UNIT 6 JOB DESIGN

When you complete this Unit, you should be familiar with:

the concept of job, career, and occupation;
meaning and purpose of an effective job design;
different factors influencing effective job design;
traditional approach to job design;
contemporary job design techniques;
how to design a suitable job;
impact of advance technology on job design; and
various impediments faced by an organization while designing and
implementing a new-fangled job design.

Unit Structure
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Meaning of Job, Occupation, and Career
6.3 Meaning of Job Design
6.4 Purpose of Job Design
6.5 Factors Influencing Effective Job Design
6.6 Approaches to Job Design
6.7 The Contemporary Approaches
6.8 Job Design and Technology
6.9 Designing a Suitable Job
6.10 Impact of High Technology on Job Design
6.11 Impediments In Job Design
6.12 Summary
6.13 Self Assessment Questions
6.14 Further Readings

6.1 INTRODUCTION
The structure of an organization is characterised by the task and authority
relationships. Jobs are the foundation of this task authority structure .The job
design process lay emphasis on the design or redesign of jobs to incorporate
factors which lead to the achievement of both employee and organizational
objectives. Ineffectually designed jobs often bring about boredom and
consequently increased turnover, reduced motivation, low levels of job
satisfaction, diminished productivity, and an increase in organizational costs.
Many of these negative consequences could be avoided or minimized through
effective job design or proper detection of major job components.

6.2 MEANING OF JOB, OCCUPATION AND CAREER

One of the most frequent questions people often ask one another when they
first meet is “What are you doing?” Instead of saying, “I teach in a college” or
“I treat patients”, a person often says, “I am a teacher” or “I am a doctor”
like this. This exhibits the occupation of a person. Occupation provides a
person his identity. It talks a great deal about ones social position. The idea
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Approaches To Work Design of occupation also implies a set of social relationships (Hughes, 1945). For
instance, the occupation as a professor implies that students , other professors,
and publishers’ representatives are part of the set of their social relationships.
Finally, occupations are by and large linked to the work of adults (Roe, 1956).
The work carried out by teenagers is not often considered as an occupation,
because it does not frame a major part of their identities as individuals.

Taking into account all of these considerations, occupation is defined as “the

social role performed by adult members of society that directly and/or
indirectly yields social and financial consequences and that constitutes a
major focus in the life of an adult” (Hall, 1975).

A job is a person’s occupation at one point in time. A career is the unfolding

sequences of jobs that a person has over the life course.

6.3 MEANING OF JOB DESIGN

The term ‘job design’ refers to the way the tasks are combined to form a
complete job. It can be defined as building the specifications of the
position, contents, method and relationships of the job so as to meet with
various technological and organizational requirements as well as meet the
personal needs job holders. According to Bowditch and Buono, job design
refers to “ any set of activities that involve the alteration of specific jobs or
interdependent systems of jobs with the intent of improving the quality of
employee job experience and their on- the-job productivity.”

While designing a job, the following points are to be borne in mind:

Job redesign is an essential allegiance to quality improvement of the
individual, and the organization.
It should be performed from either the bottom up, or top down, depending
upon the hierarchy and responsibility of the position and its relationships
within the organization.
Job design is a process which integrates work content (tasks, functions,
relationships), the reward (extrinsic and intrinsic), and the qualifications
required (skills, knowledge, abilities) for each job in a way that meet the
needs of employees and the organization.
Some jobs are routine because the tasks are consistent and repetitive; other
are non-routine. Some require a large number of varied and diverse skills;
other are narrow in scope. Some jobs constrict employees by requiring
them to follow very clear-cut procedures; others allow employees
considerable autonomy in how they do their work. Some jobs are most
effectively accomplished by groups of employees working as a team;
whereas other jobs are best done by individuals acting essentially
independently. Thus jobs differ in the way their tasks are combined, and
different combinations produce a variety of job designs in the organization.

6.4 PURPOSE OF JOB DESIGN

There are three objectives of jobs design which are as follows:
to meet the organizational requirements such as higher productivity,
operational efficiency, quality of product/service, etc.;
to satisfy the needs of the individual employees like interest, challenge,
achievement or accomplishment, etc.; and
to integrate the needs of the individual with the organizational requirements.
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 Job Design
6.5 FACTORS INFLUENCING EFFECTIVE JOB
DESIGN
While designing a job, the following factors are taken into consideration.
i. The volume of work - it will determine by and large the number of
jobs.
ii. The complexity of the work - to be carried out, both in terms of its
variety or breadth and its technical difficulty or depth.
iii. The work processes involved -It might be desirable for one person to be
involved in an entire process, or the work flows may be such that the
work process has to be divide between several different people.
iv. The nature of the people currently employed in the organization-The
extent to which jobs can be redesigned depend largely on the kind of
people employed
v. The sequence of flows in the process- the succession of events and
their timings affect how the work can be organized. Where activities
are carried out over a longer period, this is likely to be the cause of
greater complexity.
vi. The timescales - where immediate responses are required, specific jobs
may have to be earmarked to provide such responses. Work requiring
longer planning horizons is likely to be more complex and needs
therefore to be done at a higher level.
vii. The geographical scattering of the organization’s activities .
viii. The involvement of other parts of the organization in the overall
process- there may be a need for extensive communication and
coordination and the design of jobs should take account of the way this
is to be achieved.
ix. The effect of information technology (Cushway and Lodge, 2001).

