Material Detail

I really thought that the research Adam did made a lot of sense. If you give employees a sense of being needed or importance, they will work harder. If they really are able to understand that the work they do truly does make a difference for the bigger picture then they will not only enjoy what they do, but want to show up everyday.

It's always nicer to see firsthand that what you're doing is helping others and not going un-noticed. People, even though they may not admit it, crave recognition and validation that they're doing a good job.

The task significance podcast provides an interesting look at changing how managers think about employee motivation. The employee is not purely operating out of self-interest and can be motivated to work harder if they see the importance of their work. I think this provides managers with great insight at attempting to balance these dynamics.

Provides empirical evidence for a concept that almost seems almost common sense, but this something we need more of in the workplace today. I'd like to know how he's motivate telemarketers...

I've never really thought about how lifeguards barely dive into the waters to save a life, and if they had to then they've made a mistake already. It's such a great example of task significance by Adam Grant. I can relate to being in a position with low task significance and I do believe that if employees were recognized for their significance in the workplace, then it will boost their motivation. Employers should incorporate this idea into their workplace to create a healthy work environment.

I love the idea that we need to connect more with people we work with and for,for me working in retail I feel much better and productive if I make somebody satisfied and if I don't look just how to convince them to spend more money but rather to get the benefit from the product.

Adam Grant discussed the importance of task significance, and how it benefits the working environment. It makes everyone have the same priority and a common goal, which in turn leads to a more unified work environment.

Great Example by Adam Grant on Task Significance-  University Call Center (Higher staff quit every 2 months) Standard script and constant rejection.  The more money they raised the more students we're able to attend college (via scholarships).  With the rejection and lack of positive motivation or any motivation at all the downward spiral continued.  But with the use of Task Significance and positive motivation helped the volunteer staff feel better about the work being done.  The staff workers got to hear and talk to students that got scholarships and how they made a difference in their lives.

Technical Remarks:

The example of life guard is really interesting. Beside the stories of how life guard save peoples's lives, life guards sometimes can answer swimmers' questions on how to swim better. They can get satisfactions from teaching people too.

I agree with Adam Grant about the importance of task significance, and the effect on job performance. Employees in high task significant jobs tend to be more motivated, and when introduce directly to the people who benefit from their work, their motivation and job performance increases dramatically. However, I believe task significant has little or no effects on employees in low task significant jobs, and probably will not increase job performance.

In the podcast “Task Significance" by Adam Grant, he talks about how those that perform tasks or provide a service will value their work more so when they are aware of how their work/services manifests in the lives of actual "customers". In one example about Volvo, the survivors of car accidents relayed their stories of surviving the accidents to the designers. By sharing these stories, the "significance" of the designers safety features had a more tangible impact, thus making the importance of their "tasks" more concrete.  In a nutshell, the point of the podcast is to demonstrate that Task Significance plays a major role in motivating workers to do good work.

Adams Grant's results were impressive but some jobs are boring and mundane especially if you accepted a job because that was the only job that you could find at the time and you're not really interested in the anything else but paying your bills.

As Adam Grant stated in the podcast “Task significance” is very important to show to employees that what they are doing will have an impact on others people’s life. In that way, they not only will be working to accomplish the organization goals but they will be satisfied and more motivated to work when they know they are doing something valuable for others. As Grant said, there are two dimensions of personality and values on people and they react differently to high task significance jobs, they are: a) the conscientiousness and b) the pro-social values. The conscientiousness type of personality workers will accomplish the task assigned to them, however, they do not care about the “extra value” that carries that task. On the other hand, the pro-social values type of personality workers do care about the “added value” to their job and they are more compromised with the organization and because of that they are more responsive and have more productivity than the conscientiousness worker when they are put to work in high task significance jobs. The organization structure has direct impact on how workers perform their job. The different ways that organizations are structured (vertical, divisional, matrix, team-based or virtual network)affect employees and their performance, Moreover, specialization might play against the organization in accomplishing its goals since employees are isolated and do a single boring job. In that case, the employee looses sight and the importance of his job and how others benefit from it. In order to motivate this employee, the managers must give him authority and responsibilities or show them a few examples on how their job it is important to others. My question is, how to motivate low skill jobs workers?

I liked the podcast because I can definitely relate to it. One of the things that I could relate to was communication in the workplace. Working at Wells Fargo, we always get feedback from customers and we all get surveyed. It's really nice to get good feedback. Our manages make the phone calls to customers to follow up as well, and its great to hear from your managers that you are doing a great job. Little things like that encourage people to do better; a little recognition goes a long way. It's a good way to keep people motivated at work. Every job gets a little boring along the way, and letting people know that they are doing a good job and to keep up the good work, is a great way to keep them doing their job better, because it makes them want to keep doing a good job.

Task Significance , an interview with Adam Grant, assistant prof.,N.C. U.

The effect of Task Significance on job performance started 30 years ago by Richard Hackmen for new management.

Jobs that make a difference and also make an impact on the well being on people. When employees do a work that help, contribute, educate,or make happy people and benefit others.

People in high task significance work are more motivate and satisfy when know their work is helping and benefiting others.

Technical Remarks:

The interview conducted by Michael Johnson with Adam Grant was very interesting in that it brought to light an issue that many never think about: the positive impact of work for others. Grant notes that most employers believe their employees to be self-interested and, as such, try to motivate them with perks such as higher pay, interesting work, and promotional opportunities. In fact, most people are not entirely self-interested, but are looking to make their lives meaningful by working to benefit others. I found that it made complete sense for Grant to say that employees are more motivated when they can actually witness the positive impact that their work has for others. I especially enjoyed Grant's use of Microsoft as an example of this. I was, in turn, inspired myself upon hearing the story of workers who create scholarships for students.

Adam Grant's talk on the dramatic effect of task significance on job performance was a very interesting article. His studies were an excellent source of information when trying to add motivation to a work force. Every job eventually becomes monotonous and tedious; task significance is the perfect way to keep the motivation alive. I have worked for numerous employers, and I always worked best when I knew that my work was being appreciated. When we feel that our work is not being appreciated, then we tend to put less effort into our work. The two examples he used were the lifeguards and the alumni sponsors, and they were perfect examples of how task significance plays a huge roll in the work place. As Adam Grant concluded in his studies, showing task significance to employees always raised work productivity. I believe that all organizations should take the time and show how their employees how their work is appreciated. As Adam's work showed employee productivity was increased, so for this reason employers should always use this. Adam Grant did not really go into detail about how often task significance should be used. I guess it would depend on the type of job that was being performed. I would believe that the more task significance the better for both the employee and employer.

Task significance is a good idea because like Adam said in the video, anytime employees are doing something that mames a difference. If those employees know how and why they are doing this work, it could benefit and increase morale. I also liked how Adam talks about when he used to work in the travel company and how the editors were never really able to meet the readers of their guides.  If those employees were to meet those readers, they would have been able to get more expirience, motivation and research about what those readers might want to see more of and less of.  It is true that if an employee knows their task significance, they could and most likley would work more effectivley.  I personally work in a bank as a teller.  This job is not the most amazing.  The problem up until recently was that we were always told get refferals, more sales, more sales.  Though just hearing this we don't understand how and why this benefits the company.  Why would the company choose quanitity over quality.  Though when you move up in the ranks you get exposed to more information and see the true side of why a corporation asks for certain things, in this case referalls.

Sharring stories and expiriences down the piplelines from managment to employees increases the morale and really makes one work towards a purpose.  That purpose in turn will continue to improve and benefit consumers, readers, and anyone that benefits or uses products or services of a company or corporation.

I enjoyed this podcast a lot. I know that I feel the same way when performing my job. When I do my day to day job without any member contact, sometimes I end up getting bored or uninspired. However, when I am able to help someone out over the phone and make their life just a little bit easier, it makes me feel good and appreciated. Especially when feedback comes in on just how much you were able to help someone, it makes you want to keep that same level of service or even surpass it for the next member so you can impact their lives as well. When you listen to a study like this it really makes me believe that there are more and more genuinely good people out there who really do want to help others and are not just all self-interested. This approach should be applied to more jobs out there, including the government.

Task significance by Adam Grant was very interesting and informative. It's amazing how the mind works, and just seeing your final product can really make a difference. Knowing about task significance in your business can really help you out tremendously. Your employees would be more willing to make better products or perform at a higher level just by you being aware of the circumstances.

Adam Grant sounds like he knows what he is talking about. He answers the questions and he sounds passionate about task significance. Grants gives a lot of examples. I really like that he defined task significance in the beginning of the podcast.

I was aware of a few of the techniques that managers used to motivate people, like raises, but showing them the significance of their work did not seem like a widely-supported technique.  It's mind-boggling that four articles made life guards work 3 extra hours for 6 months.  At almost no cost to management, productivity or employee satisfaction can be increased.  All businesses should have regular updates showing employees their task significance.

I found the topic of task significance to be very interesting. As someone who does want to make a difference and have a purpose in life but not necessarily let my job or work define my entire life, it is nice to know that a person's job may have high task significance regardless of job titles, such as CEO, supervisor or manager.Even a lowly data entry personel can still contribute a lot to his or her company. It was also fascinating to hear about how motivation and productivity can be boosted just by showing employees how they positively affect those around them.

