Natural Workgroups and the Process of Job Design

Natural workgroups are an important if rarely acknowledged aspect of job design; their distinctive features reflect a radical notion of worker choice and task structuring based on “natural” work methods, i.e. common‐sense understandings of how tasks should be accomplished. The article initially gives illustrations of natural workgroups and considers possible problems in using this admittedly somewhat contentious idea. Next, it argues that natural workgroups were a basis of job design in early Tavistock studies. Two conclusions come out of re‐examining this classic research: first that “traditional” work methods need more careful examination regarding their potential for job design than has been the case so far, and second that consideration of natural workgroups as an “original” stage of work structuring reveals the process nature of meaningful job redesign. These ideas are finally explored and illustrated in relation to more recent research.