6.6 APPROACHES TO JOB DESIGN

Basically there are two approaches to job designs which are based upon two
different postulations about people. The first approach entails fitting people to
jobs. It is based upon the assumption that people can be adapted to any work
situation. Thus employee attitudes towards the job are ignored and jobs are
designed to produce maximum economic and technological efficiency. This
approach uses the principles of scientific management and work simplification.
In contrast , the second approach entails fitting jobs to people. Is based
upon the assumption that people are underutilized at the work and they desire
more challenges and responsibility. Techniques such as job rotation, job
enlargement etc. are used while designing jobs according to the second
alternative.

The First Approach

Developed by F.W. Taylor, scientific management relied on research and
experimentation to determine the most efficient way to perform jobs. Jobs are
highly standardised and specialised. Taylor advocates vertical job specialization
so that detailed procedures and work practices are developed by engineers ,
enforced by supervisors, and executed by employees.

He also applied horizontal job specialization such as narrowing the supervisor’s

role to such a degree that one person manages operational efficiency, another
manages inspection, and another is disciplinarian.
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Approaches To Work Design Advantages:

Job specialization increases:

Work efficiency; and
Employees productivity.
Disadvantages:
It increases work efficiency, but it doesn’t necessarily improve job
performance as it ignores the effects of job content on employees.
It costs more in terms of higher turnover, absenteeism, and mental health
problems.
Employees are concerned only with a small part of the process, so they
can’t be identified with the customer’s needs.
It ignores the motivational potential of jobs.
It doesn’t apply to professional “ knowledge workers”.

The Second Approach

During and immediately after the second world war American writers,
particularly, were questioning the association between job and organization
design and productivity. It was being understood that problems occur in the
selection of personnel if only those able to tolerate and work well in simple,
highly repetitive jobs are to be recruited. As early as 1950 in the USA, job
rotation and job enlargement were being both encouraged and tasted as means
for overcoming boredom at work with all its associated problems. In an early
case example IBM introduced changes to machine operators’ jobs to include
machine setting and inspection. Besides they introduced other wide-ranging
changes in both the production system and the role of foremen and supervisors.
The concepts of both job rotation and enlargement do not have their basis in
any psychological theory. However, the next generation of attempts to redesign
jobs emerging from the USA developed from the researches of Frederick
Herzberg. During the 1950’s and 1960’s, Herzberg developed his ‘Two
Factor’ theory of motivation.

Figure 1: Various Techniques of Job Design

High Sociotechnical
system
Job enrichment

Job enlargement
Impact

Medium

Job engineering

Job rotation

Low
Low Medium High

Complexity

4 Source: Helliriegel, Slocum, and Woodman (2001).

Thus five most commonly used approaches to job design in the second category Job Design
are shown in Figure 1. The vertical axis indicates the impact dimension, which
means the degree to which a job design approach is linked to factors beyond
the immediate job, such as reward systems, performance appraisal methods,
leadership practices of managers, customer needs, organization structure,
physical working conditions, and team composition and norms-as well as its
likely effect on changes in effectiveness and quality. The Complexity
dimension, on the horizontal axis, is the degree to which a job design approach
requires (1) changes in many factors, (2) the involvement of individuals with
diverse competencies at various organizational levels; and (3) a high level of
decision-making competency of successful implementation.

I. Job Rotation
Job design involves periodic assignment of an employee to completely different
sets of job activities. As traditionally used, job rotation is low in both impact and
complexity because it typically moves employees from one routine job to
another.
Advantages:

It is an effective way to develop multiple skills in employees, which benefits

the organization while creating greater job interest and career options for the
employee.
Job rotation may be of considerable benefit if it is part of a larger redesign
effort and/or it is used as a training and development approach to develop
various employee competencies and prepare employees for advancement.
At times, it may be used to control the problem of repetitive stress injuries
by moving people among jobs that require different physical movements.

II. Job Engineering

Frederick W. Taylor established the basis for modern industrial engineering late
in the nineteenth century. Job engineering focuses on the tasks to be
performed, methods to be used, workflows among employees, layout of the
workplace, performance standards, and interdependencies between people and
machines. Job design factors are to be examined by means of time-and-motion
studies, determining the time required to do each task and the movements
needed to perform it efficiently.