After listening the interview podcast with Adam Grant, I do agree with him that task significance is important to job performance. Task significance will change the workers performance and personal view on a particular duty for good. But task significance can only go so far during real life situations. The employee have to be very responsive and want to help others, with introduction of task significance, the employee will have a boost of performance (ideally). Again, this is solely depends on the person. Task significance can only boost performance on employees that are WILLING to go the extra mile.

I completely relate and understand the content of this podcast. Durning my 8 years in the military I completed 3 tours in Iraq. There were many days while in the military that I felt my work was not necessary or appreciated. This left me feeling uninterested in improving or striving to do better. Even this  type of service faces the problems mentioned in this podcast. Ensuring your employees feel gratified with their work is difficult in any field, even those that you'd think it was a given. I never felt like what I did mattered until I came home and was faced with friends, family and acquantinces that were highly appreciative of what I did and the time I spent doing it. To this day when my time in the military comes up people thank me, this is gratification that I did not receive while serving.

Task Significance is such an important part of job satisfaction.  I know from personal experience.  Being an admin for a team that works in Securities, I know my role makes a difference to my team, in that the small tasks I do, play a large part in the overall picture.  I think in addition to Task Significance, appreciation, relevance, and being part of an integrated and cohesive team, all play a part in job satisfaction and sustainability.  Who wants to go to work everyday to a job that they do not feel makes a difference in peoples lives.  Knowing that I make a difference, makes it easier to get up every morning and drag myself into work. 

The Podcast on Task Significance was enlightening and informative.  I can totally understand how showing employees how their job isn't just "a job" but it is an integral part of the organization as a whole can make a huge difference in employee motivation and moral.  When someone has a vested interest in the success or failure of an organization it can only be positive.  Those employees are the ones who will work hard no matter what.  However, that isn't always the case.  Not all employees have a vested interest so as Adam Grant said, it is for those employees that Task Significance is most beneficial.  And getting them connected to the work that they are doing day in and day out can only be beneficial to the employee and the organization.

I agree that what we do should reflect our knowledge and understanding; it brings much more significance and satisfaction into an individual's work. Also, employers should evaluate their workers' job satisfaction from time to time to identify causes which might lower productivity due to unadequate satisfaction in what they do.  

Task significance is something that i definitely identify with in my old job in military.  In the Military i worked as a ordnance loader on the AV8B harrier jet.  Being a bomb loader was some what of a monotonous job: loading and down loading explosives and testing and checking weapons systems which sounds like fun and all but gets pretty boring.  You begin to question yourself, asking "i wish i could be doing something more exciting and glorious by being involved in the fight.  However, when being deployed to a combat zone you finally start to see the task significance in your job and how important it is when you see a jet returning with no bombs and fired rounds.

After listening the interview of Adam Grant pertaining to "Task Significance", I learned what task significance is and I think wehn you work for the job, it's very important concept to the work enviroment.  Also, it's very important for employee's motivation. People should know their roles and positions for their job, after they have purpose on their job, it will increase their work efficiency. It's very useful to listen this topic for our work.

My first experience with this material was on Task Significance Interview with Adam Grant. After listening to his definition on task significance and examples of it really helped me understand the concept. His personal experience was great and making it more helpful to understand the concept of task significance.

Technical Remarks:

It's interested to learn the task significant has so many possitive effect on employees' performances. I think if a employee know there work can help people or customs, they will more appreciate their job, and work harder.  Thus, a positive task significant will motivated employees and improve the produtive of the company.

It was interesting to learn that invisible task significance can have an impact on employee motivation. This makes sense because people like to be acknowledged for their hard work and if they do not see that positive impact on customers, employees may feel like they are working for no purpose. I think it is a good idea for employers to stress the importance of task significance to their employees so they are motivated, as shown by Grant's study. Employees are more productive when they recognize the task significance and will be more willing to work and feel appreciated.

After listening to the interview of Task Significance, it definitely made a lot of sence on how a work force, should behave, to have interest in the company's success as well as individual growth in the company, and to have a motivational drive to make you want to do better. The people responsible for motivating theri employees are the manager's it's there job to do such, to up lift peoples spirits an not let it dwell and making the lack interest and end up making big mistakes that could lead to consequences.

The podcast provided good information on how managers can motivate their employees. Companies tend to use the scientific theory of management too frequently nowadays. For example, a loan officer at a bank may be pressured into closing a sale otherwise he/she may not get thier bonus or worse, be written up for not hitting their goals. The officer might see customers as a mere statistic and think nothing other than making the loan. If management were to use task significance, they can explain to the loan officer that without his/her help in securing a good rate, the people they help might not of had the chance of owning a home. They can also let their employees meet their customers after they purchased their homes to see how happy they are in fufilling thier American dream. This might make a loan officer's job seem more fufilling, rather than just being a salesperson.

Grant showed me really interesting way to motivate myself and other people. I would never think of it. I have always thought that a person must love the process of doing the job, or perhaps a result of the process, but it turns out that the basic appreciation from the consumer of the service would have as much effect. After the interview, I am putting myself into shoes of different professionals and thinking how the consumers would benefit - it really should work well.

Except of politicians, where the final consumers are going to hate them anyway:)

The only thing is, that I couldn't really connect this interview with the text as it is stated on Ilearn.

I think that task significance has a huge and psitive influence on jobs' performance. it remarkably helps the workers to work together and in a good condition to achieve their goal which is the satisfaction of the customers. Task significance is considered as a kind of motivation for the employees to well- serve all the stakeholders and the society where they live.

I found this podcast very interesting becuase the main reason why I chose to major in Hospitality and Tourism is because I love being able to make people smile. It makes me feel good knowing that I was able to give them "service so memoriable", which is my work's motto(Residence Inn by Marriott). It is true that not everyone will know how much they help benefit others and the impact they have on others. Some jobs don't have instant gratification or at least personal gratification.

I enjoyed the interview of Adam Grant pertaining to "Task Significance".  This was the first time I have heard about Task Significance, but after, listening to the interview with Adam Grant, I have a very clear idea of what task significance is and I think it is a very important concept to the work environment.  I can learn to apply task significance to everyday situations and it will definitely give me a whole new outlook in life.  I definitely believe that when we are doing something that benefits others and make them happier, we are ultimately feeling better about ourselves also.

Technical Remarks:

I found the podcast to be realitively easy to follow.  I enjoyed the topic and found it to be realitive to the course.  I had never given much thought to the whole idea.

Technical Remarks:

I think the subject is interesting, but self intutitive.  If it came from the angle of neurochemistry or changing paradigms in post modern philosophy... then this subject will have some 'meat' to it.

I think that task is very interesting. the work is really benefit for other people. Health workers, safety workers and educational workers all do great things for society. while working for the job, u are not only haining what u need but also help other people out

In organizational development I could see the usefulness of task significance. In many of my own jobs, the jobs in where I could see the task significance I would perform better. I didn't know what it was called or that it was really even happening. I had a construction job for a time and it was easy to go home knowing that I had accomplished something. It was easy to see in that job. It was physically right in front of me. Many other jobs I have had have task significance, but it was hard to see (Invisible) In a world in which business focuses on efficiency and the bottom line, the finding that task significance is important to actual job performance underscores the understanding of the human spirit.

I thought Grant was outstanding.  A very good communicator.  I can clearly see the difference in jobs I have had myself, where I was in direct contact with those who needed my services.  it was much more rewarding, and pulled on me to do a better job.  Its also due to the rekognition.

I truly enjoyed what Adam Grant ha dto say about task significance and I think not only does task significance create that feeling of accomplishment, but it also makes the worker more motovated to do their job better and at a consistent level.  I also believe it creates innovative ideas amongst employees. A perfect example of that was his example of Microsoft and how they created a user friendly system to see how well customers can navigate and of they had issues they knew where it was and how to fix it.  In business we often focus on the techinical side of things point a and point b and how to get there, yet we never really pay attention to the interior motives of employees or even customers. Unless, you work in customer service we neglect to see the humanistic side of business and I feel that it is really important to focus on that.  Adam Grant focused on a soemwhat emotional facet of business by asking are we happy or satisfied with the work we do? And if you are, why? And if your not, again why? I believe this is extremley vital in creating a successful business and if I ever in the position to affect change ( which I feel we almost always are) than I would love to put something into effect as Adam Grant has.

According to Adam Grant, task significance has a huge influence on productivity and motivation. I would agree that when anyone can see the result of their work and the positive effects it has, they are guaranteed to work harder. I've noticed that among the companies I worked for, some were very good at stressing task significance while others just focused on production, numbers, and sales goals. Almost every time the company that showed us how and who and what we were affecting by doing a good job was more successful. Whereas morale in the numbers focused environment always seemed to fail and usually their production wasn't as high. I like the concept of using stories to motivate like the "Volvo Saved My Life" testimonies. Connecting the workers with the receivers of their services seems like a genius idea to me.

Task Signifigance is very important for employee motivation. Having worked in remedial to management jobs, I have seen first hand the difference in employee performance due to task signifigance. Most people are goal orientated and when you show them the signifigance of their roles in the company, they usually are more deticated to their jobs. People like to rewarded for doing good work and are encouraged by rewards. An example is when companies award employees with promotions or just a change of title. A worker is going to perform better when given the title of shift leader or head sales. Some employee strive to be Employee of the Month because it gives them a sense of accomplishment.

