Job design and redesign techniques attempt

Job design and redesign techniques attempt to (1) identify the most important needs of employees and the organization and (2) remove obstacles in the workplace that frustrate those needs. Managers hope the results are jobs which (1) fulfill important individual needs and (2) contribute to individual, group, and organizational effectiveness. But whether the outcomes of those managerial actions are positive is debatable. Obviously, designing and redesigning jobs is complex. The remainder of this chapter reviews the important theories, research, and practices of job design. As will be seen, contemporary management has at its disposal a wide range of techniques that facilitate the achievement of personal and organizational performance.

A CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF JOB DESIGN

The conceptual model depicted in Exhibit 6-1 is based on the extensive research literature that has appeared in the last 20 years and includes the various terms and concepts that appear in the current literature. When linked together, these concepts describe the important determinants of job performance and organizational effectiveness. The model takes into account a number of sources of complexity. It recognizes that individuals react differently to jobs. While one person may derive positive satisfaction from a job, another may not. It also recognizes the difficult trade-offs between organizational and human needs. For example, the technology of manufacturing (part of the job context) may dictate that management adopt assembly-line mass-production methods and low-skilled jobs to achieve optimal efficiency. Such jobs, however, may result in worker discontent and alienation. Perhaps these costs could have been avoided by a more careful balancing of organizational and individual needs.

The ideas reflected in Exhibit 6-1 are the bases for this chapter. We shall present each important factor that is the cause or the effect of job design, beginning with job analysis.

JOB ANALYSIS

Job analysis is the process of decision making which translates task, human, and technological factors into job designs. Either managers or personnel specialists undertake the process, and a number of approaches exist to assist them. Among the more frequently employed methods of gathering job analysis information are: (I) observation, where a job analyst directly watches employees performing the job, or views films of workers doing the job; (2) individual or group interviews, where jobholders are interviewed in depth and the obtained information provides the job analysis data; and (3) structured questionnaires, where jobholders check or rate items that apply to the job they perform from an extensive list of possible items. Frequently, a combination of methods is employed in performing an analysis of the same job.

The information generated by the job analysis enables the organization to produce a job description and a job specification. A job description, as the name suggests, is a statement describing the individual tasks the jobholder performs, how the tasks are performed, why they are performed, and the end result of the jobholder's activities. A job specification identifies the minimum acceptable qualifications that a jobholder must have to perform the job at an acceptable level. It may include specifications for educational level, knowledge, skills, aptitudes, and previous experience.