4
Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management
Raymond Noe; John Hollenbeck; Barry Gerhart; Patrick Wright 7th edition Published by McGraw-Hill Education, 2 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121. Copyright © 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education
What Do I Need to Know?
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
LO 4-1 Summarize the elements of work flow analysis .
LO 4-2 Describe how work flow is related to an organization’s structure .
LO 4-3 Define the elements of a job analysis, and discuss their significance for human resource management.
LO 4-4 Tell how to obtain information for a job analysis .
LO 4-5 Summarize recent trends in job analysis .
LO 4-6 Describe methods for designing a job so that it can be done efficiently .
LO 4-7 Identify approaches to designing a job to make it motivating .
LO 4-8 Explain how organizations apply ergonomics to design safe jobs .
LO 4-9 Discuss how organizations can plan for the mental demands of a job .
© Vadim Guzhva/123RF
Introduction
Robby Halford, the field enablement manager for an information technology consulting firm called Appirio, compares his work to a card game. He is responsible for ensuring that his firm has salespeople who are well equipped to succeed. According to Halford, if he simply enrolled salespeople in a training program, it would be like dealing out cards before the people around the table had decided what game to play. To get Appirio’s sales force and its leadership playing the same game, Halford says, he starts by defining what “competencies,” or sets of knowledge and skills, are associated with success.
When Halford joined Appirio, he brought a definition of sales competencies from the Association for Talent Development. He asked Appirio’s sales managers which of those competencies were necessary and which the firm should immediately focus on developing. As he shared the results of his surveys, the managers became eager for training that would meet the needs they had identified as high priorities. They also saw that thinking in terms of sales competencies could help them base hiring decisions on criteria associated with success. As Halford began to implement his competency-based training program, he developed methods to measure and report on the training’s impact. Besides measuring increased competency in some areas, he tracks changes in sales performance so Appirio that can continue making connections between employee competencies and business success. 1
page 98Appirio earns money by selling its technology services to businesses, so it needs strong relationships with many different companies. Based on that need, there are specific kinds of skills and work habits employees must provide, such as the ability to speak and listen well over the phone. Consideration of such elements is at the heart of analyzing work, whether in a start-up enterprise, a multinational corporation, or a government agency.
This chapter discusses the analysis and design of work and, in doing so, lays out some considerations that go into making informed decisions about how to create and link jobs. The chapter begins with a look at the big-picture issues related to analyzing work flow and organizational structure. The discussion then turns to the more specific issues of analyzing and designing jobs. Traditionally, job analysis has emphasized the study of existing jobs in order to make decisions such as employee selection, training, and compensation. In contrast, job design has emphasized making jobs more efficient or more motivating. However, as this chapter shows, the two activities are interrelated.
LO 4-1 Summarize the elements of work flow analysis.
Work Flow in Organizations
Informed decisions about jobs take place in the context of the organization’s overall work flow. Through the process of work flow design , managers analyze the tasks needed to produce a product or service. With this information, they assign these tasks to specific jobs and positions. (A job is a set of related duties. A position is the set of duties performed by one person. A school has many teaching positions; the person filling each of those positions is performing the job of teacher.) Basing these decisions on work flow design can lead to better results than the more traditional practice of looking at jobs individually.
Work Flow Design
The process of analyzing the tasks necessary for the production of a product or service.
Job
A set of related duties.
Position
The set of duties (job) performed by a particular person.
Work Flow Analysis
Before designing its work flow, the organization’s planners need to analyze what work needs to be done. Figure 4.1 shows the elements of a work flow analysis. For each type of work, such as producing a product line or providing a support service (accounting, legal support, and so on), the analysis identifies the output of the process, the activities involved, and the three categories of inputs (materials and information, equipment, and human resources).
Figure 4.1
Developing a Work Flow Analysis
Outputs are the products of any work unit, say, a department or team. Outputs may be tangible, as in the case of a restaurant meal or finished part. They may be intangible, such as building security or an answered question about employee benefits. In identifying the outputs of particular work units, work flow analysis considers both quantity and quality. Thinking in terms of these outputs gives HRM professionals a clearer view of how to increase each work unit’s effectiveness.
Work flow analysis next considers the work processes used to generate the outputs identified. Work processes are the activities that a work unit’s members engage in to produce a given output. They are described in terms of operating procedures for every task performed by each employee at each stage of the process. Specifying the processes helps HRM professionals design efficient work systems by clarifying which tasks are necessary. Knowledge of work processes also can guide staffing changes when work is automated, outsourced, or restructured.
Finally, work flow analysis identifies the inputs required to carry out the work processes. As shown in Figure 4.1, inputs fall into three categories: raw inputs (materials and information), equipment, and human resources (knowledge, skills, and abilities). In the advertising industry, for example, technology has changed the relative importance of inputs. The stars of the ad business used to be the creative minds who dreamed up messages for televisionpage 99 ads that would get people talking (and buying). But as consumers turn their attention to digital media, ad agencies need people who understand the latest in social media and who not only can generate a stream of messages but also can measure the reactions streaming back from consumers. Data and skill in analyzing data are today’s hotly demanded inputs for advertising. 2 Another way to understand the importance of identifying inputs is to consider what can go wrong. The “HR Oops!” box illustrates that if an organization’s outputs fall short of goals, HR managers might find that the cause is a failure in planning for inputs.
LO 4-2 Describe how work flow is related to an organization’s structure.
