Job Design Methods
Job Design Methods
SUBMITTED TO:
Job design logically follows job analysis. Job analysis provides job related
data as well as the skill and knowledge expected of the incumbent to
discharge the job. Job design involves organizing tasks, duties and
responsibilities into a unit of work to achieve certain objectives.
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 should exist between the job holders and his supervisors,
subordinates and colleagues.
The main objectives of job design are to integrate the needs of the
individuals and the requirements of the organization. Needs of the
employees include job satisfaction in terms of interest, challenge and
achievement? Organizational requirements are high productivity, technical
efficiency and quality of work.
1. Job Rotation:
It is one of the methods of job design which is an answer to the problem of
boredom. Job rotation implies the shifting of an employee from one job to
another without any change in the job. With job rotation, a given employee
performs different jobs but jobs of the same nature.
The advantages of job rotation are—it relieves the employee from the
boredom and monotony of doing a single task. The organization also
stands to benefit as the worker become competent in several jobs rather
than only one. Periodic job changing can also improve inter-department co-
operation.
The limitations are—the basic nature of the job remains unchanged. Also,
frequent shifting of employees may cause interruption in the work routine of
the organization.
2. Job Enlargement:
It is the process of increasing the scope of a job by adding more tasks to it.
The related tasks are combined. Job enlargement involves expanding the
number of tasks or duties assigned to a given job. Job enlargement
therefore, naturally is opposite to work simplification. Adding more tasks/
duties to a job does not mean that new skill and abilities are needed to
perform it. There is only a horizontal expansion.
Job enlargement reduces monotony and boredom. It helps to increase
interest in work and efficiency. But there is no time increase of the job.
Enlarged jobs require longer training period as there are more task to be
learned.
3. Job Enrichment:
It involves designing a job in such a way that it provides the workers
greater autonomy for planning and controlling his own performance. It
seeks to improve tasks, efficiency and human satisfaction by building into
people’s jobs, greater scope for personal achievement and recognition,
more challenging and responsible work and more opportunity for individual
advancement.
The advantages here are that, Job enrichment benefits employees and
organization in terms of increased motivation, performance, job
satisfaction, job involvement and reduced absentees.
Further an enriched job shall meet certain psychological needs of job
holders (Identity achievement) etc. Job enrichment is motivating and
satisfying as it adds status to one’s job. Empowerment, a by-product of job
enrichment, gives the employees a sense of ownership and control over
their job.
The limitations are, if the employee is lazy or does not give due attention to
his/her job, job enrichment will not have the desired outcomes. The cost of
design and implementation increases. Further job enrichment by itself does
not motivate. This must be preceded by the provision of other variables
which contribute to the quality of work life.
COMPARISON
JOB ENRICHMENT
Molly's manager wanted to use job enrichment to motivate Molly, the
manager might assign Molly some additional tasks that she can do in
her downtime. Such tasks might include researching and developing
new promotional campaigns each month to increase the number of
clients that come into the salon
A warehouse worker whose primary job is stocking shelves could
also help process incoming inventory and fill order slips. By adding a
variety of tasks to his daily job, he can break up his routine and avoid
the feeling of repetition.
JOB ENLARGMENT
Jeff works as a trash man for the city. His boss might switch the
routes that Jeff has to cover or may ask him to pick up the recycling
routes in addition to his routine trash routes. Even though Jeff is not
given an extra authority or challenge by taking these additional
routes, it does provide Jeff with new tasks that can lessen the
repetitiveness of his usual trash route.