By Florian Kloneck
A group of organisational psychologists attended a workshop on good work design. The workshop involved a work design simulation game; “Lantern Production Factory”; in which participants learned about how structuring a task differently can affect an individuals’ motivation and productivity.
The game assigns one high autonomy self-managing team and one low-autonomy production chain. In the game, it is also possible to vary the level of work demands by increasing the number of orders for lanterns. The ‘green group’ had high levels of autonomy and high level of demands. This group experienced this setting as motivating, and met production goals. On the other hand, the ‘red group’ had low levels of autonomy and high level of demands. The workers in the red group experienced this setting as stressful, often not meeting production goals.
“The way these tasks are structured is really affecting my ability to be a good leader.” Participant from the ‘red group’; low autonomy/high demands