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Individuals, Jobs, and Effective HR Management Effective HR: Linking Individuals And Jobs Successfully The kinds of Human Resources systems and practices that organizations develop differ to some extent. They evolve in response to different circumstances, but it is becoming clear that HR management does affect an organizations effectiveness and ability to compete. Three examples are given here to show how the relationships among individuals, jobs, and effective HR management can affect an organization. Plastics Lumber Company: In Akron, Ohio, Alan Robbins started a small factory that converts old milk and soda bottles to fake lumber used in picnic tables, fences, etc. His major problems have been with his employees. He intentionally put his factory in a downtown location and hired local residents. When he began, he was lax and friendlyhe would break out cold beers for everyone at the end of a shift, or grant employees personal loans. A turning point came when Mr. Robbins had to fire two workers for fighting on the work floor. One was roaming the factory looking for the other with an iron bar in his hand. Both men filed for unemployment compensation, and filed racial discrimination complaints. Mr. Robbins realized his laissez-faire approach to HR was not going to work. Other tough issues involving alcohol and drugs at work also emerged. In one month, he had to fire four of his 50 employees for cocaine and other substance abuse problems. Absenteeism is a constant problem. So is the threat of lawsuits and injury claims, as well as discrimination and unemployment claims. In response Mr. Robbins has built elaborate HR defenses against such problems and says he no longer trusts his employees as much as he once did. His solution is an HR system built around a thick employment manual outlining what will be tolerated and what will not. Northwest Airlines: Northwests customer service and labor problems have gone from bad to the worst among major airlines. Northwest had the highest number of customer complaints, the most delayed flights, and second worst performance on mishandled bags. The airline recognized the problems, but the situation worsened as General Motors and Chrysler announced they were shifting some of their business travel to a Northwest rival. The automakers were unhappy with high fares, delays, and cancellations by Northwest. The FAA is investigating an unusually high number of
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mechanical problems, and union employees had a strike. In looking at Northwest Airlines, the CEO of Continental Airlines observed, They know they have some service issues. He further noted, A successful company cant be at war with its own employees. Chrysler Corporations Windsor Van Plant: When 33-year-old James Bonini was named manager of the big van plant in Windsor, Ontario, virtually everyone was surprised. He was young and inexperienced for the big job in one of the leastautomated plants with hundreds of manual jobs. He was selected because his boss wanted to shake up Chryslers manufacturing plants, where managers thought they were drill sergeants, workers were dissatisfied, and quality problems were abundant. Mr. Bonini made mistakes and was met with skepticism. But his commonsense management approach finally succeeded in changing the culture of the plant and attitudes of many employees. En route to that outcome, he took actions that had not been used beforeand that paid off. He met with all the workers in small groups; interestingly, many workers had never even met a plant manager. Bonini and his staff redesigned about 70% of the assembly operations and redesigned jobs to improve ergonomics, cost, and quality. His concern for his people showed up in incidents as minor as dealing with worker complaints about restrooms to changing telephone policy after a worker did not get a call in time to get to his dying wifes bedside. Bonini and his managers used worker teams to help draft standard operating procedures, and those teams made meaningful changes in the way workers did their jobs each day. The plants approach to individuals and their jobs was changeda feat acknowledged positively by even the most hard-bitten skeptics. Workers and managers both had changed the way they viewed and did their jobs.

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JOB ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

Individual responses to jobs vary. A job may be motivating to one person but not to someone else. Also, depending on how jobs are designed, they may provide more or less opportunity for employees to satisfy their job-related needs. For example, a sales job may furnish a good opportunity to satisfy social needs, whereas a training assignment may satisfy a persons need to be an expert in a certain area.
Def: - A job is defined as a collection of duties and responsibilities which are given together to an individual employee. Job analysis is the process of studying and collecting information relating to operations and responsibilities of a specific job. Job Analysis is the SYSTEMATIC process of collecting and making judgments about all the important information related to a job. Job analysis is the procedure through which you determine the duties and nature of the jobs and the kinds of people who should be hired for them. You can utilize the information it provides to write job descriptions and job specifications that are utilized in recruitment and selection, compensation, performance appraisal, and training. Job: A group of tasks that must be performed if an organization is to achieve its goals. Position: The tasks and responsibilities performed by one person; there is a position for every individual in an organization. Task: A distinct, identifiable work activity composed of motions Duty: A larger work segment composed of several tasks that are performed by an individual. Responsibility: An obligation to perform certain tasks and duties.

