Define job design How has management viewed job design since the Industrial Revolution?

Answer 1

Define job design.how has management viewed job design since industrial revolution?

What is "job design"?

Job design refers to the way that a set of tasks, or an entire job, is organized. Job design helps to determine:

what tasks are done,

how the tasks are done,

how many tasks are done, and

in what order the tasks are done.

It takes into account all factors which affect the work, and organizes the content and tasks so that the whole job is less likely to be a risk to the employee. Job design involves administrative areas such as:

job rotation,

job enlargement,

task/machine pacing,

work breaks, and

working hours.

A well designed job will encourage a variety of 'good' body positions, have reasonable strength requirements, require a reasonable amount of mental activity, and help foster feelings of achievement and self-esteem.

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Job Analysis should collect information on the following areas:

Duties and Tasks The basic unit of a job is the performance of specific tasks and duties. Information to be collected about these items may include: frequency, duration, effort, skill, complexity, equipment, standards, etc.

Environment This may have a significant impact on the physical requirements to be able to perform a job. The work environment may include unpleasant conditions such as offensive odors and temperature extremes. There may also be definite risks to the incumbent such as noxious fumes, radioactive substances, hostile and aggressive people, and dangerous explosives.

Tools and Equipment Some duties and tasks are performed using specific equipment and tools. Equipment may include protective clothing. These items need to be specified in a Job Analysis.

Relationships Supervision given and received. Relationships with internal or external people.

Requirements The knowledges, skills, and abilities (KSA's) required to perform the job. While an incumbent may have higher KSA's than those required for the job, a Job Analysis typically only states the minimum requirements to perform the job.

What does or should the person do?

What knowledge, skill, and abilities does it take to perform this job?

What is the result of the person performing the job?

How does this job fit in with other jobs in the organization?

What is the job's contribution toward the organization's goals?

The process may seek to obtain information about the:

work

worker

context within which the job exists

SINCE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Approaches to Job Design USING SOCIO TECHNICAL SYSTEMS

There are three important approaches to job design, viz.,

Engineering approach,

Human approach and

The Job characteristic approach.

Engineering Approach

The most important single element in the Engineering approaches, proposed by FW Taylor and others, was the task idea, "The work of every workman is fully planned out by the management at least one day in advance and each man receives in most cases complete written instructions, describing in detail the task which he is to accomplish . . . This task specifies not only what is to be done but how it is to be done and the exact time allowed for doing it." The principles offered by scientific management to job design can be summarised thus:

l Work should be scientifically studied. As advocated fragmentation and routinisation of work to reap the advantages of specialisation.

l Work should be arranged so that workers can be efficient.

l Employees selected for work should be matched to the demands of the job.

l Employees should be trained to perform the job.

l Monetary compensation should be used to reward successful performance of the job.

These principles to job design seem to be quite rational and appealing because they point towards increased organisational performance. Specialisation and routinisation over a period of time result in job incumbents becoming experts rather quickly, leading to higher levels of output. Despite the assumed gains in efficiency, behavioral scientists have found that some job incumbents dislike specialised and routine jobs.

Human Relations Approach

The human relations approach recognised the need to design jobs in an interesting manner. In the past two decades much work has been directed to changing jobs so that job incumbents can satisfy their needs for growth, recognition and responsibilility, enhancing need satisfaction through what is called job enrichment. One widely publicised approach to job enrichment uses what is called job characteristics model and this has been explained separately in the ensuing section.

Two types of factors, viz. (i) motivators like achievements, recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth and (ii) hygiene factors (which merely maintain the employee on the job and in the organization) like working conditions, organisational policies, inter-personnel relations, pay and job security. The employee is dissatisfied with the job if maintenance factors to the required degree are not introduced into the job. But, the employee may not be satisfied even if the required maintenance factors are provided. The employee will be satisfied with his job and he will be more productive if motivators are introduced into the job content. As such, he asserts that the job designer has to introduce hygienic factors adequately to reduce dissatisfaction and build motivating factors. Thus, THE emphasis is on the psychological needs of the employees in designing jobs.

The Job Characteristics Approach

The Job Characteristics Theory states that employees will work hard when they are rewarded for the work they do and when the work gives them satisfaction. Hence, they suggest that motivation, satisfaction and performance should be integrated in the job design. According to this approach, any job can be described in terms of five core job dimensions which are defined as follows:

(a) Skill variety: The degree to which the job requires that workers use a variety of different activities, talents and skills in order to successfully complete the job requirements.

(b) Task identity: The degree to which the job allows workers to complete whole tasks from start to finish, rather than disjointed portions of the job.

(c) Task significance: The degree to which the job significantly impacts the lives of others both within and outside the workplace.

(d) Autonomy: The degree to which the job allows workers freedom in planning and scheduling and the methods used to complete the job.

(e) Feedback: The degree to which the job itself provides workers with clear, direct and understandable knowledge of their performance.

All of the job dimensions impact workers psychologically. The first three dimensions affect whether or not workers view their job as meaningful. Autonomy determines the extent of responsibility workers feel. Feedback allows for feelings of satisfaction for a job well done by providing knowledge of results.

The core job dimensions can be combined into a single predictive index called the Motivating Potential Score. Its computation is as follows:

Motivating Skill variety + Task identity + Task significance

potential = x Autonomy x Feedback

score

Jobs that are high on motivating potential must be high at least in one of the three factors that lead to meaningful work and must be high in both autonomy and feedback and vice versa. These three critical psychological states lead to the outcome such as (a) high internal work motivation, (b) high growth satisfaction, (c) high quality work performance, (d) high general job satisfaction, (e) high work effectiveness and (f) low absenteeism and turnover . The model says that internal rewards are obtained by an individual when he learns that he personally has performed well on a task that he cares about.