Job Design Approaches and Techniques (to Individual and Groups)

 A job is a set of tasks performed by one person. Organization behavioural scholars generally agree that the passion/interest for performing a job craze comes from the work/ job itself. Some jobs have very few tasks, each requiring limited skill or effort. But other jobs involve very few tasks, each requiring limited skill or effort. But other jobs involve very complex tasks. They require highly trained employees or technicians. Information technology has transformed many jobs over the past couple of decades. The idea offered by social scientist are not possible. Substantial improvements in job design can benefit the customer, employee and organization. They usually are possible with the use of one or more of the following commonly used job design approaches.

1. The Scientific Management Approach (Job Specification and Standardization Approach):

One of the first approaches to the study of job design (popularized during the early 1900) was scientific management approach. It was developed primarily in the US. Several individuals helped develop and promote scientific management. The most prominent being Frank and Lillian Gilberth, Henry Gantt and Harrington Emerson. 

F.W. Taylor (the chief proponent of job specialization) argued that jobs should be scientifically studied. Jobs should be broken down into small component tasks and then standardized across all workers doing the jobs. His view was consistent with the premises of division of labour as discussed by Adam Smith and Charles Babbage. It aims at replacement of traditional techniques by scientific techniques.

Principles of Scientific Management 

• Replacement of old rule of thumb method.
• Scientific selection and training of workers.
• Cooperation between labour and management.
• Maximum output (management and worker should try to maximize it).
• Equal division of responsibility (management + worker).

Taylor's Contributions

Taylor's contribution has two dimensions: (i) mechanical and (ii) philosophical. On the mechanical side, Taylor introduced time and motion studies, standardization of tools, methods and working conditions, different piece rate for the payment of wages, etc. On the philosophical side, he tried to develop the science of management. It is based on scientific investigation and experiment. His contributions can be listed as : 

• Scientific task setting,
• Mental revolution, 
• Economy through and training,
• Differential payment (piece rate system), and 
• Reorganization of supervision, etc.

Criticism of Scientific Management

A. Workers' viewpoint:  Workers criticized scientific management by advocating the following arguments.

i. Speeding up of workers: Workers feel that scientific management attempts to force them to work their maximum. It does not consider about the adverse affect of such speeding up on the physical and mental well-being of the workers.

ii. Boredom: Scientific management introduces specialization in the enterprise. The workers are supposed to do the routine work just like automatic machines. This creates the problem of monotony and boredom among the workers. 

iii. No scope for initiative : Since, there is a divorce (separation)  between the functions of planning and doing. Due to that reason workers get no opportunity to take initiative. They are supposed to do whatever they are told to do. They can't take initiative and exercise their skills to find new methods of work. 

iv. Weakening of trade union: Scientific management advocates harmony in the organization. It discourages disputes over the distribution of gains from increased productivity. This is in a way weakens the trade union movement. So, they felt insecure. 

B. Employers' Viewpoint: Employers' criticized scientific management on the following grounds: 

i. Expensive process:  Introduction of scientific management is quite expensive. It is necessary to spend huge  amount of money on standardization of methods of work, tools and equipment and working conditions. The employers' have also to meet the extra cost of planning department. So, it is not suitable for small organization. 

ii. Reorganization : Scientific management involves reorganization of the whole industrial unit. To acquire new  standardized tools, equipment, or standardizing the working conditions, a lot of time has to be spent in the process. All these activities costs a lot of money and time. 

iii. Impracticable functional foremanship: The functional foremanship recommended by Taylor is not practicable. A worker can't receive commands from eight foreman at a time. Therefore, they can't satisfy them all. 

2. Alternatives to Job Specialization  Approach

Taylor's  Scientific Management and job  specialization produced a lot of worker problems. Thus, HR managers  began to recognize alternatives to job specialization. They are:  

a. Job Rotation:

Job rotation involves  systematically shifting workers from one job to another to sustain their motivation and interest. When job rotation is introduced, the tasks themselves remain the same. However, the  workers who perform them are systematically rotated across the various tasks, Jeena, for example , started out with job 1 (testing ink cartridge). On  a regular basis perhaps weekly or monthly- she is systematically rotated to job2, to job3, to job4, and back to job1. Ganesh, who starts out in on job2, rotates ahead of Jeena to jobs 3,4,1 and back to job2. 

