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Chapter 14: Jobs and the Design of Work
14 JOBS AND THE DESIGN OF WORK
CHAPTER SCAN
Work design is important because of the impact the design has on productivity. The Job Characteristics Model includes skill variety, task significance, task identity, autonomy, and feedback as major considerations for job design. In contrast, the social information-processing model considers information from others in the organization about the work to be just as important. This chapter examines the meaning of work, four traditional approaches to job design, four alternative approaches to job design, and emerging issues in job design.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
1. Define the term job, and identify six patterns of defining work.
2. Discuss the four traditional approaches to job design.
3. Describe the job characteristics model.
4. Compare the social information-processing (SIP) model with traditional job design approaches.
5. Explain the interdisciplinary approach to job design.
6. Compare Japanese, German, and Scandinavian approaches to work.
7. Explain how job control, uncertainty, and conflict can be managed for employee well-being.
8. Discuss five contemporary issues in the design of work.
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Chapter 14: Jobs and the Design of Work
key terms
Chapter 14 introduces the following key terms:
job
work
meaning of work
work simplification
job enlargement
job rotation
cross-training
job enrichment
Job Characteristics Model
Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS)
social information-processing (SIP) model
lean production
sociotechnical systems (STS)
technocentric
anthropocentric
job sharing
flextime
virtual office
technostress
task revision
counter-role-behavior
THE CHAPTER SUMMARIZED
I THINKING AHEAD: Structured Jobs and Fixed Work Schedules
II. WORK IN ORGANIZATIONS
Work is effortful, productive activity that results in a product or service. Work plays an important role in connecting people to reality. Work is organized into jobs, and people get work done through sets of task and authority relationships that make up organizations.
A. The Meaning of Work
The meaning of work differs from person to person, and from culture to culture. One recent study found six patterns people follow in defining work that help explain the cultural differences in people’s motivation to work. Nevertheless, people in many cultures seem to make a similar distinction between the nature of their work and the context in which they perform the work.
B. Jobs in Organizations
Jobs are the basic building block of the task and authority relationships that define an organization's structure. Differentiation is the process of subdividing organizational work into jobs. Integration is the process of connecting jobs into a coordinated, cohesive whole. Jobs are interdependent and require careful planning and design.
III. TRADITIONAL APPROACHES TO JOB DESIGN
Failure to differentiate, integrate, or both may result in poorly designed jobs, which may lead to performance problems. In contrast, well-designed jobs improve productivity and enhance employee satisfaction. Four approaches to job design developed during the twentieth century include scientific management, job enlargement/job rotation, job enrichment, and the job characteristics theory.
A. Scientific Management
Scientific management emphasized work simplification through job specialization. Work simplification is the standardization and the narrow, explicit specification of task activities for workers. The scientific management approach emphasized efficiency but also dehumanized labor. It undervalues the human capacity for thought and ingenuity, resulting in boring, monotonous work and lack of involvement.
B. Job Enlargement/Job Rotation
Job enlargement is a method of job design that increases the number of tasks in a job in an attempt to overcome the boredom of overspecialization. Job rotation is the systematic shifting of workers from one task to another over time. These approaches did not change the nature of the tasks performed, but did improve work with regard to repetition and the mechanical work pace. Cross-training is a variation of job enlargement in which workers are trained in different specialized tasks or activities.
C. Job Enrichment
Job enrichment designs jobs by incorporating motivational factors into them. Job enrichment increases the amount of responsibility in a job through vertical loading. Employees are given more tasks, and more freedom and control in carrying out those tasks. Job enrichment is based on an oversimplified motivational theory and does not consider individual differences among employees.
D. Job Characteristics Theory
The Hackman and Oldham model of job characteristics is a framework for understanding person-job fit through the interaction of core job dimensions with critical psychological states within a person. The Job Characteristics Model includes five core job characteristics: skill variety; task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback from the job itself. The model also includes three critical psychological states: experienced meaningfulness of the work, experienced responsibility for work outcomes; and knowledge of results. Unless all of the characteristics are present, the outcome proposed may only result in short-term success. The easiest aspects to enhance are skill variety and task identity. The Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) is a survey instrument designed to measure the elements in the Job Characteristics Model. An alternative to the JDS is the Job Characteristics Inventory (JCI). Although not as comprehensive as the JDS, the JCI does measure core job characteristics.
