V. Socio-technical System Approach

Under the socio-technical system approach, jobs are designed by taking a “holistic” or “systems” view of the entire job situation, including its physical and social environment. The socio-technical approach is situational because few jobs involve identical technical requirements and social surroundings. Specifically, the socio-technical approach requires that the job designer should cautiously be concerned about the role of employee in the socio-technical system, the nature of the tasks performed, and the autonomy of the work-group. The essential elements of the socio-technical system approach are as under:
A job need to be reasonably demanding for the individual in terms other than sheer endurance and yet provide some variety (not necessarily novelty).


Employees need to be able to learn on the job and to go on learning.


Employees need some minimum area of decision-making that they can call their own.


Employees need some minimal degree of social support and recognition at the workplace.


Employees need to be able to relate what they do and what they produce to their social life.

IV.Job Enrichment

 Frederick Herzberg, the advocate of two-factor theory, cautioned that jobs designed according to rules of simplification, enlargement, and rotation can’t be expected to be highly motivational for the workers. He instead suggested a clear and distinct job design alternative called “job enrichment”.

Job enrichment seeks to add profundity to a job by giving workers more control, responsibility, and freedom of choice over how their job is performed. It occurs when the work itself is more challenging, when achievement is encouraged, when there is prospect for growth, and when responsibility, feedback, and recognition are provided. Nonetheless, employees are the final judges of what enriches their jobs.

Herzberg developed the following set of principles for the enrichment of jobs:

removing some controls while retaining accountability;

increasing personal accountability for work;

assigning each worker a complete unit work with a clear start and end point;

granting additional authority and freedom to workers;

making periodic reports directly available to workers rather than to supervisors only;

the introduction for new and more difficult tasks into the job;

encouraging the development of expertise by assigning individuals to specialized tasks.

III. Job Enlargement

Job enlargement combines into one job with two or more tasks which are to be performed. Sometimes it is called “ horizontal loading” as all tasks involve the same level of responsibility .The job enlargement approach often has positive effects on employee effectiveness. However, some employees view job enlargement as just adding more routine, repetitive tasks to their already boring job. Other employees regard it as eliminating their ability to perform their jobs almost automatically.

Advantages:

Job enlargement and job rotation approaches are useful in many work settings.

One of their biggest advantages is that :

�They offer a form of training.

�They allow workers to learn more than one task, thus increasing their value to the employer.

�As they allow workers to perform many tasks, they can be used more flexibly as circumstances require.

II. Job Engineering

Frederick W. Taylor established the basis for modern industrial engineering late in the nineteenth century. Job engineering focuses on the tasks to be performed, methods to be used, workflows among employees, layout of the workplace, performance standards, and interdependencies between people and machines. Job design factors are to be examined by means of time-and-motion studies, determining the time required to do each task and the movements needed to perform it efficiently.

A keystone of job engineering is specialisation of labor with the goal of achieving greater efficiency. 

High levels of specialisation are intended to :

�Allow employees to learn a task rapidly;

�

Permit short work cycles so that performance can be almost automatic and involve little or no mental effort;

�

Make hiring easier because low-skilled people can be easily trained and paid relatively low wages; and

�

Reduce the need for supervision, owing to simplified jobs and standardization.

Advantages:

�It is an imperative job design approach because the resulting cost savings can be measured immediately and easily.

�

It is concerned with appropriate levels of automation, that is, looking for ways to replace workers with machines to perform the most physically demanding and repetitive tasks.

�

The job engineering approach often continues to be successfully used, especially when it is combined with a concern for the social context in which the jobs are performed.

APPROACHES TO JOB REDISGN

I. Job Rotation

Job design involves periodic assignment of an employee to completely different sets of job activities. As traditionally used, job rotation is low in both impact and complexity because it typically moves employees from one routine job to another.

Advantages:

It is an effective way to develop multiple skills in employees, which benefits the organization while creating greater job interest and career options for the employee.

Job rotation may be of considerable benefit if it is part of a larger redesign effort and/or it is used as a training and development approach to develop various employee competencies and prepare employees for advancement.

At times, it may be used to control the problem of repetitive stress injuries by moving people among jobs that require different physical movements.

CORE JOB DIMENSIONS

According to the JCM, any job can be described in terms of five core job dimensions:

• Skill variety. The degree to which the job requires a variety of different activities so the employee can use a number of different skills and talents.

• Task identity. The degree to which the job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work.

• Task significance. The degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people.

• Autonomy. The degree to which the job provides substantial freedom, independence, and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out.

• Feedback. The degree to which carrying out the work activities required by the job results in the individual’s obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance.

JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL (JCM)

Either as an alternative or a supplement to various reward programs, managers can consider redesigning jobs to make them more motivating. OB researchers Richard Hackman from Harvard University and Greg Oldham from the

University of Illinois explored the nature of good jobs through their job characteristics model (JCM). The

JCM identifies five core job dimensions and their relationship to personal and work outcomes. Building on Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory, the JCM focuses on the content of jobs, rather than the context of jobs and can be considered as a way of motivating employees and increasing job satisfaction.

Job enrichment, an application of the JCM, refers to the vertical expansion of jobs. It increases the degree to which employees control the planning, execution, and evaluation of their work. An enriched job organizes tasks so that an employee does a complete activity. It expands employees’ freedom and independence, increases responsibility, and provides feedback, so individuals will be able to assess and correct their own performance.