Merits of job rotation: (i)  Increased motivation due to changed job, (ii) Opportunity for learning new job skills, (iii) Work responsibility remains at the same level, (iv) Offers more chances for promotion. 

Demerits of job rotation: (i) Training costs are increased, (ii) Work is disrupted as rotated employees take time to adjust to a new set up. (iii) It may also decrease efficiency if rotated jobs are not further challenging . (iv) According to the Herzberg, job rotation is merely "replacing one zero for another zero" if not implemented properly. 

b. Job Enlargement 

Rather than rotating employees through different jobs, job enlargement combines tasks into one job. This approach might involve combining two or more complete jobs into one, or just adding one or two more tasks to an existing job. It is also called horizontal job loading. Before enlargement, workers perform a single specialized task; afterward, they have a "larger" job to do. Thus, after enlargement Jeena and the other employees each does a "bigger" job than s/he did previously. Thus, assembling the pens has been refined as two tasks rather than four. Two employees do the first task, while other 2 employees do the rest jobs.

Merits of job enlargement: (i) Increased number of tasks reduces monotony and boredom. (ii) It has more variety and be more interesting. (iii) Better utilization of employees abilities. 

Demerits of job enlargement: (i) Training costs may increase. (ii) Output may go down during the introduction of a new system. (iii) Employees may ask higher pay. 

c. Job Enrichment 

Job rotation and enlargement were not able to solve the negative effects of extreme job specialization. They were not theory driven methods. Job enrichment approach (as first advocated by Herzberg) assumed that employees could be motivated by positive job related experiences. Feelings of achievement, responsibility and recognition are its examples. To achieve this, job enrichment relies on vertical job loading. That is not only adding more tasks to a job (as in job enlargement). Rather it gives the employee more control over those tasks (for more details see Herzberg's Approach to job design as will be explained in coming paragraphs). 

Merits of job enrichment: (i) Employees get chance to learn new skills, (ii) It helps to reduce employee monotony and boredom, (iii) Increased chances for promotion/career development, and (iv) Higher productivity and motivation. 

Demerits of job enrichment: (i) demands extensive training to employees. (ii) Increased the workload and responsibility to the employees, (iii) Possibility of conflicts with non-enriched jobholder employees. (iv) Not suitable for routine/repetitive type of jobs. 

3. Herzberg's Motivation - Hygiene Approach/Theory (Job Enrichment Approach) 

For several years HR managers were in confusion. The point was why their attractive personnel policies, fringe benefits and work specialization were not able to improve employee motivation and productivity. To answer this, Prof. Herzberg developed two factor theory of motivation. His theory has made a significant contribution. The contribution was toward improving manager's basic understanding of designing enriched jobs. 

Job Enrichment (JE) 

It is a direct outgrowth of Herzberg's two factor theory of motivation. JE refers to the empowerment of employees to assume more responsibility and accountability. They are empowered for planning, organizing, performing, controlling and evaluating their own work., The job enrichment approach was originated in the 1940s at International Business Machines (IBM). In the 1950s, the number of companies interested in job enrichment grew slowly. Designing enriched jobs simply means adding a few more motivators to a job to make it more rewarding and challenging. A job is called enriched when the nature of the job is exciting, challenging and creative. In other words, it gives the job holders more power, autonomy and intrinsic rewards. It demands decentralization of decision making rights to each individual, over areas that directly affect his task functions. 

