What is Job Design?: Meaning, Importance & Factors Affecting Job Design

Everything you need to know about job design. Job design is the process of organizing work into the tasks required to perform a specific job.

Job design involves the conscious efforts to organize tasks, duties and responsibilities into a unit of work to achieve certain objectives.

An HR manager should have a keen interest in the design and specification of individual jobs within the organization.

Job design is about the way that tasks are combined to form complete jobs in the workplace, whilst job redesign has its focus on how existing jobs are changed- for example, by redesigning jobs management may able to increase motivation around, say, the introduction of self-managed work teams.

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“Job design is the process of deciding on the contents of a job in terms of its duties and responsibilities, on the methods to be used in carrying out the job, in term of techniques, systems and procedures and on the relationships that should exist between the jobholder and his superiors, subordinates and colleagues” Ibid.

Learn about:-

1. Introduction to Job Design 2. Meaning and Definition of Job Design 3. Goals, Guidelines and Importance 4. Objectives 5. Major Factors Affecting 6. Methods 7. Approaches 8. Steps to Redesign.

Job Design in HRM: Meaning, Definition, Objectives, Importance, Factors, Methods, Approaches and Redesign

Contents:

Introduction to Job Design
Meaning and Definition of Job Design
Goals, Guidelines and Importance of Designing a Job
Objectives of Job Design
Major Factors Affecting Job Design
Methods of Job Design
Approaches of Job Design
Steps to Redesign Job of Employees

What is Job Design – Introduction

Creating a job design is the succeeding step to job analysis. As you know, job analysis provides information about the skills and competency required to perform a job efficiently. Conversely, job design strives at organizing tasks, duties, and responsibilities associated with a job to achieve organizational as well as individual objectives. Job design is a relatively new term in HRM.

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The HR managers have realized that the design of the job has considerable influence on the productivity and job satisfaction. Poorly designed jobs often result in boredom, increased employee turnover, job dissatisfaction, low productivity, and increase in overall cost of the organization. Thus, job design is an attempt to create a match between the job requirements and available human resource attributes.

Job design is the process of organizing work into the tasks required to perform a specific job. It involves the conscious efforts to organize tasks, duties and responsibilities into a unit of work to achieve certain objectives. An HR manager should have a keen interest in the design and specification of individual jobs within the organization.

The jobs should be designed in such a way that it motivates the employees to execute it in the best possible manner. Excessive specialization and mechanization have made many jobs repetitive and boring, employees performing such dull jobs tend to tire easily. Therefore it is important to design jobs properly so as to increase employee motivation and performance.

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Job designs that increase employee access, comfort and flexibility are likely to influence motivation and productivity positively. Job design specifies the work content, i.e., tasks and functions, methods of work, the skills, knowledge and abilities required for performing the jobs, the interrelationship between the jobs, and the rewards the employees will get on the completion of the job.

Job design determines the responsibility of an employee, the authority he enjoys over his work, his scope of decision-making, and eventually, his level of satisfaction and his productivity. Job satisfaction and productivity are interrelated and inter-dependent. Job design also has an effect on the relationships in a group and the productivity of the group.

Effective job design is a complex process that must be viewed from several standpoints. Organisational goals, employee aspirations, performance standards, and work environment are some of the major factors that need to be taken into consideration in job design. The role of the HR function is limited in job design; the line managers play a major role in job design, as they understand the work processes better.

The major components of a job design are the job content or scope and the job depth. The job content includes the various tasks or activities that have to be performed by the job holder, the responsibilities attached to the job and the relationships with other jobs in the organisational set-up. Job depth is the autonomy or the authority that the job holder enjoys in planning and organising the work attached to the job.

What is Job Design – Meaning and Definition

Meaning of Job Design:

Job design is the logical sequence of the process of job analysis and involves conscious efforts to organize tasks, duties and responsibilities into a unit of work so as to business objectives.

Job design is the logical sequence to job analysis. It involves conscious efforts to organize tasks, duties and responsibilities into a unit of work so as to achieve organizational objectives. It deals with the allocation and arrangement or organizational work activities and tasks into sets where a singular set of activities constitutes a “job” and which is subsequently performed by a job incumbent.

Technically speaking job design attempts to integrate work content like those of tasks, functions, relationships with that of the skill requirements applicable for each job that meets the needs of the employees and also the organization as a whole.