IV. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO JOB DESIGN
Limitations of the traditional job design approaches have stimulated the development of four alternative approaches. These alternative approaches to job design include social information- processing (SIP), the interdisciplinary approach, the international perspective, and the health and well-being approach.
A. Social Information Processing
The social information-processing model suggests that important job factors depend in part on what others tell a person about the job. It emphasizes the interpersonal aspects of work design and helps people construct social realities associated with their jobs.
B. Interdisciplinary Approach
This approach builds on the job design approach. The model incorporates four approaches because it asserts that no one approach is comprehensive enough. The mechanistic, motivational, biological, and perceptual/motor approaches make up the interdisciplinary model. Table 14.2 summarizes the positive and negative outcomes of each job design approach.
1. Mechanistic Approach
The mechanistic approach is patterned after the scientific approach and has its roots in mechanical engineering. Outcomes include decreased training time and less likelihood of errors, as well as lower job satisfaction and lower motivation.
2. Motivational Approach
The motivational approach draws from industrial psychology and results in higher job satisfaction and higher motivation, but also involves increased training time and a greater chance of errors.
3. Biological Approach
The biological approach results in less physical effort and fatigue and higher job satisfaction, but requires higher financial costs because of the necessity to change equipment in order to achieve those reductions.
4. Perceptual/Motor Approach
Experimental psychology produced the perceptual/motor approach that reduces the likelihood of accidents and errors, and decreases training time. However, it also results in lower job satisfaction and motivation.
C. International Perspectives on the Design of Work
Japanese work systems emphasize collective and cooperative working arrangements. The German approach to job design originally consisted of a technocentric focus on technology and engineering, but has moved to an anthropocentric, or human centered, approach more recently. The Scandinavian perspective places its emphasis on worker control and social support systems.
D. Work Design and Well-Being
Organizations should consider the effects of job design on worker health and well-being. Some ways in which organizations can impact worker health and well-being include increasing worker control, reducing worker uncertainty, and managing conflict and task/job demands.
V. CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN THE DESIGN OF WORK
A. Telecommuting
Telecommuting involves fulfilling work responsibilities from home or other locations geographically separate from the company’s primary location. Notebook computers enable individuals to complete work responsibilities from virtually any location while traveling. Telecommuting can result in feelings of social isolation.
B. Alternative Work Patterns
Alternative work patterns allow flexibility among people and time to complete a set of tasks. Job sharing is an alternative work pattern in which more than one person occupies a single job. Flextime enables employees to set their own daily work schedules.
C. Technology at Work
The virtual office is a mobile platform of computer, telecommunication, and information technology and services that enables mobile workforce members to conduct business virtually anywhere, anytime, globally. Technostress is the stress caused by new and advancing technologies in the workplace.
D. Task Revision
Task revision involves innovative modification of incorrectly specified roles or jobs. Counter-role behavior is deviant behavior in either a correctly or incorrectly defined job or role, and results in poor performance in cases where a role or task is correctly defined. When roles or tasks are incorrectly defined, counter-role behavior is a useful way to correct for the problem.
E. Skill Development
One source of stress from new information technologies is the growing gap between the skills needed for the new technologies and the skills employees have in using the technologies. Skill development must be considered in conjunction with job design.
VI. MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS: THE CHANGING NATURE OF WORK
VII. LOOKING BACK: Flexible Work Schedules, Job Sharing, and a Female CEO
CHAPTER SUMMARY
· Different countries have different preferences for one or more of six distinct patterns of defining work.
· Scientific management, job enlargement/job rotation, job enrichment, and the job characteristics theory are traditional American approaches to the design of work and the management of workforce diversity.
