ASSIGNMENT

Q1. What do you think are the goals of job design as a concept?

Job design is the process of establishing employees’ roles and responsibilities and the systems and
procedures that they should use or follow. The main purpose of job design, or redesign, is to coordinate
and optimise work processes to create value and maximise performance. However, it’s also a central
element in creating good quality jobs or ‘good work’ which benefit workers themselves as well as their
employers.

Following are some of the goals of job design as a concept:

1. To meet the requirements of the organisation, such as high productivity, technical efficiency and quality
of work.

2. To satisfy the needs of the individual employees such as job satisfaction in terms of interest, challenge
and achievement.

3. To integrate the needs of the individual with the requirements of the organisation.

4. To increase productivity and technical efficiency of employees.

5. To design a job that is psychologically satisfying to the employees.

6. To align the needs of the individual employees with the organizational requirements.

7. To meet the basic requirements of the organisation including high productivity, technical efficiency and
quality of work.

8. To satisfy the needs of the individual employees including job satisfaction in terms of interest,
challenge and achievement.

9. To integrate the needs of the individual with the requirements of the organisation.

Q2. Explain the engineering approach to job design founded by F.W. Taylor.

The engineering approach entails fitting people to jobs. It is based upon the assumption that people can
be adapted to any work situation. Thus, employee attitudes towards the job are ignored and jobs are
designed to produce maximum economic and technological efficiency. This approach uses the principles
of scientific management and work simplification.

Developed by F.W. Taylor, scientific management relied on research and experimentation to determine
the most efficient way to perform jobs. Jobs are highly standardised and specialised. Taylor advocates
vertical job specialization so that detailed procedures and work practices are developed by engineers,
enforced by supervisors, and executed by employees. He also applied horizontal job specialization such as
narrowing the supervisor’s role to such a degree that one person manages operational efficiency, another
manages inspection, and another is disciplinarian.

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If workers perform tasks as efficiently as possible, not only does the organization benefit from lower costs
and greater output per worker, but workers should be less fatigued, physically and mentally. This point of
view has for years formed the basis of classical industrial engineering, which looks for the simplest way to
structure work in order to maximize efficiency. Typically, applying industrial engineering to a job reduces
the complexity of the work, making it so simple that almost anyone can be trained quickly and easily to
perform the job. Such jobs tend to be highly specialized and repetitive.

In practice, the engineering approach traditionally seeks the “one best way” to perform a job by
performing time-and-motion studies to identify the most efficient movements for workers to make. Once
the identified the most efficient sequence of motions, the organization should select workers based on
their ability to do the job, then train them in the details of the “one best way” to perform that job. The
company should also offer pay structures to motivate workers to do their best.

Despite the logical benefits of industrial engineering, a focus on efficiency alone can create jobs that are
so simple and repetitive that workers get bored. Workers performing these jobs may feel their work is
meaningless. Hence, most organizations combine industrial engineering with other approaches to job
design.

Advantages:

It enhances job specialization for employees.

It increases the efficiency of the workers and employees.

It also increases the productivity of the employees.

Disadvantages:

It increases work efficiency, but it doesn’t necessarily improve job performance as it ignores the effects of
job content on employees.

It costs more in terms of higher turnover, absenteeism, and mental health problems.

Employees are concerned only with a small part of the process, so they can’t be identified with the
customer’s needs.

It ignores the motivational potential of jobs.

It doesn’t apply to professional knowledge workers.

Q3. Describe the process of Job Design.

Although there are many ways to carry out job design, the following stages are essential:

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Do an assessment of current work practices: Is job design needed or feasible? Discuss the process with
the employees and supervisors involved and be clear about the process, or any changes or training that
will be involved.

Do a task analysis: Examine the job and determine exactly what the tasks are. Consider what equipment
and workstation features are important for completing the tasks. Identify problem areas.

