Project HR and Communication

Assignment # 2

Submitted by

M Javid Nawaz

Sap ID # 30234

Submitted to

Sir Azmat Hayat

ASPECTS OF JOB DESIGN
Definition of Job Design:
Job design is defined as a process of describing a job in terms of its duties and responsibilities; the
methods to be used in carrying out the job in terms of techniques, systems, and procedures; and the
relationship that should exist between the job holders and their superiors, subordinates, and colleagues.
It is also defined as a deliberate and systematic attempt to structure the technical and social aspects of
work, so as to improve technical efficiency and job satisfaction.

Introduction:-

Creating a job design is the succeeding step to job analysis. As you know, job analysis provides
information about the skills and competency required to perform a job efficiently. Conversely, job design
strives at organizing tasks, duties, and responsibilities associated with a job to achieve organizational as
well as individual objectives. Job design is a relatively new term in HRM.The HR managers have realized
that the design of the job has considerable influence on the productivity and job satisfaction. Poorly
designed jobs often result in boredom, increased employee turnover, job dissatisfaction, low productivity,
and increase in overall cost of the organization. Thus, job design is an attempt to create a match between
the job requirements and available human resource attributes.

Job design is the process of organizing work into the tasks required to perform a specific job. It involves
the conscious efforts to organize tasks, duties and responsibilities into a unit of work to achieve certain
objectives. An HR manager should have a keen interest in the design and specification of individual jobs
within the organization. The jobs should be designed in such a way that it motivates the employees to
execute it in the best possible manner. Excessive specialization and mechanization have made many jobs
repetitive and boring, employees performing such dull jobs tend to tire easily. Therefore it is important to
design jobs properly so as to increase employee motivation and performance. Job designs that increase
employee access, comfort and flexibility are likely to influence motivation and productivity positively. Job
design specifies the work content, i.e., tasks and functions, methods of work, the skills, knowledge and
abilities required for performing the jobs, the interrelationship between the jobs, and the rewards the
employees will get on the completion of the job.
Job design determines the responsibility of an employee, the authority he enjoys over his work, his scope
of decision-making, and eventually, his level of satisfaction and his productivity. Job satisfaction and
productivity are interrelated and inter-dependent. Job design also has an effect on the relationships in a
 3

group and the productivity of the group. Effective job design is a complex process that must be viewed
from several standpoints. Organizational goals, employee aspirations, performance standards, and work
environment are some of the major factors that need to be taken into consideration in job design.
The role of the HR function is limited in job design; the line managers play a major role in job design, as
they understand the work processes better.
The major components of a job design are the job content or scope and the job depth. The job content
includes the various tasks or activities that have to be performed by the job holder, the responsibilities
attached to the job and the relationships with other jobs in the organizational set-up. Job depth is the
autonomy or the authority that the job holder enjoys in planning and organizing the work attached to the
job.
Goals of Job Designing:
Job designing has vital impact on the employees as well as the organization .
The main goal of designing a job are as follows:
i. Facilitating the interest of employees towards the job and enhancing their satisfaction
ii. Increasing employee motivation and productivity
iii. Enhancing employees’ skills by identifying their training needs
iv. Covering the modern needs of employee participation
v. Ensuring safer working environment
vi. Making the communication process clear and effective in the organization
vii. Improving the quality of working life of employees
viii. Eliminating the unnecessary levels of supervision, checking, and control
ix. Establishing high-level standards for customer service
x. Minimizing cost by reducing wastage.
Importance of Job Design:
Job design and work organization deal with the specifications of the content, methods, and relationships
of jobs in an integrated manner to satisfy technological and organizational requirements as well as the
personal needs of employees.During the 1970s, the challenge before HRM professionals dealing with job
designs was to find out how organizations achieve results in the wake of loss of productive effort resulting
from industrial actions and absenteeism, increased demand for employee participation, and imposition of
various employee legislations.
Objectives of Job Design:
Quality:
The ability of staff to produce high-quality products and services can be affected by job design. This
includes avoiding errors in the short term, but also includes designing jobs which encourage staff to
improve that job itself in such a way as to make errors less likely.
Speed:
Sometimes speed of response is the dominant objective to be achieved in job design. For example, the way
in which the jobs of emergency service personnel are organized
Dependability:
Dependable supply of goods and services is usually influenced, in some way, by job design.
Flexibility:
Job design can affect the ability of the operation to change the nature of its activities.
Cost:
All the elements of job design described above will have an effect on the productivity, and therefore, the
cost of the job. Productivity in this context means the ratio of output to labor input
Advantages of Job Rotation:
(a) Avoid Monopoly:
(b) Provides an Opportunity to Broaden One’s Knowledge:
(c) Avoiding Fraudulent Practice:
Disadvantages of Job Rotation:
(a) Frequent Interruption:
(b) Reduces Uniformity in Quality:
(c) Misunderstanding with the Union Member:

Conclusion and Recommendations

Job design is a systematic approach to creating jobs that are both motivating for employees and add
value to the organization. The latter is important – the role needs to fit in the organizational framework
and help to contribute to organizational goals. If this is not the case, the role is redundant and should be
removed. This shows a fine balance and difficulty when it comes to designing jobs. Some jobs need to
happen even though they are not motivating. In this case, there are still other tools in the OD
professional’s toolkit. These include good management, creating a strong vision and a culture that
connects and retains people, and selecting people who thrive on stability and predictability. When done
well, job design can be an incredibly fun and rewarding process, for both the manager or OD practitioner,
as well as for the employee. Developments in the course of this century regarding human work, views in
question, job redesign (job enrichment and the like) and relative research are described. The relationships
between task attributes, job satisfaction, work motivation and other factors are discussed. On the grounds
of experience, obtained in job redesign, conclusions are drawn with regard to the desirable method,
inclusive of the ‘instruments’ to be used, in job redesign, and in the design of work systems in general.