A keystone of job engineering is specialisation of labor with the goal of

achieving greater efficiency. High levels of specialisation are intended to :
allow employees to learn a task rapidly;
permit short work cycles so that performance can be almost automatic and
involve little or no mental effort;
make hiring easier because low-skilled people can be easily trained and paid
relatively low wages; and
reduce the need for supervision, owing to simplified jobs and standardization.
Advantages:

It is an imperative job design approach because the resulting cost savings

can be measured immediately and easily.
It is concerned with appropriate levels of automation, that is, looking for
ways to replace workers with machines to perform the most physically
demanding and repetitive tasks.
The job engineering approach often continues to be successfully used,
especially when it is combined with a concern for the social context in 5
Approaches To Work Design which the jobs are performed. One expert who advocates the job
engineering approach while involving employees in decisions about their jobs
prescribes the following “golden rules of work design”.
Ensure that the end product/output of the work is clearly defined,
unambiguous, and fully understood by the employees.
Ensure that the steps/tasks to be performed to achieve the required and
product/output are clearly defined in the appropriate sequence and are
fully understood by the employees.
Ensure that the employees know and understand where their
responsibility starts and finished in the work process.
Ensure that the tools, facilities, and information needed to perform
the work are readily available to and fully understood by the
employees.
Ensure that there is a process whereby the employees can suggest
possible improvements in the work design and exercise initiative in
implementing them.
Ensure that the employees are involved in the work design process
(Bentley,1999).

III. Job Enlargement

Job enlargement combines into one job with two or more tasks which are to
be performed. Sometimes it is called “ horizontal loading” as all tasks involve
the same level of responsibility .The job enlargement approach often has
positive effects on employee effectiveness. However, some employees view
job enlargement as just adding more routine, repetitive tasks to their already
boring job. Other employees regard it as eliminating their ability to perform
their jobs almost automatically.
Advantages:
Job enlargement and job rotation approaches are useful in many work settings.
One of their biggest advantages is that :
They offer a form of training.
They allow workers to learn more than one task, thus increasing their value
to the employer.
As they allow workers to perform many tasks, they can be used more
flexibly as circumstances require.

IV. Job Enrichment

Frederick Herzberg, the advocate of two-factor theory, cautioned that jobs
designed according to rules of simplification, enlargement, and rotation can’t be
expected to be highly motivational for the workers. He instead suggested a
clear and distinct job design alternative called “job enrichment”.

Job enrichment seeks to add profundity to a job by giving workers more

control, responsibility, and freedom of choice over how their job is performed. It
occurs when the work itself is more challenging, when achievement is
encouraged, when there is prospect for growth, and when responsibility,
feedback, and recognition are provided. Nonetheless, employees are the final
judges of what enriches their jobs.

Herzberg developed the following set of principles for the enrichment of jobs:
removing some controls while retaining accountability;
increasing personal accountability for work;
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 assigning each worker a complete unit work with a clear start and end Job Design
point;
granting additional authority and freedom to workers;
making periodic reports directly available to workers rather than to
supervisors only;
the introduction for new and more difficult tasks into the job;
encouraging the development of expertise by assigning individuals to
specialized tasks.

Herzberg’s Checklist
Herzberg’s other major contribution to the development of ideas in the area of
job design was his checklist for implementation. This is a prescription for those
seeking accomplishment in the enrichment of jobs:
select those jobs where technical changes are possible without major expense;
job satisfaction is low;
performance improvement is likely with increases in motivation;
hygiene is expensive;
examine the jobs selected with the conviction that changes can be
introduced;
‘green light’ or ‘brainstorm’ a list of possible changes;
screen the list (red lighting) for hygiene suggestions and retain only ideas
classed as motivators;
remove the generalities from the list retaining only specific motivators;
avoid employee involvement in the design process.
set up a controlled experiment to measure the effects of the changes;
anticipate an early decline in performance as workers get use to their new
jobs.

Difference Between Job Enlargement and Job Enrichment

The difference between enlargement and enrichment is illustrated in Figure 2 .
The Figure reveals that job enrichment focuses on satisfying higher-order needs,
whereas job enlargement concentrates on adding additional tasks to the
Figure 2 : Difference Between Job Enlargement and Job Enrichment

Higher-
Order
Job Job enrichment
(Focus on depth)
Accent on needs

enrichment and enlargement

Routine Job enlargement

job
Lower-
order
Few Many

Number of tasks
(Focus on breadth)

Source: Newstrom and Davis, 2002. 7

Approaches To Work Design worker’s job for greater variety.Adopting a new technology typically requires
changes in the way jobs are designed. Often the way the task is redefined fits
people to the demands of the technology to maximize the technology’s
operation. But this often fails to maximise total productivity, because it ignores
the human part of the equation. The social relationships and human aspects of
the task may suffer, lowering overall productivity The sociotechnical systems
approach to work redesign specifically addresses this problem.

V. Socio-technical System Approach

At the same time that job redesign techniques were being developed and
implemented in the U.S.A. progress was being made, particularly in Europe and
Scandinavia, on the development of the socio-technical systems approach. The
term socio-technical systems is largely associated with experiments that
emerged under the auspices of the Tavistock Institute in Great Britain or
have stemmed from the Tavistock approach. The focal point is the working
group and the aim is to develop a match between the needs of the group and
the organization in relation to the technology.