A job that gives little latitude may not satisfy an individuals need to be creative or innovative. Therefore, managers and employees alike are finding that understanding the characteristics of jobs requires broader perspectives than it did in the past.

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To achieve high quality performance organizations have to understand and match job requirements and people, this understanding requires job analysis, the process of getting detailed information about jobs. Analyzing jobs and understanding which is required to carry out a job provide essential knowledge for staffing, training, performance appraisal and many other HR activities. For instance a supervisor evaluation of an employees work should be based on performance relative to job requirements.in very small organizations, line managers may perform a job analysis but usually the work is done by a human resource professional. A large company may have a compensation management or total rewards function that includes job analysts. Organizations may also contract with firms that provide this service. Job analysis is divided into a) job description b) job specification. a) JOB DESCRIPTION. A key outcome of job analysis is the creation of job description. a job description is a list of the tasks,dutis and responsibilities (TDRs) that a job entails. TDRs are observable actions. For example a news photographers job requires the jobholder to use a camera to take photographs. If you were to observe someone in that position for a day, you would almost certainly see some pictures being taken. When manager attempts to evaluate job performance, it is most important to have detailed information about the work performed in the job (i.e the TDRS), this information makes it possible to determine how well an individual is meeting each job requirement. A job description typically has the format shown in figure 4.2 it includes the job title, a brief description of the TDRS and a list of the essential duties with detailed specifications of the tasks involved in carrying out each d duty. Although organizations may modify this format according to their needs, all job descriptions within an organization should follow the same format. This helps the org make consistent decisions about such matters as pay and promotions.it also helps the organization show that it makes human resource decisions fairly.

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Fig 4.2

HOW TO WRITE A JOB DESCRIPTION. Preparing a job description begins with gathering information from sources who can identify the details of performing a task. These sources may include persons already performing the jobs and the supervisors team leader, or, if the job is new, managers who are creating the new positionas.Asking the purpose of the new position can provide insight into what the company expects this person to accomplish. Beside people, sources of information may include the companys human resource files, such as past job advertisements and job descriptions, as general sources of information about similar jobs such as HR and social development Canadas national occupation classificfication system.

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There are several ways to gather information about the duties of a job:
METHODS OF JOB ANALYSIS 1. PERSONAL OBSERVATION:In this method the observer actually observes the concerned worker. He makes a list of all the duties performed by the worker and the qualities required to perform those duties based on the information collected, job analysis is prepared. 2. ACTUAL PERFORMANCE OF THE JOB :In this method the observer who is in charge of preparing the job analysis actually does the work himself. This gives him an idea of the skill required, the difficulty level of the job, the efforts required etc. 3. INTERVIEW METHOD :In this method an interview of the employee is conducted. A group of experts conduct the interview. They ask questions about the job, skilled levels, and difficulty levels. They question and cross question and collect information and based on this information job analysis is prepared. 4. CRITICAL INCIDENT METHOD :In this method the employee is asked to write one or more critical incident that has taken place on the job. The incident will give an idea about the problem, how it was handled, qualities required and difficulty levels etc. critical incident method gives an idea about the job and its importance. (a critical means important and incident means anything which takes place in the job) 5. QUESTIONER METHOD :In this method a questioner is provided to the employee and they are asked to answer the questions in it. The questions may be multiple choice questions or open ended questions. The questions decide how exactly the job analysis will be done. The method is effective because people would think twice before putting anything in writing. 6. LOG RECORDS :- (2 MARKS CONCEPT) Companies can ask employees to maintain log records and job analysis can be done on the basis of information collected from the log record. A log record is a book in which employees record /write all the activities performed by them on the job. The records are extensive as well as exhausted in nature and

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provide a fair idea about the duties and responsibilities in any job.

7. HRD RECORDS :Records of every employee are maintained by HR department. The record contain details about educational qualification, name of the job, number of years of experience, duties handled, any mistakes committed in the past and actions taken, number of promotions received, area of work, core competency area, etc. based on these records job analysis can be done.