Job design therefore encompasses a specification of tasks that are to be performed by employees in the organization and it includes any anticipated interpersonal and task relationships. This occurs all the time in the workplace as people communicate and is increasingly so in the flat, lean organization structures.

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Job design means to decide the contents of a job. It fixes the duties and responsibilities of the job, the methods of doing the job and the relationships between the job holder (manager) and his superiors, subordinates and colleagues.

Job design also gives information about the qualifications required for doing the job and the reward (financial and non-financial benefits) for doing the job. Job design is mostly done for manager’s jobs. While designing the job, the needs of the organization and the needs of the individual manager must be balanced.

Needs of the organization include high productivity, quality of work etc.? Needs of individual managers include job satisfaction? That is, they want the job to be interesting and challenging. Jobs must not be made highly specialized because they lead to boredom.

Job design is very important function of staffing. If the jobs are designed properly then highly efficient managers will join the organization. They will be motivated to improve the productivity and profitability of the organization. However, if the jobs are designed badly, then it will result in absenteeism, high labour turnover, conflicts, and other labour problems.

Definition of Job Design:

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Job design is defined as a process of describing a job in terms of its duties and responsibilities; the methods to be used in carrying out the job in terms of techniques, systems, and procedures; and the relationship that should exist between the job holders and their superiors, subordinates, and colleagues.

It is also defined as a deliberate and systematic attempt to structure the technical and social aspects of work, so as to improve technical efficiency and job satisfaction.

Davis (1966) has defined job design as “the specification of the content, methods and relationships of jobs in order to satisfy technological and organizational requirements as well as the social and personal requirements of the job holder”.

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Employee productivity and satisfaction are the two important concerns of a human resource manager. The structure of work, the activities to be performed and the responsibilities attached to a position are the determinants of employee productivity and satisfaction. Job design is the process of structuring work and designating the specific activities at individual or group levels. These work activities and the eventual work done, have to contribute to the organisational objectives in the most effective and efficient manner.

What is Job Design – Goals, Guidelines and Importance of Designing a Job

Goals of Job Designing:

Job designing has vital impact on the employees as well as the organization.

The main goal of designing a job are as follows:

i. Facilitating the interest of employees towards the job and enhancing their satisfaction

ii. Increasing employee motivation and productivity

iii. Enhancing employees’ skills by identifying their training needs

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iv. Covering the modern needs of employee participation

v. Ensuring safer working environment

vi. Making the communication process clear and effective in the organization

vii. Improving the quality of working life of employees

viii. Eliminating the unnecessary levels of supervision, checking, and control

ix. Establishing high-level standards for customer service

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x. Minimizing cost by reducing wastage.

Guidelines for Job Designing:

The cautious framing of job design ensures that the real objectives of job design are achieved.

While designing a job, following key factors should be considered:

i. Identifying the tasks clearly and forming natural work units

ii. Fixing the responsibility associated with a job clearly

iii. Allowing an appropriate provision for the autonomy of doing a work in the job design

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iv. Equipping the employees to participate in decision-making

v. Including the details about working environment of a job

vi. Developing interest of employees in their jobs

vii. Presenting the timely feedback to employees on their performance

viii. Providing timely recognition and sufficient support to employees

ix. Establishing good relationship and open feedback channels to get effective feedback from the employees.

Importance of Job Design:

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Job design and work organization deal with the specifications of the content, methods, and relationships of jobs in an integrated manner to satisfy technological and organizational requirements as well as the personal needs of employees.

During the 1970s, the challenge before HRM professionals dealing with job designs was to find out how organizations achieve results in the wake of loss of productive effort resulting from industrial actions and absenteeism, increased demand for employee participation, and imposition of various employee legislations.

During the 1980s a major change occurred in the working environment in the form of introduction of new technologies and a shift in the cost of production in favour of machines as against workforce. In this period of recession, the need for retrenchment of employees also arose. All these factors changed the perspective of job design.

It was only in the 1990s that a real challenge in terms of optimum job design and work organization arose to respond to the fast-changing environmental conditions. This resulted in giving a greater importance and adopting a new approach towards job design.

