JOB DESIGN

Individual responses to jobs vary. A job may be motivating to one person but not to someone else. Also, depending on how jobs are designed, they may provide more or less opportunity for employees to satisfy their job-related needs. For example, a sales job may furnish a good opportunity to satisfy social needs, whereas a training assignment may satisfy a person’s need to be an expert in a certain area.

A job that gives little latitude may not satisfy an individual’s need to be creative or innovative. Therefore, managers and employees alike are finding that understanding the characteristics of jobs requires broader perspectives than it did in the past.

Job design= Organizing tasks, duties, and responsibilities into a productive unit of work.

Designing or redesigning jobs encompasses many factors. Job design refers to organizing tasks, duties, and responsibilities into a productive unit of work. It involves the content of jobs and the effect of jobs on employees. Identifying the components of a given job is an integral part of job design. More attention is being paid to job design for three major reasons:

1.   Job design can influence performance in certain jobs, especially those where employee motivation can make a substantial difference. Lower costs through reduced turnover and absenteeism also are related to good job design.

2.   Job design can affect job satisfaction. Because people are more satisfied with certain job configurations than with others, it is important to be able to identify what makes a “good” job.

3.   Job design can affect both physical and mental health. Problems such as hearing loss, backache, and leg pain sometimes can be traced directly to job design, as can stress and related high blood pressure and heart disease.

Not everyone would be happy as a physician, as an engineer, or as a dishwasher.

But certain people like and do well at each of those jobs. The person/job fit is a simple but important concept that involves matching characteristics of people with characteristics of jobs. Obviously, if a person does not fit a job, either the person can be changed or replaced, or the job can be altered. In the past, it was much more common to make the round person fit the square job. However, successfully “reshaping” people is not easy to do. By redesigning jobs, the person/ job fit can be improved more easily. Jobs may be designed properly when they are first established or “reengineered” later.

1. NATURE OF JOB DESIGN

Identifying the components of a given job is an integral part of job design. Designing or redesigning jobs encompasses many factors, and a number of different techniques are available to the manager. Job design has been equated with job enrichment, a technique developed by Frederick Herzberg, but job design is much broader than job enrichment alone.

JOB ENLARGEMENT AND JOB ENRICHMENT

Attempts to alleviate some of the problems encountered in excessive job simplification fall under the general headings of job enlargement and job enrichment. Job enlargement involves broadening the scope of a job by expanding the number of different tasks to be performed.

Job enlargement = Broadening the scope of a job by expanding the number of different tasks to be performed.

Job enrichment is increasing the depth of a job by adding responsibility for planning, organizing, controlling, and evaluating the job.

Job enrichment=Increasing the depth of a job by adding employee responsibility for planning, organizing, controlling, and evaluating the job.

A manager might enrich a job by promoting variety, requiring more skill and responsibility, providing more autonomy, and adding opportunities for personal growth. Giving an employee more planning and controlling responsibilities over the tasks to be done also enriches. However, simply adding more similar tasks does not enrich the job. Some examples of such actions that enrich a job include:

·    Giving a person an entire job rather than just a piece of the work.

·    Giving more freedom and authority so the employee can perform the job as he or she sees fit.

·    Increasing a person’s accountability for work by reducing external control.

·    Expanding assignments so employees can learn to do new tasks and develop new areas of expertise.

·    Giving feedback reports directly to employees rather than to management only.

JOB ROTATION

The technique known as job rotation can be a way to break the monotony of an otherwise routine job with little scope by shifting a person from job to job.

Job rotation = The process of shifting a person from job to job.

For example, one week on the auto assembly line, John Williams attaches doors to the rest of the body assembly. The next week he attaches bumpers. The third week he puts in seat assemblies, then rotates back to doors again the following week. Job rotation need not be done on a weekly basis. John could spend one-third of a day on each job or one entire day, instead of a week, on each job. It has been argued, however, that rotation does little in the long run to solve the problem of employee boredom. Rotating a person from one boring job to another may help somewhat initially, but the jobs are still perceived to be boring. The advantage is that job rotation does develop an employee who can do many different jobs.

