CHAPTER 5

DESIGN AND REDESIGN OF

WORK SYSTEMS
 Job Design

• Job design involves specifying the content and

methods of job
– What will be done
– Who will do the job
– How the job will be done
– Where the job will be done
– Ergonomics (Human engineering)
– the study of people's efficiency in their working environment)

6–2
 Job Design Success

Successful Job Design must be:

• Carried out by experienced personnel with the
necessary training and background
• Consistent with the goals of the organization
• In written form
• Understood and agreed to by both management
and employees

6–3
 Design of work system

• Specialization
• Behavioral Approaches
• Teams
• Methods Analysis
• Motions Study
• Working conditions

6–4
 1. Job Specialization

• Creates jobs with very narrow task (activity)

assignments
• Resulted in high efficiency, quickly achieved job
competency, low training costs, but created
monotonous jobs

6–5
 2. Behavioral Approaches
• Job Enlargement
– Giving a worker a larger portion of the total task by horizontal
loading
• Job Rotation
– Workers periodically exchange jobs
• Job Enrichment
– Increasing responsibility for planning and coordination tasks,
by vertical loading

6–6
 Motivation and Trust

• Motivation
– Influences quality and productivity
– Contributes to work environment
• Trust
– Influences productivity and employee-management relations

6–7
Behavioral Approaches

6–8
 3. Teams

• Benefits of teams
– Higher quality
– Higher productivity
– Greater worker satisfaction
• Self-directed teams
– Groups of empowered to make certain changes in their work
process

6–9
 4. Methods Analysis

• Methods analysis
– Analyzing how a job gets done
– Begins with overall analysis
– Moves to specific details

6–10
 Methods Analysis

Why need for methods analysis:

•Changes in tools and equipment

•Changes in product design or new products
•Changes in materials or procedures
•Other factors (e.g. accidents, quality problems)

6–11
 Methods Analysis Procedures

1. Identify the operation to be studied

2. Get employee input
3. Study and document current method
4. Analyze the job
5. Propose new methods
6. Install new methods
7. Follow-up to ensure improvements have been
achieved

6–12
 5. Motion Study

Motion study is the systematic study of the human

motions used to perform an operation.

6–13
 Motion Study Techniques

• Motion study principles - guidelines for designing

motion-efficient work procedures
• Analysis of therbligs - basic elemental motions into
which a job can be broken down
• Micromotion study - use of motion pictures and
slow motion to study motions that otherwise would
be too rapid to analyze
• Charts

6–14
 Developing Work Methods

1. Eliminate unnecessary motions

2. Combine activities
3. Reduce fatigue
4. Improve the arrangement of the workplace
5. Improve the design of tools and equipment

6–15
 Working Conditions

T e m p e ra tu re & V e n t ila t io n
H u m id it y

I llu m in a t io n C o lo r
 Working Conditions

Noise & Vibration Work Breaks

Safety Causes of Accidents

6–17
 Work Measurement

• Standard time
• Stopwatch time study
• Historical times
• Predetermined data
• Work Sampling

6–18
 Compensation

• Time-based system
– Compensation based on time an employee has worked
during a pay period
• Output-based (incentive) system
– Compensation based on the amount of output an employee
produces during a pay period

6–19
 Compensation

• Individual Incentive Plans

• Group Incentive Plans
• Knowledge-Based Pay System
• Management Compensation

6–20
 Form of Incentives
• Accurate
• Easy to apply
• Consistent
• Easy to understand
• Fair

6–21
 Five Core Job Characteristics
• Skill variety
–The extent to which the work
allows an employee to use a
variety of acquired skills.
• Task identity
–The extent to which work allows
an employee to complete a whole
or identifiable piece of work.
• Task significance
–The extent to which the employee
perceives that his/her work is
important and meaningful to those
in the organization or to those
outside the organization.
• Autonomy
–The extent to which the employee
can work and determine work
procedure at her/his own
discretion.
• Feedback
–The extent to which the work
allows the employee to gain a
sense of how well job
responsibilities are being met.
6–22
 What Workers Need

