Job Design - Organizational Behavior Perspective

Job design may be defined as the methods that management uses to develop the content of a job, including all relevant tasks, as well as the processes by which jobs are constructed and revised. 

The nature of work is changing because of advanced information technology and globalization. Consequently, two new developments have emerged. The first is a blurring of the distinction between on-work and off-work time. A person carrying a cell phone and/or PDA (personal digital assistant) and a home office containing a fax machine and Internet access is “at work” even when not in the office

and is “on-call” practically every moment of the day. This includes drive time and time spent in airports or while flying across the world. The second development, which is tied to the first, is the rising number of telecommuting jobs or teleworking, in which the employee performs substantial amounts of work at home. An increasing number of organizations provide employees with advanced information technology for home use. These recent trends create new challenges for job design models. 

There is a growing theoretical and research base in the organizational behavior area on the topic job design and some methods based on the research results are being widely applied to the actual practice of

management. The major job design applications are explained below. 

Job Rotation

One of the recommendations of OB researchers in job design is moving employees from one relatively simple job to another after short time periods (one hour, half-days, every day). For example, at McDonald’s, an employee may cook French fries one day, fry hamburgers the next, wait on

the front counter during the next shift, and draw soft drinks the next. This form of job rotation has several advantages. First, the odds of injury are reduced, as each worker must refocus on a new task throughout the workday. Further, the incidence of repetitive strain injuries (e.g., carpal tunnel syndrome) may also be reduced. Second, as employees learn sets of tasks, they are more flexible and able to cover for someone who is absent or who quits.  The primary disadvantage of job rotation is that each individual task eventually becomes as boring as the rest of the simple tasks. In other words, over the long term there is no substantial difference between cooking French fries and frying hamburgers. Consequently, job satisfaction and/or performance may decline. Rotation does, however, have some research evidence showing a positive impact, especially for cross-training and developing employees for broadened responsibilities. In any event, it is a better alternative to job design than doing nothing.

Job Enlargement

This job design process involves increasing the number of tasks each employee performs. A sales clerk who waits on customers, finalizes the sale, helps with credit applications, arranges merchandise, and reorders stock has an enlarged job, when compared to a checkout clerk or a shelf stocker in  a retail store. Workers in enlarged jobs are able to use more skills in performing their tasks. Many times, however, enlargement reduces the efficiency with which tasks are completed, thereby slowing work down. However, enlargement does not necessarily result in improved employee satisfaction and commitment. 

Job Enrichment

Job enrichment represents an extension of the more simplified job rotation and job

enlargement techniques of job design. It is a direct outgrowth of Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation. The assumption is that in order to motivate personnel, the job must be designed to provide opportunities for achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, and growth. The technique entails “enriching” the job so that these factors are included. In particular, job enrichment is concerned with designing jobs that include a greater variety of work content; require a higher level of knowledge and skill; give workers more autonomy and responsibility in terms of planning, directing, and controlling their own performance; and provide the opportunity for personal growth and a meaningful work experience. While job rotation and job enlargement horizontally load the job, job enrichment vertically loads the job. In addition to more tasks to perform, there is more responsibility and accountability. For example, instead of doing a mundane, specialized task, then passing off to another worker doing another minute part of the task, under job enrichment, the worker would be given a complete module of work to do (job enlargement) and, importantly, would inspect his or her own work (responsibility) and put a personal identifier on it (accountability).

Job enrichment is not a panacea for all job design problems facing modern management. Based on   documented cases where this approach to job design did not work, Miner gave some explanations. Job enrichment is difficult to truly implement; many employees simply prefer an old familiar job to an enriched job, and that employees in general and unions in particular are resistant to the change. Some employees have expressed preferences for higher pay rather than enriched jobs, and others enjoy their current patterns of on-the-job socialization and friendships more than they do increased responsibility and autonomy. Essentially, job enrichment in some situations may inhibit a person’s social life at work. 