Work Flow Design and an Organization’s Structure
Work flow takes place in the context of an organization’s structure. It requires the cooperation of individuals and groups. Ideally, the organization’s structure brings together the people who must collaborate to create the desired outputs efficiently. The structure may do this in a way that is highly centralized (that is, with authority concentrated in a few people at the top of the organization) or decentralized (with authority spread among many people). The organization may group jobs according to functions (for example, welding, painting, packaging), or it may set up divisions to focus on products or customer groups.
Although there are an infinite number of ways to combine the elements of an organization’s structure, we can make some general observations about structure and work design. If the structure is strongly based on function, workers tend to have low authority and to work alone at highly specialized jobs. Jobs that involve teamwork or broad responsibility tend to require a structure based on divisions other than functions. When the goal is to empower employees, companies need to set up structures and jobs that enable broad responsibility, such as jobs that involve employees in serving a particular group of customers or producingpage 100 a particular product, rather than performing a narrowly defined function. The organization’s structure also affects managers’ jobs. Managing a division responsible for a product or customer group tends to require more experience and cognitive (thinking) ability than managing a department that handles a particular function. In contrast, managing a functional department requires skill in managing conflicts and aligning employees’ efforts with higher-level goals, because these employees tend to identify heavily with their department or profession. 3
Work design often emphasizes the analysis and design of jobs, as described in the remainder of this chapter. Although all of these approaches can succeed, each focuses on one isolated job at a time. These approaches do not necessarily consider how that single job fits into the overall work flow or structure of the organization. To use these techniques effectively, human resource personnel should also understand their organization as a whole. For example, Procter & Gamble traditionally gives each product division a great deal of control over its activities. Thus, research and development for a product line was the responsibility of the division controlling that line. But when consumers responded to difficult economic times by spending less on P&G’s brand-name consumer goods, each division tightened its research budget to the point that the company overall was not spending enough to develop new ideas. The company’s top leaders decided to restructure work by making R&D a corporate-wide function so they could concentrate resources on ideas that would have the most impact on the company’s overall performance. 4
LO 4-3 Define the elements of a job analysis, and discuss their significance for human resource management.
Job Analysis
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 what is required topage 101 carry out a job provide essential knowledge for staffing, training, performance appraisal, and many other HR activities. For instance, a supervisor’s evaluation of an employee’s 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 department that includes job analysts (also called personnel analysts). Organizations may also contract with firms that provide this service.
Job Analysis
The process of getting detailed information about jobs.
Job Descriptions
An essential part of job analysis is the creation of job descriptions. A job description is a list of the tasks, duties, and responsibilities (TDRs) that a job entails. TDRs are observable actions. For example, a news photographer’s 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 a manager attempts to evaluate job performance, it is most important to have detailed information about the work performed in the job (that is, the TDRs). This information makes it possible to determine how well an individual is meeting each job requirement.
Job Description
A list of the tasks, duties, and responsibilities (TDRs) that a particular job entails.
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 duty. Although organizations may modify this format according to their particular needs, all job descriptions within an organization should follow the same format. This helps the organization make consistent decisions about such matters as pay and promotions. It also helps the organization show that it makes human resource
Figure 4.2
Sample Job Description
Source: Union Pacific, “Union Pacific Careers: Train Crew,” https://up.jobs/train-crew.html, accessed March 23, 2016.
Whenever the organization creates a new job, it needs a new job description. Preparation of a job description begins with gathering information about the job from people already performing the task, the position’s supervisor, or the managers creating the position. Based on that information, the writer of the job description identifies the essential duties of the job, including mental and physical tasks and any methods and resources required. Job descriptions should 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.
Organizations should give each newly hired employee a copy of his or her job description. This helps the employee to understand what is expected, but it shouldn’t be presented as limiting the employee’s 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 job descriptions include the phrase and other duties as requested as a way to remind employees not to tell their supervisor, “But that’s not part of my job.”
Careful job analysis makes it possible to define what a person in a certain position does and what qualifications are needed for the job. Firefighters use specific equipment to extinguish fires, require physical strength to do their jobs, and must possess the ability to make decisions under pressure.
© Stockbyte/Getty Images RF
Job Specifications
Whereas the job description focuses on the activities involved in carrying out a job, a job specification looks at the qualities or requirements the person performing the job must possess. It is a list of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that an individual must have to perform the job. Knowledge refers to factual or procedural information that ispage 102 necessary for successfully performing a task. For example, this course is providing you with knowledge in how to manage human resources. A skill is an individual’s level of proficiency at performing a particular task—that is, 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 possesses. A person might have the ability to cooperate with others or to write clearly and precisely. Finally, other characteristics might be personality traits such as someone’s persistence or motivation to achieve. Some jobs also have legal requirements, such as licensing or certification. Figure 4.3 is a set of sample job specifications for the job description in Figure 4.2.
Job Specification
A list of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that an individual must have to perform a particular job.
Figure 4.3
Sample Job Specifications
Source: Union Pacific, “Union Pacific Careers: Train Crew,” https://up.jobs/train-crew.html, accessed March 23, 2016.
In developing job specifications, it is important to consider all of the elements of KSAOs. 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. A study by ACT’s Workforce Development Division interviewed manufacturing supervisors to learn what they do each day and what skills they rely on. The researchers learned that the supervisors spend much of their day monitoring their employees to make sure the workplace is safe, product quality is maintained, and work processes are optimal. Also, they relypage 103 heavily on their technical knowledge of the work processes they supervise. 5 Based on this information, job specifications for a manufacturing supervisor would include skill in observing how people work, as well as in-depth knowledge of manufacturing processes and tools.
In contrast to tasks, duties, and responsibilities, KSAOs are characteristics of people and are not directly observable. They are observable only when individuals are carrying out the TDRs of the job—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 could draw conclusions later about the person’s skills by looking at examples of his or her photographs. Similarly, many employers specify educational requirements. Meeting these requirements is treated as an indication that a person has some desired level of knowledge and skills.