• Changing demographics and lifestyles

– Worker needs vary by age, gender, race, religion, physical
abilities, and marital and family status.
• Employee needs for work/life balance
– Workers are less committed to organizations today but also
suffer from burnout and lower performance.
• Employee needs representation (“voice”)
– Workers want to be involved in work-related issues and
expect the organization to listen to their concerns.
• Employee concerns about safety in the workplace
– Workers want a safe, hazard-free working environment.
6–23
 How Jobs Interface with Other Jobs

• Types of Task Interdependence

– Pooled Interdependence
• Individual employees work independently of each other in
performing tasks but utilize coordination of their activities.
– Sequential Interdependence
• The work in process flows from one individual to another,
where one individual depends on the timely completion of
quality work for another coworker.
– Reciprocal Interdependence
• Workflow is not linear as in sequential interdependence but
random. Workflow responds to immediate situation and
employees have joint and shared responsibilities for the work.

6–24
 Redesign of Work Systems

• Current and future work systems are more broadly

defined and more closely related to strategic
choices made by management.
• Workers are becoming more involved in the design
and reengineering of their jobs.
• Cross-function teams are strategically beneficial,
but also create challenges in effectively managing
their activities.

6–25
 Understanding Change

• The pressure to change is constant.

• Barriers to change:
– Change involves disrupting the status quo and may be met
with resistance by both employees and managers.
– Change comes with costs and the reallocation of resources.
– Employees will resist change if they do not perceive a need to
change work systems or see no benefits from change.
– There is risk and uncertainty and no guarantee of increased
results (performance, efficiency, or morale) in change
– Poor coordination and communication can undermine change
initiatives.

6–26
Understanding Organizational Change
 Change is an alteration of an
organization’s environment, structure,
technology, or people.
 Change is an organizational reality.
• Handling change is an integral part of
every manager’s job.

8-27
What is Organizational Change?

8-28
Why do Organizations Need Change?
External forces

• Marketplace: Intense competition in recent years.

• Government laws and regulations: Wage rates,

health insurance programs.

• Technology: The Internet has changed how we get

information, how products are sold, and how we get
our work done.

8-29
• Fluctuations in labor markets: can force managers
to initiate changes.

• Economic changes: Interest rates, sales, mortgages,

etc.

8-30
Internal Factors
• Strategy: When management redefines or modifies its
strategy, it often introduces a host of changes.

• Composition of workforce: The compensation and

benefits systems, diverse work force and market forces

• Employee attitudes: Employee attitudes, such as

increased job dissatisfaction, may lead to increased
absenteeism, resignations, and even strikes.

8-31
Who initiates Organizational Change?

 People who act as catalysts and assume the

responsibility for managing the change process are
called change agents.

 A change agent can be a manager, internal staff

specialist, or outside consultant.

 Internal managers who act as change agents may be

more thoughtful and possibly more cautious.

8-32
Resistance to Change
1. Uncertainty
2. Habit
3. Concern over
personal loss
4. Belief change is not
in organization’s best
interests

8-33
Symptoms of Stress

8-34
Causes of Stress: Job Related
1. Task demands are factors related to an employee’s job which
includes autonomy, task variety, and degree of automation;
working conditions and the physical work layout.
2. Role demands: one’s particular role which may create
conflicts of expectations.
3. Interpersonal demands are pressures created by other
employees. Lack of social support from colleagues and poor
interpersonal relationships can cause considerable stress.
4. Organization structure issues like excessive rules and an
employee’s lack of opportunity to participate in decisions that
affect him or her can cause stress.
5. Organizational leadership refers to the supervisory style of
the organization’s managers.

8-35
Causes of Stress: Personal

1. Family and personal issues

2. Personality type

8-36
 Managing Change

• How to overcome resistance to change:

– Promote and implement change so that it provides benefits to
those impacted by the change.
– Involve employees in the change process so that their
commitment to the change process facilitates implementation
of the change process.
– Change is facilitated by open, two-way communication. Begin
early before change decisions have yet been made. Reduce
apprehension, dispel rumors, increase trust and acceptance
of change by keeping employees informed and asking for
their input.

6–37
Reducing Resistance to Change

8-38