This idea of Task Significance is brand new to me. I have never heard of, let alone given it any thought. I think that more and more managers should adopt this concept an incorporate it into their motivational techniques. When employees understand the impact of their work in a "real world" scenario they are more likely to care about their work more so than if they view their job as some menial task that, "just pays the bills". I think that exposing employees to customer testimonials would be a great way to create excitement about their work and provide more significance. When employees understand the impact that their job has on other individuals in the world, I would hope they would pay more attention to detail and do their job to the best of their ability.

I immensely enjoyed the interview of Adam Grant. Although this is the first time I have heard of 'task significance," his explanations made a lot of sense. This applies not only to our jobs but also to any type of activities we do on a day-to-day basis.

I believe having passion on what we do stems from having a feeling of 'purpose.' People may hate coming to work because they feel unappreciated or it feels more like an obligation because that's what they get paid to do. However, if people are reminded or showed that they are making a difference on somebody else's life, this would give them a sense of 'involvement' resulting on a whole different perspective. Our awareness of our contribution to the society raises the stake much higher therefore, we feel much more accomplished and motivated.

Regarding task significance, Adam Grant is very knowledgeable. I agree in that many people are not recognized for the work that they do. Often times, it goes overlooked for many reasons. When people are driven, they work harder and harder. People in high task significance work more and more motivated--they're more effective in their jobs. This is a great thing to keep in mind. While this is information that I think that anyone could concluded, I do think that it is great that there is actual research on this topic

Great podcast on Task Significance in the workplace! It puts into perspective not just how managers should effectively motivate their employees through task significance, but also how employees should find task significance in what they do. I agree with the author when he says people with high task significant jobs are motivated and find their work more meaningful.

I work at a private school as a HelpDesk IT guy and I do find task significance in what I do. I feel that helping teachers and students deal less with technical issues leads to a more effective teaching and learning environment. As a result, teachers are less distracted allowing smoother academic lessons, and students are less frustrated and more focused on the lesson at hand. Though I rarely get a thank you or feel appreciated for what I do since I've become "absorbed into the day-to-day routine of work", I know technical help makes an impact.

I also know someone that has been at Cisco for 5 years as a Computer Engineer and they say they hate their job with a passion. Though this person is well payed, has been promoted a number of times, and has had plenty of opportunities to learn and develop, this person is not motivated or enthusiastic about what they do in any way. This person feels that their job has no substance--meaning they feel no social or positive impact in what they do. Currently, that person is looking for a career that has greater pro-social values such as a teacher, herbalist, or a calligraphist.

Cheers,

Clarence M.

Technical Remarks:

From my understanding the purpose of task significance, is to make the employees feel their work is important. This is a good approach to motivating employees, it gives them an incentive to try their best. This is, i think, a better incentive than say commision. Employees motivated by commision tend to be more deceptive in their approach, but when the epmloyee believes in what he/she is doing then they wont go as far as deceiving people in order to do their job.

 I think that task signifigance is very interesting.  Doing work for the benefit of other people is a great way to work.  Health workers, safety workers and educational workers all do great things for society.  Fireman for example save lives and that is so important.  The problem for task signifigance workers is that they do not get to see the results of the work they have done.  For example scientists who work on vaccines that save lives never get to meet there patients.  What Adam West discovered is that workers who see the results of the work that they do have improved there performance.  For example engineers at Volvo who design safety features on cars, who have met people who have survived accidents because of these safety features become much more happy about the work they do which causes an improvement in their job perfomance.

Task significance, as the name implies, is what you do in your work life that benefits people as and the community as a whole. High task significance is correlated to job performence. The more you know you are benefiting others, the more you will want to produce a better product or do a certain task.  Adam mention the life guard example, where there were intervention by expirienced lifeguards and what they did to motive younger ones. Another example was Volvo engineers coming together with drivers in the "how Volvo saved my life" and discuss how they survived car crashes. If you really think about it, of course knowing your doing is befiting people, you will increase your work performance. If my cars are saving peoples lives, I will keep that up and make them even better.

But what about the other end of the spectrum? Take a big nice company like Nike. Sure, I think managers are happy to know that many people in the sport industry use their product because they are the best. Nike probably likes that kids are using their products to get into sports or just have a good time. But what about the kids in sweat shops in China? yes, I am talking about the ones that are making the shoes for the kids elsewhere. Where is the task significance there? I agree with the point adam brings to the table, but I think there is a certain level in the business world where people just plainly care more about the money they make rather than what benefits they are bringing to the world.

After listening the podcast, I learned how Adam describes task significance, and how if effects on their jobs. Basically, task significance is the opportunity to do work that has positive impact on well being of other people. One of the examples are authors, who write the book, but has no contact to their readers. Adam mentioned that task significance usually satisfied with their work, they are more experiences, and are motivated by their jobs. One example of how company applys task significance is Microsoft, the company wants its developers to work harder and applies task significance. I'm totally agree with what Adam said in the podcast, and learned a lot from him this week.

I thought Adam Grants ideas on task significance made a lot of sense. It can help companies improve certain products that aren't working out for the general public, for example, the Microsoft product he mentioned in the interview. Six users didn't know how to use the new product and later was successful when the creators met the users and talked about the product. I agree with what he said about the positive impact on employers as well as the people that benefits from their work. He talked about automotive engineers and their job to keep drivers safe; medical researchers and their findings to help patients; authors and writers who benefits the readers by writing interesting books. If companies and their employers take the time to meet the people who benefit from their product or services, it can help both sides. Employers will be successful as well as consumers benefiting from their products and services.

This was a very interesting and beneficial post. The understanding of specific task organization is an important one. Listening to Adam speak about this topic reminded me of many task that we all perform everyday and don’t realize how important they are to everyone. Example bus drivers have to keep constant concentration through out the day, one wrong move could be the start to a big problem. It is very important that management reminds employees of how important their jobs are. Management working together with employees to make sure they are focus on their job.

Task significance enhances corporate adaptability because it encourages and motivates positive changes to the wellbeing of the greater society, where corporate identity and intrinsic reward surpass material gain and corporate interest. This is an arena of job design that seeks to make social contribution that bring value directly to the people. In the process, it redesigned a corporate culture in a way that allow corporations to adapt to changing needs. Employees are self motivated to make social contribution and hold responsibilities that surpass those commanded by law and ethics because task significance helps to reinforce the idea of intrinsic reward in making postive changes than in the pursue of corporate interest alone. Through promoting awareness in societal needs and fact that corporations cannot be viewed as separate from society, task significance helps to attain adaptability by tailoring business processes to meet changing needs.

This podcast is very interesting. Professor Grant explained the"task significant" term very well.

I fully agree that employees who work in high significance jobs will be more motivated, satisfied, and excited with their job. For employees who do work in these highly significant jobs, I would find it hard for them to meet all these people who's lives they are influencing or saving. Volvo's idea with the "Volvo Saved My Life Club" is a very good idea for keeping their engineers motivated to keep pushing the envelope in new innovations. Most companies might not be able to afford such programs to keep their employees motivated so it is easy to see why so many people are not motivated with their current occupation. Managers are continuing to to find ways to reward and show employees how their work actually does affect lives hoping that these "success" stories will keep employees wanting to do more and more. Mostly this interview was telling us what we already know, you hear about stories on the television when someone almost died in a fire, and a few months later they get to meet their savior. These are great stories, but not all of the time are these saviors rewarded with getting to meet these people who's life they saved.

This would be a great material about task significance related to organizations today. I am sure employees who work in hign significance jobs will be more motivated, satisfied, and excited about their jobs. No one would like to keep working on his/her job without satisfactory.

I really enjoyed this video. I also have had an experience with a high task signifance job that challenged my attention. I believe the theory was spot on because I know from personal experience that this could have made a huge difference in my job performance. I am excited to use this theory for my own personal benefit in the future. I believe others will too.

Teaching the awareness and benefits of task signifigance for management in the workplace could prove to be very effective for employee motivation.  As a manager, the constant challenge to keep the average employee motivated to produce is always a top priority.  If the employees had a connection to how their work actually helps the recipients, this could improve morale and overall job satisfaction which would in turn improve productivity.  Mr. Grant has a very inspiring and useful concept.

This is a great study about task significance related to organizations today. I think it's very useful for management team to apply to their organization in order to motivate employees

I do believe that task significance is very important to one's job. Like myself, I definitely would like to be involve in an organization which not only focus in making profits but also focus on how they could make a difference to other people. The task significance wether it's visible or invisible to others helps motivate employees do their job well because they know and could see that it not only benefit them but also the people that they serve.

I had never hear the term task significance before so this podcast was more informative for me. After listening to it I feel that I understand the idea and I am able to relate it to several jobs that I have had. It makes complete sense to me that people loose motivation when they do not see the benefits that people receive from their work. I also like the suggestions that were made about showing employees people that receive the benefits but also having other employees share their own stories. I would recommend this post to anyone who feels unmotivated in their career but also anyone that is thinking about entering a management position.

This podcast on "Task Significance" is very interesting. I never knew the actual meaning behind it, until now. I find that it makes alot of sense to motivate employees and making a difference within a working enviroment will not only benefit the company itself; but it also contributes to satisfied employers. Ultimately, being a win-win situation for both company and employees.

I liked Adam Grant's story about his research about the relations between the manufacturer/producer and consumers of a product. It is very important to eliminate any kind of misunderstanding between users and producers by  using different techniques of interacting (Microsoft developers have watched regular users to understand what kind of difficulties these users would face using new softwear, for example). First, it will benefit end users as they wold get what is user-friendly and with a clear concept of practical use. Secondly, producers may be motivated when they see the result of their professional activities. Hence, eliminating gap in communication between producres and end-users would benefit both the staff of a company and their current and potential clients.