Accurate information about KSAOs 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 KSAOs.
LO 4-4 Tell how to obtain information for a job analysis.
Sources of Job Information
Information for analyzing an existing job often comes from incumbents, that is, people who currently hold that position in the organization. They are a logical source of information because they are most acquainted with the details of the job. Incumbents should be able to provide very accurate information.
page 104A drawback of relying solely on incumbents’ information is that they may have an incentive to exaggerate what they do in order to appear more valuable to the organization. Information from incumbents should therefore be supplemented with information from observers, such as supervisors, who look for a match between what incumbents are doing and what they are supposed to do. Research suggests that supervisors may provide the most accurate estimates of the importance of job duties, whereas incumbents may be more accurate in reporting information about the actual time spent performing job tasks and safety-related risk factors. 6 For analyzing skill levels, the best source may be external job analysts who have more experience rating a wide range of jobs. 7
Source: National Center for O*NET Development. April 26, 2016. https://www.onetonline.org/ O*NET OnLine provides job seekers with detailed descriptions of many broadly defined occupations.
The government also provides background information for analyzing jobs. In the 1930s the U.S. Department of Labor created the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) as a vehicle for helping the new public employment system link the demand for skills and the supply of skills in the U.S. workforce. The DOT described over 12,000 jobs, as well as some of the requirements of successful job holders. This system served the United States well for over 60 years, but it became clear to Labor Department officials that jobs in the new economy were so different that the DOT no longer served its purpose. The Labor Department therefore introduced a new system, called the Occupational Information Network (O*NET).
Instead of relying on fixed job titles and narrow task descriptions, the O*NET uses a common language that generalizes across jobs to describe the abilities, work styles, work activities, and work context required for 1,000 broadly defined occupations. Users can visit O*NET OnLine ( http://www.onetonline.org) to review jobs’ tasks, work styles and context, and requirements including skills, training, and experience. The U.S. Air Force uses O*NET’s occupational classifications to help it identify predictors of success in the jobs of remotely piloted aircraft pilot and sensor operator. HR Avatar uses O*NET to help it create pre-employment tests used for selecting job applicants. HR Avatar uses job analysis data from O*NET to create tests of the traits needed for specific jobs. 8 Furthermore, although the O*NET was developed to analyze jobs in the U.S. economy, research suggests that its ratings tend to be the same for jobs located in other countries. 9
Position Analysis Questionnaire
After gathering information, the job analyst uses the information to analyze the job. One of the broadest and best-researched instruments for analyzing jobs is the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) . This is a standardized job analysis questionnaire containing 194 items that represent work behaviors, work conditions, and job characteristics that apply to a wide variety of jobs. The questionnaire organizes these items into six sections concerning different aspects of the job:
Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)
A standardized job analysis questionnaire containing 194 questions about work behaviors, work conditions, and job characteristics that apply to a wide variety of jobs.
1. page 105 Information input—Where and how a worker gets information needed to perform the job.
2. Mental processes—The reasoning, decision making, planning, and information-processing activities involved in performing the job.
3. Work output—The physical activities, tools, and devices used by the worker to perform the job.
4. Relationships with other persons—The relationships with other people required in performing the job.
5. Job context—The physical and social contexts where the work is performed.
6. Other characteristics—The activities, conditions, and characteristics other than those previously described that are relevant to the job.
For each item on the questionnaire, the person analyzing a job determines whether that item applies to the job being analyzed. The analyst rates each item on six scales: extent of use, amount of time, importance to the job, possibility of occurrence, applicability, and special code (special rating scales used with a particular item). The PAQ headquarters uses a computer to score the questionnaire and generate a report that describes the scores on the job dimensions.
Using the PAQ provides an organization with information that helps in comparing jobs, even when they are dissimilar. The PAQ also has the advantage that it considers the whole work process, from inputs through outputs. However, the person who fills out the questionnaire must have college-level reading skills, and the PAQ is meant to be completed only by job analysts trained in this method. In fact, the ratings of job incumbents tend to be less reliable than ratings by supervisors and trained analysts. 10 Also, the descriptions in the PAQ reports are rather abstract, so the reports may not be useful for writing job descriptions or redesigning jobs.
Fleishman Job Analysis System
To gather information about worker requirements, the Fleishman Job Analysis System asks subject-matter experts (typically job incumbents) to evaluate a job in terms of the abilities required to perform the job. The survey is based on 52 categories of abilities, ranging from written comprehension to deductive reasoning, manual dexterity, stamina, and originality. The person completing the survey indicates which point on the scale represents the level of the ability required for performing the job being analyzed. For example, consider the ability, “written comprehension.” Written comprehension includes understanding written English words, sentences, and paragraphs. It is different from oral comprehension (listen to and understand spoken English words and sentences) and oral expression (speak English words and sentences so others can understand). The phrase for the highest point on the seven-point scale is “requires understanding of complex or detailed information in writing containing unusual words and phrases and involves fine distinctions in meaning among words.” The phrase for the lowest point on the scale is “requires written understanding of short, simple written information containing common words and phrases.” 11
Fleishman Job Analysis System
Job analysis technique that asks subject-matter experts to evaluate a job in terms of the abilities required to perform the job.
When the survey has been completed in all 52 categories, the results provide a picture of the ability requirements of a job. Such information is especially useful for employee selection, training, and career development.