What is Job Design – Top 5 Performance Objectives: Quality, Speed, Dependability, Flexibility, Cost, Health and Safety & Quality of Working Life

There are clearly many alternative designs for any given job. For this reason, an understanding of what the job design is supposed to achieve is particularly important.

As before, the five performance objectives give us a guide to what is relevant in job design decisions:

Objective # 1. Quality:

The ability of staff to produce high-quality products and services can be affected by job design. This includes avoiding errors in the short term, but also includes designing jobs which encourage staff to improve that job itself in such a way as to make errors less likely.

Objective # 2. Speed:

Sometimes speed of response is the dominant objective to be achieved in job design. For example, the way in which the jobs of emergency service personnel are organised (the range of tasks for which they are trained, the sequence of activities in their approved procedures, the autonomy which they have to decide on appropriate action, and so on) will go a long way to determine their ability to respond promptly to emergencies and perhaps same lives.

Objective # 3. Dependability:

Dependable supply of goods and services is usually influenced, in some way, by job design. For example, in the postal services, working arrangements, multiskilling, accurate use of sorting equipment through good staff machine interface design, and the ‘design’ of postal staff’s clothing, can all aid dependable delivery of letters and particles.

Objective # 4. Flexibility:

Job design can affect the ability of the operation to change the nature of its activities. New product or service flexibility, mix flexibility, volume flexibility and delivery flexibility are all dependent to some extent on job design. For example, staff who have been trained in several tasks (multi-skilling) may find it easier to cope with a wide variety of models and new product or service introductions.

Objective # 5. Cost:

All the elements of job design described above will have an effect on the productivity, and therefore, the cost of the job. Productivity in this context means the ratio of output to labour input- for example, the number of customers served per hour or the number of products made per worker. In addition, job design will influence two other particularly important objectives.

Objective # 6. Health and Safety:

Whatever else a job design achieves, it must not endanger the well-being of the person who does the job, other staff of the operation, the customers who might be present in the operation, or those who use any products made by the operation.

Objective # 7. Quality of Working Life:

The design of any job should take into account its effect on bob security, intrinsic interest, and variety, opportunities for development, stress level and attitude of the person performing the job.

What is Job Design – 3 Major Factors Affecting: Organizational, Environmental and Behavioural

A well-defined job will make the job interesting and satisfying for the employee. The result is increased performance and productivity. If a job fails to appear compelling or interesting and leads to employee dissatisfaction, it means the job has to be redesigned based upon the feedback from the employees.

Broadly speaking the various factors that affect a job design can be classified under three heads.

They are:

1. Organizational factors

2. Environmental factors

3. Behavioural factors.

1. Organizational Factors:

Organizational factors that affect job design can be work nature or characteristics, work flow, organizational practices and ergonomics.

(a) Work Nature- There are various elements of a job and job design is required to classify various tasks into a job or a coherent set of jobs. The various tasks may be planning, executing, monitoring, controlling etc. and all these are to be taken into consideration while designing a job.

(b) Ergonomics – Ergonomics aims at designing jobs in such a way that the physical abilities and individual traits of employees are taken into consideration so as to ensure efficiency and productivity.

(c) Workflow- Product and service type often determines the sequence of work flow. A balance is required between various product or service processes and a job design ensures this.

(d) Culture- Organizational culture determines the way tasks are carried out at the work places. Practices are methods or standards laid out for carrying out a certain task. These practices often affect the job design especially when the practices are not aligned to the interests of the union.

2. Environmental Factors:

Environmental factors affect the job design to a considerable extent. These factors include both the internal as well as external factors. They include factor like employee skills and abilities, their availability, and their socioeconomic and cultural prospects.

(a) Employee availability and abilities- Employee skills, abilities and time of availability play a crucial role while designing the jobs. The above mentioned factors of employees who will actually perform the job are taken into consideration. Designing a job that is more demanding and above their skill set will lead to decreased productivity and employee satisfaction.

(b) Socio economic and cultural expectations- Jobs are nowadays becoming more employee centered rather than process centered. They are therefore designed keeping the employees into consideration. In addition the literacy level among the employees is also on the rise. They now demand jobs that are to their linking and competency and which they can perform the best.

3. Behavioural Factors:

Behavioural factors or human factors are those that pertain to the human need and that need to be satisfied for ensuring productivity at workplace. They include the elements like autonomy, diversity, feedback, etc.

