RAYMART M.

COPIAR HBO
BSA – 501

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Do you agree or disagree that individual differences affect how people respond to
their jobs? Explain.
Individual differences are the ways in which people differ from each other. Every
member of an organization has its own way of behavior. It is important for managers to
understand individual differences because they influence the feelings, thoughts, and
behavior of employees. Moreover I agree that individual differences in a workplace
should be addresses because it can vastly affect how an employee respond and perform
a certain jobs. It must ensure that employees have the capabilities required for the
specific job. Individuals bring a number of differences to work, such as unique
personalities, values, emotions, and moods. When new employees enter organizations,
their stable or transient characteristics affect how they behave and perform. Moreover,
companies hire people with the expectation that those individuals have certain skills,
abilities, personalities, and values. Therefore, it is important to understand individual
characteristics that matter for employee behaviors at work.

2. How do you think you would like telecommuting?

Telecommuting is an employment arrangement in which the employee works
outside of the employer's office. It somehow gives workers greater freedom over their
work hours and work location. It also gives the employee more flexibility to balance
work and personal obligations. Having none of the distractions from a traditional office
setting, telecommuting drives up employee efficiency. It allows workers retain more of
their time in the day and adjust to their personal mental and physical well-being needs
that optimize productivity. 
It is important to realize that telecommuting affects the entire office, not just the
employees who spend some or all of their time working from home. It transforms the
 social interactions between coworkers and requires adjustments from people still in the
office. Telecommuting also presents challenges for supervisors. Some managers tend to
feel suspicious toward telecommuters. If they cannot physically observe an employee at
work, they are concerned that that employee is not really working. In addition, some
managers worry that by allowing their staffs to telecommute, they will eliminate the
need for their own jobs.

3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of job enrichment? When might it be useful?
Job enrichment is a method for redesigning jobs, a motivation technique that
aims at making work more interesting and challenging for the employees. It mainly
consists of giving more responsibility than what originally applied to the job, creating
opportunities for professional growth and recognition. At some point, it improves the
employee satisfaction with employees' positions by modifying their work. This increase
in satisfaction should result in lower turnover and higher productivity of employees.
On the other hand, it can also be a way to motivate employees by giving them
increased responsibility and variety in their jobs. Many employers traditionally believed
that money was the only true motivating factor for employees and that if you wanted to
get more work out of employees, offering them more money was the only way to do it.
Job enrichment allows the employees to have more control in planning their work and
deciding how the work should be accomplished. Moreover, Job enrichment gives tools
to the employee to improve their skills and learn new ones, many times even
managerial ones. If they are ambitious enough, the positive feedback will be a
motivation to advance, and the new competencies make them more confident to take
opportunities. People with proven skills are generally presented with better career
opportunities.

4. Which form of a flexible work schedule might you prefer?

Flexible scheduling moves away from rigid business hours that apply to all
employees. Employers often implement flex time scheduling to better accommodate
 the individual needs of employees. The idea is that employees experience higher job
satisfaction when they have some control over their scheduling. Employees are also
better able to balance work and their personal obligations when scheduling flexibility
is allowed. In terms of flexible working hours, the potential advantages for employees
are well-known including an improved work-life balance, greater autonomy and
improved morale.
Flexible working hours can be a great way of helping your employees find
a better work-life balance and as a result perform better at work. They are increasingly
popular in the modern working place and becoming more and more common across
different industries. However, many businesses owners and managers have concerns
about the benefits of flexible working. Ensuring that employees complete all necessary
tasks can be more challenging. The manager may also spend more time figuring out
who is in the office at different times. She may struggle to keep track of the employees
and whether or not they are at the office at the appropriate times.

5. Do any trends today suggest a return to job specialization?

Specialization, along with the complementary concept of the division of labor,
occurs when the innate inequalities of human productive output are intensified along
different skills. An individual becomes economically specialized when he focuses his
productive efforts on an increasingly narrow range of tasks. The most obvious economic
impact of specialization can be seen in the tendency for individuals to choose different
vocations that are more in line with their interests, skills, opportunities, and education.
By implementing job rotation or job specialization systems as means to address issues
related to employees' job burnout, organizations should not only consider the benefits
to job management, but also adjust according to technology and environmental
changes. Only by doing so could organizations release the maximum potential from
human resources management systems. There will always be an opportunity for skilled
professionals to specialize their services. The key to specialization is to make sure that
the approach is balanced.
6. What motivational problems might result from an organization’s attempt to set up
work teams?
Many companies form work teams to maximize employees' skills and strengths
to improve performance. While an organization may see work teams as a way to
improve work performance, employees may resist the change. Though some
employees may be comfortable working in groups, the new team environment may
cause motivation problems if employees view it as a threat to their comfort level and
ability to achieve. Work teams utilize the strengths and skills of individual members,
but they also require new skill sets. Other team members may lack the technical skills
for data analysis or group presentations.
Some organizations profess to be committed to the work team structure but
are reluctant to give teams the tools, support, resources and authority they need to
get the job done. Regardless of the team’s results and recommendations,
management makes all the decisions. If members of work team feel their decisions or
outcomes won’t be supported by management, they will quickly lose the motivation
needed to complete a project. Management must trust the combined expertise of the
team and demonstrate their trust by considering and acting on the team’s
conclusions.