Analyzing Teamwork
Work design increasingly relies on teams to accomplish an organization’s objectives, so HR managers often must identify the best ways to handle jobs that are highlypage 106 interdependent. Just as there are standardized instruments for assessing the nature of a job, there are standard ways to measure the nature of teams. Three dimensions are most critical: 12
1. Skill differentiation—The degree to which team members have specialized knowledge or functional capacities.
2. Authority differentiation—The allocation of decision-making authority among individuals, subgroups, and the team as a whole.
3. Temporal (time) stability—The length of time over which team members must work together.
Importance of Job Analysis
Job analysis is so important to HR managers that it has been called the building block of everything that personnel does. 13 The fact is that almost every human resource management program requires some type of information that is gleaned from job analysis: 14
· Work redesign—Often an organization seeks to redesign work to make it more efficient or to improve quality. The redesign requires detailed information about the existing job(s). In addition, preparing the redesign is similar to analyzing a job that does not yet exist.
· Human resource planning—As planners analyze human resource needs and how to meet those needs, they must have accurate information about the levels of skill required in various jobs, so that they can tell what kinds of human resources will be needed.
· Selection—To identify the most qualified applicants for various positions, decision makers need to know what tasks the individuals must perform, as well as the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities.
· Training—Almost every employee hired by an organization will require training. Any training program requires knowledge of the tasks performed in a job so that the training is related to the necessary knowledge and skills.
· Performance appraisal—An accurate performance appraisal requires information about how well each employee is performing in order to reward employees who perform well and to improve their performance if it is below standard. Job analysis helps in identifying the behaviors and the results associated with effective performance.
· Career planning—Matching an individual’s skills and aspirations with career opportunities requires that those in charge of career planning know the skill requirements of the various jobs. This allows them to guide individuals into jobs in which they will succeed and be satisfied.
· Job evaluation—The process of job evaluation involves assessing the relative dollar value of each job to the organization in order to set up fair pay structures. If employees do not believe pay structures are fair, they will become dissatisfied and may quit, or they will not see much benefit in striving for promotions. To put dollar values on jobs, it is necessary to get information about different jobs and compare them.
Job analysis is also important from a legal standpoint. As we saw in Chapter 3, the government imposes requirements related to equal employment opportunity. Detailed, accurate, objective job specifications help decision makers comply with these regulations by keeping the focus on tasks and abilities. These documents also provide evidence of efforts made to engage in fair employment practices. For example, to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission may look at job descriptions to identify the essential functions of a job and determine whether a disabled person could have performed those functions with reasonable accommodations. Likewise, lists of duties in different jobs could be compared to evaluate claims under the Equal Pay Act. However, job descriptions and job specifications are not a substitute for fair employment practices.
Besides helping human resource professionals, job analysis helps supervisors and other managers carry out their duties. Data from job analysis can help managers identify the types of work in their units, as well as provide information about the work flow process, so that managers can evaluate whether work is done in the most efficient way. Job analysis information also supports managers as they make hiring decisions, review performance, and recommend rewards. For an example of this, see “HRM Social.”
LO 4-5 Summarize recent trends in job analysis.
Competency Models
These traditional approaches to job analysis are too limited for some HRM needs, however. When human resource management is actively engaged in talent management as a way to support strategy, organizations need to think beyond skills for particular jobs. They must identify the capabilities they need to acquire and develop in order to promote the organization’s success. For this purpose, organizations develop competency models.
page 108A competency is an area of personal capability that enables employees to perform their work successfully. 15 For example, success in a job or career path might require leadership strength, skill in coaching others, and the ability to bring out the best in each member of a diverse team of employees. A competency model identifies and describes all the competencies required for success in a particular occupation or set of jobs. Organizations may create competency models for occupational groups, levels of the organization, or even the entire organization. A competency model might require that all middle managers or all members of the organization be able to act with integrity, value diversity, and commit themselves to delighting customers. Table 4.1 shows an example of a competency model for a project manager. The left side of the table lists competencies required for a project manager (organizational and planning skills; communications; and financial and quantitative skills). The right side of the table shows behaviors that might be used to determine a project manager’s level of proficiency for each competency. As in these examples, competency models focus more on how people work, whereas job analysis focuses more on work tasks and outcomes.
Competency
An area of personal capability that enables employees to perform their work successfully.
Table 4.1 Example of Competencies and a Competency Model
Source: Based on R. J. Mirabile, “Everything You Wanted to Know about Competency Modeling,” Training and Development (August 1997): pp. 73–77.
Competency models help HR professionals ensure that all aspects of talent management are aligned with the organization’s strategy. Hiring based on competencies associated with job success promotes diversity and lowers the risk of selecting people who will be unhappy in a particular job. Information about employees’ competencies can guide training and development, and competency models can serve as a fair basis for defining performance measures. A-dec, a maker of dental equipment, identified competencies for production workers, including teamwork and a customer service orientation. When A-dec began hiring based on competencies, the quality of hired workers improved, employees were less likely to quit, and claims for job-related injuries fell. Colliers International, a real estate firm, also hires for competencies. The firm’s chief people officer advises identifying a few main competencies and asking candidates to provide examples of how they demonstrated each—for example, how they motivated themselves to get started on a tough assignment. 16
page 109
Trends in Job Analysis
As we noted in the earlier discussion of work flow analysis, organizations have been appreciating the need to analyze jobs in the context of the organization’s structure and strategy. In addition, organizations are recognizing that today’s workplace must be adaptable and is constantly subject to change. Thus, although we tend to think of “jobs” as something stable, they actually tend to change and evolve over time. Those who occupy or manage jobs often make minor adjustments to match personal preferences or changing conditions. 17 Indeed, although errors in job analysis can have many sources, most inaccuracy is likely to result from job descriptions being outdated. For this reason, job analysis must not only define jobs when they are created, but also detect changes in jobs as time passes.