Characteristics of an enriched job 

According to Herzberg, an enriched job has eight basic characteristics. 

a. Direct feedback: It is the first characteristic. In it, employees should  be able to get immediate knowledge of the results they are achieving. The evaluation of performance can be built into the job. Or, it can be provided by a supervisor. 

b. Client relationship: An employee who serves a client or customer directly has an enriched job. The client can be outside the firm such as a mechanic dealing with a car owner. The client can be inside the firm such as a computer operator executing a job for another department. 

c. New learning: An enriched job allows its employee to feel that he is growing intellectually. An assistant who clips relevant newspaper articles for his/her boss is, therefore, doing an enriched job. 

d. Scheduling own work: Freedom to schedule one's own work contributes to enrichment. Deciding when to tackle which assignment is an example of self-scheduling. Employees who perform creative work have more opportunity to schedule their assignments than those who perform routine jobs. 

e. Unique experience:  An enriched job has some unique qualities or features. For example, a quality controller visiting a supplier. 

f. Control over resources:  One approach to job enrichment for each employee is to have control over his/her resources and expenses. For example, he or she must have the authority to order supplies necessary for completing his job. 

g. Direct communication authority: An enriched job allows the worker to communicate directly with the people who use his or her output. A quality assurance manager handling a customer's complaints about quality are some of its examples. 

h. Personal accountability: An enriched job makes the employee responsible for the results. He or she receives praise for good work and blamed for poor work. 

Being a direct outgrowth of Herzberg's two factor theory of motivation, job enrichment is a valuable motivational technique. 

Some cautions about Job Enrichment are: 

• It is not as substitute for other motivational tools. 
• Enrichment is a relative term (It may be perceived differently). 
• Job enrichment assumes that workers want more responsibility. 
• Job enrichment may have negative short run effects. 
• Job enrichment is not a static process. 
• Workers should be involved in the enrichment process. 
• Change is difficult to implement in the process of enrichment. 
• Job enrichment is an individual theory of work motivation. 

4. The Job Characteristics Approach 

concept 

        One of the more widely accepted frameworks of general guidelines to design the job has been proposed by Hackman and Oldham in 1980. This model is known as "Job characteristics model" or JCM. This theory has dominated the scene of job design in recent decides. This model explains in detail how managers can make job more interesting and motivating. Their model also describes the likely personal and organizational outcomes that will result from enriched/enlarged jobs.

 

Three Critical Psychological States of Job Characteristics Approach

The formulation of this model depends upon three critical psychological states of workers. They basically determine the extent to which the characteristics of the job affect and enhance the employees' responses to the job itself. These three states are given below: 

a. Experienced meaningfulness : It is the degree to which  the individual experiences and perceives his work as generally meaningful, valuable and worthwhile. It is determined by some system of values that the individual accepts. 

b. Experienced responsibility to work outcomes: It is the degree to  which an individual feels personally responsible for the outcomes of his efforts.

c. Knowledge of result: It is the degree to which individuals continuously understand how effectively they are performing the job. Feedback from others help to know this aspect.

Five Core Job Dimensions of Job Characteristics Approach

Hackman and Oldham have identified five core job dimensions (Characteristics) . According to the above three critical psychological states are triggered (indicated) by five characteristics of the job. They are also called core job dimensions. 

1.  Skill variety: It is the degree to which the job requires a variety of activities that involve different skills and talents.
2. Task identity: It is the degree to which the job requires completion of a " whole " and an identifiable piece of work. It means the extent to which a job that has a beginning and an  end with a tangible outcome. 
3. Task significance: It is the degree to which the job affects the lives or work of other people. It covers both the immediate organization and in the external environment.
4. Autonomy: It is the degree to which the  job allows the individual substantial freedom, independence, and discretion to schedule the work. It determines the procedures for carrying out the given work.
5. Feedback: It is the degree to which the job activities give the individual direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance. 

FIVE CORE JOB  DIMENSION

Skill Variety

Task identity

Task Significance

Autonomy

Feedback

THREE CRITICAL PSYCHOLOGICAL STATES

Experienced Meaningfulness of the work

Experienced Responsibility for outcomes of the Work

Knowledge of the Actual Results of Work Activities

FOUR PERSONAL AND WORK OUTCOMES

High Internal Work Motivation

High Quality work Performance

High Satisfaction with the Work

Low Absenteeism and Turnover

 

Individual Differences and Work Outcomes

Personal and Work Outcomes

A total of four personal and work outcomes are affected by five job dimensions processed through three critical psychological states. They are: 

• High internal work performance,
• High quality work performance ,
• High satisfaction with the work, and 
• Low absenteeism and turnover.

