Creating Motivational Work – Instructions final assignment

Aim
Within this course, we will see what motivating work design is, whether employees themselves take
action to improve their work design, how managers/leaders engage in work design behaviours (and
which factors influence whether they focus on motivating work design or not), and which factors in
the broader work environment impact the way jobs look.

Within this assignment, we want to delve deeper in the role of line managers in the (re-)design of
jobs, which are under pressure to do a technological change (e.g., the introduction of a new
software, AI, robotization, digitalization,…). Line managers are managers who typically head a
function, team or office and supervise day-to-day operations (Chen, Berman, & Wang, 2017). They
act as an important link between top management and its organizational core.

To do this, you write a paper including the following parts (with corresponding questions that should
be answered):

1. Introduction: provide decent information about the line manager and the organization you
focused on (see ‘steps to take’ for more information on how to choose the manager/
organization)
 Who did you interview?
 What is the context of the organization and/or technological change (e.g., sector of
the organization, reason why the technology was introduced,…)
 Which technology was introduced and influenced employee work design?

2. Analysis: make an analysis of the interview so that the questions below are answered
 How did technology change the work design of the employees?
 What did the manager aim to do to safeguard/increase the motivating nature of the
jobs of the employees? (e.g., did he/she aim to influence the introduction of the
technology, did he/she think about how the technology would influence the work
design of the employees, did he/she try to redesign or influence the redesign of the
jobs, ….).
 Which factors influenced how the manager (wanted to) take action (e.g., his/her
own job quality, corporate culture, ….)?
 Which factors enabled or prevented the manager from effectively doing what
he/she wanted to do?
 How were the actions taken by the manager perceived by the employees?

3. Critical reflection: This is the most important part of the assignment. Here you should link
the insights of your analysis with the materials of this course. You are allowed to include
extra materials (i.e. a scientific paper that you found and that is particularly relevant for your
assignment), but it is not necessary. Questions that should be answered are:
 Which perspectives on work design do you recognize? Which definition of work
design is applied? (class 1)
 Which work design model(s) do you recognize based on your analysis? Explain why
you see this link and how the model(s) are applied (class 2 and 3).
  What are shortcomings of the model(s) you discussed? What can you not explain
with the model? How can the model(s) be expanded based on the information you
retrieved from your analysis (class 2 and 3)?
 How would you describe the management style of the line manager? How could this
have influenced the change in work design due to the introduction of the new
technology? (class 5)

Note that you are not limited to the above questions to make your critical reflection.
Because every questioned line manager/organization is unique, you might see some clear
links with a specific aspect of the course that is not covered by answering the questions
above. For example, it might be that the manager provided employees with some autonomy
so that could redesign their changed working environment (class 4), or that the specific
context of the organization or sector facilitated/impeded the change in work design (class 6).

4. Conclusion: briefly summarize your main conclusions on the role of line managers in the
(re)design of jobs due to technological change.

Steps to take
1. Search for a line manager in a company where a new technology was introduced among the
employees.
a. The manager needs to have worked in the job for at least a year
b. (S)he needs to have at least 2 employees – working full / part time (not including
student workers)
c. Pick an organisation/company (not a school, sports club, …). It is not necessary that
this organisation is located in Belgium.
2. Do the interview with the manager
a. The interview questions are provided in Appendix 1. Of course you are allowed to
add additional questions (e.g. to delve deeper into certain elements discussed by the
interviewee)
b. Record the interview, but ask permission to do so.
c. Transcribe the interview. This transcription should be included in your final
assignment as appendix.
3. Make your assignment and turn it in before Monday the 2nd of January 1pm.

Some guidelines:
 Min. 5 and max. 8 pages (title-page, figures, reference list, and interview transcription
excluded)
 Calibri 11, line spacing 1,15 and justified
 Turn in online via Toledo – Assignments. All assignments will be checked for plagiarism
Appendix 1: Interview questions
The technology
- Can you describe the digital technologies that have been implemented in your
organisation recently?
- What purpose do these technologies serve? What were the identified needs or problems
to be solved and how do the technologies answer it?
- Could you describe the implementation process of the new technology? (e.g. who was
involved in the decision making, in the implementation, …)

The organisation
- Has the organisational structure been changed due to the introduction of the new
technology?

Effects on the line manager

- Has the introduction of the technology changed your job? (potential follow-up: focus on
position in the organisation, tasks, job description, expectations …)

Effects on the employees

- How did the new technology affect the work (job characteristics) of your employees?
Please describe how and why you think this is the case.
- Are these changes estimated to be for better or worse?

Aims and actions of the line manager

- What did you do / did you wanted to do in response to these changes in the jobs of the
employees? (e.g., did he/she aim to influence the introduction of the technology, did
he/she think about how the technology would influence the work design of the
employees, did he/she try to redesign or influence the redesign of the jobs, ….). – use
the information in this course to meaningfully specify this question
- Why did you want to take these actions? Why did you think these actions were
important? These are probably the most important question of the whole interview
- Which factors helped/hindered you to take such action? (e.g., his/her own job quality,
corporate culture, ….)?
- Which factors enabled or prevented you from effectively doing what you wanted to do?
- Do you experience new expectations from employees towards their manager because of
this technological change?
- How do you evaluate the changes you had to make in your leadership following the use
of digital technologies in your organisation? (e.g., in terms of time to interact with the
employees, your concern with their well-being).