With global competitive pressure, automation, and weak demand growth, one corporate change that has affected many organizations is downsizing. Research suggests that successful downsizing efforts almost always entail changes in the nature of jobs, not just their number. Jobs that have survived downsizing tend to have a broader scope of responsibilities coupled with less supervision. In some cases, organizations preserve jobs by asking employees to get the same amount of work done during fewer hours for less pay (because of the reduced hours). These changes can succeed with the right people in the jobs, working in conditions that allow them to focus on what matters most. 18
These changes in the nature of work and the expanded use of “project-based” organizational structures require the type of broader understanding that comes from an analysis of work flows. Because the work can change rapidly and it is impossible to rewrite job descriptions every week, job descriptions and specifications need to be flexible. At the same time, legal requirements (as discussed in Chapter 3) may discourage organizations from writing flexible job descriptions. This means organizations must balance the need for flexibility with the need for legal documentation. This presents one of the major challenges to be faced by HRM departments in the next decade. Many professionals are meeting this challenge with a greater emphasis on careful job design.
LO 4-6 Describe methods for designing a job so that it can be done efficiently.
Job Design
Although job analysis, as just described, is important for an understanding of existing jobs, organizations also must plan for new jobs and periodically consider whether they should revise existing jobs. When an organization is expanding, supervisors and human resource professionals must help plan for new or growing work units. When an organization is trying to improve quality or efficiency, a review of work units and processes may require a fresh look at how jobs are designed.
These situations call for job design , the process of defining how work will be performed and what tasks will be required in a given job, or job redesign, a similar process that involves changing an existing job design. To design jobs effectively, a person must thoroughly understand the job itself (through job analysis) and its place in the larger work unit’s work flow process (through work flow analysis). Having a detailed knowledge of the tasks performed in the work unit and in the job, a manager then has many alternative ways to design a job. As shown in Figure 4.4, the available approaches emphasize different aspects of the job: the mechanics of doing a job efficiently, the job’s impact on motivation, the use of safe work practices, and the mental demands of the job.
Job Design
The process of defining how work will be performed and what tasks will be required in a given job.
Figure 4.4
Approaches to Job Design
Designing Efficient Jobs
If workers perform tasks as efficiently as possible, not only does the organization benefit from lower costs and greater output per worker, but workers should be less fatigued.page 110 This point of view has for years formed the basis of classical industrial engineering , which looks for the simplest way to structure work in order to maximize efficiency. Typically, applying industrial engineering to a job reduces the complexity of the work, making it so simple that almost anyone can be trained quickly and easily to perform the job. Such jobs tend to be highly specialized and repetitive.
Industrial Engineering
The study of jobs to find the simplest way to structure work in order to maximize efficiency.
In practice, the scientific method traditionally seeks the “one best way” to perform a job by performing time-and-motion studies to identify the most efficient movements for workers to make. Once the engineers have identified the most efficient sequence of motions, the organization should select workers based on their ability to do the job, then train them in the details of the “one best way” to perform that job. The company also should offer pay structured to motivate workers to do their best. ( Chapters 12 and 13 discuss pay and pay structures.) For an example of a company using data analytics to improve efficiency, see “Best Practices”.
Industrial engineering provides measurable and practical benefits. However, a focus on efficiency alone can create jobs that are so simple and repetitive that workers get bored. Workers performing these jobs may feel their work is meaningless. Hence, most organizations combine industrial engineering with other approaches to job design.
LO 4-7 Identify approaches to designing a job to make it motivating.
Designing Jobs That Motivate
Especially when organizations must compete for employees, depend on skilled knowledge workers, or need a workforce that cares about customer satisfaction, a pure focus on efficiency will not achieve human resource objectives. Employers also need to ensure that workers have a positive attitude toward their jobs so that they show up at work with enthusiasm, commitment, and creativity. To improve job satisfaction, organizations need to design jobs that take into account factors that make jobs motivating and satisfying for employees.
A model that shows how to make jobs more motivating is the Job Characteristics Model, developed by Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham. This model describes jobs in terms of five characteristics: 19
1. Skill variety—The extent to which a job requires a variety of skills to carry out the tasks involved.
2. Task identity—The degree to which a job requires completing a “whole” piece of work from beginning to end (for example, building an entire component or resolving a customer’s complaint).
page 111
1. Task significance—The extent to which the job has an important impact on the lives of other people.
2. Autonomy—The degree to which the job allows an individual to make decisions about the way the work will be carried out.
3. Feedback—The extent to which a person receives clear information about performance effectiveness from the work itself.
As shown in Figure 4.5 , the more of each of these characteristics a job has, the more motivating the job will be, according to the Job Characteristics Model. The model predicts that a person with such a job will be more satisfied and will produce more and better work. For an example of such a job, consider the skill variety and task significance of some of the positions companies are filling in order to have a stronger presence on the Internet. Front-end developers apply knowledge of software, design, and user behavior to create a user interface that is clear and simple to use. Data scientists translate business problems into mathematical models they can test and then translate their statistical test results into business solutions. Now imagine employees in jobs like these working in an environment such as Square Root, a tech company that analyzes data to help retailers improve their performance. Square Root’s policies are based on a belief that employees do their best work when they have autonomy concerning their schedule and other working conditions. Its employees say the company provides great challenges and a great atmosphere—and that their coworkers go the extra mile to meet goals. 20
Figure 4.5
Characteristics of a Motivating Job
page 112Applications of the job characteristics approach to job design include job enlargement, job enrichment, self-managing work teams, flexible work schedules, and telework. In applying these methods, HR managers should keep in mind that individual differences among workers will affect how much they are motivated by job characteristics and able to do their best work. 21 For example, someone who thrives in a highly structured environment might not actually be motivated by autonomy and would be a better fit for a job where a supervisor makes most decisions.