After gathering information the next thing to do is to list all the activities and evaluate which are essential duties one way to do this is to rate all the duties on a scale of 1 to 5,where 1 is most important. A rating scale could also rank the tasks according to how much time the person spends on them. Perhaps the ratings will show that some tasks are desirable but not essential. Gathering information from many sources helps to verify which tasks are essential. Perhaps the jobholder is aware of some activities that others do not notice, in other cases he or she might perform activities that are merely habits or holdovers from a time when they were essential. When different people analyzing a job come to different conclusions about which activities are essential, the person writing the job description should compare the listed activities with the companys goals and workflow.to see which are essential. A group discussion also may help categories tasks as essential, ideal and unnecessary From these sources the writer of the job description obtains the important elements of the description: Title of the job. The title should be descriptive and if appropriate indicate the jobs level in the organization by using terms such as JUNIOR,SENIOR,ASSISTANT AND EXECUTIVE. Administrative information about the job, depending on the companys size and requirements the job description may identify a division, department, supervisors title, date of the analysis, name of the analyst ,and other information for administrating the companys human resource activities.
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Summary of the job, focusing on its purpose and duties. This summary should be brief and as specific as possible, include types of responsibilities, tools and equipment used and level of authority (e.g. the degree of authority and responsibility of the jobholder-how closely the person is supervised and how closely the person supervises others or participates in teamwork) Essential duties of the job. These should be listed in order of importance to successful performance of the job and should include details such as physical requirement (e.g. the amount of weight to be lifted), the persons with whom an employee in this job interacts and the results to be accomplished. This section should include only duties that the job analysis identified as essential. Additional responsibilities. The job description may have section stating that the position requires additional responsibilities such as requested by the supervisor Job specifications. The specifications cover the knowledge skills abilities and other characteristics required for a person to be qualified to perform the job successfully. These may appear at the end of the job description or as separate documents.

Whenever the org creates a new job, it needs to prepare job description, using a process such as the one detailed in HR HOW TO BOX .job description then be reviewed periodically ( say once a year) and updated if necessary. Performance appraisals can provide a good opportunity for updating job descriptions, as the employee and supervisor compare what the employee has been doing against the details of the job description When orgs prepare many job descriptions, the process can become repetitive and time consuming.to address this challenge a, a number of companies have developed software that provides forms into which the job analyst can insert details about the specific job. Typically the job analyst would use a library of basic descriptions, selecting one that is for a similar type of job and then modifying it to fit the orgs needs

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Organizations should provide each newly hired employee a copy of his or her job description. This helps the employee to understand what is expected but it shouldnt be presented as limiting the employees commitment to quality and customer satisfaction, ideally employees will want to go above and beyond the listed duties when the situation and their abilities call for that. Many include the phrase and other duties as required as a way to remind employees not to tell their supervisor, BUT THATS NOT PART OF MY JOB.

b) JOB SPECIFICATIONS
Whereas the JD focuses on the activities involved in carrying out a job a JOB SPECIFICATION looks at the qualities of the person performing the jobs.it is a list of competencies, that is, knowledge, skills and abilities ( KSA) refers to factual or procedural information necessary for successfully performing a task. For example this course is providing you with knowledge in how to manage a human resource. A SKILL is an individual level of proficiency at performing particular task- the capability to perform it well. With knowledge and experience, you could acquire skill in the task of preparing job specifications. ABILITY in contrast to skill, refers to a more general enduring capability that an individual possess. A person might have the ability to cooperate with others or to write clearly a precisely .finally other characteristics might be personality traits such as someones persistence or motivation to achieve. Some jobs also have legal requirements such as licensing or certification fig 4.3 gives u a set of sample job specifications for the job description in fig 4.2 In developing job specifications, it is important to consider all of the element of the compentencies.as with writing a job description ,the information can come from a combination of people performing the job, people supervising or planning for the job and trained job analysts.at Acxiom corporation, job specifications are based on an analysis of employees roles and competencies( what they must be able to do ) stated in terms of behaviours.to reach these definations,groups studied what the companys good performer were doing and looked for the underlying abilities. For example accosting r to jeff standridge, Acxioms ORGANIZATIONAL d development leader, they might ask a panel about a high performing software developer and panel members might identify the employees knowledge of the java and C++ programing languages. Then standridge says, the job analysts would probe for the abilities behind this

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knowledge when we asked , if java becomes obsolete in five years, will this person no longer be successful the panel responded oh no he will update his skills and be great in the New languages .the employees strength was not just in his specific skills but in his ability to learn.

