1

Table of Contents

Abstract.....................................................................................................................................3

Introduction..............................................................................................................................4

Results and Discussion.............................................................................................................5

Limitations and Implications..................................................................................................7

Conclusion.................................................................................................................................8

Appendix...................................................................................................................................9

References...............................................................................................................................12
 2

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to redesign the job roles to increase the productivity and

satisfaction of a project manager at DEAN Automotive Inc, an automotive engineering

services company based out of Canada. In this paper, I started by listing the current roles and

responsibilities of a project manager. I identified the drawbacks of these roles on both the

employee and the company using the job characteristic model (JCM). Further, I have used

traditional factors of motivation, job enlargement, and job enrichment to redefine the roles.

Based on the analysis, I have consolidated the same program of different geographical

regions under one program manager. The advantages of this process were job satisfaction and

motivation for the employee and the company reduced personnel, increase in efficiency, and

customer satisfaction. There were few implications for the whole process, like ambiguity,

fluctuations in efficiency, and stress. These limitations can be addressed by careful planning

and coaching the employees from time to time. It can also be handled by offering extrinsic

and intrinsic rewards.

Keywords: Job characteristic model, job enlargement, job enrichment, extrinsic rewards,

intrinsic rewards
 3

Introduction

DEAN Automotive Inc is an Automotive Engineering services company located in

Ontario, Canada. This company is a Tier 1 Engineering services provider for auto company

Ford. They have multiple vehicle programs like passenger vehicles, trucks, etc., divided

across various geographical locations like North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and South

America. All programs are the same for all geographical regions except for few feature

changes (localization).

There are 500 employees in the company out of which Engineering department has 250

employees. Out of these 250 employees, 200 are Engineers, 30 Project managers, 16 Line

managers, and 4 General managers, the organizational structure of the F150 program (See

appendix A). Project and Line managers were once engineers who were promoted to this

position within the company. According to company policy, a project manager should have at

least twenty Engineers reporting to them. Currently, thirty project managers are assigned with

one program per one geographical region each. For example, a project manager is assigned a

passenger vehicle program for North America, and another project manager is also assigned

the same passenger vehicle program but for Asia pacific.

A project manager’s roles and responsibilities are:

 Provide technical guidance to the team

 Headcount, budget, and infrastructure planning for their project

 Performing performance appraisal for their team

 Conducting daily standup meetings with the team

 Daily status update meeting with the Line manager on resource planning, etc.

 Daily status meeting with clients for updates or feedback on the project.
 4

On average, a project manager spends approximately four hours with team interactions

and planning, two hours for discussion with the manager, and two hours for interaction with

clients.

Results and Discussion

An organization’s success is majorly influenced by factors of employee motivation levels

(Güngör, 2011). The job characteristic model tells us about the intrinsic motivational

parameters of a job. There are five parameters: 1) skill variety which is utilizing an

employees expertise to complete a variety of tasks, 2) task identity is the completion of a task

from start to end as one whole delivery, 3) task significance is the influence of task on other

humans lives within or outside of the company, 4) Autonomy is the freedom, opportunity,

and attentiveness provided by the job in planning the task and deciding the method to do it, 5)

Feedback is immediate and precise information given about the efficacy of the individual

(Hackman & Oldman, 1974).

Drawbacks of current roles and responsibilities :

For a project manager(PM)

 Lack of skill variety due to monotonous tasks.

 Lack of autonomy in a PM’s decision as they have to discuss first with the Line

manager before the client.

 Lack of task identity, PM is assigned only one program per region; this limits their

exposure to the work culture of other areas.

 Most of the time and efforts are spent on team interactions which limits their self-

learning.

 Lack of meaningful feedback as deliveries are not program-wise.

For the company

 5

 Duplication of efforts as PMs are assigned the same programs for different regions.

 Slow decision-making processes as PM has to obtain approval from Line manager

before discussing with the client.

 Not a Lean organizational structure as the number of PM and Engineer positions are

more.

 High attrition rate due to demotivation of employees.

A job redesign is needed to address all the drawbacks of the project manager’s current

roles and responsibilities. Three traditional factors which influence employee motivation are

job enlargement, job enrichment, and job rotation (Dimitrios & Dimitrios, 2013). In this

paper, I will be discussing job enlargement and job enrichment. Job enlargement is about the

quantity of work, and job enrichment is the quality of work.

Job enlargement could motivate employees by giving them more tasks simultaneously

without changing the skill set, which would help build their expertise and growth (Jiang et al.,

2009). In this case, a PM can be assigned the same program from all regions; this will give

them exposure in working with all regions, skill variety, task identity, and wholesome

feedback. The organization can reduce the workforce and infrastructure needed to perform a

task (see Appendix B) for the proposed structure. These saved resources can be redeployed to

other functions like innovation, business development, etc., and the attrition rate can be

reduced as the employees are motivated and satisfied.

Job enrichment is giving complete control or autonomy to the employee of their respective

project. They feel responsible when they are given the power to decide the outcomes of the

projects. This change will motivate the employee and increase their efficiency (Garg &

Rastogi, 2006). In this case, as the project managers work closely with the team and with

clients, they should be given complete autonomy in planning projects. This factor will

provide them with a sense of achievement (task significance), autonomy and motivate them
 6

to perform more. For the company, decisions related to projects can be taken quickly, with no

gap in communication and good customer relationships.

