People, jobs and organization

Operations management is often presented as a

subject the main focus of which is on technology, systems,
procedures and facilities in other words the non-human
parts of the organization.
The manner in which an organizations human
resources are managed has a profound impact on the
effectiveness of its operations function. In this chapter we
look especially at the elements of human resource
management which are traditionally seen as being directly
within the sphere of operations management. These are,
how operations managers contribute to human resource
strategy, organization design, designing the working
environment, job design, and the allocation of work
times to operations activities.

Work-related stress: The idea that there is a link between human

resource strategy and the incidence of stress at work is not new. Even
some of the early scientific management pioneers accepted that
working arrangements should not result in conditions that promoted
stress. Now it is generally accepted that stress can seriously undermine
the quality of peoples working lives and, in turn, their effectiveness of
the workplace. Here stress is defined as the adverse reaction people
have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them. In
addition to the obvious ethical reasons for avoiding work-related stress,
there are also business-related benefits, such as the following.
Staff feel happier at work, their quality of working life is improved and
they perform better.
Introducing improvements is easier when stress is managed
effectively.
Employment relations: problems can be resolved more easily.
Attendance levels increase and sickness absence reduces.
Table 9.2 illustrates some of the causes of stress at work and what
operations managers can do about it.

Job design is about how we structure each individuals jobs, the

team to which they belong (if any), their workplace and their
interface with the technology they use. It involves a number of
separate yet related elements.
What tasks are to be allocated to each person in the operation?
Producing goods and services involves a whole range of different
tasks which need to be divided between the people who staff the
operation. Different approaches to the division of labour will lead to
different task allocations.
What is the best method of performing each job? Every job
should have an approved (or best) method of completion. And
although there are different ideas of what is best, it is generally the
most efficient method but that fits the task, and does not unduly
interfere with other tasks. How long will it take and how many
people will be needed? Work measurement helps us calculate the
time required to do a job, and therefore how many people will be
needed.

 How do we maintain commitment? Understanding how we

can encourage people and maintain job commitment is,
arguably, the most important of the issues in job design. This is
why behavioral approaches, including empowerment,
teamwork and flexible working are at the core of job design.
What technology is available and how will it be used?
Many operational tasks require the use of technology. Not
only does the technology need to be appropriately designed,
but also so does the interface between the people and the
hardware.
What are the environmental conditions of the workplace?
The conditions under which jobs are performed will have a
significant impact on peoples effectiveness, Although often
considered a part of job design, we treat it separately in this
chapter.

Task allocation the division of labour: Any operation must decide

on the balance between using specialists or generalists. This idea is
related to the division of labour dividing the total task down into
smaller parts, each of which is accomplished by a single person or
team. There are some real advantages in division of labour:
It promotes faster learning. It is obviously easier to learn how to
do a relatively short and simple task than a long and complex one.
This means that new members of staff can be quickly trained and
assigned to their tasks when they are short and simple.
Automation becomes easier. Dividing a total task into small parts
raises the possibility of automating some of those small tasks.
Substituting technology for labour is considerably easier for short and
simple tasks than for long and complex ones.
Reduced non-productive work. This is probably the most important
benefit of division of labour. In large, complex tasks the proportion of
time spent picking up tools and materials, putting them down again
and generally finding, positioning and searching can be very high
indeed.

There are also serious drawbacks to highly divided jobs:

Monotony. The shorter the task, the more often operators will
need to repeat it. Repeating the same task, for example every 30
seconds, eight hours a day and five days a week, can hardly be
called a fulfilling job. As well as any ethical objections, there are
other, more obviously practical objections to jobs which induce
such boredom. These include the increased likelihood of
absenteeism and staff turnover, the increased likelihood of error
and even the deliberate sabotage of the job.
Physical injury. The continued repetition of a very narrow
range of movements can, in extreme cases, lead to physical
injury. The over-use of some parts of the body (especially the
arms, hands and wrists) can result in pain and a reduction in
physical capability. This is sometimes called repetitive strain
injury (RSI).

 Low flexibility. Dividing a task up into many small parts

often gives the job design a rigidity which is difficult to change
under changing circumstances. For example, if an assembly
line has been designed to make one particular product but then
has to change to manufacture a quite different product, the
whole line will need redesigning. This will probably involve
changing every operators set of tasks, which can be a long and
difficult procedure.
Poor robustness. Highly divided jobs imply materials (or
information) passing between several stages. If one of these
stages is not working correctly, for example because some
equipment is faulty, the whole operation is affected. On the
other hand, if each person is
performing the whole of the job, any problems will only affect
that one persons output.

Designing job methods scientific management: The term

scientific management became established in 1911 with the
publication of the book of the same name by Fredrick Taylor. In
this work he identified what he saw as the basic tenets of
scientific management:
All aspects of work should be investigated on a scientific basis
to establish the laws, rules and formulae governing the best
methods of working.
Such an investigative approach to the study of work is
necessary to establish what constitutes a fair days work.
Workers should be selected, trained and developed
methodically to perform their tasks.
Managers should act as the planners of the work (analysing
jobs and standardizing the best method of doing the job) while
workers should be responsible for carrying out the jobs to the
standards laid down.
Cooperation should be achieved between management and
workers based on the maximum prosperity of both.

Designing for job commitment behavioral approaches

to: job design: Jobs which are designed purely on division of
labour, scientific management or even purely ergonomic
principles can alienate the people performing them. Job
design should also take into account the desire of individuals
to fulfill their needs for self-esteem and personal development.
This is where motivation theory and its contribution to the
behavioral approach to job design is important.
Job rotation: If increasing the number of related tasks in the
job is constrained in some way, for example by the technology
of the process, one approach may be to encourage job
rotation.
Job enlargement: The most obvious method of achieving at
least some of the objectives of behavioral job design is by
allocating a larger number of tasks to individuals. If these
extra tasks are broadly of the same type as those in the
original job, the change is called job enlargement.

Job enrichment: Job enrichment, not only means increasing

the number of tasks, but also allocating extra tasks which
involve more decision making, greater autonomy and greater
control over the job.

Empowerment: Empowerment is an extension of the autonomy job

characteristic prominent in the behavioural approach to job design.
However, it is usually taken to mean more than autonomy. Whereas
autonomy means giving staff the ability to change how they do their
jobs, empowerment means giving staff the authority to make changes
to the job itself, as well as how it is performed.
Team-working: A development in job design which is closely linked
to the empowerment concept is that of team-based work
organization.
The benefits of teamwork can be summarized as:
improving productivity through enhanced motivation and
flexibility;
improving quality and encouraging innovation;
increasing satisfaction by allowing individuals to contribute more
effectively;
making it easier to implement technological changes in the
workplace because teams are willing to share the challenges this
brings.