In contrast to tasks, duties and responsibilities, competencies are characteristics of people and are observable only when individuals are carrying out the TDRs of the job- after and afterward, if they can show the product of their labor. Thus if someone applied for a job as a news photographer you could not simply look at the individual to determine whether he or she can spot and take effective photographs. However you would be able to draw conclusions later about the persons skills by looking at examples of his or her photographs. Accurate information about competencies is especially important for making decisions about who will fill a job. A manager attempting to fill a position needs information about the characteristics required and about the characteristics of each applicant. Interviews and selection decisions should therefore focus on competencies.in the earlier example of computer programming at Acxionm the
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company would look for some who knows the computer languages currently used, but also has a track record of taking the initiative to learn new computer languages as they are developed. The identification of competencies is also being implemented widely in the public sector .the federal government has developed a corporate competency profile for middle level managers that identifies 14 leadership competencies. These competencies include detail descriptions such as the behavior as well as the knowledge, skills and abilities associated with each competency. Competencies identified for middle managers in the federal public sector include intellectual competencies (eg cognitive capacity) ; management competencies( eg teamwork) ; relationship competencies ( eg communication); and personal competencies (e.g stamina or stress resistance) Operations that need to run 24 hrs a day has special job requirements for example shutting down certain equipment at night may be inefficient or cause production problems; and some industries such as security and health care may have customers who demand services around the clock. Globalization often means that operations take place across many time zones requiting management at all hours. When a job entails working night shifts, job specializations should reflect this reqirement.for most people working at night disrupts their normal functioning and may cause disorders such as fatigue and depression, obesity. However people show wide variability in how well they respond to working at night. Research has found that people who work well at night tends to prefer sleeping late in the morning and staying up late. They also tend to sleep easily at different times of day, like to take naps and exercise regularly. When job specifications call for nighttime work a persons ability to handle a nocturnal work life may be the most critical competency.

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The following are the benefits of job analysis.

1. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND DESIGN: Job analysis helps the organization to make suitable changes in the organizational structure, so that

it matches the needs and requirements of the organization. Duties are either added or deleted from the job.

2. RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION:Job analysis helps to plan for the future human resource. It helps to recruit and select the right kind of people. It provides information necessary to select the right person.

3. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL AND TRAINING/DEVELOPMENT:Based on the job requirements identified in the job analysis, the company decides a training

program. Training is given in those areas which will help to improve the performance on the job. Similarly

when appraisal is conducted we check whether the employee is able to work in a manner in which we require him to do the job. 4. JOB EVALUATION: Job evaluation refers to studying in detail the job performance by all individual. The difficulty levels, skills required and on that basis the salary is fixed.

Information regarding qualities required, skilled levels, difficulty levels are obtained from job analysis.

5. PROMOTIONS AND TRANSFER :When we give a promotion to an employee we need to promote him on the basis of the skill and talent required for the future job. Similarly when we transfer an employee to another branch the job must be very similar to what he has done before. To take these decisions we collect information from job analysis.

6. CAREER PATH PLANNING:Many companies have not taken up career planning for their employees. This is done to prevent the employee from leaving the company. When we plan the future career of the employee, information will be collected from job analysis. Hence job analysis becomes important or advantageous.

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7. LABOUR RELATIONS:When companies plan to add extra duties or delete certain duties from a job, they require the help of job analysis, when this activity is systematically done using job analysis the number of problems with union members reduce and labour relations improve. 8. HEALTH AND SAFETY:Most companies prepare their own health and safety, plans and programs based on job analysis. From the job analysis company identifies the risk factor on the job and based on the risk factor safety equipments are provided. 9. ACCEPTANCE OF JOB OFFER:When a person is given an offer/appointment letter the duties to be performed by him are clearly mentioned in it, this information is collected from job analysis, which is why job analysis becomes important.

Nature of Job Design

JOB DESIGN Definitions: Job design is the process of a) Deciding the contents of the job. b) Deciding methods to carry out the job. c) Deciding the relationship which exists in the organization.
Work arrangement (or rearrangement) aimed at reducing or overcoming job dissatisfaction and employee alienation arising from repetitive and mechanistic tasks. Through job design, organizations try to raise productivity levels by offering non-monetary rewards such as greater satisfaction from a sense of personal achievement in meeting the increased challenge and responsibility of one's work. Job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation, and job simplification are the various techniques used in a job design exercise.

