Job Design

Table Of Contents

JOB DESIGN

Meaning:

Job Design integrates work content (tasks, functions, relationships), the rewards

(Extrinsic and intrinsic) and the qualifications required (skills, knowledge, abilities) for each job in a way that meets the needs of employees and the organizations.

It involves an interaction between what the organizations need to be done in terms of activities and what a person would do. It creates a framework of the job along with the strategy of the organization.

Job Design involves three steps:

The specification of individual tasks.

The specification of the method(s) of performing each task

The combination of tasks into specific jobs to be assigned to the individuals.

Here, steps 1 and 3 determine the job content and step 2 indicates precisely how the job shall be performed. While designing a job, requirements of the organization and individual needs of the job holder must be considered. The key to successful job design lies in balancing the requirements of the organization and the jobholder

The design of jobs has a critical impact on organizations and employee objectives. From the organisation's perspective, the way tasks and responsibilities are grouped can affect productivity and costs. Jobs that are not satisfying or are too demanding may be difficult to fill. Boring jobs may lead to a high employee turnover. For an employee, motivation and satisfaction are affected by the match between the job factors (content, qualification and rewards) and personal needs. Therefore, thoughtful design of jobs can help both the organizations and its employees achieve their objectives.

Job & Role:

Job is unstructured; it is not person specific but organization specific. It remains fixed and is not amenable to multiskilling.

Role on the other hand can be flexible. It is dependent

on the person, content, situation and circumstances. Here the purpose is based on the organizational context yet it is person specific. It is anchored in reality. It is generally described in behavioural terms, outcomes as well as competencies. It can expand if required and if the person is capable.

However some structure and boundaries are needed with in which such flexibility can be there. The lack of such structures would lead to chaos and duplication.

In order to make an organization more responsive to the fast paced changes, there is a need for flexibility. There needs to be a shift from extremely structured jobs to more person oriented, competency based and flexible roles, which in spite

of functioning within the set boundaries or structures would still provide flexibility and autonomy to perform the task.

Today there is a merger between the traditional job descriptions and role description. Job Descriptions now also contain Key Strength Areas and competency models and thus are called role profiles. The documentation is thus richer and gives the person a better idea and understanding of his role and how he should perform to achieve objectives.

The Elements of Job:

Job Description:

Job description describes the job, the purpose of the job, contribution of the particular job towards the final goal or objective, the roles and responsibilities, the required skills and qualifications of the person to perform the job. The employees are the customers of the organization, and to elicit work from them, it needs to be made easy for them and clear. There should be a two-way gain: both for the organization as well as the employee and so job descriptions are extremely important.

Job Title:

The title of the job explains the work or the grade. The nearer the title is to the actual work, dissonance would be lower. It would explain the lateral, reporting, vertical and

External relationships. It would also help in defining the boundaries of authority and responsibility.

Job Responsibilities:

At the lowest level, it would include the tasks or the activities to be performed. At a more senior level, it would define the responsibilities and authority of the person.

Factors Affecting Job Design:

Job Design is affected by environmental, organizational and behavioural factors. A properly designed job will make it productive and satisfying.

Organizational Factors:

Organizational factors include characteristics of task, workflow, ergonomics and work practices.

Task:

Job design requires the assembly of a number of tasks into a job or group of jobs. An individual may carry out one main task that consists of several interrelated functions. Complexity of a job may be a reflection of the number and variety of tasks to be carried out or the range and scope of the decisions to be made or the difficulty in predicting the outcome of the decisions.

The internal structure of a task consists of three elements:

Planning

Executing

Controlling

A completely integrated job will contain all of the above three elements for each task involved. Responsibility is measured by the amount of authority someone has to put to do all these things.

Work Flow:

The flow of work in an organization is strongly influenced by the nature of the product or the service. The product or the service usually suggests the sequence and balance between jobs if the work is to be done efficiently.

Ergonomics:

Ergonomics is concerned with designing and shaping jobs to fit the physical abilities and characteristics of the individuals so that they can perform their jobs effectively. Ergonomics helps employers to design jobs in such a way that the workers physical abilities and job demands remain balanced.