Job Design

● Job design is defined by Michael Armstrong, “as

the process of deciding on the content of a job in
terms of its duties and responsibilities; on the
methods to be used in carrying out the job, in
terms of techniques, systems and procedures and
on the relationships that should exist between the
job holder and his superiors, subordinates and
colleagues”.
 Two important goals of job
design

● To meet the organizational

requirements such as higher
productivity, operational efficiency,
quality of product/service etc. and
● To satisfy the needs of the individual
employees like interests, challenges,
achievement or accomplishment, etc.
Poorly designed jobs often result
in

● Boredom
● Increased attrition rate
● Reduced motivation
● Low levels of job satisfaction
● Less than optimal productivity
● Increase in organizational costs
 Techniques of Job Design

Job
Rotation

Job Job Job

Simplification Design Enlargement

Job
Enrichment
 Job Simplification
● This requires that jobs be broken down into their smallest
units and then analyzed. Each resulting subunit typically
consists of relatively few operations. These subunits are
then assigned to workers as their total job. This is done so
that employees can do these jobs without much
specialized training. Many small jobs can also be
performed simultaneously, so that the complete operation
can be done more quickly. Time and motion studies are
often used for work simplification
 Advantages of Job
Simplification

– Requires less training

– Less costly unskilled labour
– Increase in speed
Job Enlargement:
(Horizontal)
● It involves the addition to or expansion of
tasks in the job and job becomes a
meaningful operation.
● It is the strategy adopted by many
organizations to combat the ill-effects of
division of labour.
● Its focus is on enlarging the contents of jobs by
adding tasks and responsibilities.
Job Enlargement
● It involves expansion of the scope and width of
the job by means of assigning certain closely
related operations.
● E.g. a clerk in an office doing typing work
may be also assigned tasks of drafting
simple letters, sorting mail and filling of
papers. This will reduce his boredom and
make him satisfied with the job. His
efficiency will also improve.
Job Enrichment: (Vertical)
● It is a direct outgrowth of Herzberg’s Two
Factor Theory of Motivation.
● It is therefore based on the assumption that in
order to motivate personnel, the job itself must
provide opportunities for achievement,
recognition, responsibility, advancement and
growth.
Job Enrichment
● It involves the vertical expansion of jobs by
increasing the amount of worker responsibilities
associated with the positions.
● E.g. a worker who previously only loaded boxes
for delivery into a trailer may be given the
responsibility of verifying that the customer
order is correct.
Job Enrichment
● Through job enrichment, autonomy,
responsibility and control becomes part of a
worker’s job.
● This in turn leads to greater feelings of
satisfaction, higher motivation and increased
productivity.
Examples
A person hired to handle the reception work is
responsible for handling customer enquiries, queries
and calls on the front desk. She kept on doing the
same work for two years and got bored. She
discussed the problem with the HR manager, who
planned to implement job enlargement for making
her job profile interesting.
Few more task were added to her job profile like
interacting with the clients and making outbound
calls to create new customers for the company. These
added tasks reduced her monotony.
A human resource executive was initially responsible for
maintaining the employees’ record and calling the candidates for
interviews as directed by the HR manager. To add more value to the
HR executive’s job profile, the manager gave him some authority
related to the work already assigned to him.
The new responsibilities included providing the employees’
provident fund details to the accounts department, keeping contact
with the provident fund office and initial scrutinizing of the
candidates for the interviews. These additional responsibilities hold
authority and accountability, making the employee more efficient,
confident and satisfied with the job
 ADVANTAGES OF JOB
ENRICHMENT

The importance or merits or advantages of job enrichment are:-

 Job enrichment is useful to both the workers and the organization.

 The worker gets achievement recognition and self-actualization.

 The worker gets a sense of belonging to the organization.

 The worker finds the job meaningful.

 Job enrichment reduces absenteeism labor - turnover and grievances.

 It motivates the workers to give best performance.

 LIMITATION OF JOB
ENRICHMENT

The shortcoming or demerits or limitations of job enrichment are:-

 In many cases job enrichment does not give the expected result.

 It makes many changes in the job. So many workers oppose it.

 It has limited use for highly skilled managers and professionals.

 The consent of workers is not taken before implementing job enrichment.