Design the job: Identify the methods for doing the work, work/rest schedules, training requirements,
equipment needed and workplace changes. Coordinate the different tasks so each one varies mental
activities and body position. Be careful not to under or overload the job.

Implement the new job design gradually: You may want to start on a small scale or with a pilot project.
Train employees in the new procedures and use of equipment. Allow for an adjustment period and time
to gain experience with the new job design.

Get Feedback and Re-evaluate job design on a continual basis: Make any necessary adjustments. Be sure
to get feedback from all those involved. You may also want to establish a committee to represent the
various groups involved. Job design should involve employees, unions, the health and safety committee
and managers during the entire process. Participation of all parties increases communication and
understanding. Be clear that purpose of the job design is to strengthen the operations and its workforce,
not to eliminate jobs or sets of skills.

Q4. Why are job rotation and job enlargement considered short-term?

Job Rotation is a management approach where employees are shifted between two or more assignments
or jobs at regular Intervals of time in order to expose them to all verticals of an organization. It is a pre-
planned approach with an objective to test the employee skills and competencies in order to place him or
her at the right place. In addition to it, it reduces the monotony of the job, and gives them a wider
experience and helps them gain more insights. Job rotation is a well-planned practice to reduce the
boredom of doing same type of job every day and explore the hidden potential of an employee. The
process serves the purpose of both the management and the employees. It helps management in
discovering the talent of employees and determining what he or she is best at. On the other hand, it gives
an individual a chance to explore his or her own interests and gain experience in different fields or
operations.

Job enlargement is a job design technique wherein there is an increase in the number of tasks associated
with a certain job. In other words, it means increasing the scope of one's duties and responsibilities. The
increase in scope is quantitative in nature and not qualitative and at the same level. Job enlargement is a
horizontal restructuring method that aims at increase in the workforce flexibility and at the same time
reducing monotony that may creep up over a period of time. It is also known as horizontal loading in that
the responsibilities increase at the same level and not vertically. Many believe that since the enlargement
is horizontal in nature there is not a great need for training. Contrary to this, job enlargement requires
appropriate training especially on time and people management. Task related training is not required
much since the person is already aware of the same or doing it for some time.

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Q5. What are the limitations of Job enlargement?

Lower efficiency: Job enlargement leads to less specialization, resulting in lower specialization. Put simply,
when you do one activity all day, every day, you get pretty good and fast at doing it. Job enlargement,
therefore, leads to lower efficiency.

Lower quality: In line with the previous, enlargement could also decrease quality. However, this is not
undisputed. Doing the same thing all day, every day can also lead to boredom. Also, if you’re only
responsible for a small part of the product, you don’t experience responsibility for the whole product.
Employees don’t have a whole product concept, leading to a lack of ownership and willingness to
improve.

Job creep: Job creep is a continuous increase in workload as more and more tasks are added to a role.
This can result in the job becoming unrealistic and overwhelming. Job creep happens when a job is
continuously enlarged, potentially leading to stress and burnout.

Increased training levels and costs: Because job enlargement involves the adding of tasks and
responsibilities that the employee didn’t have before, it often requires an increase in training levels and
training costs. In addition, the employee will require some time before reaching the optimum productivity
level.

Increased workload: Additional tasks increase the workload. It can lead to stress and demotivation if
employees get assignments beyond their capacity. This is because the task becomes heavier than they can
handle.

Short-term motivation: Employees may be happy when they get a new assignment. Their activity
increases, making them more excited. But, they can lose motivation after some time as the workload gets
heavier.

Quality decreases: With higher busyness, employees may prioritize getting work done. The heavier
workload makes them less focused. Finally, they may tend to overlook quality; after all, what matters is
the job done.

Lower productivity: Stress can lead to decreased productivity. Employees can’t focus and lack enthusiasm.
Finally, they produce output more slowly or consume more resources.

More costs in the long run: Short-term costs may decrease as employees can handle more tasks. Thus, the
need to recruit and train new employees is reduced.