+ Job design

+ Job Specialization - Specific Is where production Is broken down into distinct tasks that are performed by individual employees, it is quite specific and often results in employee boredom and dissatisfaction. Involves jobs being broken down into specialist skills areas in order to improve knowledge and skills to increase output, reduce errors and labor cost and to control quality.

+ General To counter this effect there are 3 job designs approaches more general in nature, have been used and are driven by intrinsic rewards – the good feeling that one gets from doing something well

+ Example: Imagine that you and your partner own a fast food outlet that sells fish and chips. Will each of you prepare the food, take orders from the customers, package the food and take the customer’s money, or would it be better for one person to specialise in food preparation and the other specialise in customer service? The individual tasks that make up the job can be designed in different ways. They can be task specific or general.

+ 1. Job Rotation Job rotation, where employees move from task to task so that there is some variation and a particular task does not become boring. This approach requires additional training, so the employee becomes multi-skilled, and consequently increases costs.

+ 2. Job enlargement Job enlargement, where the employee completes several tasks and avoids the boredom associated with doing just the one task over and over. Again, this approach requires multi- skilling and additional training.

+ 3. Job Enrichment Job enrichment, where the employee can see the whole approach and understands their role in producing the final product.

+ What’s the difference from General and Specific The difference???? The difference between general and task specific job design is the option that is given to the employees in performing the tasks. An employer may, for example, send a plumber to fix a broken water pipe. It is most unlikely the employer would specify how the pipe is to be fixed. The actual way the tasks are done will be left to the discretion of the plumber.

+ Variation The variation between task specific and general job design is associated with the skill scale. Hotel cleaners, for example, generally have 15 minutes to clean a room. Every task, such as making the bed, cleaning the bathroom and wiping down the glass in the shower is specified. It is physically hard, generally boring and low-paid work. But some hotel managers still manage to meet some of the social and personal requirements of the employee.

+ Volvo's HR Practices - Focus on Job Enrichment The case discusses the efforts made by the Swedish automobile major - Volvo AB towards improving the work conditions at its facilities through job enrichment programs. in its efforts to reduce the instances of employee turnover and absenteeism in its manufacturing facilities, Volvo introduced innovative job enrichment programs including job rotation, management employee councils, small work groups, change implementation and employee oriented facilities. These programs helped the company to understand the importance of designing its facilities according to the work design and employees' requirements.

+ Volvo was inspired to build a new facility keeping this work design as a basis. This reiterated the company's belief that industry needed to adapt itself to the people's requirements and not vice-versa. This concept was implemented successfully in other plants of the company too Volvo's efforts in bringing changes in work design offered valuable lessons to both the academic and corporate community.