Despite some potential limitations, job enrichment is still a viable approach, and research provides continuing evidence that it has mostly beneficial results (more employee satisfaction and customer service, less employee overload, and fewer employee errors). There is even a study that found employees were more creative when they worked in an enriching context of complex, challenging jobs and a supportive, noncontrolling supervisory climate. However, management must still use job enrichment selectively and give proper recognition to the complex human and situational variables. 

The Job Characteristics Approach to Task Design

To meet some of the limitations of the relatively simple Herzberg approach to job enrichment (which can be termed  orthodox job enrichment, or OJE), a group of researchers began to concentrate on the relationship between certain job characteristics, or the job scope, and employee motivation. Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham developed the most widely recognized model of job characteristics. This model recognizes that certain job characteristics contribute to certain psychological states and that the

strength of employees’ need for growth has an important moderating effect. The core job characteristics can be summarized briefly as follows:

1. Skill variety refers to the extent to which the job requires the employee to draw from a number of different skills and abilities as well as on a range of knowledge.

2. Task identity refers to whether the job has an identifiable beginning and end. How complete a module of work does the employee perform?

3. Task significance involves the importance of the task. It involves both internal significance—

how important is the task to the organization?—and external significance—how proud are employees to tell relatives, friends, and neighbors what they do and where they work?

4. Autonomy refers to job independence. How much freedom and control do employees have, for example, to schedule their own work, make decisions, or determine the means to accomplish objectives?

5. Feedback refers to objective information about progress and performance and can come from the job itself or from supervisors or an information system.

The critical psychological states can be summarized as follows:

1. Meaningfulness. This cognitive state involves the degree to which employees perceive their work as making a valued contribution, as being important and worthwhile.

2. Responsibility. This state is concerned with the extent to which employees feel a sense of being personally responsible or accountable for the work being done.

3. Knowledge of results. Coming directly from the feedback, this psychological state involves the degree to which employees understand how they are performing in the job.

In essence, this model says that certain job characteristics lead to critical psychological states. That is, skill variety, task identity, and task significance lead to experienced meaningfulness; autonomy leads to the feeling of responsibility; and feedback leads to knowledge of results. The more these three psychological states are present, the more employees will feel good about themselves when they perform well. 

Hackman states: “The model postulates that internal rewards are obtained by an individual when he learns (knowledge of results) that he personally (experienced responsibility) has performed well on a task that he cares about (experienced meaningfulness).” Hackman then points out that these internal

rewards are reinforcing to employees, causing them to perform well. If they don’t perform well, they will try harder in order to get the internal rewards that good performance brings.

He concludes: “The net result is a self-perpetuating cycle of positive work motivation powered by self-generated rewards. This cycle is predicted to continue until one or more of the three psychological states is no longer present, or until the individual no longer values the internal rewards that derive from good performance.” Hackman and Oldham provided original research supporting the existence of these relationships, and subsequent research has found strong support for the linkages between the core job dimensions and the critical psychological states, and between these states and the predicted outcomes. 

An example of an enriched job, according to the Hackman-Oldham characteristics model, would be that of a surgeon. All five job characteristics are present in surgeon's job.  All five job characteristics would be relatively minimal or nonexistent in the perceptions of many assembly line jobholders and thus can help explain the motivation problem with these low-level jobs. In other words, the job design, not just the person holding the job, helps explain the motivation to perform under this approach.

Many well-known companies have actually implemented job design changes in accordance with the job characteristics model. For example, in terms of building in autonomy in jobs, well-known firms in the hospitality (e.g., Disney, Ritz Carlton) and retail industries allow their frontline employees to “make it right” for the “guest”/customer at any cost. For instance, at the very successful Container Stores, every salesperson has a key to the till in order to make any decision the customer needs.

Source: Fred Luthans, 12 ed.

-------------------

Job design is also an important topic human resource management and operations management.

Job design will specify the activities to be performed by a person occupying the job. The job has to be designed so that organization's requirements are met by the output given by the job. Its integration with input and output sides has to be ensured in the design. The supervision aspects of the job are also to be specified.

The qualifications or competencies required for the person filling the job are to specified.