2. JOB CHARACTERISTICS

The job-characteristics model identifies five important design characteristics of jobs. Figure shows that skill variety, task identity, and task significance affect meaningfulness of work. Autonomy stimulates responsibility, and feedback provides knowledge of results. Following is a description of each characteristic.

Job-Characteristics Model

SKILL VARIETY

The extent to which the work requires several different activities for successful completion indicates its skill variety. For example, low skill variety exists when an assembly-line worker performs the same two tasks repetitively. The more skills involved, the more meaningful the work.

Skill variety can be enhanced in several ways. Job rotation can break the monotony of an otherwise routine job with little scope by shifting a person from job to job. Job enlargement may as well.

Skill variety= The extent to which the work requires several different activities for successful completion.

TASK IDENTITY

The extent to which the job includes a “whole” identifiable unit of work that is carried out from start to finish and that results in a visible outcome is its task identity. For example, one corporation changed its customer service processes so that when a customer calls with a problem, one employee, called a Customer Care Advocate, handles most or all facets of the problem from maintenance to repair. As a result, more than 40% of customer problems are resolved by one person while the customer is still on the line. Previously, less than 1% of the customer problems were resolved immediately because the customer service representative had to complete paperwork and forward it to operations, which then followed a number of separate steps using different people to resolve problems. In the current system, the Customer Care Advocate can identify more closely with solving a customer’s problem.

Task identity=The extent to which the job includes a “whole” identifiable unit of work that is carried out from start to finish and that results in a visible outcome.

TASK SIGNIFICANCE

The amount of impact the job has on other people indicates its task significance. A job is more meaningful if it is important to other people for some reason. For instance, a soldier may experience more fulfillment when defending his or her country from a real threat than when merely training to stay ready in case such a threat arises. In the earlier example, the Custome Care Advocate’s task has significance because it affects customers considerably.

Task significance=The amount of impact the job has on other people.

AUTONOMY

The extent of individual freedom and discretion in the work and its scheduling indicates autonomy. More autonomy leads to a greater feeling of personal responsibility for the work. Efforts to increase autonomy may lead to what was characterized as job enrichment by Frederick Herzberg. Examples of actions that increase autonomy include giving more freedom and authority so the employee can perform the job as he or she sees fit and increasing an employee’s accountability for work by reducing external control.

Autonomy=The extent of individual freedom and discretion in the work and its scheduling.

FEEDBACK

The amount of information employees receive about how well or how poorly they have performed is feedback. The advantage of feedback is that it helps employees to understand the effectiveness of their performance and contributes to their overall knowledge about the work. At one firm, feedback reports from customers who contact the company with problems are given directly to the employees who handle the customers’ complaints, instead of being given only to the department manager.

Feedback=The amount of information received about how well or how poorly one has performed.

3. CONSEQUENCES OF JOB DESIGN

Jobs designed to take advantage of these important job characteristics are more likely to be positively received by employees. Such characteristics help distinguish between “good” and “bad” jobs. Many approaches to enhancing productivity and quality reflect efforts to expand some of the job characteristics.

Because of the effects of job design on performance, employee satisfaction, health, and many other factors, many organizations are changing or have already changed the design of some jobs. A broader approach is reengineering work and jobs.

4. CHANGES IN JOB DESIGN: “REENGINEERING” JOBS

One movement that has affected the design and characteristics of jobs and work is reengineering. Reengineering is rethinking and redesigning work to improve cost, service, and speed. The reengineering process may include such techniques as creating work teams, training employees in multiple skills so they can do multiple jobs, pushing decision making as far down the organizational hierarchy as possible, and reorganizing operations and offices to simplify and speed work.

Reengineering = Rethinking and redesigning work to improve cost, service, and speed.

The thrust of reengineering is not downsizing or restructuring the organization but focusing on the flow of work and how jobs themselves need to change to improve the processes associated with work. Reengineering assumes that the ultimate focus of all organizational work should be the customer, and it attempts to generate dramatic improvement in organizational productivity, quality, and service. As a result, many jobs are changed, and greater use of technology is made, particularly of information systems and computers.

