FACTORS AFFECTING JOB DESIGN Job design is affected by organizational, environmental and behavioral factors. A properly designed job will make it more productive and satisfying . If a job fails on this count, it must be redesigned based on the feedback. The various factors affecting job design are the following Organizational factors Organizational factors include characteristics of task, work flow, ergonomics and work practices. Characteristics of Task: Job design requires the assembly of a number of tasks into a job or a group of jobs.
An individual may carry out one main task which consists of a number of inter-related elements or functions. On the other hand , task functions may be spilt between a team, working closely together or strung along an assembly line. In more complex jobs, individuals may carry out a variety of connected tasks, each with a number of functions, or these tasks may be allocated to a group of workers or divided between them. Complexity in a job may be a reflection of the number and variety of tasks to be carried out, or the range and scope of the decisions that have to be made, or the difficulty of predicting the outcome of decisions.The internal structure of each task, consists of three elements Planning ,Executing and Controlling.
A completely integrated job will include all these elements for each of the tasks involved . The workers or group of workers having been given objectives in terms of output, quality and cost targets, decide on how the work is to be done, assemble the resources, perform the work and monitor output, quality and cost standards. Responsibility in a job is measured by the amount of authority , some one to put to do all these things.The ideal design is to integrate all the three elements.
Work Flow: The flow of work in an organization is strongly influenced by the nature of the product or service. The product or service usually suggests the sequence and balance between jobs, if the work is to be done efficiently . After the sequence of jobs is determined, the balance between the jobs is established. Ergonomics: Ergonomics is concerned with designing and shaping jobs to fit the physical abilities and characteristics of individuals so that ,they perform the jobs effectively .Ergonomics helps employees to design jobs in such a way that workers’ physical abilities and job demands are balanced .
It does not alter the nature of job tasks, but alters the location of tools ,switches and other facilities, keeping in view that handling the job is the primary consideration. Work Practices: Work practices are set ways of performing work . These methods may arise from tradition or the collective wishes of employees. Work practices were till now, determined by time and motion study which established the standard time needed to complete the given job.
The study required repeated observations . The accuracy of the readings depended on competence of the work study engineer . Deviations from the normal work-cycle caused distortions in measurements, was biased towards existing work practices with little effort at method’s improvement and could be carried out only when, production was under way. A new technique has now emerged which ,if introduced , could drastically alter the work practices.
Called the MOST (Maynard Operating Sequence Technique) ,the technique uses a standard formula to list the motion sequence ascribed in index values.Environmental factors Environmental factors affect the job design. These factors that have a bearing on job design are employees abilities and availability and social and culture expectations. Employee Abilities and Availability: Efficiency consideration must be balanced against the abilities and availability of the people to do the work.
When Henry Ford made use of the assembly line, for example , he was aware that most potential workers lacked any automobile making experience . So, jobs were designed to be simple and required little training .Therefore, considerable thought must be given, as to who will actually do the work. Social and Cultural Expectations: During the earlier days, securing a job was the primary consideration. The worker was prepared to work on any job and under any working conditions. Now, it is not the same.
Literacy, knowledge and awareness of workers have improved considerably . So also, their expectations from the job ,Hence, jobs be designed to meet the expectations of workers. When designing jobs for international operations, uniform designs are almost certain to neglect national and cultural differences .Hours of work holidays, vacations, rest breaks ,religious beliefs, management styles and worker sophistication and attitudes are just some of the predictable differences that can affect the design of jobs across international borders.
Failure to consider these social expectations can create social dissatisfaction, low motivation ,hard to fill job openings and a low quality of work life ,especially, when foreign nationals are involved in the home country or overseas. Behavioral Factors: Behavioral factors include feedback, autonomy, use of abilities and variety. ore at http://www. citehr.
com/4270-factors-effecting-job-design. html#ixzz1WsDGvFd3 MAS DETAILED!! :))) Environmental Factors of a Job Design Written by: N Nayab • Edited by: Ronda Roberts Published Feb 22, 2011 While job design is an in-house exercise to allocate tasks that make up a job in the best possible manner, several external factors influence such reallocation of tasks. Read on for an understanding of the environmental factors of a job design. What are Environmental Factors of a Job Design? pic]Job design is the process of rearranging the duties, responsibilities techniques, procedures, and relationships of a job aimed at raising productivity and job satisfaction, and reducing job dissatisfaction and employee alienation. The major focus is on increasing productivity and efficiency, and reliving boredom by avoiding repetitive and mechanistic tasks.
The major elements of job design are job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation, and job simplification. The major factors affecting job design are environment, organizational, and behavioral factors.The environmental factors of a job design include employee availability and ability, and social and cultural expectation. Economic Factors Very often job design initiatives are a direct result on economic changes required by the external environment.
Changes in the business environment may cause obsolesce of some products or services. Launching new products, modifying products, or changing the way of delivery or output to exploit some latent opportunities might also require redesigning jobs.The need to modify the work process might for instance require job enlargement. The answer to improve customer service might be boosting employee morale by job enlargement. Line Balancing Software www. proplanner.
com Free download: line balancing, work instruction & mfg process solutions Ads by Google Employee Abilities The ability and overall skill-levels of available employees to perform certain tasks greatly affects job design, especially designing for efficiency.Lack of availability of educated or trained workforce in certain areas, for instance might result in the management developing a simple job design involving only a few routine tasks whereas availability of highly skilled workforce might allow the management to design jobs that involve multi-tasking, alternating between different tasks, and the like. When Henry Ford first established his factory, most of his workers lacked any experience in automobile manufacturing.This prompted him to establish an assembly line where each worker did only one simple and specific task. For instance, one worker kept on placing engines in their place, and the assembly line moved the product to another worker who tightened the screws.
The sum of all such simple tasks, done in series produced an automobile. Highly skilled workers however find such assembly line work too monotonous, and job enrichment tries to add variety to the job, such as entrusting a single worker with both slotting the engine and tightening the screws.The overall health of the population also affects job design. Establishments in areas with healthy and hardworking populations can hope to design jobs to ensure maximum productivity, structuring extending work hours and overtime. In contrast, establishments located in places where the general populace remains malnourished, such as in third world countries cannot aspire to attain the same level of efficiency and productivity.
Social and Cultural Expectations Social and cultural norms and expectations play a major role in job design.Factors such as national and religious holidays, standard hours of work and vacation rules and other similar factors can for instance affect the design of jobs across countries and states. For instance, Friday is the official weekly holiday in many Middle East countries, as opposed to the American Saturday and Sunday weekend. In some cultures, designations and bureaucratic divisions of job roles rein supreme, whereas in other places, individuals perform any role or do any job as the situation demands.
For instance, in society with high social stratification, managers and top executives do not perform tasks such as making their own coffee, delivering a file to the next person, and other basic tasks, and the company needs to deploy peons and attendants for the purpose. In open and flexible societies, designations such as peons do not exist. Failure to consider social expectations and norms can cause social dissatisfaction and resentment, leading to low motivation levels.Ignoring local sensibilities can also make it difficult to secure workers to run operations. Ensuring Efficiency Environmental factors of a job design play a key role in ensuring efficiency at the workplace.
Organizations that understand the implications of such factors and devise appropriate interventions stand a good chance to fully leverage the benefits of a job deisgn exercise. Read more: http://www. brighthub. com/office/human-resources/articles/107553.
aspx#ixzz1WsDea5bk