Its  quite interesting to see how he connected scholars to scholarship receipiants and how they could raise more money and recieve more replies. I think we should also have that kind of motivation for students in classes so that it can motivate students to be more creative and also face tough course curriculum. I think motivation makes a lot of change in various work places and school is one of the best places to teach students who can make a difference in tomorow world.

I was inspired by the interview with Prof. Adam Grant since I have never considered how the effect of task significance reflects upon one’s job satisfaction. I agree with Dr. Grant about the dramatic effect of task significance on job performance and satisfaction. I found his observation that every job has a task significance, but many jobs have an invisible task significance very interesting. I was also impressed with his solution to the problem. His research suggested that by revealing the invisible task significance to the employees their job satisfaction and productivity increased. From my personal experience I can speak to that overwhelming effect of task significance on job satisfaction. I have been under the influence of task significance throughout my career without realizing that impact. I started working as a mathematician at the beginning of my career. This job definitely has a lack of task significance since its beneficiaries are totally invisible: in this area of research one can only rarely observe and experience any positive effect on the well-being of others. Later on I moved to a teaching job which definitely has a higher degree of visible task significance but it is not comparable with the task significance of my new profession, nursing. So, subconsciencely I have been moving in my life from a profession with a very low task significance (mathematician) to one with a very high task significance (nursing), where I can enjoy directly the positive impact of my work on the people I am serving. Conclusively, it is hard to underestimate the importance of Dr. Grants’ research on demonstrating the hidden task significance to employees in respective professions and the corresponding increase in their job satisfaction, performance, and productivity.

Segment was well-produced, engaging, and informative. 

Interview with Adam Grant shed light on aspects of modivating employees by increasing awareness / connectedness to task significance.  Although there may be some Hawthorne effect (simply paying attention to employees may improve productivity), Grant makes a strong case for making sure employees connect with those who benefit from their work.

Making content like this available in podcast, so it can be digested while exercising or traveling, is great for busy students (especially those already working and going to school).

Task significance is not something I think of when I think of management. That is a problem, because when task significance not apparent to workers, the employees will not be as motivated. When managers make task significance highlight and show how the work employees do will benefit others, employees are highly motivated and excited about their jobs. Without task significance employees won't see how their work is paying off or the people that are benefiting, and a company would not be successful without encouraging managers to praise the worker's task significance.

This Podcast is very comprehensive and easy to follow. I did learn something new from the Podcast other than the materials from the textbook.  I never realized the importance of employee motivation and task significance.  It is true that it makes me feel more motivated if my job/task makes difference for the others.

The Q&A approach used in the Podcast makes it easier for users to remember the main points and ideas. However, I’d suggest creating some sort of outlines or transcripts for offline review purposes.

Technical Remarks:

I was completely unaware of what task significance was until listening to this podcast with Adam Grant. I am a Resident Assistant in the dorms at the university I attend. I now realize my job is high in task significance. After listening to this podcast, I took a look back on my past performance with the residents in my building and the events I put on, and realized that I had not put enough effort into it because over time, I had become bored with my job, due to lack of participation from residents. I am now taking a step back and going to put more effort into the events I hold for residents, because they do make a difference in their lives, and that by putting more effort in, the participation from residents will increase. Adam Grant's definition of task significance and his examples were great and have helped me grow as an employee.

This interview was very interesting because I find that it correlates to how I have felt about my past and present jobs. For example, I used to work as track marshal at an indoor go-kart track, at first it was exciting but it soon got tiresome. The job offered no mental stimulation; I waved a flag and made sure people put their seatbelts on correctly. A later job I had was as a welder, for me it was extremely stimulating. At the beginning of the day I would be given a specific task, anything from welding railings too fabricating motorcycle parts. How I would accomplish my tasks was up to me, so I was not only doing physical labor but also problem solving. I would often be so enveloped in my work I would forget to takes breaks and even when my boss would make me I couldn’t wait to get back and continue working. Everyday I would get to work as excited as one can be at work, and try my best with everything I built.

I agree that the job that has more task significance means it's more meaningful and the employees are more productive because it means that the job you have it's pretty important and may affect others a lot. Most employees are most likely to help others, and it does affect those people who are being help with.  

I've never knew what task significance really meant.  It is rarely mentioned, but after listening to him, it really taught me how motivation is really important to an employee.  At first when we start a job, we get all excited about it, but after awhile, you get bored and you lose the meaning in your work.  And if we can all get motivated like the way Adam Grant says, it is a way to put us back on track.  Most of us are never thanked for our work, and we feel unappreciaed, but even if one person said thank you, it would make our day that much better and we won't feel low and tired of working that extra few hours at work.

I think that in order for employees to perform their best that employers have to make sure the best is required. A lot of times in order for employees to give their best effort there has to be an incentive or a requirement. I think that if mediocre work is required than mediocre work is what the employer will receieve.

Technical Remarks:

I believe, task significance is important at a workplace. Having a really important task can make you feel, you are actually contributing to your work and not just another employee. I never realized how auto-workers don't realize how they make an importance in one's life. We probably do take them for granted because they work for us and without it, some of our cars might never be fixed. I think, task significance is a way for companies to keep their employees motivated.

Such a great podcast.  It can be related to all different fields. I never knew what task significance was or how important it is. I especially liked the correlation between task significance and motivation about the travel books.  I also liked the life guard examples.  It really shows the everyday jobs and how task significance relates to them.

After listening to Adam Grant, it made me realize how much of a strong correlation there is between motivation and performance. It was interesting to hear that motivation can be affected by external processes because I always thought it was only based on the individual alone. I think Adam's approaches to close the gaps between employees performance and the effect it has on the community is a great approach manager's can use in terms of their OD activities. For example, they can conduct survey-feedbacks on a regular basis in order to pinpoint where their employees' mindsets are at and what to do in response to that in order to improve performance.

In regards to the Adam Grant’s interview, I believe that Task Significance should be encouraged in any business. When employees loose their interest and drive to work for their company. Their quality is seen through their products or services. That can cause significant change in a company, either it be good or bad. When an employee is motivated and understands how valuable their job is. It causes an effect of importance. It demonstrates to the consumer or recipient of the good of service that there is someone out there that cares for their well being and best interest. It also demonstrates to the employee that they are someone important in a process of achieving a goal that will create a positive impact to society.

I found the content interesting and very believable. Someone within the workplace will become increasingly less motivated if they are not receiving the proper feedback. Included in the aforementioned proper feedback is not understanding the task significance of their job. Not understanding the positive impact a certain job is having on the general public will indeed dampen someone's opinion of their job and the work done within this job. On the other hand firefighters for example, constantly seeing that they are saving lives and keeping people from harms way is a constant reminder of task significance. These types of jobs lead to a more motivated work force who take pride in their work. Increasing task significance increasing overall satisfaction and overall happiness with an individuals job and therefore leads to more conscientious performance. A person who is conscientiously going about their day and performing to the best of their ability will bring great reward to themselves as well as their company.

I think Adam Grant has a great explanation on task significance and I can describe that it is an identifiable piece of work affects, or important to others internal or external in the organization. Also, an employee's knowledge of other people's dependence on the work they are doing is very important factor in the job satisfaction. Task significance is in the Human Resource, teams and training subject. Adam also talks about the dramatic effect of task significance on job performance. After I listen the interview from Adam Grant, it helps me a lot to understand how important test significance is. It is important because it teach me how to improve working performance and make it more efficiency. We also need to contribute internal and external in the organization to be successful on task significance.

The interview is very insightful. I agree with Adam Grant that lack of task significance will lower motivation over time as the case with the translators. Another great example is the fund raising callers that kept getting hanged up on from 90-99% of the time. His method to help they see how the callers work is actually helping was a great move. People are more motivated when they are able to see the end result or see the difference they are making.

Comments about the podcast about Task Significance by Adam Grant:

Adam Grant combines phylosophy and business management in his theory "Task Significance".

Some of you might know about the book, "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnergie. In his book, he talks about one of methods of making people like you is that you have to make them have the feeling of importance.

This method is now applied in business effectively. After sharing this podcast to my friends, some said that this theory helps managers exploit workers to do more without paying more.

Therefore, to my opinion, managers should combine salary incentives with recognition of task significance so as to increase workers' efficiency

Grade Podcast, even if you own your own business!!

The interview on task significance by Adam Grant was a great podcast. He brought up extremely important points when it comes employees making a difference with their work. He also brought up good points about the employer and motivating its employees. I have seen many times we're employees just do their job to do it and not really care about it or care to do it well. I do think it is an employees job to care about their job and do it to their best ability, but I also believe that when an employer gives initiatives it helps motivate the employee that much more. Employees are not always self interested and Adam's idea of showing the employee how they make a difference is something i think can really change a lot of employees work ethic.

I really think that people need to take more responsibility for their own choices and actions. We are slowly becoming a nation where we must cater to the unnecessary emotion "self-pity" (for lack of a better word) needs of others in the work place which takes away from time in which we could become more productive and make the business more successful. What I mean by this is, if you need more motivation to actually do your job which you AGREED to complete upon being hired (without actually researching completely) then maybe you shouldn't have applied for the job in the first place.

