Job Design
Job Design
"Job Design is the process of deciding on
the contents of a job in terms of its duties and responsibilities, on the
methods to be used in carrying out the job, in terms of techniques, systems and
procedures, and on the relationships that colleagues."
Michael
Armstrong, (2014, p.145)
What is Job Design?
Job design is a set of processes to
job analyze the roles and responsibilities that are core to the job, it helps
to figure out what qualities, skills, and other requirements are needed to perform
the given job by the organization.
The process of Job Design:
Importance of Job Design
It is
very important, the process which makes sure that the job remains updated and
is relevant to the employee. To reduce dissatisfaction is the main objective
which comes while doing the job daily. It can lead to the employee leaving the
organization and causing issues for the company. The primary responsibility of
job design is regularly updating the job.
Job Design Methods
There are various
methods in which job design can be carried out. These methods help analyze
the job, to design the contents to decide how the job must be carried out. Methods are as follows:
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1.
Job Rotation:
This method is where employees of an organization as exposed to different roles & profiles across the company. Employees are rotated across various job profiles and the best-suited roles are identified.
2.
Job Simplification:
This
involves identifying mechanical processes, repetitive work, one-product
development, tools & skills required.
3.
Job Enlargement:
This
adds more tasks & value to an existing job profile. Apart from the basic
skills & abilities required offers more tasks to be performed to the
employee.
4.
Job Enrichment:
Looks
at enriching the work of the employee by adding more responsibility, value, and
decision-making powers.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Job Design
Advantages:
1.
Helps to create a job profile that can motivate the employees.
2. This
ensures that the job is simplified or broken down to employees.
3.
Expose the employees to a wider set of roles and help them understand the best role suited to them.
4. Job
enrichment method of design ensures more value addition & decision-making
power.
5. Job design also sees what training and development are required for employees to
increase employee productivity.
6. Help
to understand the employee output, efficiency, workload, and the number of
hours required for work vs. rest.
Disadvantages:
1. Job
simplification method can lead to monotonous work and boredom.
2. Job
design by enrichment gives too much control to senior employees which can lead
to bad results or conflicts with lower staff.
3. Job
design by rotation can affect the flow of work & hamper the quality of
output.
4.
Enlargement can cause employees to lose focus on core competencies.
Conclusion
Job design is
made to essentially understand the tasks & duties to be done by an employee
and how employees can grow at a professional as well as a personal level.
References
Garg, P. and Rastogi, R., 2006. The new model of job design: motivating employees' performance. Journal of
Mgmt Development, 25(6), pp.572-587.
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S.,
2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice, 13th
edition. London: Kogan Page.
Job design includes the responsibilities, duties and tasks to achieve the job objectives. Main goals of job designing are influencing job interest and increase motivation and productivity of the employees.For an effective job designing an organization must look in to employee aspirations, organizational goals, work environment, organizational goals and performance standards.
ReplyDeleteThe whole process of job design is aimed to address various problems within the organizational setup, those that pertain to ones description of a job and the associated relationships. More specifically the following areas are fine tuned:
ReplyDelete1.Checking the work overload.
2.Checking upon the work under load.
3.Ensuring tasks are not repetitive in nature.
4.Ensuring that employees don not remain isolated.
5.Defining working hours clearly.
6.Defining the work processes clearly.
Some companies believe that the adoption of empowerment means that the employee has total control over the job design. This is not correct. Companies need to work with employees and set guidelines as well as expectations. Job design is when the employee has control over developing the tasks and responsibilities of a position. The company can set basic rules over the job, such as safety requirements (wear goggles) or expectations (complete four projects a month). When empowerment is used, the employee can develop the best scenario for how to accomplish their work tasks.
ReplyDeleteJob design is the process of Work arrangement (or rearrangement) aimed at reducing or overcoming job dissatisfaction and employee alienation arising from repetitive and mechanistic tasks. Through job design, organizations try to raise productivity levels by offering non-monetary rewards such as greater satisfaction from a sense of personal achievement in meeting the increased challenge and responsibility of one's work. Job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation, and job simplification are the various techniques used in a job design exercise.
ReplyDeleteJob 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.
ReplyDeleteThis 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.
Job design is an important part of human resource management. It has an effect on the efficiency of the organization. It also contributes significantly to the enhancement of working conditions. It creates the tasks that must be completed in order for the job to be completed successfully. Robertson and Smith (1985) suggest the following five principles of job design:
ReplyDeleteTo influence skill variety, provide opportunities for people to do several tasks and combine tasks, To influence task identity, combine tasks and form natural work units, To influence task significance, form natural work units and inform people of the importance of their work, To influence autonomy, give people responsibility for determining their own working systems, To influence feedback, establish good relationships, and open feedback channels. In my opinion those are matched in today. (Robertson, I. T., and Smith, M. (1985) ‘Motivation and Job Design’, Institute of Personnel Management, London.)