteristics isroutinized, so that there is more opportunity for shared understandings to
emerge (Feldman & Rafaeli, 2002). For example, the routinized timetables
and breaks in schools provide the perceptual impetus for discussing the
demands imposed by school timetables, and visiting the staff room at break-
times provides a routinized forum for discussing these issues. Perhaps too,
where there is mutual dependence between workers to perform tasks, then
perceptions of others’ job characteristics might develop that allow indi-
viduals to enact job characteristics in a manner that is heedful of others’ work
(Weick & Roberts, 1993). For instance, in self-regulating work teams, clearlyspecifying one’s own tasks and estimated time of completion of those tasks
might enact role clarity for colleagues.
Supposing interdependence of enacted job characteristics and various
actors’ perceived job characteristics allows less restrictive assumptions about
Daniels Rethinking job characteristics in work stress research 2 7 9
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relations between the work environment and measurements than has largely
been the case hitherto. As noted earlier, using perceptual measures has often
entailed assuming/presuming the work environment causes perceptions.
Positing the existence of enacted job characteristics means perceptions might
cause events in the work environment, and events in the work environment
might cause perceptions.
Table 1 summarizes the features of latent, perceived and enacted job
characteristics. Figure 1 is a representation the relationships between
enacted, perceived and latent job characteristics that have been illustrated in
the preceding paragraphs. Strain is included in the model as a consequence
of the relationships between these different facets of job characteristics, with
enacted job characteristics as the most proximal cause of strain. However,this relationship is shown as conditional, because the processes linking
specific forms of strain to job characteristics are complex (e.g. Daniels et al.,
2004). Therefore the detail of these relationships is beyond the scope of the
current model.
Figure 1 is an illustration of the potential gain in theoretical richness
by expanding the conception of job characteristics to differentiate enacted,
Human Relations 59(3)2 8 0
Table 1 Summary of facets of job characteristics
Facet Key features Sub-classes Example methods
Latent job Institutional, social and National job databases
characteristics technological pressures Analysis of job
that influence work descriptions,
employment contracts,
operating manuals and
organizational charts
InterventionsPerceived job Generalized Perceptions of own Survey methods that
characteristics perceptions of how a job rely on individuals
job usually is Line managers’ rating the extent to
perceptions which they agree a
Co-workers’ statement describes a
perceptions target job
Researchers’
perceptions
Enacted job Events and activities Behavioural Self-reports of events
characteristics in the job as they Discursive or activities withinhappen Cognitive specific time frames,
using, for example, daily
diary methods
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perceived and latent facets of job characteristics. The strength of relations
suggested in Figure 1 might vary in strength according to the nature of thejob characteristic under investigation (e.g. are the relations shown in Figure 1
stronger for skill use and autonomy, than for work demands?). The differ-
entiation of facets of job characteristics, and the mapping of possible
relations among them, raises implications for both methods and the kinds of
research questions researchers might choose to investigate. We turn to these
implications next.
Implications for methods
How then should enacted, perceived and latent job characteristics be
measured? Self-reports are obviously necessary to determine perceived job
Daniels Rethinking job characteristics in work stress research 2 8 1
Latent job
characteristic
Managers a nd
colleagues’
perceptions of
job
Enacted job
characteristic
Researchers’
perception of job
Strain
Incumbent’s
perceptions of
job
Indicates a potentially weaker or conditional relationship
Figure 1 Possible relationships between facets of job characteristics
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characteristics. Suitable measures might include many of the popular
measures for assessing job characteristics, with Likert-type scaled responses
for assessing generalized levels of agreement with statements describing job
characteristics over an unspecified time span. Aggregated measures of this
kind may serve to identify coherent collective perceptions, should researchers
be interested in the influence of a social group as a whole on individuals’
perceived and enacted job characteristics. Researchers might assess latent job
characteristics by examining various forms of organizational documents and
processes, for example: job descriptions and contractual arrangements; struc-
tural network relationships with co-workers, subordinates and supervisors;
examination of the job’s place in the organizational structure; and how tech-
nology is used in the job. Researchers might then assess each source of datafor the extent to which it provides evidence of the presence or absence of
pre-defined job features. For example, the latent job characteristics for ‘role
conflict’ might be assessed by looking at the number of reporting relation-
ships for an individual (from the job description), the number of project
teams or committees that individual belongs to (from the organizational
chart), the number of processes that individual is responsible for (from exam-
ining production or service delivery manuals).