Job Enlargement In a job design, job enlargement refers to broadening the types of tasks performed. The objective of job enlargement is to make jobs less repetitive and more interesting. Jobs also become enlarged when organizations add new goals or ask fewer workers to accomplish work that had been spread among more people. In those situations, the challenge is to avoid crossing the line from interesting jobs into jobs that burn out employees. The hospital industry is facing this challenge in positions as basic as patient access staff, the employees who check in patients when they arrive. In the past, these were entry-level positions requiring pleasant communication and accurate entry of basic data such as name, address, and insurance policy number. Today, hospitals face greater accountability for patient satisfaction and more likelihood that patients will have insurance but often in high-deductible plans. If patients don’t understand how to use their insurance, they may be upset with their hospital experience and less prepared to pay their share of the bill. Therefore, hospitals are enlarging patient access jobs to include financial counseling. Michael Scriarabba, director of patient access for University of California San Francisco Medical Center, says, “Our whole front-end team must have the level of competency to answer patients’ questions about costs.” He adds, “It’s more than a job—it’s a service.” Hospitals like UCSF Medical Center therefore are hiring, training for, and paying for competency in helping patients understand their financial responsibility and the available options for assistance. The result of equipping employees for these enlarged jobs, says Scriarabba, is that patients are more satisfied with how they have been treated and also more likely to pay their share of the bill. 22
Job Enlargement
Broadening the types of tasks performed in a job.
Organizations that use job enlargement to make jobs more motivational employ techniques such as job extension and job rotation. Job extension is enlarging jobs by combining several relatively simple jobs to form a job with a wider range of tasks.page 113 An example might be combining the jobs of receptionist, typist, and file clerk into jobs containing all three kinds of work. This approach to job enlargement is relatively simple, but if all the tasks are dull, workers will not necessarily be more motivated by the redesigned job.
Job Extension
Enlarging jobs by combining several relatively simple jobs to form a job with a wider range of tasks.
Hospitals have begun to enlarge patient access jobs such as admissions to include financial counseling, in an effort to increase patient satisfaction levels.
© PhotoAlto/Frederic Cirou/Getty Images
Job rotation does not actually redesign the jobs themselves, but moves employees among several different jobs. This approach to job enlargement is common among production teams. During the course of a week, a team member may carry out each of the jobs handled by the team. Team members might assemble components one day and pack products into cases another day. As with job extension, the enlarged jobs may still consist of repetitious activities, but with greater variation among those activities.
Job Rotation
Enlarging jobs by moving employees among several different jobs.
Job Enrichment The idea of job enrichment , or empowering workers by adding more decision-making authority to their jobs, comes from the work of Frederick Herzberg. According to Herzberg’s two-factor theory, individuals are motivated more by the intrinsic aspects of work (for example, the meaningfulness of a job) than by extrinsic rewards, such as pay. Herzberg identified five factors he associated with motivating jobs: achievement, recognition, growth, responsibility, and performance of the entire job. Thus, ways to enrich a manufacturing job might include giving employees authority to stop production when quality standards are not being met and having each employee perform several tasks to complete a particular stage of the process, rather than dividing up the tasks among the employees. For a salesperson in a store, job enrichment might involve the authority to resolve customer problems, including the authority to decide whether to issue refunds or replace merchandise.
Job Enrichment
Empowering workers by adding more decision-making authority to jobs.
In practice, however, it is important to note that not every worker responds positively to enriched jobs. These jobs are best suited to workers who are flexible and responsive to others; for these workers, enriched jobs can dramatically improve motivation. 23
Self-Managing Work Teams Instead of merely enriching individual jobs, some organizations empower employees by designing work to be done by self-managing work teams. As described in Chapter 2, these teams have authority for an entire work process or segment. Team members typically have authority to schedule work, hire team members, resolve problems related to the team’s performance, and perform other duties traditionally handled by management. Teamwork can give a job such motivating characteristics as autonomy, skill variety, and task identity.
Because team members’ responsibilities are great, their jobs usually are defined broadly and include sharing of work assignments. Team members may, at one time or another, perform every duty of the team. The challenge for the organization is to provide enough training so that the team members can learn the necessary skills. Another approach, when teams are responsible for particular work processes or customers, is to assign the team responsibility for the process or customer, then let the team decide which members will carry out which tasks.
A study of work teams at a large financial services company found that the right job design was associated with effective teamwork. 24 In particular, when teams are self-managed and team members are highly involved in decision making, teams are more productive, employees more satisfied, and managers are more pleased with performance. Teams also tend to do better when each team member performs a variety of tasks and when team members view their effort as significant.
page 114 Flexible Work Schedules One way in which an organization can give employees some say in how their work is structured is to offer flexible work schedules. Depending on the requirements of the organization and the individual jobs, organizations may be able to be flexible about when employees work. As introduced in Chapter 2, types of flexibility include flextime and job sharing. Figure 4.6 illustrates alternatives to the traditional 40-hour workweek.
