Work design: Mastery
Mastery is a sense of achievement that comes from completing work. Mastery can be enhanced by providing clarity about what is expected, feedback on performance and the opportunity to see outcomes from your work.
Part of the Work design overview module.
SMART work enables mastery
Work that gives you a sense of mastery or achievement can be a powerful boost to mental health.
Ways that work can be structured to promote mastery includes:
- You know what you need to do and what is expected of you (role clarity).
- You know how well you are doing your job and get recognised for a job well done (feedback).
- You get to do a task from start to finish and you can identify the outcomes (task identity).
Jobs with a high degree of mastery are likely to address all 3 aspects.
By contrast, jobs with a low degree of mastery:
- are unclear or ambiguous about your roles and responsibilities
- provide little feedback about your performance
- involve working on small or fragmented parts with no idea about your role in the bigger picture.
People working in jobs with a high degree of mastery are:
- more productive and more satisfied
- less prone to mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression.
Organisations that promote mastery:
- perform better
- are more agile
- have higher retention and lower turnover.
Tips on creating a high degree of mastery
Workers
If your job does not give you a sense of mastery, here are some ways you can build a sense of mastery:
- Give and ask for formal and informal feedback. Check if any of your tasks involve immediate feedback.
- Ask your manager for more clarity about the tasks you have been given and why. You could suggest some clear performance criteria.
- Work with your team to understand how your tasks all interconnect. Each person should have a mix of desirable and less popular tasks.
Managers
If you are a manager, here are some ways you can design work that offers a high degree of mastery:
- Provide ways for workers to receive feedback on their work.
- Redesign work so that one person completes an end-to-end process. If it is possible, combine interdependent tasks so a person can see the result of their work once complete.
- Explain how a task fits into the larger process or outcome: the input, the output, and earlier and later steps.
- Provide workers feedback on their performance. If possible, also provide feedback from others (e.g. leaders, customers).