No one should have to make you feel like your job matters to make you successful at it, if you can't set your own goals and create your own motivations then don't apply for the job simple as that. It isnt anyone's job to be your parent and tell you what a good job you are doing 100% of the time in order for a person to be an adult and take responsibility. If self-esteem is the problem then perhaps there is another route a person can take OUTSIDDE of the work place. This may sound harsh but we live in the real world and it is my personal belief that we should act accordingly.

I think the whole task significance thing is common sense for all human beings. However, people are blind or dont want to see beyond their actions. I love the approaches that Adam Grant suggested employers to use to motivate their workers, because I think they could be very effective. Those methods will allow the worker to see beyond their actions and the work their perform. If everybody were to be aware of the bad or good results of their own action, people will have a better judgment when deciding how to do get the things done.

Technical Remarks:

This is a great episode of this podcast. After hearing about task significance, I realized that where I work can have high task significance, at AT&T. My coworkers and I joke about changing peoples lives on cell phone at a time. It's great food for thought on how you effect others lives.

I really enjoyed listening to the podcast.  I thought the idea of showing employees how they make a positive impact, in the lives of the people they help, very interesting.  However, I wonder how various health care professionals, especially a hospice nurse, feels after providing care for a dying patient.  Would Adam's concept of task significance work in every profession.  Also, I wonder how long the effect of task significance last among various professions.

The task significance concepts seems really simple, but very informative.  More studies should be done using task significance among other professions such as prison guards, funeral service providers, and service men and women.

Interesting, yet at the same time predictable. I think for the most part, and perhaps I am speaking on my own behalf, it is in human nature to feel compassion for others. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit it, but I don't really go out of my way on a daily basis seeking to help others... But, when I do so, I'm left with a satisfied feeling.

If my job impacted people positively (which it currently does not, unfortunately), I would definitely feel more motivated to work harder, perform better, etc...

This is a very interesting concept that needs to be studied more and developed to be able to implement it as a practical procedure routine in organizations. At my current job, bridge engineering, we try to keep ourselves motivated about the importance of our job since the state department doesn’t appreciate all the time and we don’t have direct contact with the users, commuters. I hope one day, top management in department of transportation finds out how important our job is and start encouraging us instead of giving pay cuts w/o attentions.

Ali Jenabzadeh

When I was in the Navy, I worked on a ship.  At first, it was exciting, and new.  Over time, it ended up becoming repetative and boring, and it felt like I was just going through the motions.  By the time I was ready to get out, I couldn't wait to get out.  Nothing could keep me in, I wanted out, and to get to college.  I was consistently passed over for awards that I knew I deserved and constantly given extra work as a reward for getting my work done.

Hearing this guy talk about these jobs and experiences, it makes it clear to me that people need to have that positive outlook as well as positive experiences within the job.  Maintaining a positive outlook is difficult, but needed to keep people in a job, paying attention, and actually enjoying what they do.  A task that is way too difficult when the "leadership" doesn't care about the people as much as they should, and doesn't try to find ways to motivate them.

This was a great podcast to listen to. I believe that task significance can be very motivating for all employees and everyone who is involved. Task siginficance jobs help others first, they all want to stay positive and motivate each employee, no matter what position one holds. There are a lot of jobs that lack "task significance!" Seems that some employees or companies, like to make money, but are not even motivated to make their customers happy. It's about the sales not customer satisfaction. I dont understand how people can be satisfied with just a sale, instead one should be more happier about serving a consumer. People will work harder and become more positive if Task Significance is more present in the workplace.

I think that this is a great podcast! It is such a unthought of idea to actually enjoy the work that you are doing. Alot of people now just get jobs to have jobs and make money but it would be so much better if people enjoyed their work! I had never thought that some people working within jobs that make a difference but never see the people who are getting the benefits. If these workers were able to met a few people who had benefitted from the products that they make then their jobs would continue to hold a high positive impact on the workers individual lives.

When work is meaningful then it makes the workers preform more highly and it also keeps the employees more motivated to work! I now will try to apply these principles into whatever career that I choose to work within.

I agree with what was said about how managers need to try to motivate the employees to work more and also these managers should show how their jobs benefit other people!

Task Significance: Interview with Adam Grant Adam Grant had a great point in explaining about task significance. We as students, employees or both must make more of a effort to understand the benefits of what we do daily that can motivate our reason to be there. We can be in school studying to become a nurse or mechanic, or as employee working as a server in a fast food place. If we understand what we do there or in a way helping people it tends to make the person involve work harder. I have worked in the bio-tech industry for 8 years, and also a part time student. In the beginning I saw my job as nothing more then a paycheck. As I move up at my in my position and started to understand my job more, the motivation in enjoying my work with up. Knowing that the clinical trials I worked on can help people that are sick made me understand the important of what I do.

Technical Remarks:

I could not agree more that knowing your "Task Significance" is directly linked to your motivation in the workplace.  I was not "saving lives" or "diving into the deep end" but I was creating all the wireframe graphics for New Features Guide that shipped with every single release of 3D Studio Max 7.  While working on this project with Autodesk Inc. I soon became tired and unmotivated while creating these wireframe models that helped illustrate the new features of our software package.  Every model was very similar and I only worked on my little pieces and never got to see the big picture.  It was not until I had the opportunity to see the page proofs in their entirety which beautifully integrated all of my graphics with text, images, and image captions that I became 150% re-inspired to crank out the best possible work and keep it fun!  I also had no idea at first that MILLIONS of these booklets were going to be printed!  To this day I still think they were hiding the importance and scale of this project from me simply because I was still an intern working away for little to no money in comparison to the amount of revenue these software packages (Priced at $3,000++) will bring into the company.

If I were running the show I would have these interns coming right into the print shops, looking at previous New Feature Guides and right on the front line of the entire effort towards the new release leaving them wide-eyed and ready to dive in and contribute to the success of their team and company as a whole.

Now that I run my own design firm and production company I REALLY know how significant my work was on that project.  My company would charge 10's of thousands of dollars to work on a print project of that scale.

Cool and relievent pod cast,

Thanks

Listening to the podcast interview of Adam Grant opened my eyes to a different point of view. I do believe employees start losing interest in what they do when they don't directly see the benefits. For example, I work at Starbucks and at times i feel i keep doing the same tasks repeatedly. Until customers tell me that they might be having a horrible day, but it all changes when they come into Starbucks. When i hear that kind of feedback i definitely strive to keep on doing the best i can do. If other employments could show employees the difference they make I'm sure they would perform better and be motivated to stay.

I agree with the gentelman that did this study. My friends are unenthused about their work and careers; and, it is because the don't beleive their work makes a difference or helps anybody out. If employers emphaised to workers that their jobs help people out, performance would be efficient and done well.

Well after listening the interview with Adam Grant, I would like to say that I agree with him because the theory of task significance is very useful in the business field.  This is something that happens with many employees that will have motivations to help each others.  Most of the employees are willing to help people that need their help.  I believe that if everyone is willing to cooperate in a company this theory will be a great success in the working environment and the company will improve and expand much faster.

I really enjoyed the Task Significance segment of this podcast. Motivating workers through showing them that their work has value and merit seems like a logical step in the move away from seeing workers as solely self-interested. I don't think the concept is very new (we already knew for example, that charity work and giving donations leaves people with a higher sense of self worth) but the interventions were brilliant.

This is all about taking it upon yourself to make a difference through your work. It also touches of the fact that you can burn yourself out and lose sight of why you have chosen your work. It's all about motivation and self-drive to continue to your work.

I like this podcast a lot. I learned a lot from it. I think it is a good idea to connect the users with the helpers because I think it can make a difference. Motivation is key to working hard and to stay motivated in a job is hard. At first when enter into a new environment at work, you're excited but once the work becomes routine and all you're hearing is negative feedback, the worker will loose focus and sight to what they're really there for. People find joy when they know they've helped someone; it will keep them motivated to help other more in the long run. However, if they feel that their works make no difference, they will treat it as another task that they have to get done.

Definitely it is a good idea to match the two.

I really liked the fact about the lifeguards example.  They started feeling that their job didn't have important meaning and it was just the same thing day in and day out.  The stories really help to restore their values of why they became a lifeguard in the first place.  It was a moral booster for all the lifeguards that felt that their job has become stagnate.  Again the vovol example with people giving examples of how their car and their worked saved lives.  Giving employees a purpose.

I really like this podcast on task significance. The material was interesting and very easy to understand. I would reccomend this website to other students who have the management course or in management major.

From listening to the podcast, it reaffirms why I think if you give someone meaningful work and also give them a challenge to stimulate their minds as well as keep them happy via benefits at work and provide them management that is there to insure order but not intimidate you will give them a good reason to stay in your firm.

It was interesting how Adam Grant mentions showing lifeguards examples of other lifeguards who've saved lives in order to motivate them.  I feel at times my work is meaningless. Listening to this podcast on Task Significance really struck a cord with me because I thought of my own motivations at work.  It made me realize what I produce actually affects internal staff as well as the community. 

Task significance is incredibly important for employee morale, motivation, and productivity. Believing in what you're doing, that it's meaningful, and that it makes a difference in other people's lives. It reduces employee churn, increases performance, and increases their self worth.

I found out this was one of the good interview for this remind of those who are new for the workforce which is what we do in our new jobs that isn’t foe our day to day struggle to get paid, but for that we effect those around us and for the work that we can do as well. But just it gave me a good insight to what expect in the real world and how each employees’ job isn’t to be benefit themselves as just help those around them to reach their goals as well. Also I find that this can podcast very enlightening because it just recognizes the general need for everybody to have an impact on other people’s lives through their work.

