Job design

The Logical Sequence to Job Analysis is Job Design.

Definition 1: Integration of work, rewards and qualification
“Job Design integrates work content (tasks, functions, relationships), the rewards and qualifications required including s****s, knowledge and abilities for each job in a way that meets the needs of employees and the organization.”

Steps in Job Design: -
1.Specification of Individual Tasks
2.Specification of Methods of Tasks Performance
3.Combination of Tasks into Specific Jobs to be assigned to individuals

Factors affecting Job Design: -

Organizational factors:
·Characteristics of Tasks (Planning, Execution and Controlling of Task)
·Work Flow (Process Sequences)
·Ergonomics (Time & Motion Study)
·Work Practices (Set of ways of performing tasks)

Environmental Factors:
·Employee Abilities and Availability
·Social and Cultural Expectations

Behavioral Elements:
·Feedback
·Autonomy
·Use of Abilities
·Variety

TECHNIQUES OF JOB DESIGN: -

Work Simplification: Job is simplified or specialized. The job is broken down into small parts and each part is assigned to an individual. To be more specific, work simplification is mechanical pacing of work, repetitive work processes, working only on one part of a product, predetermining tools and techniques, restricting interaction amongst employees, few s****s requirement. Work simplification is used when jobs are not specialized.

Job Rotation: When incumbents become bore of routine jobs, job rotation is an answer to it. Here jobs remain unchanged, but the incumbents shift from one job to another. On the positive side, it increases the intrinsic reward potential of a job because of different s****s and abilities needed to perform it. Workers become more competent in several jobs, know variety of jobs and improve the self-image, personal growth. Further the worker becomes more valuable to the organization. Periodic job changes can improve interdepartmental cooperation. On the negative side, it may not be much enthusiastic or efficiency may not be more. Besides jobs may not improve the relationships between task, while activities and objectives remain unchanged. Further training costs also rise and it can also de-motivate intelligent and ambitious trainees who seek specific responsibilities in their chosen specialties.

Job Enlargement: It means expanding the number of tasks, or duties assigned to a given job. Job enlargement is naturally opposite to work simplification. Adding more tasks or duties to a job does not mean that new s****s and abilities are needed. There is only horizontal expansion. It is with same s****s taking additional responsibilities like extending working hours etc. Job enlargement may involve breaking up of the existing work system and redesigning a new work system. For this employees also need to be trained to adjust to the new system. Job enlargement is said to contribute to employee motivation but the claim is not validated in practice.

Benefits of Job Enlargement:
1.Task Variety
2.Meaningful Work Modules
3.Full Ability Utilization
4.Worker Paced Control
5.Meaningful Performance Feedback

Disadvantages of Job Enlargement
1.High Training Costs
2.Redesigning existing work system required
3.Productivity may not increase necessarily
4.Workload increases
5.Unions demand pay–hike
6.Jobs may still remain boring and routine

Job Enrichment: Job enrichment is improvisation of both tasks efficiency and human satisfaction by building into people’s jobs, quite specifically, greater scope for personal achievement and recognition, more challenging and responsible work and more opportunity for individual advancement and growth. An enriched job will have more responsibility, more autonomy (vertical enrichment), more variety of tasks (horizontal enrichment) and more growth opportunities. The employee does more planning and controlling with less supervision but more self-evaluation. In other words, transferring some of the supervisor’s tasks to the employee and making his job enriched.

Benefits of Job enrichment

1.It benefits employee and organization in terms of increased motivation, performance, satisfaction, job involvement and reduced absenteeism.
2.Additional features in job meet certain psychological needs of jobholders due to s**** variety, identity, significance of job etc.
3.It also adds to employee self-esteem and self-control.
4.Job enrichment gives status to jobholder and acts as a strong satisfier in one’s life.
5.Job enrichment stimulates improvements in other areas of organization.
6.Empowerment is a by-product of job enrichment. It means passing on more authority and responsibility.

Demerits of Job Enrichment

1.Lazy employees may not be able to take additional responsibilities and power. It won’t fetch the desired results for an employee who is not attentive towards his job.
2.Unions resistance, increased cost of design and implementation and limited research on long term effect of job enrichment are some of the other demerits.
3.Job enrichment itself might not be a great motivator since it is job-intrinsic factor. As per the two-factor motivation theory, job enrichment is not enough. It should be preceded by hygienic factors etc.
4.Job enrichment assumes that workers want more responsibilities and those workers who are motivated by less responsibility, job enrichment surely de-motivates them
5.Workers participation may affect the enrichment process itself.
6.Change is difficult to implement and is always resisted as job enrichment brings in a changes the responsibility.

Autonomous of Self-Directed Teams: Empowerment results in self-directed work teams. A self –directed team is an intact group of employees responsible for whole work segment, they work together, handle day-to-day problems, plan and control, and are highly effective teams.

High Performance Work Design: Improving performance in an environment where positive and demanding goals are set leads to high performance work design. It starts from the principle of autonomous groups working and developing an approach, which enables group to work effectively together in situations where the rate of innovation is very high. Operational flexibility is important and there is the need for employees to gain and apply new s****s quickly with minimum supervision. However due to bureaucracy high performance work design does not work.