Contexts, people, and work designs: Developing and testing a multilevel theory for understanding variability in work design consequences

Abstract

Work design scholarship has demonstrated that work characteristics are important determinants of a wide range of individual outcomes including well-being, motivation, satisfaction, and performance. Yet this scholarship has also revealed substantial and unaccounted for variance in these effects, prompting calls for theory and research that applies multilevel and contextual perspectives to expand our understanding of work designs. We develop theory that spans occupation, job, and individual levels to connect the influences of both context and personal attributes (e.g., skills) on work design consequences. Central to our multilevel theory is the concept of attribute relevance, which reflects the extent to which different attributes are prioritized within occupational and job contexts in which individuals enact their roles. Results across three studies spanning 3,838 incumbents and 339 unique occupations reveal that attribute relevance systematically moderates the relationships between work designs and individual outcomes and thus demarcates factors that account for variability in the main effects observed in previous work design research. We bring much-needed theory and evidence to open questions about how worker requirements and individual differences are connected to work designs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)