I found it interesting that there is invisible task significace in that car makers don't get to see the drivers of the cars they made. Task Significance is very important because it affects work for other people. This podcast is very informative for the workplace.

I thought it was very interesting that he pointed out that task significance is important in employee satisfaction and morale.

Technical Remarks:

I found this podcast interview very interesting.  I agree that providing gratification in a job will directly effect the productivity and success in the workplace.

It is very important for people to know that the job they are doing makes a difference.

the explanation is very useful. i can understand that how important motivation is to job performace. having a positive impact on the the onther is on of the motivation. people will feel happy if they think they have done something meaningful and help the others.

The audio podcast by Mike Johnson interviewing Adam Grant was pretty interesting and informative! I really agree with the point that hiring the people who enjoy the job is important.

I thought that the task significant podcast audio was great. You get a new view on how work can motivate their employees to do more work. Listening is the key in any environment in order to get great results. People like to be listened to see what can be improved within the work environment. The friendly work environment can help create a better work place for the employer and the employee.

Great explanation of how people understand that their work impact others. Task significant motivates companies and employees to do thier work and see that how thier work could benefit others. It makes people more interest in thier job and work harder.

I think "Task Significance" is a useful concept for the managements to imporve their employees' job performances. As Adam said, if a automobile engineer never meet their drivers and passengers, they don't know how the drivers and passengers feel about their work, and they don't know how to improve their work.

"Task Significance" can hlep the managements better understand the needs of their employees and the customers so that they can better deal with other groups' relationships.

After listening to the "Task Significance" podcast, I think the point is really good. In order to motivate eployees and increase their productivity, managers should let the works know how important the "task significance" is. Generally, task significance mean's one's job has a positive effect on one person to the others.This audio teaches me a lot. I know that task significance really plays an important role in people's job. Task significance and social responsibility enable people to have better environment to work.

I enjoyed this explanation of task significance and how it should be implemented within businesses.  It is more meaningful to employees when they are aware of who is benefiting from their day-to-day tasks while at work.  Especially among those occupations with high task significance.

Adam Grant clearly and effectively explains the definition of Task Significance. There were suggestion on how to intervene in order to improve Task Significance in the workplace.

"Task Significance: Interview with Adam Grant" After I listened this interview, I summarized the definition of “Task Significance”, which means one's job has a positive impact on the well being of other people. Adam found that increasing task significance dramatically improved employee job performance. Task significance involves how important the task is to others in the work team, which is important in showing employees how the work they do fits in with that done in the rest of the organization.

Grant's interview was both touching and significant in my personal opinion. His interview spoke volumes to any of us who have ever had a dead end job. He says that no one has ever done a study on task significance versus task monotony of workers in a call center.

Many of us have had dead end jobs, like the example in the call center where we may have not seen the significance, however those call center employees were more significant to the university than perhaps the lifeguard at the university pool, although the public perception of those two jobs is entirely opposite.

Grant also states that work performance would increase if the employees actually saw their work as significant and would take a pride in their job rather than just see their job as a way to pay bills. Employers that can give this knowledge to their employees stand to be better off than those employers that cannot.

Grant's discussion about Task Significance reminded me of our readings about social responsibility. In addition to providing benefits to you personally, the externalities associated with performing whatever task you do can benefit those around you within and outside of the organization. Well delivered.

This was a good interview to remind those who are new to the workforce that what we do in our new jobs isn't just for our day to day struggle to get paid, but that we effect those around us and the work we do does as well. It gave me a good insight to what to expect in the "real world" and how each employees job is not to benefit themselves but help those around them reach their goals as well.

On the podcast interview "Task Significance" Adam Grant mentions "having an opportunity to have a good impact on others".  Grant emphasizes that anytime employers are helping others, it is high in task significance.  People in high task significance jobs are more aggressive, motivated, and sactisfied at work.

Today's businesses are competitive, motivation is key for talent retention and performance.  Organization should build high task significance to share experiences that influence others and management should open door for the employees to raise or exchange their voices when they make the changes.  Especially, people in high significance jobs are likely to listen to their customers to meet their needs.  Working together as teams, improving service and quality of products are necessary for forming strong finance and good reputation in business.

I think this podcast is great , i learn a lot from that.Mark  Adam did a very good job , it is important that we can learn more about financial decisions and stuffs that we don't know if we are not looking on this web site.

Task Significant is a new concept to me. I am working in a bank as a middle management. As the bank keep on laying off the workers, we are all in bad morale. Everyone seems not knowing why we have to work that hard everyday. By applying Task Significant, I am now having a new revelation, i.e., I have to help as many associates as possible to stay in their positions. Also, before I lose my job, I need to take care all my customers to make sure they will stay afloat before another officer takes over my role one day.

I think that this interview really gave me a great idea about work experience and what to look for when going into the business world. Also, I think this podcast helped me understand the responsibility of employees and how their jobs helped them and benefit others.

In this video. Adam talks about Task significant is doing somethingwhich benefit other people. Motivation and task significant have relevant with each other. Motivation plays an important role in the workplace. Task significant are determined whether employee can be motivated to do job better.

The Podcast on Task Significance with Adam Grant was extremely interesting. He defined task significance as any job that has a positive impact on other people and mentioned that many jobs do but that the people performing them rarely have the opportunity to see the positive effects they have had. For example he listed journalists who write articles but who never see the positive effects it has on the readers, or those who manufacture and develop pharmaceuticals that save people's live but who never get to meet the patients they have effected.

He alluded that if opportunities are provided for employees to see the effects they have on others that it will provide motivation to work harder, longer and generally promote greater happiness and personal fulfillment for employees. I agree, though many of us may say we like to be selfless and do not need to see the positive results of our hard work to be honest it doesn't hurt. When someone can put a face to a person's life they change it will motivate them to continue to do good. Adam Grant's research was very interesting, conclusive and highly valuable.

The podcast "Task Significance, interview with AdamGrant" is interested for me. Also, I agree with his opinion. In the company, highest postion has most power and responsbility. Manager's strong sense of responsibility and self motivation can affect their employees during the working time. Employees and the mamager are both interrelated and interact on each other. The motivation for the decision is the desire to improve the serivce to the customers. Values are most sustainable and owerful motivation.Those examples are clearly analysis the employee's working quality to help the manager to adapt his work. I think the mutable motivation brings adaptablity that can help the company become more successful in their field.

Adam Grant does an excellent job explaining task significance.  For my graduate project, I would like to develop a program to benefit the elderly in a varity of ways.  This will, hopefully, have a positive impact on many disadvanted seniors.  To establish this ground floor business, employees will need to understand their contributions to the benefit of others (task significance) and their very unique roles in this effort.  Mr. Grant indicates that motivation (especially for less conscientous employees) can be enhanced in my project by: a)making certain all individuals connect with the elderly they are benefiting; b)finding/sharing stories with these seniors and c)creating forums to share their own stories through open conversations and providing reinforcement for this sharing.  Task significance will be included in the planning stage of this project!

The podcast on task significance was great i liked how adam talked about giving employees incentives and giving them a feeling that they are helping someone. With that he beielves that most employees will be more efficient hand happy at work.

The Task Significance podcast with Adam Grant brought good light on how managers should give there employees proper feedback from their jobs. It is very important to show that customers can be very appreciative towards all the little things that come with a product. The Volvo example was a great way to show why they are on top with safety precautions for the vehicles. This podcast also made me think about all my previous jobs and how I carried my behavior durring different occupations. This was a very well studied matter by Adam Grant.

I really enjoyed the Podcast regarding "Task Significance" by Mark Adam.  It makes a lot of sense that in order to have motivated employees we need to show how their work makes a difference in society.  People need to know how their work benefits others.  The examples used to show how task significance has made a dramatic difference in increasing motivation among employees were extremely relevant. 

Motivation is a key factor in the work place. People who work under a superior and see zero fruits of their labor tend to have little motivation to preform above and beyond. microsoft's surveys showed that 6 out of 10 users didn't find OS useable. The useability test lab allowed microsoft developers to first hand see what needed to be improved, why and for who. This direct motivation gave them the innitiative to make the OS more people friendly. this is task significance.

Great podcast! I think when each employees will be motivated each organization will be benefited from that. I work in IT industry where most of the assignments are done remotely and when I feel any sort of feedback from end users, it gives me a feeling that my work is appreciated by somebody, which adds motivation to do my job even better.

Task Significance, even though it is new term, the concept behind it is not. As long as I could remember my parents used to motivate my brothers and I to being good people. They used stories to get the point across. Example, like the boy that cried wolf, hearing that story as kids it motivated us to lie. But it is new touch using it in the business field. Is more like Personal business, because in order for task significance to work. A worker has to be personally motivated.

I find this podcast very enlightening because it recognizes the general need for everybody to have an impact on other peoples lives through their work. I have found this to be very true in the jobs that I have worked and it also makes me consider some jobs that need a lot more feedback of their task significance. I have found some teachers and professors to be very disconnected with a large amount of their students and if they did listen to the feedback of these studnets I believe that they would be inspired to become better teachers.

Recently during a workshop that I put on for accounting students I had realized my task significance when a man came up to me and told me, because my accounting workshop was so well put together, refreshing, and interactive I had inspired him to start attending our tutoring. This gave me an amazing feeling and really makes me want to better myself as a tutor so that I may make more changes of this nature to my pupils.

