Agile Teams: Experienced Work Characteristics and Their Effects on Employees’ Perceived Job Performance and Happiness at Work

Abstract

Purpose - Dutch banks like Rabobank are increasingly implementing agile team designs in response to the digitalisation of society and the evolving needs of customers. However, not much is known about the effects of agile teams within the context of Rabobank or other large organisations. That is, agile team designs are not yet evidence-based for large-scaled organisations. There are research gaps regarding how employees experience their work characteristics when working in agile teams and what impact these experienced characteristics have on their perceived job performance and happiness at work. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide insight into how employees perceive agile team designs by focusing on the work characteristics they experience when working in agile teams and determine how the experienced work characteristics are related to their perceived job performance and happiness at work.

Methodology - The research design of this study concerns a cross-sectional case study. In addition, mixed methods were applied. The first study (qualitative) had a explanatory and development purpose regarding the second study (quantitative). The qualitative and quantitative study were conducted within two departments of Rabobank that have recently undergone - or are currently undergoing - an agile transformation. Together, the departments consisted of 170 individuals that were working in agile teams. First, 8 interviews were conducted with employees from both departments and different agile teams. Next, a questionnaire was designed and distributed. 62 employees completed the questionnaire.

Findings - The results of study 1 and 2 showed that employees experienced too little decision-making autonomy, a low task significance and a lack of feedback from others. Even though employees had mixed perceptions regarding the experienced work characteristics, all significant relationships between, on the one hand, work characteristics and, on the other, variables of job performance and happiness at work were positive in nature. The number of significant relationships however depended on whether single or multiple work characteristics were included in the regression analyses. Nevertheless, based on the regression analyses with multiple work characteristics, three significant relationships were found: decision-making autonomy related positively to work engagement, work methods autonomy positively related to OCBo and, finally, feedback from others was found to also positively relate to work engagement. It should however be said though that the sample size was probably not large enough to test models with multiple antecedents at once. Therefore, these results should not be lead to the conclusion the other work characteristics are unimportant. Rather, the conclusion should be interpreted as job autonomy and feedback from others seeming to have a large and positive impact on job performance and happiness at work.

Originality - This article is of value because it focuses on individuals rather than teams, looks beyond job characteristics and applies mixed methods.