Chapter 14

3 Alternative Work Arrangement

1. Job Sharing - more than one person occupies a single job 2. Four Day Work Week - work four ten-hour days and enjoy a three-day weekend. 3. Flextime - employees set their own daily work schedules as they start their eight hours at any thirty-minute interval between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.

4 Traditional Approaches to Job Design

1. Scientific Management 2. Job Enlargement/Job Rotation 3. Job Enrichment 4. Job Characteristics Theory

5 Core Job Characteristics

1. Skill variety 2. Task identity 3. Task significance 4. Autonomy 5. Feedback from the job itself

The JDS refers to

Job Diagnostic Survey the most commonly used job design measure, was developed to diagnose jobs by measuring the five core job characteristics and three critical psychological states shown in the model.

Task significance

The degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people, whether in the immediate organization or in the external environment.

Autonomy

The degree to which the job provides the employee with substantial freedom, independence, and discretion in scheduling the work and in determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out.

Task identity

The degree to which the job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work—that is, doing a job from beginning to end with a tangible outcome.

An Organizational Position is defined as

a job in relation to other parts of the organization

An Alternative work arrangement in which employees must be present to perform job duties during a required core time but starting and ending work times may vary

Flextime

Scientific Management focuses primarily on

the efficient use of labor to the economic benefit of the corporation.

While there are differences in the meaning of work among countries, similarities appear to exist in

Belgium, Israel & the United States

Job Rotation and cross training are variations of

Job Enlargement

motivational approach (Industrial Psychology)

See table 14.2 - page 237

Job enlargement was developed to overcome the problem of

boredom associated with scientific management's narrowly defined approach to jobs.

mechanistic approach (Mechanical Engineering)

emphasizes the gross motor skills and muscle strength See table 14.2 - page 237

Differentiation

is the process of subdividing and departmentalizing the work of an organization. Whereas Integration is the process of connecting jobs and departments into a coordinated, cohesive whole.

According to Frederick Taylor, the role of the management and the industrial engineer is to

is to calibrate and define each task carefully

growth need strength

the desire to grow and fully develop one's abilities People with high growth need strength respond favorably to jobs with high MPSs, and individuals with low growth need strength respond less favorably to such jobs.

Integration

the process of connecting jobs and departments into a coordinated, cohesive whole. Whereas Differentiationis the process of subdividing and departmentalizing the work of an organization.

Job Characteristics Theory

which was initiated during the mid-1960s, is a traditional approach to the design of work that makes a significant departure from the three earlier approaches. It emphasizes the interaction between the individual and specific attributes of the job; therefore, it is a person-job fit model rather than a universal job design model.

People whose jobs are high on the five core dimensions are generally

workers with rural values and workers with strong religious beliefs

People whose jobs are low on the five core dimensions are generally

workers with urban values and those with weaker religious beliefs

4 Alternative Approaches to Job Design

1. Social Information Processing 2. Ergonomics and Interdisciplinary Framework 3. International Perspectives on the Design of Work 4. Work Design and Well-Being Page 236-239

4 Interdisciplinary approaches to Job Design Question: All of the following are important componets or approaches to the interdisciplinary approach to job design except

1. mechanistic approach 2. motivational approach 3. motivational approach 4. Perceptual/motor approach

The mechanistic and motivational approaches to job design are most similar to

Perceptual Motor Approach

Enlarging a job is most closely associated with which of the following core job characteristics

Skill Variety

Skill variety

The degree to which a job includes different activities and involves the use of multiple skills and talents of the employee.

Feedback from the job itself

The degree to which carrying out the work activities results in the employee obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance.

Job Enlargement/Job Rotation

a method of job design that increases the number of activities in a job to overcome the boredom of overspecialized work. It is a traditional approach to solving not only the problem of boredom but also the difficulty of coordinating work Job rotation , a variation of job enlargement, exposes a worker to a variety of specialized job tasks over time. For example: job enlargement for a lathe operator in a steel plant might include selecting the steel pieces to be turned and performing all of the maintenance work on the lathe in addition to running it. job rotation, an employee at a small bank might take new accounts one day, serve as a cashier another day, and process loan applications on a third day.

career refers to

a sequence of job experiences over time

Job

a set of specified work and task activities that engage an individual in an organization. A job is not the same as an organizational position or a career.

Scientific Management

an approach to work design first advocated by Frederick Taylor, emphasizes work simplification. Work simplification is the standardization and the narrow, explicit specification of task activities for workers

Perceptual/motor approach (Experimental psychology)

emphasizes the person's interaction with physical aspects of the work environment and is based on engineering that considers human factors such as strength or coordination, ergonomics, and experimental psychology. It places an important emphasis on human interaction with computers, information, and other operational systems. This approach addresses how people mentally process information acquired from the physical work environment through perceptual and motor skills. See table 14.2 - page 237

biological approach (Biology)

emphasizes the person's interaction with physical aspects of the work environment and is concerned with the amount of physical exertion, such as lifting and muscular effort, required by the position. For example, an analysis of medical claims at TXI's Chaparral Steel Company identified lower back pain as the most common physical problem experienced by steel workers and managers alike. As a result, the company instituted an education and exercise program under expert guidance to improve employees' lower back care. See table 14.2 - page 237

Job Enrichment

is designing or redesigning a job by incorporating motivational factors into it. Whereas job enlargement increases the number of job activities through horizontal loading, job enrichment increases the amount of job responsibility through vertical loading. For example, enlarging the lathe operator's job means adding maintenance activities, and enriching the job means having the operator meet with customers who buy the products.

According to Frederick Taylor, the role of the worker is to

is to execute the task.

A significant difference between job enlargement and job enrichment is that

job enlargement increases the number of job activities through horizontal loading job enrichment increases the amount of job responsibility through vertical loading.

Work

mental or physical activity that has productive results, is organized into jobs. Thus, a job is composed of a set of specific tasks, each of which is an assigned piece of work to be done in a specific time period.