‘Job design specifies the contents of jobs in order to satisfy work requirements and meet the personal needs of the job holder, thus increasing levels of employee engagement.’ - Armstrong (2014, p. 145).The Job Design means outlining the task, duties, responsibilities, qualifications, methods and relationships required to perform the given set of a job. In other words, job design encompasses the components of the task and the interaction pattern among the employees, with the intent to satisfy both the organizational needs and the social needs of the jobholder. - Randhawa (2007).Specification of contents, methods and relationships of jobs in order to satisfy technological and organizational requirements as well as personal requirements of the job holder. Planning and requirement of job tasks and the work setting chosen for their achievement. - French (2011).
The Job Design bounded by duties, responsibilities, qualifications, methods and relationships required to perform the given set of a job with intention to satisfy both organizational and employee needs. Objective of job design is to arrange the set of work that not going to dissatisfy the employee. – Noordhoek (2013).
Benefits of proper Job Design
ü Provide opportunities for people to perform tasks.to guide skill variety.
ü Combine tasks and form natural work units, for unique tasks.
ü Form work units and inform people of the importance of their work. For importance of the tasks.
ü Give people responsibility for determining their own Working systems. For independency.
ü Establish good relationships and open feedback channels. For encourage the feedback.
When design jobs, organizations have to consider few aspects. According to- Robertson, I T and Smith, M (1985). is as follows,
Ø Organization must clearly define the task of what need to perform
Ø Need to define the level of motivation required to push the employee to complete that defined tasks.
Ø How much resources need to allocate by an organization to complete that tasks
Ø Employee agrees to perform the task only they get rewards. The organization must allocate wedges, bonus incentives and other rewards when designing the job.
Methods using for job designs illustrated in figure 1.0,
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| Figure 1 .0: Job design methods |
1. . Job Simplification- Job design to improve efficiency by reducing the number of tasks a single person perform. - Daft R and Samson D (2015).
For an example at AMANA BANK PLC: account opening process given to one employee and cash collection given for another employee. From the job simplification, highly specialized employees will produce with less training and less payment.
2. Job Rotation- Employees in a production section can interchange job often this is to enhance the employee skills and also physical and mental well-being. - Durai 2010). At Amana Bank PLC employees are trained in all jobs enabling them to multitask, leading to functional efficiency, hence employees are able to work at cash teller, account-opening section or credit division.
3. Job Enrichment – Increase the employee responsibility or upgrade jobs to include extra skilled tasks. - Parker,S and Wall,T. (1998).Vertically increase of the task level of the employee without changing the task. This will increase the motivation of the employee by seen they got more responsibility. For an example from our bank (AMANA BANK PLC) those who perform cash related functions (tellers), have authorization limit of 25,000 rupees with that limit they can perform any customer cash transaction without approval from superiors. With job enrichment, the mentioned tellers get an upgrade limit of Rs.100, 000.
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| Figure 2.0 Job Enrichment |
4. Job Enlargement – adding more tasks to the same job. This will increase the interesting variety to the work. -Miner (2007). This horizontally increases the number of tasks for same responsibility level. Employees at Amana for the same salary grade will assign to collect loan installment while they are responsible for granting the loan facility.
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| Figure 3.0 :Job Enlargement |
Drawbacks of improper Job design
According to – Aswathappa(2005).The drawbacks of improper job design are as follows,
* Because of oversimplification of the job design boredom can arise, the result of that employee resignations will incur.
* Improper job rotations expected improvements won’t happen workers feel roofless because of this.
* When adding another job to the same employee, his current one can be boring one add another boring task to that will incur demotivation.
* When trying to enrich the jobs unions can be resisted.
Finally in conclusion proper job design will increase the profitability of the organization and employees are more happy and motivated to work in such organization.This could be achieved through job simplification, job rotation, job enrichment and job enlargement.
References:
Amstrong, M. (2006). Human Resource management practice. 10th ed. Kogan page,London.
Aswathappa,K(2005). Human Resource and Personnel Management.[Online]. Available at <https://books.google.lk/books?id=-xIWlA_UHnAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false>.[Accessed on 06th May 2018].
Daft R and Samson D.(2015). Fundamentals of Management: Asia Pacific Edition.[Online]. Available at < https://books.google.lk/books?id=jA-pBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA669&dq=job+simplification+pdf&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjbpbWIuOnaAhWBa7wKHaVxDAIQ6AEILzAB#v=onepage&q=job%20simplification%20pdf&f=false>.[Accessed on 06th May 2018].
Durai,P.(2010). Human Resource Management. 10th ed.Pearson,New Delhi.
French,R. (2011). Organizational Behaviour. [Online]. Available at <https://books.google.lk/books?id=pONh39DERCsC&pg=PA244&dq=job+design+definition&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4zamMn_HaAhXINo8KHdfHBusQ6AEILTAB>.[Accessed on 06th May 2018].
Miner,J.B. (2007). Organizational Behavior 4: From Theory to Practice.[Online]. Available at <https://books.google.lk/books?id=E_NoJzUp1dcC&pg=PA47&dq=Job+Enlargement++pdf&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSkafRw-naAhVIyrwKHWCKC18Q6AEINjAC#v=onepage&q=Job%20Enlargement&f=false>.[Accessed on 03rd May 2018].
Noordhoek, R. (2013) the role of job design practices in firm-level creative capital [online]. MBA Thesis, University of Twente,. Available at: < essay.utwente.nl/63857/1/MSc_R_Noordhoek_OPENBAAR.pdf >.[ Accessed on 06th May 2018].
Noordhoek, R. (2013) the role of job design practices in firm-level creative capital [online]. MBA Thesis, University of Twente,. Available at: < essay.utwente.nl/63857/1/MSc_R_Noordhoek_OPENBAAR.pdf >.[ Accessed on 06th May 2018].
Parker,S and Wall,T. (1998). Job and Work Design: Organizing Work to Promote Well-Being and Effectiveness.[Online]. Available at <https://books.google.lk/books?id=_-oe-0GiRHQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false>.[Accessed on 03rd May 2018].
Randhawa,G. (2007). Human Resource Management.[Online]. Available at <https://books.google.lk/books?id=MmYiX5JxPY8C&pg=PA53&dq=job+design+definition&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4>.[Accessed on 06th May 2018].
Robertson, I T and Smith, M (1985). Motivation and Job Design,10th ed. Institute of Personnel Management, London.
