OVERVIEW OF JOB DESIGN:
OVERVIEW OF JOB DESIGN:
A job is more than a
collection of tasks recorded on a job analysis schedule and summarized in a job
description. Jobs are foundation of organizational productivity and employees
satisfaction .How well jobs are designed will pay an increasingly important
role in the success and even survival of many organizations. As the number
of new workers coming into the
labor market slows and international
competition increases, well-designed
jobs will become even more
important in attracting and retaining
a motivated workforce capable of producing products and services.
The design of a job
reflects the organizational,
environmental, and behavioral demands placed on it. Job designers take these elements into consideration and try to create jobs that are both productive and satisfying.
ORGANIZATIONAL ELEMENTS:
Organizational elements of job design are concerned with
efficiency, as was first fomalized by
Fredrick Taylor and other management
scientists around the turn of the
century. They devoted much of their
research to finding the best ways
to design efficient jobs. Their success with stopwatches and motion pictures gave
rise to the new discipline of industrial
engineering and contributed to
the formal study of management. From their efforts, we have learned that specialization is a key element in the design of jobs. When workers
are limited to a few repetitive
tasks, output is usually higher . the findings of these early researchers are still applicable today. They can be summarized under the heading of the mechanistic approach.
MECHANISTIC APPROACH:
The mechanistic approach involves
identifying every task in a job so that
tasks can be arranged to minimize the
time and effort expended by workers. Once task identification is complete, a limited number of tasks are
grouped into a job. The result is specialization. Specialized jobs lead to
short job cycles, the time to complete
every task in a job.
This mechanistic
approach stresses efficiency in effort,
time, labor costs, training , and employee learning time. This technique is still widely used in assembly operations.
It is especially effective in dealing with poorly educated workers or workers
who have little industrial experience, such as those in a developing
nation. But the efficient design of jobs
also considers such organizational
elements as work flow, ergonomics and work practices.
WORK FLOW:
The product or
service usually suggests the sequence of and balance between
jobs if the work is to be done efficiently. For example, the frame of a car
must be built before the fenders and doors can be added. Once
the sequence of jobs is determined, the balance between jobs is established.
ERGONOMICS:
Optimal productivity
requires that the physical relationship between worker and the work be
considered in designing jobs. Ergonomics
is the study of how human beings
may not vary because of ergonomics,
the location of tools, switches and the
work product itself is evaluated and
modified for ease of use.
WORK PRACTICES:
Work practices are set ways
of performing work. These methods
may arise from tradition or the
collective wishes of employees. Either
way, the flexibility of managers and the HR department in
designing jobs is limited,
especially when such practices are part
of a union management relationship . failure to consider work practices can have undesired outcomes.
ENVIRONMENTAL ELEMENTS:
A second aspect of
job concerns environmental elements such as the ability and availability of
potential employees and their social expectations.
EMPLOYEE ABILITIES AND AVAILABLITY:
Efficiency
considerations must be balanced against the abilities and availability of the
people who are to do the work.
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL EXPECTATIONS:
Today’s industrial
workers are much better educated and
have higher expectations about the
quality of work life. Although work flow or work practices may suggest
a particular job design, the job
must also meet the expectations of workers.
BEHAVIORAL ELEMENTS:
Jobs cannot be designed
by using only the elements that aid
efficiency. Instead, jobs
designers draw heavily on behavioral research to provide a work environment that helps satisfy
individual needs.
AUTONOMY:
Autonomy
is having responsibility for what
one does. It is freedom to control one’s response to the environment. Jobs that
give workers authority to make decisions provide added responsibilities that tend to
increase an employee’s sense of
recognition and self-esteem. The absence of autonomy, by contrast, can cause
employee apathy or poor performance.
VARIETY:
A lack of
variety may cause boredom. Boredom leads
to fatigue, and fatigue causes errors. By injecting into jobs, job designers can reduce fatigue-caused errors.