To measure enacted job characteristics, self-reports may also be the
best strategy. However, the kind of self-reports used would be different fromthose used to assess perceived job characteristics. There are a number of
arguments for this point of view. These can be divided into three main areas:
a) other methods are unsuitable; b) self-reports are commonly used in coping
research; c) in the right circumstances, self-reports can minimize bias.
The argument that other methods are unsuitable is essentially a prac-
tical argument. Enacted job characteristics are dynamic and activity-oriented
– so measures should tap these features. Clearly, documentary and techno-
structural assessments are unable to achieve this. As mentioned earlier,ratings by external observers are subject to framing biases and cannot assess
hidden or cognitive activity well. Moreover, as jobs become more knowledge
intensive, the potential to use external observers is reduced.
The argument that self-reports are used in coping research is essentially
an argument of precedent. At least since the development of the Ways of
Coping Checklist (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), self-report methods have been
the standard way of assessing coping. This is because coping includes cogni-
tive and hidden activity, as well as overt behaviour and discourse – features
shared with enacted job characteristics. It may be reasonable, then, to expectthat people can provide accurate assessments of the work events they
encounter. However, self-reports can be inaccurate and researchers need to
pay close attention to the nature of self-report methodologies and the psycho-
metric properties of instruments.
Human Relations 59(3)2 8 2
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Therefore, the strongest argument for self-reports of enacted job charac-
teristics is that self-reports can provide accurate assessments of enacted job
characteristics, if designed properly and used in the right circumstances. To
minimize bias, self-reports used to assess enacted job characteristics should
concentrate on specific events, be clearly worded and require recall only over
a short, recent and specified time frame (Frese & Zapf, 1988).
The best period may be to report on current activity or within the past
few hours. Evidence indicates people may exaggerate how proactive they are
if the time frame becomes too great (Stone et al., 1998). Because of their
ability to capture processes close to when they happen (Bolger et al., 2003),
the best methods to develop and test theory around enacted job character-
istics might be event sampling methods – such as computerized momentaryassessments or daily diary studies. This means that self-report measures of
enacted job characteristics are best employed in short-term studies – and
therefore in research on rapidly changing aspects of strain – such as affect
(Weiss et al., 1999). However, event sampling methods are not straight-
forward, and researchers need to take steps to eliminate potential biases that
can affect event sampling studies if short-term assessments of enacted job
characteristics are to be accurate (see, for example, Bolger et al., 2003).
Further steps need to be taken to ensure designs can rule out alternative
explanations for findings.For some health outcomes (such as clinical levels of depression), short-
term assessments of enacted job characteristics may not be suitable, as the
causal process is too extended. Instead, more traditional measures of job
characteristics may need to be used. Whilst such studies may not be able to
offer unambiguous theoretical statements of specific causal processes, if
supplemented with short-term studies of the processes involved in the sub-
clinical stages of long-term health outcomes, then more precise theoretical
statements might be possible. For example, affective reactions to work,which are highly dynamic (Parkinson et al., 1995), might mediate the link
between work characteristics and longer-term indicators of strain (Robinson,
2000; Spector & Goh, 2001). In these circumstances, event sampling studies
can be used to examine the affective reactions to work presumed to mediate
between job characteristics and more slowly changing forms of strain. Simi-
larly, short-term and dynamic physiological reactions, such as heart rate, can
be monitored by portable devices, and so can be assessed in studies looking
at job characteristics and physical strain.
Notwithstanding all these considerations, examining a complete set of relationships between the latent, perceived and enacted aspects of just one
job characteristic, plus assessing relationships with strain, might seem very
labour intensive, since data need to be collected from several sources and the
validity and reliability of three sets of measures for each job characteristic
Daniels Rethinking job characteristics in work stress research 2 8 3
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need to be established. Moreover, if quantitative methods are to be used in
event sampling studies, statistical methods are needed that can cope with
complex multi-level data with a time series element. Multi-level regression
and multi-level structural equations modelling methods would seem appro-
priate (e.g. Bentler, 2003; Muthén & Muthén, 1998).
Implications for research questions
The differentiation of latent, perceived and enacted job characteristics does
not just have implications for supplementing more traditional approaches to
assessing job characteristics with event-based measures. This differentiationshifts the level of explanation from one concerned with explaining variance
in concurrent levels of strain or subsequent changes in strain, to a much
richer, dynamic and multi-level view of job characteristics. In this dynamic
view, enacted job characteristics are at the juncture between the cognitive
interpretation and coping processes that influence strain and the social and
organizational processes from which enacted job characteristics emerge. Put
another way, identifying enacted job characteristics neither privilege work
and organizational approaches nor cognitive and perceptual approaches to
understanding strain. Rather, the differentiation provides one way of thinking about how the two approaches might be reconciled. There are novel
research questions that arise too.
