Chapter Five Job Design and Work Structures

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-2 Chapter Objectives Explain the relationship between motivation and employee performance. Discuss job design, including its evolution and alternative approaches. Describe the relationship among participation, empowerment, and motivation. Identify and describe key alternative work arrangements.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-3 Figure 5.1: Enhancing Performance in Organizations

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-4 Job Designs in Organizations Job Design –How organizations define and structure jobs –Properly designed jobs can have a positive impact on the motivation, performance, and job satisfaction of those that perform them. Job Specification –The first widespread model of job design. As advocated by scientific management, it can help improve efficiency, but can also promote monotony and boredom.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-5 Early Alternatives to Job Specialization Job Rotation –Involves systematically moving workers from one job to another to minimize monotony and boredom. Negatives –still leaves workers with narrowly defined, routine jobs –the workers simply experience several routine and boring jobs instead of just one Positives –a worker rotated through a variety of related jobs acquires a larger set of job skills

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-6 Early Alternatives to Job Specialization (continued) Job Enlargement (horizontal job loading –Entails expanding a worker’s job to include tasks previously performed by other workers For example, in the assembly of washing machine water pumps, jobs done sequentially by six workers at a conveyor belt were modified so that each worker completed an entire pump alone. –Unfortunately, job enlargement has failed to have the desired effects. Generally, if the entire production sequence consists of simply, easy-to-master tasks, merely doing more of them does not significantly change a worker’s job.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-7 Job Enrichment –Entails giving workers more tasks to perform and more control over how to perform them. Job enrichment relies on vertical job loading: not only adding more tasks to a job, as in horizontal loading, but also giving the employee more control over those tasks. Mixed Results –The results on job enrichment programs have been mixed and as a result, it recently has fallen into disfavor among managers.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-8 Job Characteristics Theory Job Characteristics Approach –Identifies three critical psychological states of people –Focuses on five motivational properties of tasks

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Critical Psychological States If employees experience these states at a sufficiently high level, they are likely to feel good about themselves and respond favorably to their jobs –Experienced Meaningfulness of the Work The degree to which individuals experience their jobs as generally meaningful, valuable, and worthwhile –Experienced Responsibility for Work Outcomes The degree to which individuals feel personally accountable and responsible for the results of their work –Knowledge of the Results The degree to which individuals continuously understand how effectively they are performing the job

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Job Characteristics Oldham suggests that the 3 psychological states are triggered by these 5 job characteristics: –Skill Variety - The degree to which the job requires a variety of activities that involve different skills and talents –Task Identity - The degree to which the job has a beginning and end with a tangible outcome –Task Significance - The degree to which the job affects the lives or work of other people, both in the immediate organization and in the external environment

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Job Characteristics (continued) 5 job characteristics (continued): –Autonomy - The degree to which the job allows the individual substantial freedom, independence, and discretion to schedule the work and determine the procedures for carrying it out –Feedback - The degree to which the job activities give the individual direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-12 Figure 5.2: The Job Characteristics Theory Reference: From J.R. Hackman and G.R. Oldham, “Motivation Through the Design of Work: Test of a Theory,” in Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, Volume 15, Copyright 1976, Elsevier Science (USA).

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-13 Figure 5.3: Implementing the Job Characteristics Theory Reference: J.R. Hackman, G.R. Oldham, R. Janson, and K. Purdy, “A New Stage for Job Enrichment.” Copyright 1975 by the Regents of the University of California.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-14 Participation, Empowerment, and Motivation Participation –The process of giving employees a voice in making decisions about their own work. Empowerment –The process of enabling workers to set their own work goals, make decisions, and solve problems within their sphere of responsibility and authority.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-15 Early Perspectives on Participation and Empowerment Human Relations Movement –Assumed happy and satisfied employees will work harder –Encouraged worker participation and input –Viewed employees as valuable human resources Techniques and Issues in Empowerment –Techniques to extend participation beyond traditional areas: suggestion boxes question-and-answer meetings The establishment of work teams

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-16 Alternative Work Arrangements Variable Work Schedules –In a compressed workweek, employees work a full forty-hour week in fewer than the traditional five days. Flexible Work Schedules (or flextime) –Gives employees more control over the hours they work each day Job Sharing –Two or more part-time employees share one full- time job.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-17 Figure 5.4: Flexible Work Schedules

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-18 Telecommuting –A work arrangement in which employees spend part of their time working off-site –By using , computer networks, and other technology, many employees can maintain close contact with their organizations and do as much work at home as they could in their offices.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-19 Pros of Telecommuting Many employees like telecommuting because it gives them added flexibility. –By spending one or two days a week at home, for instance, they have the same kind of flexibility to manage personal activities as the alternatives of flextime or compressed schedules allows. Some employees also believe they get more work done at home because they are less likely to be interrupted.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.5-20 Cons of Telecommuting Many employees do not thrive under this arrangement. –Some feel isolated and miss the social interaction of the workplace. –Others lack the self-control and discipline to walk from the breakfast table to their desk and start work. Managers may also encounter coordination difficulties in scheduling meetings and other activities that require face-to-face contact.