· The social information-processing (SIP) model suggests that information from others and the social context are important in a job.
· The interdisciplinary approach draws on mechanical engineering, industrial psychology, experimental psychology, and biology in considering the advantages and disadvantages of job design efforts.
· The cultural values and social organizations in Japan, Germany, and Scandinavia lead to unique approaches to the design of work.
· Control, uncertainty, conflict, and job/task demands are important job design parameters to consider when designing work for the well-being of the workers.
· Telecommuting, alternative work patterns, technostress, task revision, and skill development are emerging issues in the design of work and the use of information technology.
REVIEW QUESTIONS: suggested answers
1. Define a job in its organizational context.
A job is a set of specified work and task activities that engage an individual in an organization.
2. Describe six patterns of working that have been studied in different countries.
In Pattern A, the value of work comes from performance of activities for which people are accountable and self-directed. Work is devoid of negative affect. Pattern B people define work as an activity that provides a positive affect and identity. It contributes to society and is not unpleasant. Pattern C people view work as an activity where profits accrue to others by performance. Work is strenuous and somewhat compulsive. Pattern D people define work as a physical activity directed by others, and usually devoid of positive affect. Pattern E people see work as unpleasant physically and mentally strenuous activity. In Pattern F, people define work as an activity constrained to specific time periods that does not create positive affect when performed. Work is defined most positively and with the most balanced personal and collective reasons for participating in the Netherlands. In contrast, work is least positive in Germany and Japan.
3. Describe four traditional approaches to the design of work in America.
Work simplification is the standardization and narrow, explicit specification of task activities for workers. Job enlargement and job rotation involve increasing the number of tasks in a job and systematic shifting of workers from one task to another over time, respectively. Job enrichment designs jobs by incorporating motivational factors into them and increases the amount of responsibility in a job through vertical loading. The Job Characteristics Model focuses on five core job characteristics and three critical psychological states.
4. Identify and define the five core job dimensions and the three critical psychological states in the Job Characteristics Model.
The five core job dimensions include skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Skill variety is the degree to which the job requires multiple skills and talents. Task identity is the completion of an identifiable piece of work. Task significance is the degree to which the job has a substantial impact. Autonomy is freedom and independence. Feedback is clear and direct information on job performance.
The critical psychological states are experienced meaningfulness of work (the job is valuable and worthwhile), experienced responsibility for work outcomes (personal accountability), and knowledge of results (an understanding of how well one is performing the job).
5. What are the salient features of the social information-processing (SIP) model of job design?
The SIP model has four salient features. First, other people provide cues that help workers decipher the work environment. Second, other people help workers judge what is important in a job. Third, other people tell workers how they see those workers’ jobs. Fourth, both positive and negative feedback from others helps workers understand their feelings about their jobs.
6. List the positive and negative outcomes of the four job design approaches considered by the interdisciplinary model.
Table 14.2 provides a comprehensive summary of the outcomes of these approaches. Outcomes of the mechanistic approach include decreased training time and less likelihood of errors, as well as lower job satisfaction and lower motivation. The motivational approach results in higher job satisfaction and higher motivation, but also involves increased training time and a greater chance of errors. The biological approach results in less physical effort and fatigue and higher job satisfaction, but requires higher financial costs because of the necessity to change equipment in order to achieve those reductions. Outcomes of the perceptual/motor approach include reduced likelihood of accidents and errors, and decreased training time, as well as lower job satisfaction and motivation.
7. How do the Japanese, German, and Scandinavian approaches to work differ from one another and from the American approach?
The Japanese approach to work is collectivist in nature, while the U.S. approach is highly individualized. The Japanese work system emphasizes strategic and cooperative working arrangements. Americans emphasize personal identity and social benefits of work. The German approach values a highly educated workforce and emphasizes a highly efficient hierarchical work environment. The social democratic tradition in Scandinavia stresses social concern over efficiency, with numerous laws supporting the rights and health conditions of workers.
8. Describe the key job design parameters considered when examining the effects of work design on health and well-being.