I can relate to the podcast "Task Significance: Interview with Adam Grant" because I work at a high tech company that thrives on customer feedback to implement the next generation of processors.  I believe that feedback motivates the engineers and the company as a whole to always excel and produce a quality product for our consumers.

It also translates to the individual worker.  I once told my manager that I did not see my contribution to the organization because I did not see the feedback I was used to getting.  My previous manager and peers saw that my knowledge and expertise was valuable, but I didn't feel this manager or peers was getting that.  He assured me that I was, but it made me unmotivated to do more and I became stagnant and disconnected.

One of things the company tries to do is rate your work, manager, org through surveys on a quarterly basis to see your satisfaction level.  What I found out was that I was not alone in my dissatisfaction and they started to give rewards from managers and  also your peers. Every department has different customers some may be external but they can also be internal.  You could get rewards outside of your org if you help someone in a different org or worked on a project together.  It raised moral, but there was still a certain group of people that were being recognized over and over just based on monetary value.  There were people who were doing process work that reduced hours or eliminated the task altogether that were not being recognized by their managers that eventually changed.

I do agree as Adam Grant stated that some of us are conscientious and have personal values, but the ones who really do well are the ones where the personal values dominate because those are the ones who love what they do at any pay and will go the extra mile.  They thrive on knowing that their small contribution helped to make a difference in another person being able to affect someone else's life or help to make a company successful in meeting their goal or mission.

My company is also big on charity and volunteerism.  We as individuals and the company as a whole have donated thousands of man hours during the year and millions of dollars to crisis and charitable organizations.  To get personal thank you's from the company and the charitable organizations that what you contributed made a difference in the lives of children, families and the environment makes you want to do it over and over again.  Self-satisfaction is powerful and a great motivator.

Technical Remarks:

I absolutely agree with what Adam Grant has to say about Task Significance. When an employee of a company can see how his/her work is impacting other people thereby realizing the benefits they receive from it, it undoubtedly bolsters performance. It comes as a huge form of motivation as well when you see how your day to day work effects another person because you understand that you are doing your job right. Understanding one's task significance makes the employee realize his/her role in the company or organization. It acts as an agent to help the employee associate with the company better and it also ensures that they would want to work harder to have a positive impact on more people.

i totally agree on this, i work in a field where i get to help people make their financial decisions, and i feel like i have an important say in their future. At the end of the day i get to meet people face to face and build trust so they come to me when they want a professional insight.

I agree with Adam Grant when he says task significance is much more important in relation to customer service jobs. I feel this way because I am in a customer service oriented job; I work at Bank of America as a Sales & Service Specialist. When helping my customer resolve a problem, I do feel a sense of fulfillment, just as Grant referred too.

Adam Grant "Task Significance" - having an opportunity to do work that has a positive impact on the well being of other people (social contribution) I found Adam Grant's Task Significance, a interesting podcast to listen to. When considering the issue of work & the workplace, I agree that employees initially are productive & excited about their new job but through time, with the day-in & day-out of doing monotimous work, there is a lose of motivation, no matter how "task significant" their job is. Through Grant's research with 1) Fundraiser Callers, every dollar rasied puts a person through college, scholarship students; 99% of calls get declined; quit every 2 months; by meeting 1-2 scholarship recipients, T.S. increased. 2) Life guards- read 4 articles about lifeguards saving lives; just by meeting 3-4 articles, T.S. increased. Grant was able to discover that T.S., actually increases job performance. Once an employee sees & understands their works level of T.S., they become more motivated, productive, and satisfied.

This interview made me realize my previous job's task significance which I took for granted.  If only I realized how important my job was I probably would have offered to work longer hours.  This approach to management seems to be very effective in getting yourself or anyone motivated.

I believe that task significance is not only important for the workforce but in all parts of life. As a student, I try to perform my best not to solely land a great career but to also be a role-model to my younger siblings and a shining light for my family. In all, the podcast was very informative and touched areas that most employers and employees brush off as insignificant to business prosperity.

The podcast "Task Significance" by Mark Adam was interesting for me.

In the last part of his speech, he explains how the strategy work differently by person and he tells us how companies should do. I really like his second choice that we can share one story.

The podcast reminded me of an incident that I had while working at Fedex.  A customer came into the service center late one evening, needing to send a college application overnight.  Apparently, the deadline was the following day.  Several months later, that same customer came into the center again.  He thanked us for getting his application to the college on time.  As a result, I was able to exprience task significance first hand. 

The podcast of "Task Significance" by Adam Grant states that increasing task significance actually improves job performance.  His three sugestions for managers to increase task significance include: introducing employees to people who benefit from their work, encouraging employees and customers to share stories, and creating forms for employees to share their own stories.  Employees would love to see that people benefit from their work, thus, they have motivation to perform better jobs.

It is interseting and useful. I agree with Mark Adam.Task Signigicance is very important for today's work place It can imporve peopel's job performance.It makes jobs more interesting to people and poeple will enjoy more about their jobs.

This pod cast brought about really interesting ideas. In business job setting the overall purpos can sometimes be forgotten especially because business is very much known for being a perasonal profittable profession. When the profit starts to come in slower and slower and less and less its important to remember why exactly your doing what your doing. In the example with the call center; after seeing that what they do day in and day out really does make a difference to some one else other then their pay checks, they work harder and in turn their sales increases and so does their pay.

I've had a lot of jobs over the years, and looking back I can see a very big difference in both my attitude and work ethic when I worked at a place which gave me low task significance. I feel like work ethic and motivation are directly related to how we see our jobs and our roles in a company. Positive reinforcement is always a great motivator, but for employers who can't always reward an employee there is task significance. Its always nice to know that the effort we put into a job is not for nothing. While many employees may start a job with high levels of motivation and a good work ethic, sometimes they can start to stray from where they first began. Becoming disconnected and losing sight of your goal is often what can lead to a slump, having constant reminders of why we so what we do is a great way to continue to reinforce our values and beliefs.

I absolutely believe that task significance is a vital tool that more companies and employers need to take advantage of. People can often lose sight of their purpose at work when they start to forget about the impact they have on other people. Everyone wants to feel important and like they are making a difference, so it is a great motivator and reminder of why we chose that job in the first place. Firefighters for example are always in direct contact with those they are helping and are given the strength and bravery to continue to risk their lives to save others. Task significance can give an employee what they need to do anything from work harder to risking their lives on the job.

The interview on Task Significance by Adam Grant is really good to know. Adam pointed great example about positive reinforcement to helps employees, and to see the work they do helps the company overall. Adam Grant also shown the sense of accomplishment and aligning it with the company to plan more often than not will help tremendously in the long run.

This is a very helpful imformation and example to me. After listen "Interview with Adam Grant" I felt it is very important to share imformation with people related to your work. Two examples talked about in the audio are life gard and Travel company. From the example Adam is really get important imformations and life examples to help him and his cowork to improve their job qualiteis.

"Task Significance" ßy Adam Grants....

I personally love these kinda of motivational information.  Task Significance can be related and connect to many events in others lives. Even if people do not meet who their helping, I'm sure the people getting helped appreciate the helper. Also, if someone wanted to gather stories to share, there is no need to go on a specific forum to find them. You can get positive and thrilling stories from anyone. People in general will always have some kind of interesting story to tell about themselves or about somebody they know. Just learn to ask =P

Technical Remarks:

The podcast "Task Significance" is intrestng and useful for me. It tells us how task dignificance works for people in the work. Through the task significance, co-workers can benefits each other; this aspect reminds me about team-work. Though this podcast may not talk about team-work, it tells me that we can benefit from the task significance because of the improvement on team-work. In a word, task significance is very important and useful.

"Task Significance:Interview with Adam Grant" After i listened this interview,the difinition of task significance leave me an impression. He said that when people do a job that could give sombady profit, we could say that its task significance.Before i listened this interview, i think that the task signfinicance only means that the work is important for your job. Just like  you tried to product a stuff, if your job could increase the quality of your stuff, it is task signficance. Compared with Ada Grant's opinion, this opinion is only cared about the stuff, but the Ada Grant's opinion care more about people,in other words its people oriented.

The podcast on Task significance was very informative not only to business managers but also to other people that are not planning to focus on this career. He gives many examples on how task significance is important in the work place, and he also explains how managers only focus on the benefits of their employees but not the benefits the employees give to others.

Technical Remarks:

I really enjoyed the podcast on task significance. It gives a valuable understanding on how to make everyone involved with the company a lot more satisfied with their role. Not only will the workers be happy and productive, this will result in an overall satisfaction with the customers or target audience. It is easy to just throw money and benefits, but the feeling of a greater good is often over looked and should be focused on much more because there are a lot of people who do certain jobs for the money but aren't happy. The way the view was presented, it seems this would be much more beneficial than other incentives.

After I listened the task significance podcast, I found it is very interesting and useful. Adam found that increasing task significance dramatically improved employee job performance. His research focus on job design, work motivation, and employee satisfy with their jobs and so on. The job design is the most important factor in an organization because it attracts many employees come to work. They will be motivated when they did the great contribution to the company. I totally agree with Adam Grant that task significance really play an important rule in a company.

"Task significance: Interview With Adam Grant" leaves important messages for every person who works under workforce. Basically, he mentions about how the task significance has positively affect and educate different people whom motivate themselves in order to improve their performance or contribute their efforts in helping others or coworker etc. On the one hand, as an employer, if he/she thinks his/her job not only benefits by getting paycheck, but also benefits to other people by doing his/her responsibly, he/she will work hard and feel happy to do the job. On the other hand, task significance is look like a mirror that reflects employees' valuable contribution which encouraged them doing better from their routine jobs and give them confidence and respectability. Task significance is one of an important construction in management plan.

