Task Identity: Definition and Examples

In Greg Oldham and J. Richard Hackman’s Job Characteristics Theory, task identity is the degree to which a person’s core job dimensions directly connect to final work outcomes.

Someone can have a high task identity or a low task identity. Here are a couple of examples:

• High task identity: In simple terms, a person with a high task identity can see their work to its final state. Think of a luthier who makes an entire guitar from scratch—building the instrument’s body and neck, staining it, applying a wood finish, and adding hardware and strings. That luthier has a high task identity because they see the guitar to the finish line. Their efforts result in an identifiable piece of work.
• Low task identity: A person with a low task identity does not get to see how their work impacts a finished product. Contrast a solo luthier with a technician who works on a guitar assembly line. The assembly line worker only inserts metal frets into guitar necks, at which point the necks pass to another section of the factory, where they become complete guitars. The nature of that worker’s job design keeps them from enjoying the high task identity of a solo luthier.

Task identity can play a big role in an employee’s experienced meaningfulness. Many workers view task identity as a form of job enrichment and job satisfaction because they enjoy seeing the exact ways their efforts manifest as finished products.

Task identity also factors into human resource management as part of what Oldham and Hackman described as a motivating potential score (MPS). The MPS formula assigns numerical values to a worker’s task identity, their task significance (the degree they see their work helping others), their skill variety (the degree to which their job allows them to develop and showcase different skills), their autonomy (their degree of independence within the work environment), and their feedback (the degree to which they receive actionable information about their job performance and quality of work). All of these factor into the MPS equation and serve as a predictor of employee engagement and well-being.

The key to achieving task identity in a work environment is to find ways to let team members see how their work contributes to a finished product. There are a number of ways to address this objective, such as:

• Holistic work redesign: If a workforce chronically suffers from low task identity, it can lead to low employee engagement, absenteeism, and diminished psychological states. In such drastic circumstances, corporate executives and team leaders must take bold steps to rescue their workplace morale. This may involve a wholesale reimagining of employee roles in order to boost task identity, but also task significance, skill variety, autonomy, and feedback.
• Job rotations: When team members possess a variety of skills, managers can rotate them into different roles within a production process. On a regular basis, workers should receive a chance to contribute near the end of the process, so they can see the team’s output in its final state.
• Strong communication: It may not make sense for all coworkers to stay with a product until it reaches its final state, but they can still keep apprised of team success if the company maintains robust communication channels. Project managers and human resources officers can prioritize internal office communications that give project status updates and highlight team success stories.

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