Job Design

JOB DESIGN
Job Design
• Job design is the process of organizing work into the
tasks required to perform a specific job. It involves
conscious efforts to organize tasks, duties, and
responsibilities into a unit of work to achieve certain
objectives.
• 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 organizational set-up. Job depth is the
autonomy or the authority that the job holder enjoys in
planning and organizing the work attached to the job.
Goals of Job Designing:
Job designing has a vital impact on the employees as well
as the organization.
1. Task Variety to alleviate boredom, avoid both excessive
static body positions and repetitive movements. Design jobs
to have a variety of tasks that require changes in body
position, muscles used, and mental activities.
2. Skill Variety through job enlargement and job
enrichment, often new skills are required. Learning skills is
often linked to job satisfaction, good mental health, and
well-being.
3. Work Breaks / Rest Breaks help alleviate the problems of

unavoidable repetitive movements or static body positions.
More frequent but shorter breaks (sometimes called "micro-
breaks") are sometimes preferable to fewer long breaks.
4. Allowance for an Adjustment Period when work
demands physical effort, have an adjustment period
for new employees and for all employees after holidays,
layoffs, or illnesses.
5. Provide Training incorrect work procedures and

equipment operation is needed so that employees
understand what is expected of them and how to work
safely.
6. Vary Mental Activities tasks should be coordinated
so that they are balanced during the day for the
individual employee as well as balanced among a
group of employees.
Job Design – Top Performance Objectives:
1. Quality - The ability of staff to produce high-quality products
and services can be affected by job design.
2. Speed - Sometimes speed of response is the dominant

objective to be achieved in job design.
3. Dependability - Dependable supply of goods and services is

usually influenced, in some way, by job design.
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.
5. Cost - All the elements of job design described above will have an
effect on productivity, and therefore, the cost of the job. Productivity in
this context means the ratio of output to labor input.
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.
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.
3 Major Factors Affecting Job Design
1. Organizational Factors - that affect job design can be work nature or

characteristics, workflow, organizational practices, and ergonomics.
a. Work Nature b. Ergonomics c. Workflow d. Culture

2. Environmental Factors - affect the job design to a considerable extent. These
factors include both 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 b. Socioeconomic and cultural

expectations
3. Behavioral Factors - or human factors are those that pertain to human need
and that need to be satisfied for ensuring productivity at the workplace. They
include the elements like autonomy, diversity, feedback, etc.
a. Autonomy b. Feedback c. Diversity d. Use of skills and

abilities
3 Important Methods of Job Design
1. 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.
2. Job Enlargement
It is also called the horizontal expansion of

job activities 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.
3. Job Enrichment
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.
3 Main Approaches of Job Design
• 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 specialization. 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.
2. Human Relations Approach:
The human relations approach introduced a

‘human touch’ to deal with the problem of
over-specialized jobs. Under this approach,
over-specialized 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, the scope for flexibility had to be
introduced in job design.
3. Socio-Technical Approach:
The socio-technical approach to job design is
another alternative to the
scientific/engineering approach, which resulted
in highly specialized jobs where the advantages
of specialization were gradually negated by its
disadvantages, namely, dissatisfaction and
fatigue among the employees.
Steps to Redesign Job of Employees
Job design should not be taken as a static concept but should be taken as a
dynamic concept. This is due to the fact that contextual variables affecting job
performance keep on changing.
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.
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 the job analysis process, the 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 the job description, a job is redesigned. Whenever there is any change in
the nature of any job because of changes 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
affected in these dimensions.
4. Evaluating Effect of Redesigning:
When a job is redesigned, it is put in operation on an 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.

Job Design

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JOB DESIGN

3. Work Breaks / Rest Breaks help alleviate the problems of

5. Provide Training incorrect work procedures and

2. Speed - Sometimes speed of response is the dominant

3. Dependability - Dependable supply of goods and services is

1. Organizational Factors - that affect job design can be work nature or

a. Work Nature b. Ergonomics c. Workflow d. Culture

a. Employee availability and abilities b. Socioeconomic and cultural

a. Autonomy b. Feedback c. Diversity d. Use of skills and

Involves shifting a person from one

It is also called the horizontal expansion of

A term given by Fredrick Herzberg.

Scientific management, developed by

The human relations approach introduced a

When a job is redesigned, it is put in operation on an experimental basis.

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