Individual Differences 

According to this model, individual differences (i.e. strength of employee growth needs) play a vital role in job design. People with stronger need for personal growth and development will be specially motivated by the five core job characteristics and vice versa. Some of the major factors for individual differences are: 

• Knowledge and skills (competencies) ,
• Growth needs strength (opportunity for self-direction, learning and personal accomplishment, etc.) and 
• Satisfaction with contextual factors.

Guidelines Offered to Strengthen Core Job Dimension

1.  Combine tasks (to strengthen skill variety and task identity).
2.  Forming natural work units (to strengthen task identity and task significance).
3.  Establish client relationships (to strengthen  skill variety, autonomy and feedback).
4. Expanding job vertically (to strengthen autonomy). 
5. Opening feedback channels (to strengthen feedback). 

Research Findings: Tests of this approach have generally produced encouraging result. Based upon a questionnaire developed by Hackman and Oldham, it is possible to calculate a " Motivating Potential Score" . MPS reflects the degree to which the employees see their jobs as motivating. It is calculated by using following formula. 

MPS= [skill variety + Task identity + Task significance ] * Autonomy * Feedback

                                        3

                                

Interpretation: (i) High MPS indicate enriched jobs and low MPS indicate poorly designed jobs. (ii) Though MPS is highly subjective but a score of around 10 is common.

5. Social Information Processing Theory/Approach

Job characteristic model assumed objective measure of the job but that is true theoretically not practically. People are subjective-they may perceive the reality differently. The fact that people respond to their jobs as they perceive them rather than to the objective and jobs themselves is the central thesis (idea) of the social information processing (SIP) model.

Sources of Social Information

• People's perceptions of job characteristics may be influenced by social information. They can be comments, observations, and similar cues provided by people whose view of the job of an employee values.
• Social information may be provided by people directly associated with the job (e.g. co-workers, managers and customers, etc. ).
• It can also be provided by people not employed by the organization (e.g. family members, customers, and friends, etc.).     

Conclusion: Most of an employee's perception of the job characteristics is subject to the influence of others within whom the employee has contact.

What is provided by the individual's social context?

Based on the above perspective, the SIP model states that the individual's social context provides following important information which is valued by the job holder. 

• Cues (hints) as to which dimensions might be used to characterize the work environment .
• Information concerning how the individual should weight the various dimensions- whether autonomy is more or less important than  skill variety. Similarly, whether pay is more or less important than social usefulness or worth.\
• Direct positive or negative evaluation of the work setting. 

Research Findings

• A number of studies generally conforms the validity of the SIP model (though the response is mixed).
• Research suggests that how people perceive their jobs is determined by a complex combination of both objective task characteristics and social information about those characteristics.
• Positive social information and well designed job may produce more favourable results than either positive information or a well designed job alone. 
• Negative information and poorly designed job may produce more negative reactions than either negative social information or a poorly designed job would by itself.
• Negative social information may diminish the  positive effects of well-designed jobs, whereas positive information may at least partly offset the negative consequences of a poorly designed job. 

Managerial Implications

• Employee's motivation and satisfaction can be manipulated by delicate actions. For example, a co-worker or boss commenting on the existence or absence of job features such as difficulty, challenge and autonomy, etc.
• According to this theory, managers should give as much (or more) attention to employees' perceptions of their jobs as to the actual characteristics of those jobs.
• Managers should also not be surprised that newly hired employees transferred or promoted to a new position are more likely to be receptive to social information than are those with greater seniority. 

6. Open Socio- Technical System (Approach)

Concept 

Open socio-technical systems model views organizations as entities with complex relationships within their social systems. This model emphasizes grouping jobs by teams when the reciprocal and/or sequential interdependence among job can't be reduced. Therefore, the use of pooled interdependence tends to occur among team rather than among individual jobs. Use of this model involves vertical job loading to a cluster of jobs within a team as a whole, rather than  to each individual job. The social system+ the technical system =?