 7

Limitations and Implications

There are some limitations to the whole process of job redesign. It could be costly to

implement job enlargement and job enrichment; enhanced training is needed for the

employees to deal with additional tasks; they might demand a better compensation package

as they are assigned other duties; the increased workload could instill stress; quality of work

could be compromised due to multitasking, and an employee might not be capable of

handling the decision-making process (Levitan & Johnston, 1975). The redesign might fail in

the long run or the short run as soon as it is launched, different employees might perceive it

differently, and they might be demotivated further (Campion et al., 2005).

In this case, to integrate a program from all regions under one project manager, the

company should train the employee on different region’s cultures. The employee should

know about any product changes and expectations of clients per region; they might extend

their working hours to handle all the meetings with clients with different time zones.

Employees might demand a better compensation package for the extra effort.

To handle these limitations, the company should analyze the capabilities and interests of

the employee before making any changes. Constant coaching or hand-holding has to be done

by the managers until the complete transition is done, provide telecommuting options, pay

overtime allowance for an extended hour, and introduce a reward system. The rewards

system is both extrinsic and intrinsic. The best example of extrinsic reward is money, and for

intrinsic, it is good feedback or job satisfaction (Deci and Ryan, 2002). The hope of rewards

in terms of money will improve performance in the future and enhance performance in

immediate tasks that are not relevant to monetary rewards (Zedelius et al., 2012). In this case,

a competency based reward system can be used. The ability of an employee to contribute to

companies growth can be rewarded using competency based rewards (Cofsky, 1993)
 8

Conclusion

The job redesign process enhances employee's motivation and job satisfaction. The current

roles and responsibilities of a program manager at DEAN Automotive Inc have drawbacks

for the employee and the company. The job characteristic model is used to understand the

current motivation factor of an employee. Using traditional tools, job enlargement, and job

enrichment, I have redefined the roles. I proposed to integrate a program from different

regions under one project manager instead of four. This will give job satisfaction to the

employee and for the company a lean structure and cost benefits. However, I identified few

limitations of the redesign process, mainly ambiguity among employees, variation in

efficiency, work-life balance challenges, etc. These limitations can be rectified by proper

planning from the company by introducing intrinsic rewards like feedback, telecommuting,

and extrinsic rewards like competency based rewards to motivate the employees.

The whole implementation process will take six weeks, starting with a planned start of

June 1st, 2021, and the scheduled end date of July 16 th, 2021. Steps to implement job redesign

(see Appendix C).

Step 1: List current PM roles and responsibilities

Step 2: Brainstorming session on limitations of current roles

Step 3: Redesign of roles and responsibilities workshop

Step 4: Analyze the limitations of new roles

Step 5: Update roles and responsibilities based on input from the limitations session

Step 6: Implement redesigned roles and responsibilities

Implementation (step 6) is the final phase where the employees are communicated about the

changes. An employee needs to know the changes ahead of time so that they can adapt

themselves to changes.
 9

Appendix

Appendix A

Current organization structure of F150 program

 10

Appendix B

Proposed organization structure of F150 program

 11

Appendix C

Implementation plan of job redesign of Project Manager

June July
S.no Activity
Wk 1 Wk 2 Wk 3 Wk 4 Wk 1 Wk 2
1 List current PM roles and responsibilites

2 Brainstorming session on limitations of current roles

3 Redesign of roles and responsibilities workshop

4 Analyze the limitations of new roles

Update roles and responsbilties based on input from
5
limitations session
6 Implement redesigned roles and responsbilties
 12

References
Belias, Dimitrios & Sklikas, Dimitrios. (2013). Aspects of Job Design. International

Journal of Human Resource Management and Research (IJHRMR). 3. 85-94.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260288949_ASPECTS_OF_JOB_DESIGN

Campion, M. A., Mumford, T. V., Morgeson, F. P., & Nahrgang, J. D. (2005). Work

Redesign:

Eight Obstacles and Opportunities. Human Resource Management, 44(4), 367–390.

https://doi-org.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/10.1002/hrm.20080

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “What” and “Why” of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs

and the Self-Determination of Behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268.

https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1104_01

Garg, P., & Rastogi, R. (2006). New model of job design: motivating employees

performance. Journal of Management Development, 25(6), 572–587.

https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710610670137

Güngör, P. (2011). The Relationship between Reward Management System and Employee

Performance with the Mediating Role of Motivation: A Quantitative Study on Global

Banks. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 24, 1510–1520.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.09.029

Hackman, J. R., Oldham, G. R., & Yale Univ., N. H. C. D. of A. S. (1974). The Job

Diagnostic

Survey: An Instrument for the Diagnosis of Jobs and the Evaluation of Job Redesign

Projects.

https://ezproxy.myucwest.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=eric&AN=ED099580&site=eds-live&scope=site

Cofsky, K. M. (1993). Critical Keys to Competency-Based Pay. Compensation & Benefits

 13

Review, 25(6), 46–52.

https://doi.org/10.1177/088636879302500609

Levitan, S. A., & Johnston, W. B. (1975). Job Redesign, Reform, Enrichment-Exploring the

Limitations. Vocational Guidance Quarterly, 24(2), 172–180.

https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2164-585x.1975.tb00073.x

Tumi, N. S., Hasan, A. N., & Khalid, J. (2021). Impact of Compensation, Job Enrichment and

Enlargement, and Training on Employee Motivation. Business Perspectives &

Research, 1.

https://doi-org.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/10.1177/2278533721995353

Zedelius, C. M., Veling, H., Bijleveld, E., & Aarts, H. (2012). Promising High Monetary

Rewards for Future Task Performance Increases Intermediate Task

Performance. PLoS

ONE,  7(8), e42547.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0042547