The models that made job design

It is the purpose of this chapter to describe and evaluate five of the most significant approaches to job design that have laid the foundation for contemporary work psychology: the Job Characteristics Model (JCM; Hackman & Oldham, 1976, Section 3.2), the Demand–Control–Support Model (DCSM; Karasek & Theorell, 1990, Section 3.3), the Vitamin Model (VM; Warr, 1987, Section 3.4), the Effort–Reward Imbalance Model (ERI Model; Siegrist, 1996; Peter & Siegrist, 1997, Section 3.5), and contemporary Socio-Technical Systems Thinking (STST; see Cherns, 1987; Clegg, 2000, Section 3.6). As we will see in this chapter, these models have not only stimulated the psychological science of job design, but have influenced how national governments monitor and regulate the workplace in order to provide psychologically healthy work. Because of the great influence of these models on research, management practice and policy, these models are the modern classics of job design that made the psychology of job design that we know today.