The first pertains to the empirical status of the different facets of job
characteristics – if latent, perceived and enacted job characteristics represent
different phenomena, then evidence of their differentiation should be
produced. One way of doing this might be through factor analysis. For
example, multiple indicators of latent job autonomy should correlate more
closely with each other than multiple indicators of perceived and enactedautonomy. In turn, multiple indicators of perceived autonomy should corre-
late most closely with each other and indicators of enacted autonomy corre-
late most closely with other indicators of enacted autonomy. In this case,
multiple indicators of latent job autonomy, multiple indicators of perceived
job autonomy and multiple indicators of enacted job autonomy should
produce three distinct factors if subjected to factor analysis. On top of this
requirement, if event sampling studies are to be used to assess enacted job
characteristics, then variation in levels of enacted job characteristics should
be evident across short time intervals. However, recent evidence does suggestmeaningful daily variability in job characteristics such as demands, skill use,
control and support (Butler et al., 2005; Daniels & Harris, 2005).
If the different facets of job characteristics are empirically distinct, then
Human Relations 59(3)2 8 4
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hand, linking job characteristics to embedded organizational processes and
perceptions provides a theoretical footing for understanding the links
between the institutional and economic factors, at the levels of nation-state,
industry and organization, that influence job design and the perception of
work (Hall & Soskice, 2001; Scott, 1995). Further, by differentiating
amongst different aspects of job characteristics, there is a firmer and more
fertile theoretical grounding for the assessment of job characteristics and
explaining how different facets of job characteristics contribute directly and
indirectly to strain.
One contribution of this article, then, is to illustrate how careful
consideration of methods can provide a better basis for interpreting results
produced by different methods and, hence, help explain why triangulationdoes not occur. Another contribution is that, at least in the area of work
stress research, such a careful consideration of methods can enhance theor-
etical richness and suggest new avenues for research. This theoretical richness
comes from considering job characteristics, not as separate from or as
distinct influences on work events, but as phenomena that comprise inter-
related institutional, technological and perceptual facets together with events
that are the product of actors’ agency. This approach favours the use of
dynamic methods capable of capturing processes instead of or as well as
variance, and suggests new ways of interpreting the findings of variance-oriented research designs. The article’s contribution may extend beyond the
application of new ways of conceptualizing job characteristics to interpret-
ing research findings. As noted above, considering different facets of job
characteristics and how they interrelate enables us to consider how enacted
job characteristics may be changed or impeded by organizational factors and
shared and individual perceptions. Arguably, this might lead to more sophis-
ticated approaches to intervention that consider simultaneously both the
perceptual and organizational levers and barriers to changing the experienceof job characteristics.
Notes
1 In much work stress research, self-report methods require participants to rate the
characteristics of their work. It is these ratings we concentrate on here. This articledoes not concern itself with methods to assess the interpretative processes by which
a person appraises a job characteristic to be more or less unpleasant or stressful.
Rather, in this article, I concentrate on methods that seek to assess the reality of jobcharacteristics without further interpretation of their desirability.
2 The term should not be confused with ‘latent variables’, familiar from structuralequations modelling, that are unobservable variables indexed by a set of observable
variables.
Human Relations 59(3)2 8 6
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3 Enacted job characteristics are events as they happen, rather than the appraisal of
those events. It is possible for people to enact job characteristics to fulfil somepurpose. For example, job autonomy or social support can be enacted to help cope
with other aversive enacted job characteristics, by facilitating problem-focusedcoping, avoidance or emotion-focused coping (Daniels & Harris, 2005). In this
sense, enacted job characteristics can be a coping behaviour, used to fulfil some
coping function (Lazarus, 1999). However, enacted job characteristics are a muchwider concept, encompassing events enacted for whatever purpose by job incum-
bents and others that come into contact with the incumbent.
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Human Relations 59(3)2 9 0
Kevin Daniels is Professor of Organizational Psychology, Loughborough
University. He has a PhD in Applied Psychology. He is currently an
Associate Editor of the Journal of Occupational and Organizational
Psychology , and is on the editorial board of the British Journal of Manage-
ment. His research interests concern the relationships between emotion,
cognition and organizational processes.
[E-mail: k.j.daniels@lboro.ac.uk]