Under the socio-technical system approach, jobs are designed by taking a

“holistic” or “systems” view of the entire job situation, including its physical and
social environment. The socio-technical approach is situational because few
jobs involve identical technical requirements and social surroundings. Specifically,
the socio-technical approach requires that the job designer should cautiously be
concerned about the role of employee in the socio-technical system, the nature
of the tasks performed, and the autonomy of the work-group. The essential
elements of the socio-technical system approach are as under:
A job need to be reasonably demanding for the individual in terms other
than sheer endurance and yet provide some variety (not necessarily novelty).
Employees need to be able to learn on the job and to go on learning.
Employees need some minimum area of decision-making that they can call
their own.
Employees need some minimal degree of social support and recognition at
the workplace.
Employees need to be able to relate what they do and what they produce to
their social life.

6.7 THE CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES

I. Job Characteristics Approach
The job characteristics enrichment model involves increasing the amounts of
skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback in a job.
The model proposes that the levels of these job characteristics affect three
critical psychological states (1) experienced meaningfulness of the tasks
performed (2) experienced personal responsibility for task outcomes, and (3)
knowledge of the results of task performance. If all three psychological states
are positive, a reinforcing cycle of strong work motivation based on self-
generated towards is activated. A job without meaningfulness, responsibility,
and feedback is incomplete and doesn’t strongly motivate an employee. The
model given in Figure 3 exhibits the core dimensions of the job characteristics
enrichment model and their relationships. The five core job dimensions are:

Skill Variety — the degree to which a job requires a variety of different

activities in carrying out the work and which use different skills and talents of
the person.
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Task Identity — the degree to which the job requires completion of a “whole” Job Design
and identifiable piece of work. Doing a job from beginning to end with a visible
outcome.

Task Significance — the degree to which the job has a substantial impact on
the lives or work of other people.

Autonomy — the degree to which the job provides substantial freedom,

independence, and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and in
determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out.

Figure 3: The Job Characteristics Model

Core Critical Individual

Job Psychological Work
Characteristics States Outcomes

Skill variety Experienced High intrinsic

Task identity meaningfulness of work motivation
Task significance the work High-quality
work performance
Experienced
Autonomy
responsibility for High satisfaction
outcomes for the work with the work

Feedback Knowledge of actual Low absenteeism

result of the work and turnover

Moderators
Growth-need strength

Knowledge and skill

“Context” satisfaction

Source: Adapted from J. Richard Hackman and Greg R. Oldham ( 1975), “ Development
of the Job Diagnostic Survey”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol.60, p.161.

Feedback — the degree to which carrying out the work activities required by
the job results in the individual’s obtaining direct and clear information about the
effectiveness of his or her performance.

The first three job dimensions contribute to a job’s meaningfulness. The degree
of autonomy provides feeling of personal responsibility for work outcomes.
The amount of feedback provides knowledge of results. These three aspects,
according to Hackman, are critical psychological states that affect a person’s
motivation and satisfaction on the job.

Implications for Job Design

From the above it should be clear that as far as possible jobs should:
provide variety in terms of the kind of work carried out, its pace, location
etc;
allow people to get direct feedback on results;
allow scope for development by enabling the job to become bigger as the
person becomes more skilled and knowledge;
have clear objectives and outputs;
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Approaches To Work Design have clear reporting liens;
give people some control over output and pace;
give people the opportunity to comment and suggest changes to the work
process;
be supported by the appropriate level of resources and effective process.

Diagnostic Use of the Model

A Job Diagnosis Survey has been developed using the model above. The types
of questions included in it are:
Are motivation and satisfaction really a problem? This can be
documented through turnover, absenteeism, problems in work performance
Is the job low in motivating potential? If scores on measurements of the
five job dimensions are low, it suggests the motivating potential may be low
or absent.
What specific aspects of the job are causing the difficulty? To target the
points where change in job design may be necessary
How ready are the employees for change? Some employees may not
have strong needs for growth; if so, introduce change with caution
What special problems and opportunities are present in the existing
work system? If job dissatisfaction lies outside the job itself, e.g., with
hygiene factors of pay, job security, co-workers, work condition, then these
may need to be addressed first.

Social Information Processing

The job characteristics enrichment model is based on the assumption that
employees can respond reasonably, accurately, and objectively when asked
about the characteristics of their jobs. However, the fundamental to job
enrichment lies in how employees use the social cues provided by their peers
and others to arrive at their own perception of their jobs. This activity is
called social information processing .

Social information may be provided by people directly associated with the job
(e.g. ,coworkers, managers, and customers) and by people not employed by the
organization (e.g family members and friends). It basically covers three
elements. First, peers may suggest which of the job characteristics really count
to them . Second, they may offer their personal model regarding the relative
weighting of each core dimension. Third, peers may provide direct or indirect
clues about their own judgments of the dimensions..

There are certain aspects of a job which aren’t likely to be influenced by

cues from others . But most of an employee’s perceptions of job characteristics
are subject to the influence of others with whom the employee has contact.
Based on this viewpoint, the social information processing model states that the
individual’s social context provides:
cues as to which dimensions might be used to characterize the work
environment;
information concerning how the individual should weigh the various
dimensions-whether autonomy is more or less important than skill variety or
whether pay is more or less important than social usefulness or worth;
cues concerning how others have come to evaluate the work environment
on each of the selected dimensions; and
directed positive or negative evaluation of the work setting, leaving the
individual to construct a rationale to make sense of the generally shared
10 affective reactions (Thomas and Griffin, 1989).
The social Information Processing view has the following implications for job Job Design
design.
Participation in job design process may produce feelings of high satisfaction
independent of any job design changes.
Using the Job Diagnostic Survey, or any other questionnaire, before changing
the design of jobs may sensitize people to certain job characteristics they
had not noticed before.
Perceptions of job characteristics can be manipulated by the social
information made available to employees by managers and coworkers in the
organization.
Activity A
Consider your academic “job” as a student. Rate it on each of the five core
dimensions according to how much of each is presently in it (1 = low amount;
10 = high amount). Compute a motivating potential score for yourself by using
the MPS formula. What does this information tell you?

Job Dimension Your Rating

Skill variety __________________

Task identity __________________

Task significance __________________

Autonomy __________________

Feedback __________________

MPS __________________

The MPS is calculated as follows:

MPS = Skill variety + Task identity + Task significance X Autonomy X Feedback
3

Low score indicates that a student does not experience high internal motivation
from his academics. High score indicates that the student experiences high
internal motivation from his academics .
Activity B
On the basis of the discussion on job characteristics model as well as social
information processing, explicate the level to which the content task
characteristics and information cues from your colleagues help you on your job
performance.
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Approaches To Work Design Activity C
Job Characteristics Inventory
Directions
The following list contains statements that could be use to describe a
job. Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with
each statement as a description of a job you currently hold or have
held, by writing the appropriate number next to the statement. Try to
be as objective as you can in answering.

1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Disagree Uncertain Agree Strongly Agree
Disagree

This job…
————1. provides much variety.
————2. permits me to be left on my own to do my work.
————3. is arranged so that I often have the opportunity to see jobs or
projects through to completion.
————4. provides feedback on how well I am doing as I am working
————5. is relatively significant in my organization.
————6. gives me considerable opportunity for independence and freedom in
how I do the work.
————7. provides different responsibilities.
————8. enables me to find out how well I am doing.
————9. is important in the broader scheme of things.
————10. provides an opportunity for independent thought and action.
————11. provides me with considerable variety of work.
————12. is arranged so that I have the opportunity to complete that work I
start.
————13. provides me with the feeling that I know whether I am performing well
or poorly.
————14. is arranged so that I have the chance to do a job from the beginning
to the end (i.e., a chance to do the whole job.)
————15. is one where a lot of other people can be affected by how well the
work gets done.

Scoring
For each of the five scales, compute a score by summing the answers to the
designated questions.

Score
Skill variety: Sum the points for items 1,7, and 11. __________
Task identity: Sum the points for items 3,12, and 14, __________
Task significance: Sum the points for items 5,9, and 15, __________
Autonomy: Sum the points for items 2,6, and 10, __________
Job feedback: Sum the points for items 4,8, and 13, __________

Total Score __________

Summary interpretation
A total score of 60-75 suggests that the core job characteristics contribute to an
overall positive psychological state for you and, in turn, leads to desirable personal
and work outcomes. A total score of 15-30 suggests the opposite.

Source: Adapted from Sims H.P., Jr., Szilagyi, A.D., and Keller, R.T. The Measurement of
job characteristics. Academy of Management Journal, 1976,19,195-212.

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II. Team Approach: Designing Job for Teams Job Design

Individual employees perform operating tasks, but the vast majority of them
work in regular small groups. Where their work is interdependent, they act as
a task team and seek to develop a cooperative state called teamwork. A task
team is a cooperative small group in regular contact that is engaged in
coordinated action. The frequency of team members’ interaction and the
team’s ongoing existence make a task team clearly different from either a
short-term decision-making group (committee) or a project team in a matrix
structure.

At least four ingredients contribute to the development of teamwork: a

supportive environment, skills matched to role requirements, super ordinate goal,
and team rewards.

Classical organization structures did not rely heavily on teams, despite that
division of work into functional units and multiple levels. But in recent years,
attention is focused on the design of the work group and its activities rather
than the design of each individual job. In designing the work group activity
one of the basic principles is that of ‘minimum critical specification’ of the task
and the ‘minimum critical specification of tasks to job. Specification of
objectives remains essential but the means for obtaining them in many instances
can be decided by the task performer. This approach should result in a greater
degree of flexibility for individual job holders within the work system and allow
for their personal development through increased involvement in decision making
relation to the control and regulation of the work system.
Suggested guiding principles for the design of work group activity include;
Primary work groups should have between four and twenty members.
The primary work group should have a designated leader who is accountable
for the group’s performance.
The group should be assigned tasks which make up a complete unit of work.
Wherever possible the group members should have responsibility for planning
their own work.
Group members should then be involved in evaluating their performance in
relation to the plans.

Activity D

Discuss the factors that affect a person’s perception of the objective

characteristics of a job. What implications do you see for a job design strategy?
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III. Goal Setting

Goals and objectives, in the form of desired performance results, are important
aspects of any job design.

Goal Setting Theory

Goal setting is the process of developing, negotiating, and formalising the
specific outcome targets or task objectives that a person is responsible for
accomplishing. Over a number of years, Edwin Locke and his associates have 13
Approaches To Work Design developed a comprehensive frame work that links goals to performance in the
following ways.
Difficult goals are more likely to lead to higher performance than are less
difficult ones. The goals must be challenging but achievable
Specific goals are more likely to lead to higher performance than are vague
or general ones, or the absence of any goals at all.
Task feedback or knowledge of results is likely to motivate people towards
higher performance. Knowing results seems to encourage the setting of
higher goals for the future. Feedback is also a reward or indictor of
performance accomplishment, and it is a source of information that can be
sued for work adjustments to better performance.
Goals are most likely to lead to higher performance when people have and
are confident in the required task abilities. An individual must have the
necessary abilities and to feel confident in them as well. A lack of
confidence, or inadequate self-efficacy, can create performance problems for
even a very capable person.
Goals are most likely to motivate when they are accepted and the individual
is committed to them. A way of building such acceptance and commitment
is by allowing the individual to participate in the goal-setting process. This
helps to create a sense of “ownership” of the goals.

Goal Setting and MBO

When we speak of goal setting and its potential to influence individual
performance at work, the concept of management by objectives (MBO)
immediately comes to mind. This concept was given by Peter F. Drucker .
General Electrics was the first company to adopt MBO and put it into practice
with Drucker’s help as a consultant.

MBO is essentially a process of joint goal setting. It is a systematic and

organized approach that allows management to focus on achievable goals and
to attain the best possible results from available resources. The principle behind
MBO is to make sure that everybody within the organization has a clear
understanding of the aims, or objectives of that organization, as well as
awareness of their own roles and responsibilities in achieving those aims. The
details of MBO , that is, its objectives , types, advantages , disadvantages etc.
are presented in the Figure 4.

Figure 4: Details of the MBO Process

Types of Objectives
Routine objectives The objectives must be:
Innovation objectives focused on a result, not an activity
Improvement objectives consistent
specific
measurable
related to time
attainable
MBO Strategy

All individuals within an organization are assigned a special set of

objectives that they try to reach during a normal operating period. These
objectives are mutually set and agreed upon by individuals and their
managers.
Performance reviews are conducted periodically to determine how close
individuals are to attaining their objectives.
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 Job Design
Rewards are given to individuals on the basis of how close they come
to reaching their goals.
MBO Stages

Define objectives at board level

Analyse management tasks and devise formal job specifications, which
allocate responsibilities and decisions to individual managers
Set performance standards
Agree and set specific objectives
Align individual targets with corporate objectives
Establish a management information system to monitor achievements
against objectives

MBO : Key Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

MBO programs continually emphasise what should be done in an

organization to achieve organizational goals
MBO process secures employee commitment to attaining organizational
goals
Disadvantages
The development of objectives can be time consuming, leaving both
managers and employees less time in which to do their actual work
The elaborate written goals, careful communication of goals, and detailed
performance evaluation required in an MBO program increase the
volume of paperwork in an organization.

6.8 JOB DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

Technology refers to the techniques, tools, methods, procedures, and machine
that are used to transform objects (materials, information, and people).
Employees use technology to acquire inputs, transform inputs into outputs, and
provide goods or services to clients and customers. Here, the discussion
focuses on the concepts of workflow uncertainty, task uncertainty, and task
interdependence as they relate to job design.

Role Of Workflow And Task Uncertainty

Workflow uncertainty is the degree of knowledge that an employee has about
when inputs will be received and require processing. When there is little
workflow uncertainty, an employee may have little discretion (autonomy) to
decide which, when, or where tasks will be performed. For the most part, the
production workers at an automobile assembly plant experience a low
degree of workflow uncertainty. If fact, the application of the job engineering
approach in automobile assembly plants is intended to minimize workflow
uncertainty.

Task uncertainty is the degree of knowledge that an employee has about how
to perform the job and when it needs to be done. When there is little task
uncertainty, an employee knows how to produce the desired results. Through
extensive training and the standardization of jobs, management typically attempts
to minimize task uncertainty in assembly plants.

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Approaches To Work Design Figure 5 : Combinations Of Workflow Uncertainty And Task Uncertainty

High
2
Brain Surgeon Research Scientist 3
Design Engineer Top Manager
High School Teacher Emergency Ward Physician

Low Task Uncertainty

Assembly Line Worker
Bank Teller
Custodian
Toll Booth Collector
File Clerk
Bartender 4
1

Low Workflow Uncertainty High

Source: Adapted from Slocum, J.W.., Jr .and Sims , H.P ., Jr. “Typology For Integrating
Technology. Organization, and Job Design “, Human Relations, 1980,33,196;
Susman, G. I. Autonomy at Work- A Socio Technical Analysis of Participative
Management , New York: Praeger,1980,132.

Combined Effects of Workflow and Task Uncertainty

Figure 5 shows the main combinations of workflow uncertainty and task
uncertainty. Each of the four cells contains example of jobs that fall primarily
into each category. However, be careful not to stereotype particular jobs by
thinking of them only in terms of a single position of the grid. Job redesign
often modifies them and changes their levels of workflow and task uncertainty.
Managerial jobs-including some top-management jobs-could range from the
extreme upper right corner in cell 3 to closer to the center of the grid. Also,
some jobs don’t fit neatly into single cell. For example, an auditor’s job at an
accounting firm might generally be plotted some where in the middle of the
grid.

The socio technical system and job enrichment approaches generally increases
workflow uncertainty and/or task uncertainty. However, the assembly-line job
shown in cell 1 could be enriched but still be generally classified as a cell-1
type of job. Some people who occupy cell-3 types of jobs could experience
stress from too much workflow and task uncertainty.

Role of Task Interdependence

Task Interdependence is the degree to which decision making and
cooperation between two or more employees is necessary for them to perform
their jobs. The construction of the structural steel framework of a high-rise
building involves a high degree of task interdependence between the crane
operator, ground crew, and assembly crew in moving and joining the steel
girders and beams.

The three basic types of interdependent task relations are pooled, sequential,
and reciprocal. Pooled interdependence is the ability of an employee (or
team) to act independently of others in completing a task or tasks.

Sequential Interdependence is the need for an employee (or team) to

complete certain tasks before other employees (or teams) can perform their
16 tasks. In other words, the outputs from some employees (teams) become the
inputs for other employees (teams). The sequence of interdependencies can be Job Design
a long chain in some mass-production activities.

Reciprocal Interdependence means that the outputs from an individual (or

team) become the inputs for others and vice versa. Reciprocal
interdependencies are common in everyday life. Examples include (1) a family,
(2) a basketball team, (3)a surgical team, (4) a decision-making team, and (5) a
class project assigned to a small team of students. Reciprocal interdependence
usually requires a high degree of collaboration, communication, and team
decision making.

Interrelationships among Job Design and Technology Concepts

Task interdependence, working uncertainty, and task uncertainty must all be
considered in job design. An increase in the use of pooled interdependence
decreases the amount of required coordination among jobs. Less coordination
often means less sequential and/or workflow uncertainty of employees. New
information technologies often change task interdependence, workflow
uncertainty, and task uncertainty-either reducing or increasing them for the
employee. The specific impacts will be influenced by how employees are
expected to use the technology and whether higher management uses the
technology to empower employees or more closely monitor and control them.

6.9 DESIGNING A SUITABLE JOB

In the above sections various alternative approaches to designing jobs are
examined. The limitations as well as strength of these approaches are
identified on the basis of which a list of some attributes of jobs which
contribute to the motivation of employees and can be translated into principles
for the design of jobs is prepared . The list is given below:
an optimum level of variety;
an appropriate degree of repetitiveness;
an appropriate degree of attention with accompanying mental absorption;
an optimum level of responsibility for decisions and degree of discretion
present;
employee’s control over their own job;
the presence of goals and achievement feedback;
perceived contribution to a socially useful product or service;
opportunities for developing friendships;
where dependent upon others for task achievement some influence over the
way the work is carried out;
perceived skill utilization.

6.10 IMPACT OF HIGH TECHNOLOGY ON JOB

DESIGN
In recent years, as computers and high technology become more and more
ingrained in the modern workplace, the basic problem arises how to
successfully fit technological advancements into job designs.

Automation
Highly simplified jobs often cause problems because they offer little intrinsic
motivation for the worker. The tasks have been defined so narrowly that they
lack challenge and cause boredom when someone repeats them over and over
17
Approaches To Work Design again. Given the high technology available today, one way to deal with this
problem is by complete automation-allowing a machine to do the work
previously accomplished through human effort. This approach increasingly
involves the use of robots, which are becoming more and more useful and
reliable.

Flexible Manufacturing
Flexible manufacturing cells, teams of workers using special technology, exploit
adaptive and integrated job designs to shift work among alternative products.
This approach is gradually more widespread. Under this system, a cellular
manufacturing system hold a number of automated production machines that
cut, shape, drill, and fasten together various metal components. Each machine
is attached to the others by convertible conveyor grids that allow quick change
from manufacturing one product to another-such as from air-conditioner
compressors to engine crankshafts.

Workers in the cells perform very few routine assembly-line tasks. As an

alternative, they dedicate most time to make certain that operations are carried
out correctly and to handling changeovers from one product configuration to
another. Above and beyond, to keep production flowing slickly, each worker
needs to improve expertise across a wide range of tasks. In this way flexible
manufacturing cells comprise jobs that are often enriched on the core
characteristics.

Electronic Offices
Electronic office technology was the key when U.S. Healthcare, a large,
private-practice based health maintenance organization (HMO), became
interested in improving the quality of its health-care services. The company
installed large electronic bulletin boards that monitored progress toward a range
of performance goals. It also installed an electronic main (e-main) system,
used robots to dispense paper mail, and installed a computerized telephone
answering machine. Fundamentally, the company tried to automate as many
tasks as possible to free employees for more challenging work.

Continuing development in these electronic offices present many new job

opportunities for those with the necessary abilities and interests, but they can
be stressful and difficult for those who lack the necessary education or skills.
Clearly, today’s high technologies must be carefully integrated with the human
factor, and continuing education and training are still needed to equip people to
deal with emerging workplace technologies.

Work-Flow and Process Reengineering

One of the most recent approaches for upgrading job designs and organizational
performance is based on the concept of process reengineering. Process
engineering means the analysis, reshuffling, and reconfiguration of actions and
tasks required to reach a work goal. This approach methodically breaks work
processes down into their specific components and subtasks, analyses each for
relevance and simplicity, and then does everything possible to reconfigure the
process to eliminate wasted time, effort, and resources.

Job redesign through process reengineering focus on every step in the process,
from the seeking out for items and vendors, to the obtaining of bids, to the
completion of necessary forms, to the securing of required signatures and
approvals, to the actual placing of the order, and so on to the point at which
the new computer actually arrives, is checked in, is placed into an equipment
inventory, and is finally delivered to the workplace.
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Activity E Job Design

Use of various forms of electronic communication is continuing to change work

and the work process. Do you think complete automation can replace the
human factors at work place?
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6.11 IMPEDIMENTS IN JOB DESIGN

Inspite of the possible benefits, job design is not easy to implement. The major
difficulties are as follows:
i. Complexity in measuring the core job characteristics accurately.
Objectively measuring job content is very costly and tough. Therefore the
most prevalent tool for measuring job content is to ask employees to
portray their perceived job characteristics However it is supposed that
these perceptions are very often biased. Until an accurate and cost
effective way to measure job content is found, job design experts would
not be able to point at which jobs entail changing and how well job design
strategies are working.
ii. The contemporary knowledge about job design is restricted by its focus on
individual jobs. Especially, the literature tends to overlook job design
characteristics that apply to team settings. Furthermore, many work
settings require team-based job redesign because the technology is fixed or
the work is too complicated for one person to finish alone.
iii. Job design interventions over and over again face resistance to change.
Some supervisors don’t like job redesign interventions because they change
their roles and may threaten job security. Trade union leaders have been
hostile antagonists of job specialization and scientific management, yet they
complain that job enrichment programs are management ploys to get more
work out of employees for less money. Unskilled employees may lack the
confidence or growth need strength to learn more challenging tasks.
Skilled employees are known to resist job redesign because they believe
the intervention will undercut their power base and compel them to
perform lower-status work.

6.12 SUMMARY
In this unit we have looked at traditional as well as more recent approaches to
the design of jobs. The challenge facing managers at the present and in the
future, is that of employing the new technology with all its prospects in ways
which not only meet the organization’s needs but also the expectations and
desires of employees. In order to achieve this more effectively, there is the
need to further develop these approaches to job and work organization design
which facilitate these broader criteria being incorporated into the design process
as well as the tools with which to achieve the task. The job facing responsible
organizations would therefore be to attain a balance between the needs of the
organizations to achieve it’s goals and the creation of a working environment
which results in the job satisfaction for employees.
19
Approaches To Work Design
6.13 SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
1. Discuss various approaches to job design.
2. Describe the contemporary job design techniques.
3. What is the impact of high technology on job design?

6.14 FURTHER READINGS

Bentley, T. Computer talk: Workflow systems, Management Accounting,
London, January 1999, 54-55.

Bowditch, J.L. and Buono, A.F. A Premier on Organizational Behaviour, New

York: John Wiley and Sons, 1985. p.210.

Drucker, Peter F . The Practice of Management, New York ,Harper &Row,

1954.

Helliriegel, Don, Slocum, John W . and Woodman , Richard W, Organizational

Behaviour, South- Western College Publishing , 2001.

J. Richard Hackman and Greg R. Oldham, “ Development of the Job

Diagnostic Survey”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol.60, p.161, 1975

J. Richard Hackman, “Designing Work for Individuals and for Groups,” pp. 94-
103 of Developing Managerial Skills in Organizational Behaviour, 2 nd ed.
by LA Mainiero and CL Tr omley, Prentice-Hall, 1994.

Mc Shane, Steven L. and VON GLINOW, Mary Ann, Organizational

Behaviour, TATA McGraw- Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi,
2002.

Newstrom, John W. and Davis, Keith , Organizational behavior, human

behaviour at work, TATA McGraw- Hill Publishing Company Limited, New
Delhi, 2002.

Robert Heller and Tim Hindle, Essential Manager’s Manual, 1998.

Samuel C. Certo , Modern Management, Ninth Edition, 2002.

Schermerhorn, Jr. John R. Hunt, James G. and Osborn, Richard N., Basic
Organizational Behaviour, John Wiley & Sons .Inc. , USA, 1998

Thomas, J.G., and Griffin, R.W. The power of social information in the work
place, Organizational Dynamics, Winter 1989, pp. 63-75.

Hall, Richard H. Sociology of Work, Perspectives, Analyses and Issues, Fine

Forge Press.

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