Figure 4.6
Alternatives to the 8-to-5 Job
Flextime is a scheduling policy in which full-time employees may choose starting and ending times within guidelines specified by the organization. The flextime policy may require that employees be at work between certain hours, say, 10:00 am and 3:00 pm. Employees work additional hours before or after this period in order to work the full day. One employee might arrive early in the morning in order to leave at 3:00 pm to pick up children after school. Another employee might be a night owl who prefers to arrive at 10:00 am and work until 6:00, 7:00, or even later in the evening. A flextime policy also may enable workers to adjust a particular day’s hours in order to make time for doctor’s appointments, children’s activities, hobbies, or volunteer work. A work schedule that allows time for community and family interests can be extremely motivating for some employees.
Flextime
A scheduling policy in which full-time employees may choose starting and ending times within guidelines specified by the organization.
Job sharing is a work option in which two part-time employees carry out the tasks associated with a single job. Such arrangements can enable an organization to attract or retain valued employees who want more time to attend school or to care for family members. The job requirements in such an arrangement include the ability to work cooperatively and coordinate the details of one’s job with another person.
Job Sharing
A work option in which two part-time employees carry out the tasks associated with a single job.
page 115
Although not strictly a form of flexibility for all individual employees, another scheduling alternative is the compressed workweek. A compressed workweek is a schedule in which full-time workers complete their weekly hours in fewer than five days. For example, instead of working eight hours a day for five days, the employees could complete 40 hours of work in four 10-hour days. This alternative is most common, but some companies use other alternatives, such as scheduling 80 hours over nine days (with a three-day weekend every other week) or reducing the workweek from 40 to 38 or 36 hours. Employees may appreciate the extra days available for leisure, family, or volunteer activities. An organization might even use this schedule to offer a kind of flexibility—for example, letting workers vote whether they want a compressed workweek during the summer months. This type of schedule has a couple of drawbacks, however. One is that employees may become exhausted on the longer workdays. Another is that if the arrangement involves working more than 40 hours during a week, the Fair Labor Standards Act requires the payment of overtime wages to nonsupervisory employees.
For ideas on how to set up flexible scheduling, see the “HR How To” box.
page 116 Telework Flexibility can extend to work locations as well as work schedules. Before the Industrial Revolution, most people worked either close to or inside their own homes. Mass production technologies changed all this, separating work life from home life, as people began to travel to centrally located factories and offices. Today, however, skyrocketing prices for office space, combined with drastically reduced prices for portable communication and computing devices, seem ready to reverse this trend. The broad term for doing one’s work away from a centrally located office is telework, or telecommuting.
For employers, advantages of telework include less need for office space and the ability to offer greater flexibility to employees who are disabled or need to be available for children or elderly relatives. The employees using telework arrangements may have fewer absences from work than employees with similar demands who must commute to work. Telecommuting can also support a strategy of corporate social responsibility because these employees do not produce the greenhouse gas emissions that result from commuting by car. Telework is easiest to implement for people in managerial, professional, or sales jobs, especially those that involve working and communicating on a computer. A telework arrangement is generally difficult to set up for manufacturing workers. The Census Bureau has found telework to be most common among management and business professionals, with the fastest growth occurring in computer, engineering, and science jobs. A Chinese website called Ctrip conducted an experiment. It invited its call center workers to choose telework and then compared workers’ results over nine months. Productivity was higher among the workers who chose to work at home, presumably because they had fewer distractions but also because they tended to use some of the time saved on commuting to work longer hours. The company also noted that certain categories of workers, such as those who are younger, tended to want to be together at the office, rather than teleworking. 25
Given the possible benefits, it is not surprising that telework has been a rising trend. A recent survey by Gallup found that 37% of U.S. workers had ever telecommuted, up from 30% in the 2000s and significantly higher than the 9% measured in 1995. On the narrower question of employees’ current work arrangements, an analysis of Census Bureau data found that 20 to 25% of the U.S. workforce engages in telework at least part-time. 26
LO 4-8 Explain how organizations apply ergonomics to design safe jobs.
Designing Ergonomic Jobs
The way people use their bodies when they work—whether toting heavy furniture onto a moving van or sitting quietly before a computer screen—affects their physical well-being and may affect how well and how long they can work. The study of the interface between individuals’ physiology and the characteristics of the physical work environment is called ergonomics . The goal of ergonomics is to minimize physical strain on the worker by structuring the physical work environment around the way the human body works. Ergonomics therefore focuses on outcomes such as reducing physical fatigue, aches and pains, and health complaints. Ergonomic research includes the context in which work takes place, such as the lighting, space, and hours worked. 27
Ergonomics
The study of the interface between individuals’ physiology and the characteristics of the physical work environment.