5. USING TEAMS IN JOBS

Typically, a job is thought of as something done by one person. However, where it is appropriate, jobs may be designed for teams. In an attempt to make jobs more meaningful and to take advantage of the increased productivity and commitment that can follow, more organizations are using teams of employees instead of individuals for jobs. Some firms have gone as far as dropping the terms workers and employees, replacing them with teammates, crew members, cast members, and others that emphasize teamwork.

SPECIAL-PURPOSE TEAMS AND QUALITY CIRCLES

Several types of teams are used in organizations today that function outside the scope of members’ normal jobs and meet from time to time. One is the special-purpose team, which is formed to address specific problems and may continue to work together to improve work processes or the quality of products and services. Often, these teams are a mixture of employees, supervisors, and managers. Another kind of team is the quality circle, a small group of employees who monitor productivity and quality and suggest solutions to problems. In many organizations, these problem-solving teams are part of Total Quality Management (TQM) efforts. Care must be taken that such teams do not violate federal labor laws. In a number of court cases, teams selected by and dominated by managers have been ruled to violate provisions of the National Labor Relations Act.

PRODUCTION CELLS

Another way work is restructured is through the use of production cells. As used in a number of manufacturing operations, production cells are groupings of workers who produce entire products or components of products. As many as fifty employees and as few as two can be grouped into a production cell, and each cell has all necessary machines and equipment. The cells ultimately replace the assembly line as the primary means of production.

SELF-DIRECTED WORK TEAMS

The self-directed work team is composed of individuals who are assigned a cluster of tasks, duties, and responsibilities to be accomplished. Unlike special-purpose teams, these teams become the regular entities in which team members work. An interesting challenge for self-directed work teams involves the emergence or development of team leaders. This role is different from the traditional role played by supervisors or managers. Rather than directing and giving orders, the team leader becomes a facilitator to assist the team, mediate and resolve conflicts among team members, and interact with other teams and managers in other parts of the organization. Shared leadership may be necessary; here, team members rotate leadership for different phases of projects in which special expertise may be beneficial. 

Certain characteristics have been identified for the successful use of self-directed work teams in the United States:

·     Teams value and endorse dissent: The effective use of self-directed work teams requires that conflict and dissent be recognized and addressed. Contrary to what some might believe, suppressing dissent and conflict to preserve harmony ultimately becomes destructive to the effective operations of the team.

·    Teams use “shamrock” structures and have some variation in membership: As Figure shows, a shamrock team is composed of a core of members, resource experts who join the team as appropriate, and part-time/temporary members as needed. The presence of core members provides stability, but the infusion of the resource experts and part-time/temporary members provides renewal and change to the team.

Shamrock team=An organizational team composed of a core of members, resource experts who join the team as appropriate, and parttime/ temporary members as needed.

·    Teams have authority to make decisions: For self-directed work teams to be effective, they must be allowed to function with sufficient authority to make decisions about team activities and operations. As transition to self-directed work teams occurs, significant efforts are necessary to define the areas and scope of authority of the teams as well as their goals.

6. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF TEAM JOBS

Teams have been popular job redesigns for much of the last two decades. Improved productivity, greater employee involvement, more widespread employee learning, and greater employee ownership of problems are among the potential benefits. Some organizations have found favorable results with transnational teams as the challenges of managing across borders becomes more common and complex. Even virtual teams linked primarily through advanced technology can contribute despite geographical dispersion of essential employees. Virtual teams also can easily take advantage of previously unavailable expertise.

But not everyone has been pleased with teams as a part of job design. In some cases employers find that teams work better with employees who are “group oriented.”

Further, much work does not really need a team, and peer pressure may lead to unethical behavior. Many companies have used teamwork without much thought. Too often, teamwork can be a buzzword or “feel-good” device that may actually get in the way of good decisions. Further, compensating individual team members so that they see themselves as a team rather than just a group of individuals is often a problem.