Methods of Job Design

Job Enlargement

Job enlargement means increasing the scope of a job through extending the range of its job duties and responsibilities. This contradicts the principles of specialization and the division of labour whereby work is divided into small units, each of which is performed repetitively by an individual worker.

Some motivational theories suggest that the boredom and alienation caused by the division of labour can actually cause efficiency to fall. Thus, job enlargement seeks to motivate workers through reversing the process of specialization.

In order for employees to be provided with Job Enlargement they will need to be retrained in new fields which can prove to be a lengthy process.

However results have shown that this process can see its effects diminish after a period of time, as even the enlarged job role become the mundane, this in turn can lead to similar levels of de motivation and job dissatisfaction at the expense of increased training levels and costs. The continual enlargement of a job over time is also known as ‘job creep,’ which can lead to an un manageable workload.

Job Enrichment

Job enrichment is an attempt to motivate employees by giving them the opportunity to use the range of their abilities. It is an idea that was developed by the American psychologist Frederick Herzberg in the 1950s. It can be contrasted to job enlargement which simply increases the number of tasks without changing the challenge.

As such job enrichment has been described as ‘vertical loading’ of a job, while job enlargement is ‘horizontal loading’. An enriched job should ideally contain:

A range of tasks and challenges of varying difficulties (Physical or Mental)

A complete unit of work - a meaningful task

Feedback, encouragement and communication

How to Enrich a Job?

A job may be enriched by giving it a variety, and also may be enriched by:

Giving a worker more latitude in deciding about such things as work method, sequences and pace or by letting them make decisions about accepting or rejecting materials.

Giving workers a feeling of personal responsibility for their tasks.

Taking steps to make sure that people can see how their tasks contribute to a finished products and the welfare of the enterprises.

Giving people feedback on their job performance preferable before their supervisors get in and

Involving workers in analysis and change of physical aspects of the worker environment such as lay out of office or plant, temperature, lighting and cleanliness.

Thus in an enriched job the employee know the overall deadlines and the quality standard he must meet and with in that frame work plans the order in which he will take the various task and the time that should be devoted to each one.

Limitations

Technology: There are some jobs, which are highly technical requiring skill. It would be difficult to enrich such jobs. With specialized machinery and assembly line techniques it may not be possible to make every job meaningful.

Cost: Though a great many companies appear to be interested in job enrichment programs, the extra cost may seem high if a company is not convinced that the return will at least offset the increase expenditure.

Attitude of managers: Another problem is the tendency of top managers and personal specialist to apply their own scale people’s personalities. As a result a few companies have abandoned or modified their programs.

Attitude of Workers: The attitude of some employers also represent obstacles. Various surveys of workers attitudes have shown that high percentages of workers attitude have shown that high percentages of workers are not interesting jobs. Some have complained that enriched jobs provide too many opportunities to commit mistakes. Some workers fears that the increased productivity sought may even mean loss of jobs.

Reaction of union Leaders: There has been little or no support of job enrichment by union Leaders. If job enrichment was so important to workers. It must have been translated in to united demand but it has never happened.

How to make it Effective?

The people involved must have a substantial voice in the planning process. It should not be overlooked that people like to be involved, to be involved to be consulted and to be given an opportunity to offer suggestions.

There is needed for better understanding of what people want. It has been pointed out by motivation researches that this varies with people and situations generally people with few skill want extrinsic factors such as pay, benefits, job security, sympathetic supervisor as then one moves up the ladder intrinsic factors do become increasingly important.

It should also result in worker enrichment if productivity increases are the main goal of job enrichment, the programme must show how workers would benefit.

Key Points

“Job analysis is the process of studying and collecting information relating to the operations and responsibilities of a specific job”

Techniques of job analysis are –questionnaire, observation method, interview, and critical incidents.

The critical incident technique is a set of procedures used for collecting direct observations of human behavior that have critical significance and meet methodically defined criteria

Job description and job specification are the product of job design

Job specification, specifies the qualities required in a job incumbent for the effective performance of the job.

A job description is a pertinent picture of the organizational relationships, responsibilities and specific duties that constitute a given job or position. It defines a scope of responsibility and continuing work assignment that are sufficiently different from that of other jobs to warrant a specific title”

Job design is the process of putting together various elements to form a job, bearing in mind organizational and individual worker requirements, as well as considerations of health, safety, and ergonomics.

The three important job design approaches are engineering approach, Human approach and job characteristics approach

Job enlargement means increasing the scope of a job through extending the range of its job duties and responsibilities

Job enrichment is an attempt to motivate employees by giving them the opportunity to use the range of their abilities

Student Activity

Visit a labour department in any organization and prepare a job description, it should include

Job title

Job code

Date

Job Functions

Duties and Responsibilities

and Job Characteristics.