Management Tips:

How to get the best from people

Dr. K. Kuhathasan

CEO: Cenlead

As the limitations to specialisation became more apparent, both managers and researchers advocated new approaches to job design. These approaches were rooted in the idea that if a job could be made more compatible with an increasingly educated and trained people, the negative effects could be avoided.

Whereas the classical approach to job design thought of the people as a part of the production process-much like machinery - the behavioural approach to job design views people as independent parts of the production process whose individual characteristics should be taken into account in forming jobs.

The behavioural approach to job design derives from the behavioural approach to management theories. Of primary concern are individual needs to be engaged in work that is more complex, challenging, and less repetitive than that which resulted from classical job design.

Behaviouralists believe that if these needs are met, people will be more efficient than those with classically designed jobs.

Several approaches to grouping tasks into jobs have been developed under the behavioural approach, including job enlargement, job rotation, and job enrichment.

Job enlargement

One strategy is job enlargement, which is aimed at increasing the number of tasks that comprise a job. Essentially, this is the reverse of our horizontal specialisation. By increasing the number of tasks, people are theoretically, assigned more challenging and stimulating jobs. For instance instead of just receiving customers, a receptionist may also file, attend to the mail, answer the telephone, and schedule meetings and appointments.

Over the years, several organisations have implemented job enlargement. While job enlargement has led to the anticipated improvements in attitudes and performance, the general result has not been consistently positive.

To a large part, this is becuase the additional tasks change the overall characteristics of the job only minimally. The employee is doing a larger variety of tasks, but all of these about the same level in complexity and challenge. The employee is doing more of the same kind of activities.

Job rotation

A second behavioural job design strategy is job rotation, which involves a deliberate plan to move people to various jobs on a consistent, scheduled basis. For instance, a warehouse, people may run a forklift for three months, check inventory the next three months, and load trucks for six months. Several organisations have tried this approach.

This strategy still uses the classical approach to job design. The jobs consist of a few, specialised tasks. The only addition is that people are rotated through several positions. From the organisation's perspective, this is easy to implement because the jobs are both simplified and easy for new people to learn.

The strategy has not been consistently successful as a counterbalance to the negative effects of specialisation and division of labour. Presently, it is used in the cross-training of work teams that requires all members to be able to perform all the jobs of a work unit.

The member of such work teams can successfully cover for one another during absences or work together when equipment breakdowns slow a particular production step.

Job enrichment

Through job enrichment jobs are designed to increase the number of similar tasks included and, more importantly, the number of tasks that require information processing and decision making.

In this sense, job enrichment is a countermeasure to vertical specialisation.

Many of the team-building programmes that have recently been started within organisations may also be regarded as a job enrichment programs, because they increase the complexity of the team's job.

The general results of job enrichment programs have been positive. One intent of this approach is to increase the complexity, decision making, and responsibility of the job, and people differ greatly in their needs for these components in their jobs.

Clearly, those who have a high need respond more favourably to job enrichment programs.

A basic activity of HR managers is collecting information to use in making job related decisions about individuals.

Job analysis

Most HR programmes use some combination of three types of information job characteristics, qualifications, and job performance.

Job analysis is the systematic process of gathering information about important work-related aspects of a job. It identifies the first of two types of information, which includes the tasks that make up a job; the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) needed on the job; the information, equipment, and materials used; and the working conditions.

Job enrichment and enlargement

Herzberg emphasises the importance of differentiating between job enrichment and job enlargement. He views job enrichment as providing the employee with an opportunity to grow psychologically and mature in a job, while job enlargement merely makes a job larger by increasing the number of tasks. Job enrichment, when applied, attempts to make a job motivational.

Research has indicated that jobs higher in job enrichment factors result in higher satisfaction and lower boredom and absenteeism than found with other job design techniques. However, research also indicates that enriched jobs require more training time and result in slightly higher anxiety and stress.

Basically, what this means is that job enrichment occurs by increasing a job's range and depth.

Job range refers to a number of activities performed the job, while Job depth refers to the autonomy, responsibility, and discretion or control over the job. Job enrichment means that the range and depth of a job are increased. On the other hand, job enlargement means that a job's range, but not necessarily its depth, is increased.

The core dimensions of jobs

Building on Herzberg's work, Richard Hackman and others have identified five core dimensions that, if present, provide enrichment for jobs.

Variety - The first core dimension is variety in the job.

Variety allows employees to perform different operations, Using several procedures and perhaps different equipment. Jobs that are high in variety are often viewed as challenging because they use all of an employee's skills.

Tasks identity - The second core dimension, task identity, allows employees to perform a complete piece of work. Overspecialised jobs tend to create routine job duties that result in a worker performing one part of the entire job. There is a sense of loss or nonaccomplishment in doing only a part of a job. Thus, broadening the task to provide the worker with a feeling of doing a whole job increases task identity.

Task significance - The amount of impact that the work being performed has on other people is task significance.

This impact may be within the organisation or outside in the community. The feeling of doing something worthwhile is important to many people. For example, an employer may be told by a respected supervisor that she had done an outstanding job that has contributed to the overall success of the department.

The task has significance because it is recognised as being important in this realm.

Autonomy - The fourth core dimension, autonomy, refers to the idea that employees have some control over their job their duties and work area. The seems to be an important dimension in stimulating a sense of responsibility.

The popular practice of management by objectives is one way of establishing more autonomy, because it provides employees with an opportunity to set work goals and personal goals.

Feedback - Feedback, the fifth core dimension, refers to information that people receive on how well they are performing.

People in general have a need to know what they are doing. They need this feedback frequently so that necessary improvements can be made.