Qn 13)

I. Job Design

Job design can be defined as building the specifications of the position,

requirements, methods, and relationships of the job to compose the various

technological and organizational requirements as well as meet the personal

needs of qualified applicants. Job redesign is an essential commitment 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

redesign can revitalize complacent employees, or combine positions to act as a

change agent within the organization, and provide new goals for employees.

II. Why the Position Was Redesigned

Had no one person performing or fulfilling the positions. Require

collaborating, sharing, and expending invaluable time, resources, and materials

in order to address the needs of a growing market segment and specialization.

Job redesign was considered to simplify responsibilities and tasks of several

consultants that were becoming over aroused and losing control of their sense of

perceived control.

External forces known as deadlines, change-action requests,

cancellations, and add-ons from clients. These external forces and stimuli

overstuffed the belly of our consultants, sub sequentially they turned into over

achievers, became over stimulated, and overwhelmingly engaged (Reeve 329).

These were some of the signals to implement job redesign, be it scientific (job-

simplification), or based on motivational theories.

III. Environmental Impacts Pre-Redesign

The extra stressors were creating anxiety, distrust, and resentment among

team members. One consultant was submitting poor work, and proved that she

was not knowledgeable, and interested about open source programming, or

systems. This occurred during a demanding client-server application project. Her

need to fit in with the group and produce quality work was causing animosity

between two other consultants due to her relentless questioning of how her

programming was benefiting the project. The individual is a novice programmer

and her apparent need for achievement or affiliation, was causing tension to

other skilled programmers (Reeve 152). I realized that the consultant needed to

fit in with a group, after a formal interview. The employee was motivated by

allowing her to join with me in job redesign for the new OSMD position.

IV. Research Findings

Treating a human as a human, and not as a machine, especially in a work

setting where the environment is often demanding with little recognition. Taylor-

isms were considered, but money is only one method of motivation.

The research had led to a paradigm shift in my knowledge of job redesign.

The prominent changes included that job design must address the psychological

needs of one’s employees including their skills, abilities, needs (Maslow), as well
as the duties of the job. I requested that the employees help design the position,

and their input was solicited.

V. Redesigned

Rather than being controlling, should contribute to the position

requirements, and discuss how those requirements would benefit or cause

conflict to their own positions to eliminate further conflict among peers. The

contributions of the staff provided valuable ideas that became the foundation for

organisation. The skills, abilities, and needs of the position are clear. The

employee shall be zealous of open source, which may provide passion, and goal

seeking behavior. The position requires monitoring, and steering for the sake of

profit within the projects. This action of having the consultants contribute to the

redesign of the position reinforced trust and relatedness (Reeve 107). Because

everyone had changes to make, we were all challenged, since some of our

primary responsibilities shifted across what were once boundaries. We had to

support each other to affect that change and the momentum created new

challenges due to the shift in the organization hierarchy.

VI. Organizational Changes & Job Redesign

The hierarchy of the organization needed change to place an equal

importance on the new position. It was best to change the hierarchy from the

bottom up. In order to facilitate the job redesign within the organization, its better

to engage all to generate their ideas into drafts of specific intentions of the job
characteristics, and the expectations of those characteristics. In an all hands staff

meeting the major goals of the company affected by the new position, where

collected, collaborated, and used the group consensus to construct an

achievable set of goals to sustain our collective impetus for the organization and

pending projects during the redesign.

The raise of status of an organization alone provided a need to

consultants that allowed them to see, measure, and feel growth, alternatively, it

satisfied other consultants need for achievement, and caused revitalization

through renewed passion. That passion was renewed by the contributors feeling

value, which is an intrinsic reward because this is a long-term goal for them as

individuals, and for the company

VII. Job Redesign Research Conclusion

As these employees are freelance ‘consultants’, their monetary needs

should be met by their primary positions, this position would have to have a

reward that was intrinsic. Such award was a desire to perform the duties of the

position, and a love for this particular type of work. The collaboration of the job

redesign was a democratic method that served two purposes: the consultants

designed a near-perfect position for freelance consultants that would create

challenge and maximize the consultant’s potential. Secondly, open collaboration

created trust across organizational barriers despite the differences during the

redesign and implementation. The redesign created autonomy, involvement, or

relatedness, and allowed the most competent consultant to fill the position
without discourse. This helped make the great team even better. Motivation was

encouraged through involvement and trust.

Studies that show the role work design can play in mitigating the potential

negative mental health consequences of practices such as downsizing (Parker,

Wall, & Jackson, JOHP, 1997), temporary contracts (Parker, Griffin, Sprigg, &

Wall, PP, 2002) and lean production (Parker, in press, JAP).

The lesson to be learned from what you are going through is that to be happy in
any job we all have to remain flexible and understand that we might not
understand.

Look at the change or transfer as an opportunity to learn something new, engage

new people and prepare for the future.

By paying attention to work characteristics when designing and implementing

new practices, employee well-being might be protected or even enhanced.

For example, (Parker, Turner, & Griffin, in press) have argued for the importance
of focusing on 'active' mental health outcomes such as mastery, self-efficacy, and
pro-activity, rather than seeing mental health purely in terms of the presence or
absence of symptomatology (e.g., anxiety, depression). Promoting safer work
through redesigning work characteristics is also a key plank in this research