Individual responses to jobs vary. A job may be motivating to one person but not to someone else. Also, depending on how jobs are designed, they may provide more or less opportunity for employees to satisfy
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their job-related needs. For example, a sales job may furnish a good opportunity to satisfy social needs, whereas a training assignment may satisfy a persons need to be an expert in a certain area. A job that gives little latitude may not satisfy an individuals need to be creative or innovative. Therefore, managers and employees alike are finding that understanding the characteristics of jobs requires broader perspectives than it did in the Designing or redesigning jobs encompasses many factors.

Designing or redesigning jobs encompasses many factors. Job design refers to organizing tasks, duties, and responsibilities into a productive unit of work. It involves the content of jobs and the effect of jobs on employees. Identifying the components of a given job is an integral part of job design. More attention is being paid to job design for three major reasons: REASONS FOR JOB DESIGN: Job design can influence performance in certain jobs, especially those where employee motivation can make a substantial difference. Lower costs through reduced turnover and absenteeism also are related to good job design. Job design can affect job satisfaction. Because people are more satisfied with certain job configurations than with others, it is important to be able to identify what makes a good job. Job design can affect both physical and mental health. Problems such as hearing loss, backache, and leg pain sometimes can be traced directly to job design, as can stress and related high blood pressure and heart disease. Not everyone would be happy as a physician, as an engineer, or as a dishwasher. But certain people like and do well at each of those jobs. The person/job fit is a simple but important concept that involves matching characteristics of people with characteristics of jobs. Obviously, if a person does not fit a job, either the person can be changed or replaced, or the job can be altered. In the past, it was much more common to make the round person fit the square job. However, successfully reshaping people is not easy to do. By redesigning jobs, the person/ job fit can be improved more easily. Jobs may be designed properly when they are first established or reengineered later.

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Job analysis helps to develop job design and job design matches the requirements of the job with the human qualities required to do the job. Job design has been equated with job enrichment, a

technique developed by Frederick Herzberg, but job design is much broader than job enrichment alone.

JOB ENLARGEMENT AND JOB ENRICHMENT Attempts to alleviate some of the problems encountered in excessive job simplification fall under the general headings of job enlargement and job enrichment. Job enlargement involves broadening the scope of a job by expanding the number of different tasks to be performed.
1. Job enlargement: Job enlargement is another method of job design when any organization wishes to adopt proper job design it can opt for job enlargement. Job enlargement involves combining various activities at the same level in the organization and adding them to the existing job. It increases the scope of the job. It is also called the horizontal expansion of job activities. Job enlargement can be explained with the help of the following example - If Mr. A is working as an executive with a company and is currently performing 3 activities on his job after job enlargement or through job enlargement we add 4 more activities to the existing job so now Mr. A performs 7 activities on the job. It must be noted that the new activities which have been added should belong to the same hierarchy level in the organization. By job enlargement we provide a greater variety of activities to the individual so that we are in a position to increase the interest of the job and make maximum use of employees skill. Job enlargement is also essential when policies like VRS are implemented in the company.

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Advantages of job enlargement 1. Variety of skills:Job enlargement helps the organization to improve and increase the skills of the employee due to organization as well as the individual benefit.

2. Improves earning capacity:Due to job enlargement the person learns many new activities. When such people apply foe jobs to other companies they can bargain for more salary.

3. Wide range of activities:Job enlargement provides wide range of activities for employees. Since a single employee handles multiple activities the company can try and reduce the number of employees. This reduces the salary bill for the company.

Disadvantages of job enlargement 1. Increases work burden:Job enlargement increases the work of the employee and not every company provides incentives and extra salary for extra work. Therefore the efforts of the individual may remain unrecognized.

2. Increasing frustration of the employee:In many cases employees end up being frustrated because increased activities do not result in increased salaries.

3. Problem with union members:Many union members may misunderstand job enlargement as exploitation of worker and may take objection to it.

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2. Job enrichment is increasing the depth of a job by adding responsibility for planning, organizing, controlling, and evaluating the job.