A brief explanation of some is given below:

(a) Autonomy- Employees should work in an open environment rather than one that contains fear. It promotes creativity, interdependence and leads to increased efficiency.

(b) Feedback- Feedback should be an integral part of work. Each employee should receive proper feedback about his work performance.

(c) Diversity- Repetitive jobs often make work monotonous which leads to boredom. A job should carry sufficient diversity and variety so that it remains as interesting with every passing day. Job variety/diversity should be given due importance while designing a job.

(d) Use of skills and abilities- Jobs should be employee rather than process centered. Though due emphasis needs to be given to the latter but jobs should be designed in a manner such that an employee is able to make full use of his abilities is able to make full use of his abilities and perform the job effectively.

What is Job Design – 3 Important Methods: Job Rotation, Job Enlargement and Job Enrichment (With Advantages and Disadvantages)

There are various methods in which job design can be carried out. These methods help to analyse the job, to design the contents of and to decide how the job must be carried out.

Method # 1. Job Rotation:

Job rotation involves shifting a person from one job to another, so that he is able to understand and learn what each job involves. The company tracks his performance on every job and decides whether he can perform the job in an ideal manner. Based on this he is finally given a particular posting.

Job rotation is done to decide the final posting for the employee, e.g., Mr. A is assigned to the marketing department whole he learns all the jobs to be performed for marketing at his level in the organization. After this, he is shifted to the sales department and to the finance department and so on.

He is finally placed in the department in which he shows the best performance. Job rotation gives an idea about the jobs to be performed at every level. Once a person is able to understand this he is in a better understanding of the working of organization.

Advantages of Job Rotation:

(a) Avoid Monopoly:

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

(b) Provides an Opportunity to Broaden One’s Knowledge:

Due to job rotation the person is able to learn different job in the organization this broadens his knowledge.

(c) 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:

(a) Frequent Interruption:

Job rotation results in frequent interruption of work. A person who is doing a particular job and gets it comfortable suddenly finds himself shifted to another job or department. This interrupts the work in both the departments.

(b) 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.

(c) Misunderstanding with the Union Member:

Sometimes job rotation may lead to misunderstanding with member 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.

Method # 2. 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 three activities on his job after job enlargement or through job enlargement we add four more activities to the existing job so now Mr. A performs seven 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 employee’s skill. Job enlargement is also essential when policies like VRS are implemented in the company.

Advantages of Job Enlargement:

(a) 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.

(b) Improve Earning Capacity:

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

(c) 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:

(a) 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.

(b) Increasing Frustration of the Employee:

In many cases employees end up being frustrated because increased activities do not result in increased salaries.

(c) Problem with Union Members:

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

Method # 3. Job Enrichment:

Job enrichment is a term given by Fredrick 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 to an existing job to make it more interesting.

The motivating factors can be:

(a) Giving more freedom.

(b) Encouraging participation.

(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 employees.

Advantages of Job Enrichment:

(a) Interesting and Challenging Job:

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

(b) 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.

(c) Identifies Future Managerial Calibre:

When we provide decision-making opportunities to employees, we can identify which employee is better than other in decision-making and mark employees for further promotion.

(d) Identifies Higher Order Needs of Employees:

This model identifies higher order needs of the employee. Abraham Maslow’s 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.

(e) 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.

Disadvantages of Job Enrichment:

(a) 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.

(b) Job enrichment has negative implications i.e., along with usual work decision-making work is also given to the employees and not many may be comfortable with this.

(c) Superiors may feel that power is being taken away from them and given to the junior’s. This might lead to ego problems.

(d) 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.

(e) Some people are internally dissatisfied with the organization. For such people no amount of job enrichment can solve the problem.

Job design principles help in tackling and managing the following issues:

i. Work overload;

ii. Work underload;

iii. Repetitiveness leading to drudgery and adverse effect on productivity;

iv. Work and people isolation;

v. Multiple shifts;

vi. Managing pending filling-up of vacancies;

vii. Excessive working hours; and

viii. Lack of understanding of the whole job process.

Job design and workplace design are interrelated concepts as both contribute to keeping the physical requirements of a job reasonable. Job design focuses on the need for administrative changes that can help in improving working conditions. Workplace design focuses on the physical setting of the workplace, such as workstation, tools, and body posture, which contribute to an individual’s work performance.

