Walk in my shoes: Does perspective-taking enable better work design?

Abstract

Despite the vast amount of research on work design, few studies directly examined work design as a behavior and/or explored the antecedents of “poor” work design. Across three studies, we found fundamental divergence in work design behaviors between individuals adopting the manager’s and the employee’s perspectives. Study 1 supported this major finding by showing that managers were less likely to assign enriching tasks to their employees when adopting the manager’s perspective. Study 2 further revealed that perspective-taking would reduce the discrepancy in work design behaviors between individuals adopting different perspectives, and help managers to design enriching work for their employees. Study 3 replicated these findings in real work settings, demonstrating that perspective-taking significantly enhances managers’ consideration of skill variety in work design. Taken together, this study contributes to the literature on work design antecedents and perspective-taking, and promotes sound work design in managerial practice.