Technical Remarks:

From what I got out of listineng to the podcast the importance of Task significance is that it gives people motivation and the zeal of their work, according to Adam Grant's study, "when employees are more aware of their task significance their performance increases." However, his interventions are highly effective on subjects with "presidential values and conscientious." I think task significance is highly affective in almost any occupation and situation because it gives you a meaning to what you do and you become more passionate about your work instead of working only to pay the bills or because you have to.

It was interesting to hear about motivation quantitatively.  My previous manager used these sorts of techniques to bring the group to life in trying times.  It is easy to lose sight of the objectives we set for ourselves but sometimes a reminder is all we need.

I felt that the podcast was very interesting. They could of went into more detail. However, I would suggest others to follow through their work and make sure that it is very significant. Overall, very interest but I won't listen to again. I felt that it dragged on too long.

I think Task Significance is a very useful theory to motivate people to improve their job performences. If we can directly meet with people who are benefit from our jobs, or we can hear or see some inspiring stories that happens because of our efforts, the working efficiency will be highly increased.

Truely, people tend to do the jobs that is self-interested and want to make biggest beneifts for themselves such as get more pay, promote to higher position and work less hours. However, human beings are also socialized. We require the feeling of self-satisfaction, and a feeling of being needed and demanded. If someday, some one stand in front of me and tell me that his/her life is changed because of my work, I will be proud of myself.

Task signficance only affects certain jobs. It can only motivate certain types of people. This is why management have different managing theories for different types of jobs. The podcast is also a bit repetitive and very slow moving. The meat of the podcast could be summed up rather easily. Into a few simple points: many jobs can be improved with task signficance, task signficance can improve jobs because it motivates employees to work harder therefore turning higher earnings.

The podcast is interesting. I totally agree with Adam Grant which he mentions that task significance can motivate empolyees to work better. It is a good management method that manager can use to affect their empolyees. It gives workers a sense that they are helping people by working hardworks in a psychology way . It is a good idea that makes them to meet people they have helped. It will encourage their confidence and give them motivation to work better and more productive.

Task significance is very interesting because it gives positive impacts on employee because it brings effective motivation and its impact on their performance. Also, it is important to know which people care about others and task significance motivate people to exercise any work with a positive action.

I thought the video was great, it was informative and easy to understand. I agree with what Adam has to say about Task Significance. It motivates workers to perform better on their job. Managers and employees should be more alert on having a high task significance during work because they will enjoy work more and feel satisifed helping others with their products. Therefore, task significance have a positive impact on people which is why it is highly recommended.

The podcast on Task Significance lays out some very important details that I believe can help the management team of any department or corporation better motivate their workers.  I agree that doing anything is much more rewarding when you know exactly how it is helping people.  Feedback is a very important part of communication; when you pour all of your effort into what seems to be a blackhole and get no feedback on how your work is helping others, it becomes harder to motivate yourself to excel in your job.

Seeing how one's work directly affects others makes everything more real and tangible--it allows the worker to appreciate the job and their own effort, and makes everything more worthwhile.

Adam Grant shows a very wonderful point of view which is helpful to improve the job performance. Undoubtfully, employers care about whether their efforts make a difference or not. Actually, most of them have no idea about how the products or services are after they have designed them.

Appropriate motivation make benefit for employers but it is not as useful as own positive action. People need to know that their work is dramaticly effective and valuable. No one will do anything unmeaningful. It is essential to enable the channel in which employers could well comunicate with customers and get timely feedback. This is so important for a employer to enhance his/her satisfaction and stimulate the his/her motivation keep good job and make positive reformation.

Technical Remarks:

I think task significance affects workers' motivation a lot. As Adam said the most important thing for management is to share the information with workers even in other department to build up the relationship. That's how managers can motivate the workers. I also like his life guard case. Life guard is a job to oversee the safety of customers, not to rescue from the emergency. So, I think management skill is also important to support the workers daily activity instead of coping with urgent problem.

The Adam Grant interview makes a lot of sense. People will take more pride in their jobs if they can actually see that it makes a difference. I think this touches on people's need to feel important and fulfilled. I also like the way that Adam researched many ways that companies use task significance to increase productivity. His evidence proves his point that people will work harder when they can actaully see the way thier efforts make a difference.

I really enjoyed listening to this podcast. Task significance is really about the employee listening to and working with the people that are using their product. It seems like the employees who do use high task significance tend to enjoy their job even more because they can see how their job is helping the people who are using their product.

Task significance gives the employee the opportunity to become involved with the product and establish a particular relationship with the user.  Motivating employees can often be tough but if you apply the concept of recognizing  their progress and seeing how their work impacts othe people by benefiting the consumer employees began to enjoy their work and stay highly motivated.

Technical Remarks:

I enjoyed listening to this interview with Adam Grant because it shows how important task significance is. I found that having high task significance is something that managers need to be awared of because it will have an effect on both the employees and others. I like the idea of having high task significance because that would bring many positive feelings to both the employees and others. Employees will find their jobs more satisifying and meaningful, which are great gifts in return of their hard work and contributions. I personally believe that employees will be much more happier with their work, when they know that their work do make a difference in bringing positive impacts to others.

Task significance is a simple but important concept. The more the employee is aware of the impact their work has on an individual or organization, the more motivated they are to work.

Adam Grant, in this interview, explains his research on task significance and it's impact on an organization.

For example, jobs with higher task significance have a lower turnover rate than those with low task signifance.

Task significance is definitely an important role in motivating workers to perform better. I've had a chance to work with a nonprofit organization back home that accepted donations for less fortunate children. I saw that by meeting with the children that they’ve helped, the volunteers became more motivated to spend more time and effort into promoting their causes.

"Task Significance: An Interview with Adam Grant"

Task significance benefits and gives positive impact to other people. Jobs that make others feel happier from helping coworkers to guests. Even though these employees don’t directly interact with their guests, they are still impacting their customers greatly. I agree that it’s important for the employees to be highly motivated and be more productive to do their jobs. Higher task significance brings happier employees so that they can see that their work have high impacts.

Highly enjoyed this podcast!

While task significance is something that would be easy to measure in professions such as firefighters or Doctors, who immediatly see the effect of their efforts, it is easy to understand how, as Adam points out, employees who do not get to see proof of how their work benefits end users would lose sight of the importance of their work. The idea of implementing a sort of reward system that would in some form introduce the employees to the end user who benefits from their works is a great one, and one that would surely help stimulate productivity in people who were otherwise losing sight of its significance.

I think that task significance is extremely important. I think seeing and hearing how your work makes a difference in peoples lives can be very rewarding. Also like Adam Grant said about the cold callers who constantly get hung up on and yelled at, if you job doesn’t seem to make an impact, it can be very disheartening. Even though ones work might not change the world, it is still important. I believe that it is manager’s jobs to keep their employees motivated by showing them the overall picture.

Technical Remarks:

The research conducted by Adam Grant's makes me realize something that I never thought of before and I agree with what this research indicates. The research is about dramatic effect of task significance on job performance which is very interesting. He talks about motivation of employees would be promoted when they have a chance to get known about how their work makes a difference in people’ life and how many benefits they offer people. The opportunity makes employees feel that they not only just do a piece of work, but also make a contribution to people

Task significance is the degree to which a job has a substantial impact on the employees or the work environment. It reveals that satisfaction ratings of the employees’ engagement are determined by perceived benefits and identification. Making a significant contribution to an organization may foster a sense of purpose and meaning. Greater perceived meaningfulness of work will be found to be associated with greater task significance.

The podcast for Task significance was interesting to listen to. I love the idea of working of for the better of others. Helping others as you work. That was truly inspiring to listen to, and it makes you think about your working environment and behaviors. The concept is great and was explained well in the interview.

Technical Remarks:

This comment is for "Task Singificance: An Interview with Adam Grant".

This was an interesting yet simple concept that was described.  Having worked in a marketing organization, it was interesting to see that many of the tasks we were asked to perform may not have been entirely customer focused per se.  The customer interviews may actually have been at least dual-purposed: for to increase customer satisfaction but possibly to increase employee productivity (and job satisfaction) at the same time.

The interventions that were mentioned were simple yet seemingly effective methods of not only obtaining information but also providing motivation to the benefit of the customer as well as the end user, in the long run (better engineered products, more user friendly user experiences, etc).

The notion of task significance seems to be a more narrowly focused relative of social responsibility.  Task significance is the positive impact on the well-being of others or that benefits others.

Social responsibility is trying to ensure that what is done benefits more than just the doer.  As a previous member of the hi tech sector, it was very easy to become lost in the shuffle of the hordes of workers in the Silicon Valley chasing the almighty dollar.  WIthout task significance, employees are simply sheep following the one in front of them.

I can understand how those that work in the jobs/industries that are less than desirable can feel invisible quite easily.  In fact, even in the most seemingly glamorous careers, unless the task significance is made evident, burnout is inevitable.

It was indeed gratifying to meet with my customers, partners and colleagues not only to swap war stories but to share best practices.  The sense of gratification of a job well-done (from the eyes of the end user) was indeed priceless.

The only other thing that I found surprising was how young Mr. Grant looks in his photo!

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks:

Technical Remarks: