Job design has been defined by Davis (1966) as: ‘The specification of the contents,
methods, and relationships of jobs in order to satisfy technological and organizational
requirements as well as the social and personal requirements of the job holder’.
Job design has two aims: first, to satisfy the requirements of the organization for productivity, operational efficiency and quality of product or service, and second, to satisfy the needs of the individual for interest, challenge and accomplishment, thus providing for ‘job engagement’ – commitment to carrying out the job well. Clearly, these aims are interrelated and the overall objective of job design is to integrate the needs of the individual with those of the organization.
The process of job design starts, as described in Chapter 13, from an analysis of what work needs to be done – the tasks that have to be carried out if the purpose of the organization or an organizational unit is to be achieved. The job designer can then consider how the jobs can be set up to provide the maximum degree of intrinsic motivation for those who have to carry them out with a view to improving performance and productivity. Consideration has also to be given to another important aim of job design: to fulfil the social responsibilities of the organization to the people who work in it by improving the quality of working life, an aim which, as stated in Wilson’s (1973) report on this subject, ‘depends upon both efficiency of performance and satisfaction of the worker’. The outcome of job design may be a job description, as explained in Chapter 13, although as noted in that chapter, the emphasis today is more on roles and the development of role profiles.
Principles of job design
Robertson and Smith (1985) suggest the following five principles of job design:
● To influence skill variety, provide opportunities for people to do several tasks and combine tasks.
● To influence task identity, combine tasks and form natural work units.
● To influence task significance, form natural work units and inform people of the importance of their work.
● To influence autonomy, give people responsibility for determining their own working systems.
● To influence feedback, establish good relationships and open feedback channels.
● autonomy, discretion, self-control and responsibility;
● variety;
● use of abilities;
● feedback;
● belief that the task is significant.
Approaches to job design
The main job design approaches are:
● Job rotation, which comprises the movement of employees from one task to another to reduce monotony by increasing variety.
● Job enlargement, which means combining previously fragmented tasks into one job, again to increase the variety and meaning of repetitive work.
● Job enrichment, which goes beyond job enlargement to add greater autonomy and responsibility to a job and is based on the job characteristics approach.
● Self-managing teams (autonomous work groups) – these are self-regulating teams who work largely without direct supervision. The philosophy on which this technique is based is a logical extension of job enrichment.
● High-performance work design, which concentrates on setting up working groups in environments where high levels of performance are required.
Of these five approaches, it is generally recognized that, although job rotation and job enlargement have their uses in developing skills and relieving monotony, they do not go to the root of the requirements for intrinsic motivation and for meeting the various motivating characteristics of jobs as described above. These are best satisfied by using, as appropriate, job enrichment, autonomous work groups or high-performance work design.
Job design has two aims: first, to satisfy the requirements of the organization for productivity, operational efficiency and quality of product or service, and second, to satisfy the needs of the individual for interest, challenge and accomplishment, thus providing for ‘job engagement’ – commitment to carrying out the job well. Clearly, these aims are interrelated and the overall objective of job design is to integrate the needs of the individual with those of the organization.
The process of job design starts, as described in Chapter 13, from an analysis of what work needs to be done – the tasks that have to be carried out if the purpose of the organization or an organizational unit is to be achieved. The job designer can then consider how the jobs can be set up to provide the maximum degree of intrinsic motivation for those who have to carry them out with a view to improving performance and productivity. Consideration has also to be given to another important aim of job design: to fulfil the social responsibilities of the organization to the people who work in it by improving the quality of working life, an aim which, as stated in Wilson’s (1973) report on this subject, ‘depends upon both efficiency of performance and satisfaction of the worker’. The outcome of job design may be a job description, as explained in Chapter 13, although as noted in that chapter, the emphasis today is more on roles and the development of role profiles.
Principles of job design
Robertson and Smith (1985) suggest the following five principles of job design:
● To influence skill variety, provide opportunities for people to do several tasks and combine tasks.
● To influence task identity, combine tasks and form natural work units.
● To influence task significance, form natural work units and inform people of the importance of their work.
● To influence autonomy, give people responsibility for determining their own working systems.
● To influence feedback, establish good relationships and open feedback channels.
● autonomy, discretion, self-control and responsibility;
● variety;
● use of abilities;
● feedback;
● belief that the task is significant.
Approaches to job design
The main job design approaches are:
● Job rotation, which comprises the movement of employees from one task to another to reduce monotony by increasing variety.
● Job enlargement, which means combining previously fragmented tasks into one job, again to increase the variety and meaning of repetitive work.
● Job enrichment, which goes beyond job enlargement to add greater autonomy and responsibility to a job and is based on the job characteristics approach.
● Self-managing teams (autonomous work groups) – these are self-regulating teams who work largely without direct supervision. The philosophy on which this technique is based is a logical extension of job enrichment.
● High-performance work design, which concentrates on setting up working groups in environments where high levels of performance are required.
Of these five approaches, it is generally recognized that, although job rotation and job enlargement have their uses in developing skills and relieving monotony, they do not go to the root of the requirements for intrinsic motivation and for meeting the various motivating characteristics of jobs as described above. These are best satisfied by using, as appropriate, job enrichment, autonomous work groups or high-performance work design.
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