Chapter 14 Nelson

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Chapter 14 Nelson Quick

• Jobs the Design of Work

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Job Compared to Work

• Job - a set of specified work and task activities
  that engage an individual in an organization
• Work mental or physical activity that has
  productive results
• Meaning of Work - the way a person interprets
  and understands the value of work as part of life

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B - provides personal affect identity
A - value comes from performance.
accountability is important
C - profit accrues to others by
work performance
D - physical activity directed
by others and
performed
in a workplace
E - generally unpleasant
physically mentally strenuous
activity
F - activity constrained to specific time
periods no positive affect through its
performance
Six Patterns of Work
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Job Characteristics Theory
Scientific Management
Traditional Approaches to Job Design
Job Enrichment
Job Enlargement/ Job Rotation
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• Emphasizes work simplification
  (standardization and the narrow, explicit
  specification of task activities for workers)

Allows diverse groups to work together Leads
to production efficiency and higher profits
- Undervalues the human capacity for thought
and ingenuity
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• Job Enlargement - a method of job design that
  increases the number of activities in a job to
  overcome the boredom of overspecialized work
• Job Rotation - a variation of job enlargement in
  which workers are exposed to a variety of
  specialized jobs over time
• Cross-Training - a variation of job enlargement
  in which workers are trained in different
  specialized tasks or activities

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• Job Enrichment - designing or redesigning jobs
  by incorporating motivational factors into them

Emphasis is on recognition, responsibility,
and advancement opportunity
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• Job Characteristics Model -
• a framework for understanding person-job fit
  through the interaction of core job dimensions
  with critical psychological states within a
  person
• Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) - the survey
  instrument designed to measure the elements in
  the Job Characteristics Model

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Job Characteristics Model
J.R. Hackman and G.R. Oldham, The Relationship
Among Core Job Dimensions, the Critical
Psychological States, and On-the-Job Outcomes,
The Job Diagnostic Survey An Instrument for the
Diagnosis of Jobs and the Evaluation of Job
Redesign Projects, 1974. Reprinted by permission
of Greg R. Oldham.
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Social Information Processing (SIP) model

• SIP Model - a model that suggests that the
  important job factors depend in part on what
  others tell a person about the job

Four premises 1) people provide cues to
understanding the work environment 2)
people help us judge our jobs 3) people tell us
how they see our jobs 4) peoples positive
negative feedback help us understand our
feelings about our jobs
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Interdisciplinary Approach
Motivational
Biological
Perceptual/motor
No one approach can solve all performance
problems caused by poorly designed jobs
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Outcomes of Various Job Design Approaches


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Outcomes of Various Job Design Approaches


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International Perspectives on the Design of Work

• The Japanese Approach
• Emphasizes strategic level
• Encourages collective and cooperative working
  arrangements
• Emphasizes lean production

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Lean Production
Using committed employees with ever-expanding
responsibilities to achieve zero waste, 100 good
product, delivered on time, every time
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International Perspectives on the Design of Work

• The German Approach
• Technocentric - placing technology and
  engineering at the center of job design decisions
  (traditional German approach)
• Anthropocentric - placing human considerations at
  the center of job design decisions (more recent
  German approach)

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International Perspectives on the Design of Work

• The Scandinavian Approach
• encourages high degrees of worker control
• encourages good social support systems for workers

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Work Design and Well-BeingTo increase control
in work organizations

• Give workers the opportunity to control aspects
  of work workplace
• Design machines and tasks with optimal response
  times and/or ranges
• Implement performance-monitoring systems as
  source of worker feedback

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Work Design and Well-BeingTo reduce uncertainty

• Provide employees with timely and complete work
  information needed
• Make clear and unambiguous work assignments
• Improve communication at shift change time
• Increase employee access to information sources

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Work Design and Well-BeingTo manage conflict

• Use participative decision making to reduce
  conflict
• Use supportive supervisory styles to resolve
  conflict
• Provide sufficient resource availability to meet
  work demands, thus preventing conflict

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Emerging Issues in Design of Work

• Telecommuting - employees work at home or in
  other locations geographically separate from
  their companys main location
• Alternative work patterns
• Job Sharing - an alternative work pattern in
  which there is more than one person occupying a
  single job
• Flextime - an alternative work pattern that
  enables employees to set their own daily work
  schedules

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Emerging Issues in Design of Work

• Technology at work
• Virtual Office - a mobile platform of computer,
  telecommunication, and information technology and
  services
• Technostress - the stress cause by new and
  advancing technologies in the workplace
• Task Revision - the modification of incorrectly
  specified roles or jobs
• Skill development

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The Distinguishing Feature of Job Design in the
Future
Flexibility