 Managers force the workers to accept job enrichment which is not good.
 Job Rotation
● This refers to the movement of an employee
from one job to the another over a designated
period of time.
● Jobs themselves are not actually changed, only
the employees are rotated among various jobs.
● An employee who works on another job for some
days or months and returns back to the first job.
 Job Rotation
● This would relieve the employee from boredom
and monotony, improves the employee’s skills
regarding various jobs and prepares the
employee to meet the contingencies.
This is also intended to improve worker’s
● self-image and provides personal growth.
 Job Rotation
● However, job rotation can have a very limited
potential.
● It does not change the basic nature of jobs. Rather an
employee is asked to perform several monotonous jobs
in place of a single job.
● Therefore, the employees who want a challenging and
satisfying job still feel frustrated.
● Moreover, frequent rotation of employees may cause
interruptions in the work routine of the organization.
 Approaches To Job Design

Scientific Management
Approach Behavioural Socio-technical
(F.W. Taylor) Approach System
(Herzberg) Approach
 Scientific Management Approach

● The earliest approach to job design is the

rational approach or industrial engineering
approach propounded by F. W. Taylor, the
father of Scientific Management.
Scientific Management Approach

• The standardization of jobs into the single

best way by which they can be
• performed.
The training of workers in the single best
• way to perform the job.
The specialization of labour leading to
• expertise in small narrow jobs.
The systematic and specific determination of
• job description for each job.
Monetary compensation should be used to
reward successful performance of the job.
 Behavioural Approach

● During 1950s, Herzberg’s research

popularized the notion of enhancing need
satisfaction through what is called job
enrichment.
● There are many different approaches to job
enrichment, yet all of them attempt to help the
job incumbent satisfy personal needs while
performing the job.
 Behavioural Approach

● One widely publicized approach to job

enrichment uses the “Job Characteristics
Model”. This model is based on the view that
three key psychological states of a job
incumbent affect motivation and satisfaction of
the job.
The three states are

• Experienced meaningfulness –
worth of the work
• Experienced responsibility
• Knowledge of results –
Understanding how effectively
he/she is performing the job
● The more these three states are
experienced, the more job
incumbent will feel internal work
motivation.
 Socio-Technical System
Approach
● This approach calls for the decision of work
systems that would foster a meshing of the
technical and social aspects of jobs.
● In order to create jobs, which have this
supportive relationship, work teams, not
individual jobs, must be studied.
● Job design through socio-technical approach
requires the combined efforts of employees,
supervisors and union representatives in
analyzing significant job operations.
 Socio-Technical System
Approach

● The major thrust of the socio-technical

approach to job design is that both the
technical system and the accompanying
social system should be considered when
designing jobs.
● According to this concept, jobs should be
designed by taking a “holistic” or “systems”
view of the entire job situation, including its
physical and social environment.
Manpower Information System

● Human resource manager needs considerable

information and data relating to all areas of
HRM.
● HR information system provides information
necessary for planning, controlling, decision-
making and preparing reports.
Manpower Information System
● The task of analyzing vast amounts of HR data has
been simplified by the use of computers. This task
is from pay-roll processing to record retention.
● The human resource information systems manager
must clearly understand the record- keeping and
reporting requirements before designing the system.
Though the requirements of each employer vary,
some common reports can be prepared.
Manpower Information System
● Personal Profile: Name, gender,
community, age, marital status,
address, phone numbers, e-mail id,
service dates.
● Career Profile: Performance
appraisal, job title changes, job
classification changes, salary
changes, promotions, transfers,
career paths.
Manpower Information System

● Skill Profile: Education, training,

certificates, licences, degrees, skills,
hobbies, requested training,
interest.
● Benefit Profiles: Insurance
coverage, disability, provisions,
pension, profit sharing, vacation,
holidays, sick-leave.
 Uses of Human
Resource Information
System
● Employment Recruitment
● Tests, Interviews
● Selection
 Uses of Human
Resource Information
System
● Labour Relations
● Industrial Relations
● Job attitude surveys
● Safety & health Monitoring
 Uses of Human
Resource Information
System
● Training & Development
● Background record maintenance
● Needs assessment for Training &
Development
● Training Evaluation
● Course Scheduling
 Uses of Human
Resource Information
System
● Benefits
● Benefits Administration
● Benefits Preference Surveys
● Benefits Counselling
 Uses of Human
Resource Information
System
● Cost Control/Productivity
● Salary Planning
● HR Planning
● Cost of selection per employee
● Absenteeism Analysis
● Turnover Analysis
● Performance Analysis
● Cost of salary & Benefit per employee
 Uses of Human
Resource Information
System
● Employee Management
● Biographical Record
● Maintenance
● Work History Maintenance
● Skill Inventory
 Uses of Human
Resource Information
System
● Internal Job Matching
● Job Description
● Job Analysis
● Work Scheduling
● Organizational Charting