Chapter Four: Work Design

Job Design

 Job design refers to specification of task activities associated with a particular job.
 It involves specifying the content and methods of job.
 Job designer focus on

 What will be done

 Who will do the job
 How the job will bob will be done
 Where the job will be done

 The objectives of job design include productivity, safety, and quality of work life.

Behavioral Approach of Job Design

Job Enrichment

 Job enrichment means enriching a job with more responsibility, autonomy, skills and
authority needed to complete those additional tasks.
 In other words, a job is enriched when the nature of the job is exciting, challenging and
creative, or gives the job holder more decision-making, planning and controlling power.
 It is sometimes referred to as vertical loading.
 For example, the duties of a receptionist at a beauty salon may include answering the
phone, setting up appointments, greeting customers and completing payment transactions
after the client is finished with their stylist. The manager might assign the receptionist
additional tasks such as researching and developing new promotional campaigns each
month to increase the amount of clients that come into the salon.
 The job enrichment approach focuses on the motivating potential of worker satisfaction.

Job Rotation

 Job rotation refers to moving employees from job to job to add variety by allowing them
to perform a variety of tasks.
 A firm can use this approach to avoid having one or a few employees stuck in
monotonous jobs.
 When an activity is no longer challenging, the employee would be to another job which
may involve different skills and work activities.
 Job rotation allows workers to broaden their learning experience and enables them to fill
in for others in the event of sickness or absenteeism
 For example, a person initially employed in the engineering department to create new
products may work for one year in the marketing department, to see how products are
positioned and advertised in the marketplace, and then move on to the sales department to
experience the selling process flow.

Job Enlargement

 Job enlargement refers to the expansion of the number of different tasks performed by an
employee in a single job.
 This constitutes horizontal loading- the additional work is on the same level of skill and
responsibility as the original job.
 The goal is to make the job more interesting by increasing the number of tasks and by
providing the worker with a more recognizable contribution to the overall output.
 For example, and auto mechanic undergoes job enlargement when he switches from only
changing oil to changing oil, greasing and changing transmission fluid.

Job Characteristics Approach

 Job characteristics theory of Hackman and Oldham states that employees will work hard,
when they are rewarded for the work they do, and when the work gives them satisfaction.
Hence, they suggest that motivation satisfaction and performance should be integrated in
the job design.
 According to job characteristics approach, any job can be described in terms of five core
dimensions which are defined as follows:
- Skill variety: The degree to which the job requires that workers use a variety of different
activities, talents and skills in order to successfully complete the job requirements.
- Task identity: The degree to which the job allows workers to complete whole tasks from
start to finish, rather than disjointed portions of the job.
- Task significance: The degree to which the job significantly imparts the lives of others
both within and outside the workplace.
- Autonomy: The degree to which the job allows workers freedom in planning and
scheduling and the methods used to complete the job.
- Feedback: The degree to which the job itself provides workers with clear, direct and
understandable knowledge of their performance.