Ergonomic job design has been applied in redesigning equipment used in jobs that are physically demanding (for an example, see “Did You Know?”). Such redesign is often aimed at reducing the physical demands of certain jobs so that anyone can perform them. In addition, many interventions focus on redesigning machines and technology to minimize occupational illnesses—for instance, adjusting the height of a computer keyboard to minimize carpal tunnel syndrome. The design of chairs and desks to fit posture requirements is very important in many office jobs. Researchers studying ergonomic redesign of factory workstations found improvements in injury rates, productivity, quality of output, and employee engagement and retention. Ford makes ergonomics part of the initial designpage 117 of each facility and production line. To gather data, the automaker uses motion-capture technology collected from sensors on workers’ bodies to identify potential problems such as imbalance and muscle strain. Workers simulate the planned movements, and engineers study the movement data to improve their design of each workstation. 28
A recent ergonomic challenge comes from the popularity of mobile devices. As workers find more and more uses for these devices, they are at risk from repetitive-stress injuries (RSIs). Typing with one’s thumbs to send frequent text messages on a smartphone can result in inflammation of the tendons that move the thumbs. Laptop and notebook computers are handy to carry, but because the screen and keyboard are attached in a single device, the computer can’t be positioned to the ergonomically correct standards of screen at eye level and keyboard low enough to type with arms bent at a 90-degree angle. Heavy users of these devices must therefore trade off eyestrain against physical strain to wrists, unless they can hook up their device to an extra, properly positioned keyboard or monitor. Touchscreenspage 118 pose their own risks. They are typically part of a flat device such as a smartphone or tablet computer, and these are difficult to position for optimal viewing and typing. Using vertically oriented touchscreens causes even more muscle strain than tapping on a screen lying flat. In addition, because touchscreens usually lack the tactile feedback of pressing keys on a keyboard, users tend to strike them with more force than they use on real keys. Attaching a supplemental keyboard addresses this potential source of strain. When using mobile devices or any computer, workers can protect themselves by taking frequent breaks and paying attention to their posture while they work. Protective measures such as these require training as well as job design, because many employees are bringing their own devices to work or using them to work from home, where employers can’t supervise work methods. 29
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has a “four-pronged” strategy for encouraging ergonomic job design. The first prong is to issue guidelines (rather than regulations) for specific industries. To date, these guidelines have been issued for poultry-processing and meatpacking plants, foundries, nursing homes, shipyards, and grocery stores. Second, OSHA enforces violations of its requirement that employers have a general duty to protect workers from hazards, including ergonomic hazards. Third, OSHA works with industry groups to advise employers in those industries. And finally, OSHA established a National Advisory Committee on Ergonomics to define needs for further research. You can learn more about OSHA’s guidelines at the agency’s website, www.osha.gov.
LO 4-9 Discuss how organizations can plan for the mental demands of a job.
Designing Jobs That Meet Mental Capabilities and Limitations
Just as the human body has capabilities and limitations, addressed by ergonomics, the mind, too, has capabilities and limitations. Besides hiring people with certain mental skills, organizations can design jobs so that they can be accurately and safely performed given the way the brain processes information. Generally, this means reducing the information-processing requirements of a job. In these simpler jobs, workers may be less likely to make mistakes or have accidents. Of course, the simpler jobs also may be less motivating. Research has found that challenging jobs tend to fatigue and dissatisfy workers when they feel little control over their situation, lack social support, and feel motivated mainly to avoid errors. In contrast, they may enjoy the challenges of a difficult job where they have some control and social support, especially if they enjoy learning and are unafraid of making mistakes. 30 Because of this drawback to simplifying jobs, it can be most beneficial to simplify jobs where employees will most appreciate having the mental demands reduced (as in a job that is extremely challenging) or where the costs of errors are severe (as in the job of a surgeon or air-traffic controller).
Technological advances can sometimes increase job demands. Some employees may be required to juggle information from several sources at once, which may distract them from their primary job task.
© Javier Pierini/Getty Images RF
There are several ways to simplify a job’s mental demands. One is to limit the amount of information and memorization that the job requires. Organizations can also provide adequate lighting, easy-to-understand gauges and displays, simple-to-operate equipment, and clear instructions. For project management, teamwork, and work done by employees in different locations, organizations may provide software that helps with tracking progress. Often, employees try to simplify some of the mental demands of their own jobs by creating checklists, charts, or other aids. Finally, every job requires some degree of thinking, remembering, andpage 119 paying attention, so for every job, organizations need to evaluate whether their employees can handle the job’s mental demands.
Changes in technology sometimes reduce job demands and errors, but in some cases, technology has made the problem worse. Some employees try to juggle information from several sources at once—say, talking on a cell phone while typing, surfing the web for information during a team member’s business presentation, or repeatedly stopping work on a project to check e-mail or Twitter feeds. In these cases, the cell phone, handheld computer, and e-mail or tweets are distracting the employees from their primary task. They may convey important information, but they also break the employee’s train of thought, reducing performance and increasing the likelihood of errors. Research by a firm called Basex, which specializes in the knowledge economy, found that a big part of the information overload problem is recovery time, that is, the time it takes a person’s thinking to switch back from an interruption to the task at hand. The Basex researchers found that recovery time is from 10 to 20 times the length of the interruption. For example, after a 30-second pause to check a Twitter feed, the recovery time could be five minutes or longer. 31
Organizations probably can’t design interruption-free jobs, and few employees would want to isolate themselves entirely from the information and relationships available online. But employers can design jobs that empower workers to manage their time—for example, allowing them to schedule blocks of time when they concentrate on work and do not answer phone calls, e-mails, or text messages. Some employees set aside one or two periods during the day when they will open their e-mail programs, read messages, and respond to the messages immediately. As a vice president at United Health Group, Kyle McDowell has autonomy to structure his day to be as effective as possible. His tactic is to keep mornings free of meetings and other interruptions so he can spend time focusing on strategic goals. 32
When simplifying mental demands in jobs where people value the chance to apply their judgment and expertise, employers use technology to nudge rather than dictate actions. Hospitals, for example, are under greater-than-ever pressure to reduce costs not associated with improved patient outcomes. One way to do this is to encourage doctors to prescribe tests and procedures consistently with the guidelines of professional groups. Physicians who don’t recall all the latest research on procedures and guidelines might overuse some procedures, but the way hospitals simplify these decisions has to respect the physicians’ training. The Christiana Care Health System balanced these concerns by modifying the process of ordering tests on its computer system. For procedures that professional societies have identified as overused, if the patient doesn’t meet the guidelines, the computer no longer displays those procedures as an option to order. Doctors can still order the procedures, but the process takes an extra step, which might encourage doctors to give the idea additional thought. This nudge resulted in a big drop in use of the targeted procedures with no harm to patient care. 33
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