7. Under what circumstances might job enlargement be especially effective? Especially in

effective? How about job rotation?
Job enlargement is a job design technique wherein there is an increase in the
number of tasks associated with a certain job. In other words, it means increasing the
scope of one’s duties and responsibilities. It aims at increase in the workforce flexibility
and at the same time reducing monotony that may creep up over a period of time.
Many believe that since the enlargement is horizontal in nature there is not a great
need for training. The additional responsibilities lead to a number of motivational
 factors. Because the person is now responsible for multiple related activities, the person
has more freedom over how they do their work leading to more autonomy.
Moreover, job enlargement helps the organization to improve and increase the
skills of the employee due to organization as well as the individual benefit. 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. 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 employee’s.

8. What are the motivational consequences of increased employee involvement from

the frame of reference of expectancy and equity theories?
Employee involvement means that every employee is regarded as a unique
human being, not just a machine, and each employee is involved in helping the
organization meet its goals. Each employee’s input is solicited and valued by his/her
management. Employees and management recognize that each employee is involved in
running the business. Employee involvement is an empowerment technique where
employees participate in actions and decision making that was traditionally reserved for
management. More motivated employees mean better performance; especially when
you have total employee involvement in terms of staff management. Employees do not
leave because of the company or pay, but because of their manager. It also works the
other way around. Employees stay and get motivated because of who manages them.
Employee involvement exists in organizations that intentionally establish work
cultures, systems and processes to encourage and make use of employee input and
feedback. A major reason employee involvement has grown is because it has been
shown to increase employee commitment to their organizations. By involving
employees actively in decision making, company leaders affirm the value of their
employees. Employees more naturally develop deeper commitments to
organizational and departmental objectives when they help set them and are
involved in achieving them by offering input and making decisions that affect success.
9. What are the primary advantages and disadvantages of job specialization? Were they
the same in the early days of mass production?
Most of the companies do have an overall organizational structure to cope up
with the variety of work that is to be handled. The company would decide upon the
responsibilities that each job category would need to carry and thereby the human
resource categorizes employees to suit to the work specialization. An employee who
performs the same task repeatedly by specializing in it is less likely to make a mistake.
They are familiar with the pitfalls and issues that a no specialist performing that task
would not know. A big advantage of specialization is that employees feel a certain
camaraderie with others in their department or skill set.
Hence, it can be seen that work specialization is indeed having its own
advantages and disadvantages. Many companies do not consider them as obsolete nor
do they think that it would help to increase productivity. There needs to be a balance of
having work specialization but need to allow workers to switch in between or shuffle
their responsibilities. It is also found that getting feedback of the performance
appraisal motivates workers to have face to face interaction with their bosses. This
generates a feeling of being considered and recognized.

10. What are the primary similarities and differences between job enrichment and the
approach proposed by job characteristics theory?
According to the job characteristic model, employees can respond differently
to the same job. Under the model, it's possible to modify the position to increase
motivation and satisfaction, which leads to improved performance. Types of job
attributes that can be changed include task variety, autonomy, task significance and
job based feedback. Employees can also be matched to jobs with characteristics that
best meet their individual attributes. This increases employee desire to perform well.
A successful job enrichment model requires both the hygiene factors and the growth
and motivation factors to be implemented at the same time. This strategy results in
motivating employees rather than solely focusing on the reduction of dissatisfaction.
One of the most important components of human resources management is job
design or work design, where the focus is on the specifications of the job that will satisfy
requirements of the organization and the person holding the job.  The JCM is a
recognized and valuable model that enables professionals to consider how best to
design jobs. Although there are certain flaws in the JCM, most of the elements within
the framework are supported through empirical evidence. Professionals can utilize
elements of the JCM to help consider how best to design jobs.