Job enrichment: Job enrichment is a term given by Fedric Herzberg. According to him a few motivators are added to a job to make it more rewarding, challenging and interesting. According to Herzberg the motivating factors enrich the job and improve performance. In other words we can say that job enrichment is a method of adding some motivating factors to an existing job to make it more interesting. The motivating factors can be a) Giving more freedom. b) Encouraging participation. c) Giving employees the freedom to select the method of working. d) Allowing employees to select the place at which they would like to work. e) Allowing workers to select the tools that they require on the job. f) Allowing workers to decide the layout of plant or office.

Job enrichment gives lot of freedom to the employee but at the same time increases the responsibility. Some workers are power and responsibility hungry. Job enrichment satisfies the needs of the employees.

A manager might enrich a job by promoting variety, requiring more skill and responsibility, providing more autonomy, and adding opportunities for personal growth. Giving an employee more planning and controlling responsibilities over the tasks to be done also enriches. However, simply adding more similar tasks does not enrich the job. Some examples of such actions that enrich a job include: Giving a person an entire job rather than just a piece of the work. Giving more freedom and authority so the employee can perform the job as he or she sees fit. Increasing a persons accountability for work by reducing external control.

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Expanding assignments so employees can learn to do new tasks and develop new areas of expertise. Giving feedback reports directly to employees rather than to management only.

Advantages of job enrichment

1. Interesting and challenging job :When a certain amount of power is given to employees it makes the job more challenging for them, we can say that job enrichment is a method of employee empowerment.

2. Improves decision making :Through job enrichment we can improve the decision making ability of the employee by asking him to decide on factory layout, method and style of working.

3. Identifies future managerial caliber :When we provide decision making opportunities to employees, we can identify which employee is better that other in decision making and mark employees for future promotion.

4. Identifies higher order needs of employees :This method identifies higher order needs of the employee. Abraham maslows theory of motivation speaks of these higher order needs e.g. ego and esteemed needs, self actualization etc. These needs can be achieved through job enrichment.

5. Reduces work load of superiors :Job enrichment reduces the work load of senior staff. When decisions are taken by juniors the seniors work load is reduced.

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Disadvantages of job enrichment 1. Job enrichment is based on the assumptions that workers have complete knowledge to take decisions and they have the right attitude. In reality this might not be the case due to which there can be problems in working. 2. Job enrichment has negative implications ie. Along with usual work decision making work is also given to the employees and not many may be comfortable with this. 3. Superiors may feel that power is being taken away from them and given to the juniors. This might lead to ego problems. 4. This method will only work in certain situations. Some jobs already give a lot of freedom and responsibility; this method will not work for such jobs. 5. Some people are internally dissatisfied with the organization. For such people no amount of job enrichment can solve the problem

3. JOB ROTATION The technique known as job rotation can be a way to break the monotony of an otherwise routine job with little scope by shifting a person from job to job. For example, one week on the auto assembly line, John Williams attaches doors to the rest of the body assembly. The next week he attaches bumpers. The third week he puts in seat assemblies, then rotates back to doors again the following week. Job rotation need not be done on a weekly basis. John could spend one-third of a day on each job or one entire day, instead of a week, on each job. It has been argued, however, that rotation does little in the long run to solve the problem of employee boredom. Rotating a person from one boring job to another may help somewhat initially, but the jobs are still perceived to be boring. The advantage is that job rotation does develop an employee who can do many different jobs.

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Advantages of job rotation

1. Avoids monopoly:Job rotation helps to avoid monopoly of job and enable the employee to learn new things and therefore enjoy his job

2. Provides an opportunity to broaden ones knowledge:Due to job rotation the person is able to learn different job in the organization this broadens his knowledge

3. Avoiding fraudulent practice:In an organization like bank jobs rotation is undertaken to prevent employees from doing any kind of fraud i.e. if a person is handling a particular job for a very long time he will be able to find loopholes in the system and use them for his benefit and indulge (participate ) in fraudulent practices job rotation avoids this.

Disadvantages of Job Rotation

1. Frequent interruption:Job rotation results in frequent interruption of work .A person who is doing a particular job and get it comfortable suddenly finds himself shifted to another job or department .this interrupts the work in both the departments 2. Reduces uniformity in quality :Quality of work done by a trained worker is different from that of a new worker .when a new worker I shifted or rotated in the department, he takes time to learn the new job, makes mistakes in the process and affects the quality of the job. 3. Misunderstanding with the union member :Sometimes job rotation may lead to misunderstanding with members of the union. The union might think that employees are being harassed and more work is being taken from them. In reality this is not the case.