This model focuses on organization as made up of people with various competencies ( the social system) who use tools machines and techniques ( the technical system) to create goods or services valued by customers and stakeholders. Important aspects about this model are: 

• It needs to be designed with respect to one another-and to the demands of customers, suppliers and other stakeholders in the external environment.
• To a large extent, this model influences how effective an organization will be.
• All organizations are socio-technical systems, but all don't necessarily reflect the principles contained in this approach. 
• Its objective is to find the best possible match between the: (a) technology available, (b) the people involved, and (c) the organization's needs.
• After teams have been formed, the specific tasks to be performed by team members are considered, along with the relationships among all these tasks.

Core Concepts

The degree to which an organization operates according to the socio-technical systems model can be evaluated in terms of six core concepts. 

a. Innovation:  Organizational leaders and members maintain a futuristic versus historical orientation. This concept includes a propensity for risk taking and provision of rewards for innovation.

b. Human resource development: The talents, knowledge, skills and abilities of organizational members are developed and tapped. It is done through job design supervisory roles, organizational design, and the workflow process. 

c. Environmental agility (alertness): The organization maintains awareness of the environment and responds appropriately to it. This is done by recognizing customer importance, reactivity, and product or service flexibility. 

d. Cooperation : Individuals, teams, and department work together to accomplish common goals. It is done through openness, mutual support, shared values, and common rewards.

e. Commitment and energy: Employees are dedicated to accomplishing organizational goals. So, employees are prepared to expend energy in doing so.

f. Joint optimization: The organization uses both its social and technical resources effectively (including the design of technology to support team work and flexibility). 

Implementation Issues

• The basic issues are the management philosophy and the values that define the organizations culture.
•  Managers interested in improving both the social system and organizational effectiveness may find either the job enrichment or socio-technical systems model to be appropriate.
• Managers interested only in production and efficiency may concentrate on the job enlargement, and job rotation approaches. 

7. Self-Managed Work Team (Autonomous Work Group)

Concept

Self-managed work teams are groups of employees (typically 10 to 15) who perform highly related jobs. They take on many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors. Typically this includes: 

• Planning and scheduling of work, 
• Assigning tasks to members,
• Collective control over the speed of work, 
• Making operating decisions, 
• Making action on problems, and 
• Working with suppliers and customers, etc. 

Fully self-managed work teams even select their own members. These groups allow the members evaluate each others performance. They are free to set sub-budget heads as well as leadership. Team-based organizations rely extensively on this type of teams. These types of teams are based on work processes rather than specialized departments as core work units. These teams complete on entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks. They also are fairly autonomous. There is less need for direct supervision. They are also cross-functional . They rely on people with diverse and complementary skills, knowledge and experience. 

Merits of Teams: 

Types of  Benefits	Specific Benefit	Organizational Example
1.      Enhanced performance	Increased productivity Improved quality Improved customer service	Ampex: On-time customer rose 98% . K-shoes: Rejects per million dropped from 5,000 to 250. Tennessee Eastman: Productivity rose 70%.
2.      Employee benefits	Improved quality of work life Lower stress	Milwaukee mutual : Employee assistance program usage dropped to 40% below industry average.
3.      Reduced costs	Lower turnover and absenteeism Few injuries	Kodak: Reduced turnover to one-half the industry average. Texas instruments: Reduced costs more than 50%. Westinghouse: Costs down 60%.
4.      Organizational enhancements	Increased innovation and flexibility	IDS Mutual Fund Operations: Improved flexibility to handle fluctuations in market activity. Hewlett-Packard: Innovative order-processing system.

Demerits of Teams

1.  It is very difficult to convert simple jobs into self-managed work team jobs. 
2. Some traditional staff groups may feel that their jobs will be endangered. 
3. Another limitation is the slowness of the process of full-team development. 
4. Increased training costs, etc.