Sequential Variety in Work Processes

Task variety is a familiar concept in organization theory and in job analysis. Standardized scales to measure task variety have been developed and shown to be reliable, but results reported here suggest that while these scales may measure the number of different tasks performed, they do not measure variety in work process. Comparing results from the standard, survey-based measures and detailed, process-based measures in four task units, we discovered that work processes in the most “routinized” task units (as measured by the standard scales) are more varied than the least “routinized” task unit. The theoretical implications of this new concept, sequential variety, are discussed.