DESIGN OF WORK SYSTEMS

DESIGNING JOBS
 What What
workers workers
do need

• WORK SYSTEMS

• HOW JOBS INTERFACE WITH OTHER JOBS

 Types of task interdependence
• Pooled (independent of each other but under
certain guidelines—bank loan department)
• Sequential (out put of one employee becomes
input of another)
• Reciprocal (work flow is not linear but random
—departments in a hospital)
• JOB ROTATION AT GENERAL ELECTRIC(PG248)
• ELEMENTS OF EXREME JOBS
• JOB ANALYSIS
consists of job description and job
specification
 JOB ANALYSIS
JOB DESCRIPTION JOB SPECIFICATION
JOB TITLE EDUCATION
LOCATION EXPERIENCE
SUMMARY TRAINING
DUTIES JUDGEMENT
MACHINES TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT INITIATIVE
MATERIALS AND FORMS USED PHYSICAL EFFORT
SUPERVISION PHYSICAL SKILLS
WORK CONDITIONS RESPONSIBILITIES
HAZARDS COMMUNICATION SKILLS
EMOTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
• Model of a job description
 Process of job analysis
• Choices--------- extent of employee
involvement, level of details, timing and
frequency of analysis, past vs future oriented
job analysis, sources of job data
 COLLECTON OF INFORMATION
• Information to be collected both from males
and females, low and high performers
• Jobs are becoming more difficult to determine
• Amazon.com
• De jobbed companies –Bharat petroleum
•
 Information Gathering
• Types of job analysis information
work activities, machines, tools and
equipment and work aides, job context,
personal requirement
Persons collecting data
trained analyst, supervisor, job holder
 Information processing
• Combination of job description and job
specification
• Methods of collecting job data
 PROBLEMS WITH JOB ANALYSIS
• SUPPORT FROM TOP MANAGEMENT
• SINGLE MEANS AND SOURCE
• NO TRAINING OR MOTOVATION
• ACTIVITIES MAY BE DISTORTED
 JOB DESIGN
• ORGANISING TASKS TO ACHIEVE CERTAIN
OBJECTIVES
• JD FOLLOWS JOB ANALYSIS
 STEPS INVOLVED IN JD
• Specification of individual tasks
• Specification of methods
• Regrouping to assign to individuals
• Ford –repetitive work(specialisation)
 Factors affecting Job Design
• 1)Organisational factors
• characteristics of Task(internal structure of
each task consists of planning executing
and
controlling)
• Work flow
• Ergonomics
• work practices
•
 2) Environmental Factor
• Employees ability and availability
• Social and cultural expectations

• 3) BEHAVIOURAL ELEMENTS
• feed back , autonomy , use of abilities and
variety
 Job design approaches
• 1) Job Rotation
• 2)Job Engineering—make sure that end
product, tasks , responsibilities, tools and
processes are clearly defined
• 3) Job Enlargement increase in the number of
tasks done by an employee in the same job—
task variety, meaningful work modules, Ability
Utilisation, Worker paced control and
performance Feed Back
• 4) Job Enrichment-making a job more
rewarding by adding more motivators
•
• 4) Job Enrichment-making a job more
rewarding by adding more motivators
• vertical and horizontal enrichment
 POINTS TO PONDER
• Not a substitute for good management
• Enriched is a relative term
• Enriching jobs may create a snowball effect
• Assumes employees want to be enriched
• May have negative short run effects
• Job enrichment may become static
• Change is difficult to implement
 Socio technical systems
• Ergonomics
• Contemporary issues in job design
• Alternative work pattern
• Task revision
• Techno stress
 REDESIGN OF WORK SYSTEM
• Well designed , flexible work system
• Changes could be in job design
• Unnecessary activities are eliminated
 Outsourcing and Off shoring
• When to outsource