Transcript Job
Jobs & the Design of Work
Job Compared to Work
Job -
a set of specified work and task activities that engage an individual in an organization
Work –
mental or physical activity that has productive results
Meaning of Work -
the way a person interprets and understands the value of work as part of life
People and Work System Goals
Use people efficiently within constraints Provide reasonable quality of work life © 1995 Corel Corp.
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Job Design
Definition: The process of linking specific tasks to specific jobs and deciding what techniques, equipment, and procedures should be used to perform those tasks.
Early approaches: – Scientific Management – Job Enlargement – Job Enrichment More recent approaches: – Job Characteristics Model – Social Information Processing Theory
Factors affecting Job Design
Job Design Organizational factors Environmental factors Behavioral factors
Job Design involves 3teps
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The specification of individual tasks.
The specification of the methods of performing each task The combination of task into specific jobs to be assigned to the individuals
Techniques of Job Designing
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Job simplification Job rotation Job enlargement Job enrichment
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Job Enlargement
Job Enlargement -
a method of job design that increases the number of activities in a job to overcome the boredom of overspecialized work Increasing the number of tasks a worker performs but keeping all of the tasks at the same level of difficulty and responsibility; also called horizontal job loading.
Advantage: Adds variety to a worker’s job.
Disadvantage: Jobs may still be simple and limited in how much control and variety workers have.
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Job Enrichment
Job Enrichment -
designing or redesigning jobs by incorporating motivational factors into them Emphasis is on recognition, responsibility, and advancement opportunity Increasing a worker’s responsibility and control over his or her work; also called vertical job loading.
Ways of enriching jobs: – Allow workers to plan their own work schedules.
– Allow workers to decide how the work should be performed.
– Allow workers to check their own work.
– Allow workers to learn new skills.
Advantage: Gives workers more autonomy, responsibility, and control.
Disadvantages
– Not all workers want enriched jobs – May be expensive and/or inefficient
Limitations to Job Enlargement/Job Enrichment
Higher capital cost Many individuals prefer simple jobs Higher wages are required since the worker must utilize a higher level of skill A smaller labor pool exists of persons able and willing to perform enriched or enlarged jobs Increased accident rates may occur Current technology in some industries does not lend itself to job enlargement and enrichment
Job simplification
It is a design method where by jobs are divided into smaller components & subsequently assigned to workers as whole jobs Simplification of work requires that jobs be broken into their smallest units & then analyzed.
It helps the employee to learn rapidly, short work cycles allows task performance with little mental effort
Job Rotation
It refers to the movement of an employee from one job to another.
Job themselves are not actually changed, only the employees are rotated among various jobs.
Job Characteristics Model -
a framework for understanding person-job fit through the interaction of core job dimensions with critical psychological states within a person
Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) -
the survey instrument designed to measure the elements in the Job Characteristics Model
Types of Approaches
Engineering Approach Human Relation Approach The Job Characteristics Approach Socio technical Approach
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Scientific Management in
Practice
Pay is the principal outcome used to motivate workers to contribute their inputs.
– Piece-rate pay system Scientific management focuses exclusively on extrinsic motivation and ignores the important role of intrinsic motivation.
Specific disadvantages: – Workers may feel that they have lost control over their work behaviors.
– Workers may feel as if they are part of a machine and are treated as such.
– Workers have no opportunity to develop and acquire new skills.
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Scientific Management
A set of principles and practices designed to increase the performance of individual workers by stressing job simplification and job specialization.
Job simplification: The breaking up of the work that needs to be performed in an organization into the smallest identifiable tasks.
Job specialization: The assignment of workers to perform small, simple tasks.
Time and motion studies: Studies that reveal exactly how long it takes to perform a task and the best way to perform it.
Job Characteristics Model
Core job dimensions Critical psychological states Personal and work outcomes
Skill variety Task identity Task significance Autonomy Feedback Experienced work’s meaningfulness Experienced responsibility for work’s outcomes Knowledge of work activities’ results Employee growth,need, strength High internal work motivation High-quality work performance High satisfaction with the work Low absenteeism and turnover
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The Job Characteristics Model
Advocated by Hackman & Oldham An approach to job design that aims to identify characteristics that make jobs intrinsically motivating and to specify the consequences of those characteristics.
Four key components – Core job dimensions Motivating potential score – Critical psychological states – Consequences: work and personal outcomes – Individual differences
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Core Job Dimensions
Skill Variety:
The extent to which a job requires a worker to use different skills, abilities, or talents.
Task Identity:
The extent to which a job involves performing a whole piece of work from its beginning to its end.
Task Significance:
The extent to which a job has an impact on the lives or work of other people in or out of the organization.
Autonomy:
The degree to which a job allows a worker the freedom and independence to schedule work and decide how to carry it out.
Feedback:
The extent to which performing a job provides a worker with clear information about his or her effectiveness.
Social Information Processing (SIP) model
SIP Model -
a model that suggests that the important job factors depend in part on what others tell a person about the job
Four premises:
1) people provide cues to understanding the work environment 2) people help us judge our jobs 3) people tell us how they see our jobs 4) people’s positive & negative feedback help us understand our feelings about our jobs
According to this approach, jobs are designed by taking a holistic or systems view of entire job situation including its physical & social environment.
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Following guidelines are have been developed A job needs to be reasonably demanding for the individual in terms other than sheer endurance and yet need some variety Employees need some minimum area of decision making Employees need to be learn on the job & to go on learning.
Employee need some minimal degree of social support & recognition at the workplace Employees need to be relate what they do & what they produce at the workplace
Human Relations Approach
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The HRA recognized the need to design jobs in an interesting manner.
Advocated by Herzberg.
Acc to him there are two types of factors .
Motivators like achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement & growth.
Hygiene factors like working conditions, organizational policies, interpersonal relations, pay &job security.
He emphasized on the psychological needs of the employees in designing the jobs
Outcomes of Various Job Design Approaches
Decreased training time Higher utilization levels Lower error likelihood Less mental overload Lower stress levels
+ Mechanistic Approach
Lower job satisfaction Lower motivation Higher absenteeism Higher job satisfaction Higher motivation Greater job involvement Higher job performance Lower absenteeism
+ Motivational Approach
Increased training time Lower personnel utilization Greater chance of errors Greater chance of mental overload and stress