TASK IDENTITY:
One problem
with some jobs is that they lack task identity. Workers cannot point to
complete piece of work. They have little sense of responsibility and may lack pride in the results. After
completing their jobs, they may have little sense of accomplishment. When tasks are grouped so
that employees feel they are making an identifiable
contribution, job satisfaction can increase significantly.
TASK SIGNIFICANCE:
Closely related to task identity is task significance. Doing an identifiable piece of work makes a job more satisfying. Task
significance knowing that the worker is important to others in the
organization or outside it makes the job
more meaningful for incumbents.
FEEDBACK:
When jobs do not give the workers any feedback on how
well they are doing, there is
little guidance or motivation to perform
better.
TECHNIQUES OF JOB REDESIGN
UNDERSPECIALIZATION:
When jobs are not
specialized enough, job designers engage
in work simplification . that is, the job is simplified. The tasks of one
job may be assigned to two
different jobs. Unneeded tasks are identified and eliminated, what remains are jobs that contain fewer tasks.
The risk with work
simplification is that jobs may become so specialized that boredom causes
errors or resignations. This potential problem is more common in advanced industrial countries that have a highly educated workforce. In less developed countries, highly specialized
factory jobs may be acceptable and even appealing because they provide jobs for workers with limited skills or
opportunities.
Another view is
called reengineering , which identifies
the desired outcome of a system or
subsystem. ( such as fast policy
conversions at Shenandoah Life) and restructures jobs and even departments to radically increase
performance. Often this is done by eliminating unneeded steps
and clustering related responsibilities into one job or team organized
around the process.
OVERSPECIALIZATION:
In advanced
industrial societies routine jobs that are very specialized, such as
assembly-line positions, have limited appeal. These jobs seldom offer opportunities for
accomplishment, recognition, psychological growth or other sources of
satisfaction. To increase the quality of work life for those
who hold such jobs, managers and job designers can sue a variety of
methods to improve jobs. The most widely
practiced techniques are job rotation, job enlargement , and job enrichment.
JOB ROTATION:
With job rotation,
employees are moved from job to job. The jobs themselves are not actually
changed; the workers are rotated.
Rotation breaks the monotony of highly
specialized work by calling on different
skills and abilities ----- even different muscles. The organization
benefits because workers become competent in several jobs rather than only
one. Knowing a variety of jobs helps
the worker’s self image, provides personal growth, and makes the worker more valuable
to the organization.
HR experts should
caution those who desire to use job rotation. It does not improve the
jobs themselves; the relationships
between tasks, activities, and
objectives remain unchanged. Implementation should occur only after other techniques have been
considered.
JOB ENLARGMENT:
Job enlargement, also
known as horizontal loading, expands the number of related tasks in a job. It
adds similar duties to provide greater variety. Enlargement reduces monotony by expanding the job cycle
and drawing on a wider range of employee
skills.
JOB ENRICHMENT:
Job enrichment
adds new sources of satisfaction to jobs. It increases responsibility, autonomy and control.
Adding these elements to jobs is
sometimes called vertical loading. Job
enrichment sees jobs as consisting of three elements: plan, do and control. Job
enlargement adds more things to do. Job enrichment attempts
to add more planning and
control responsibilities. These additions
to the job, coupled with rethinking the job, can lead to
increased motivation and other
improvement.
Job enrichment,
however is not a cure all. If it were,
this book could end here. Instead, job enrichment techniques are merely tools. They are not applied universally.
When the diagnosis indicates that jobs are unrewarding and unchallenging and limit the motivation
and satisfaction of employees,
managers and HR departments may find job
enrichment to be the most appropriate strategy. Even
then, job enrichment can create problems.
Once author listed twenty two arguments against job enrichment. The most compelling points are
union resistance , cost of design and
implementation , and limited research on
the long-term effects of enrichment. Another
criticism is that job enrichment does
not go far enough. Enriching the job
while ignoring other variables
that contribute to the quality of work life may simply increase dissatisfaction
with the unimproved aspects of the job environment.