What is Job Design – 3 Main Approaches: Engineering Approach, Human Relations Approach and Socio-Technical Approach (With Issues)

Different approaches to job design have been proposed over the years. While the earlier approaches concentrated on just the ‘technical’ aspect and ignored the ‘human’ aspect, the latter approaches tried to add a ‘human touch’.

1. Engineering Approach:

Scientific management, developed by Frederick W. Taylor, gave rise to the engineering approach to job design. The key element of this approach was the ‘task idea’ that led to job specialisation. The ‘task idea’ is the work of every workman that is fully planned and laid out by the management, at least one day in advance.

The workers are given specific instructions on to what is to be done, how it is to be done and the exact time to be taken to complete the work. This results in the worker using none of his mental or intellectual skills and just doing what he has been asked to do.

According to principles of scientific management, the role of management in job design is as follows:

(i) The manager determines one best way of performing the job.

(ii) The manager employs individuals according to their abilities, which have to match the needs of job design.

(iii) The manager undertakes all planning, organising, and controlling of a job. The workers have to be trained to perform the job ‘in one best way’ as decided by the management.

For many years, the engineering approach was very popular, as it had many advantages. Management could hire unskilled labour for almost all operative jobs in the organisation, as these jobs were usually designed for people with limited skills or experience. Though specialisation offered economic benefits and enhanced organisational performance, resistance to this approach grew as the time progressed.

Many behavioural scientists found that the job incumbents disliked jobs which were routine and too specialised. Workers felt that overspecialisation hindered the development of meaningful interpersonal relationships with the managers as well as co-workers.

Some of the demerits of overspecialisation were:

(i) Repetition – Performing the same tasks repeatedly resulted in boredom. The work was so mechanised and systematic, that the mental faculties of the workers were not being utilised.

(ii) Mechanical Pacing – All the workers had to work continuously at a predetermined pace. The workers could not take any breaks nor relax. The pace of work was the same for all the employees, and differences in individual capabilities were not taken into account.

(iii) No End Product – Due to over-specialisation, employees were manufacturing bits and pieces and not turning out any identifiable end product. Hence, they had little pride or enthusiasm in their work.

(iv) Little Social Interaction – Employees had limited chances of interacting on a casual basis with their co-workers as the assembly line required constant attention. This made it difficult for employees to build significant social bonds at work.

(v) No Personal Input – Lack of personal control over the job in terms of choosing the methods by which the jobs were to be performed, the tools that were to be used, the work procedure, or the pace, resulted in employees losing interest in the job as there was nothing they could improve or change about their jobs.

2. Human Relations Approach:

The human relations approach introduced a ‘human touch’ to deal with the problem of over-specialised jobs. Under this approach, over-specialised jobs needed to be redesigned to become more satisfying and rewarding to the employees. It was felt that the workers have social needs which necessitate casual interactions with supervisors and co-workers. So, scope for flexibility had to be introduced in job design.

According to the theory of motivation proposed by Herzberg, there are two factors that affect the job satisfaction-the motivators and hygiene factors. The hygiene factors help in tackling dissatisfaction among the workers and preventing a negative job environment. Some of these factors are the working conditions, organisational policies, interpersonal relations, pay and job security.

For example, a decent pay and job security keep the employee from getting dissatisfied, but cannot keep him motivated. But at the same time, poor pay can cause dissatisfaction. Motivating factors on the other hand have the power to enhance the employees’ satisfaction.

Achievement, growth, responsibility and recognition are some of the common motivating factors. These are termed the higher-level needs of the employee and have a positive impact on his satisfaction and consequently his performance.

The first three characteristics – skill variety, task identity and task significance – give the job holder the satisfaction that he is adding value to himself and the organisation. These also motivate him to perform better. Autonomy in performing the tasks and activities in his job, gives the employee a sense of responsibility and commitment.

This would also enhance the employee performance. Feedback in turn helps the employee analyse his performance and identify his strengths and weaknesses. Negative feedback might help him change and improve while positive feedback would reinforce his performance. The core job dimensions for a job are analysed and combined into a single predictive index, the motivating potential score.

Jobs that are high on motivating potential must be high at least in one of the three factors, (skill variety, task identity or task significance), that lead to an experience of meaningfulness in the work. They must also be high on autonomy and feedback.