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4. Job Simplification
Job simplification is a design method whereby jobs are divided into smaller components and subsequently assigned to workers as whole jobs. Simplification of work requires that jobs be broken down into their smallest units and then analyzed. Each resulting sub-unit typically consists of relatively few operations. These subunits are then assigned to the workers as their total job. There appears to be two major advantages in using job simplification. First, since the job requires very little training, they can be completed by less costly unskilled labor. Second, job speed increases because each worker is performing only a small portion of the previously large job and thus is able to master a smaller, less complicated job unit. On the negative side, job simplification results in workers experiencing boredom, frustration, alienation, lack of motivation and low job satisfaction. This, in turn, leads to lower productivity and increased cost.

Job Characteristics model.

The job-characteristics model by Hackman and Oldham identifies five important design characteristics of jobs. Figure 36 shows that skill variety, task identity, and task significance affect meaningfulness of work. Autonomy stimulates responsibility, and feedback provides knowledge of results. Following is a description of each characteristic. 1. SKILL VARIETY The extent to which the work requires several different activities for successful completion indicates its skill variety. For example, low skill variety exists when an assembly-line worker performs the same two tasks repetitively. The more skills involved, the more meaningful the work. Skill variety can be enhanced in several ways. Job rotation can break the monotony of an otherwise routine job with little scope by shifting a person from job to job. Job enlargement may as well. 2. TASK IDENTITY The extent to which the job includes a whole identifiable unit of work that is carried out from start to finish and that results in a visible outcome is its task identity. For example, one corporation changed its customer service processes so that when a customer

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calls with a problem, one employee, called a Customer Care Advocate, handles most or all facets of the problem from maintenance to repair. As a result, more than 40% of customer problems are resolved by one person while the customer is still on the line. Previously, less than

1% of the customer problems were resolved immediately because the customer service representative had to complete paperwork and forward it to operations, which then followed a number of separate steps using different people to resolve problems. In the current system, the Customer Care Advocate can identify more closely with solving a customers problem.

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3. TASK SIGNIFICANCE The amount of impact the job has on other people indicates its task significance. A job is more meaningful if it is important to other people for some reason. For instance, a soldier may experience more fulfillments when defending his or her country from a real threat than when merely training to stay ready in case such a threat arises. In the earlier example, the Customer Care Advocates task has significance because it affects customers considerably. 4. AUTONOMY The extent of individual freedom and discretion in the work and its scheduling indicates autonomy. More autonomy leads to a greater feeling of personal responsibility for the work. Efforts to increase autonomy may lead to what was characterized as job enrichment by Frederick Herzberg. Examples of actions that increase autonomy include giving more freedom and authority so the employee can perform the job as he or she sees fit and increasing an employees accountability for work by reducing external control. 5. FEEDBACK The amount of information employees receive about how well or how poorly they have performed is feedback. The advantage of feedback is that it helps employees to understand the effectiveness of their performance and contributes to their overall knowledge about the work. At one firm, feedback reports from customers who contact the company with problems are given directly to the employees who handle the customers complaints, instead of being given only to the department manager.

Consequences of Job Design Jobs designed to take advantage of these important job characteristics are more likely to be positively received by employees. Such characteristics help distinguish between good and bad jobs. Many approaches to enhancing productivity and quality reflect efforts to expand some of the job characteristics.35 Because of the effects of job design on performance, employee satisfaction, health, and many other factors, many organizations are changing or have already changed the design of some jobs. A broader approach is reengineering work and jobs.

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JOB DESIGN

Differentiating between Job Analysis and Job Design It is useful to clarify the differences between job design and job analysis. Job design is broader in nature and has as its primary thrust meshing the productivity needs of the organization with the needs of the individuals performing the various jobs. Increasingly, a key aim for job design is to provide individuals meaningful work that fits effectively into the flow of the organization. It is concerned with changing, simplifying, enlarging, enriching, or otherwise making jobs such that the efforts of each worker fit together better with other jobs. Job analysis has a much narrower focus in that it is a formal system for gathering data about what people are doing in their jobs. The information generated by job analysis may be useful in redesigning jobs, but its primary purpose is to get a clear understanding of what is done on a job and what capabilities are needed to do a job as it has been designed. Documents that capture the elements identified during a job analysis are job descriptions and job specifications.

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