The following equation explains what constitutes a Motivating Potential Score (MPS) of a job:

MPS = ((Skill Variety + Task Identity + Task Significance)/3) x Autonomy x Feedback

A high motivating potential score indicates a positive effect on motivation, performance and satisfaction of incumbents and reduces the likelihood of turnover and absenteeism.

3. Socio-Technical Approach:

The socio-technical approach to job design is another alternative to the scientific/engineering approach, which resulted in highly specialised jobs where the advantages of specialisation were gradually negated by its disadvantages, namely, dissatisfaction and fatigue among the employees.

In the socio-technical approach, both the technical system and the social system are emphasised. According to this approach, jobs should be designed taking a holistic view of both physical and social environments. Ideally, this merges the technical needs of the organisation with the social needs of the employees.

The basic characteristics of a job according to the socio-technical approach are:

(i) A little challenging and demanding — A job should offer intellectually challenging and demanding goals to the job holder. In the absence of any challenges, the employee might soon lose interest in monotonous job, which offers no stimulation to his intellect or personality.

(ii) Variety and novelty — The job should offer something new to the employee to avoid and job enrichment are some of the methods of redesigning a job to offer variety and novelty to the employee.

(iii) Social support & recognition — Social support and recognition to his achievements motivates an employee to continuously improve his performance. In the absence of any motivational factors, the employee’s performance deteriorates.

(iv) Desirable future — Every job should offer good future prospects to the job holder in terms of increased responsibility, pay and status. It should take him a step further towards his career goals and help him in achieving those goals.

(v) Decision-making authority — Responsibility without authority retards the performance of an employee. Decision-making authority in a job gives the incumbent the freedom to act within his locus of control. It also makes the job incumbent feel more responsible and committed to his job.

(vi) Correlation with social lives — The job of an employee should correlate with his family and social life. The members of his family and close social circle should be able to identify with his job and his professional life.

What is Job Design– Steps to Redesign Job of Employees

Job design should not be taken as a static concept but should be taken as dynamic concept. This is due to the fact that contextual variables affecting job performance keep on changing. Such variables are technological development, socio-cultural expectations from jobs, use of ergonomics in designing jobs, organizational practices, and individual factors influencing job performance. As a result, jobs once designed cannot remain effective for a long period of time.

Therefore, there is a need for redesign of jobs that is, designing jobs again in the light of new perspectives. In this redesigning process, many jobs may be eliminated altogether; contents of many jobs have to be changed; many jobs may require introduction of new or additional motivating factors.

It has been estimated that because of rapid pace of technological development, the nature of jobs will change in every decade. Therefore, personnel have to fit job demands rather than fitting the jobs with personnel requirements.

In job redesign, certain steps have to be followed in a sequence.

These steps are as follows:

1. Identification of Jobs to be Redesigned:

The first step in job redesign is to identify the jobs to be redesigned. Job redesign is not an automatic process but when any change in contextual variables affecting jobs takes place, it affects the quality of job performance.

For example, when organization’s information systems are changed from one form to another form, say from manually-operated to computer-based, this change affects the job performance of related persons, say accounts clerks. In the new situation, the jobs of accounts clerks have to be redesigned to suit the new situation. Similar contextual changes may take place in other jobs.

2. Identification of Contents to be Redesigned:

After identifying the jobs to be redesigned, contents that are to be changed have to be identified. This is done through the process of job analysis. By undertaking job analysis process, new job description for each job is prepared which shows the contents of the job as well as its relationship to other jobs. Simultaneously, job specification for each job is prepared.

3. Effecting Redesigning:

Based on job description, a job is redesigned. Whenever, there is any change in the nature of any job because of change in contextual variables, its core dimensions remain the same. These core dimensions are skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Therefore, redesigning is effected in these dimensions.

4. Evaluating Effect of Redesigning:

When a job is redesigned, it is put in operation on experimental basis. During this period, attempt is made to evaluate how the redesigned job is facilitating or constraining the job holder and other jobs with which it is linked. Feedback is received from all the persons concerned—job holder, his superior, his subordinates, HR professionals concerned and, if possible, those outsiders who interact with the redesigned job holder. In the light of this feedback, further redesigning is effected, if required. When everything is satisfactory, the redesigned job becomes the part of the organization’s jobs.