Job Design

Introduction
A job can be defined as the set of tasks and responsibilities of a worker. These tasks and
responsibilities, along with performance expectations, work conditions (time and place of
work), general skills, and possibly methods to be used, are normally contained in a written
job description. There is no set formula for designing jobs that will best fit a production
system. Job design is the consciously planned structuring of work effort performed by an
individual or a team of persons. There is increasing evidence that poorly designed jobs are a
pervasive social problem affecting the mental and physical health of the worker both on and
off the job.
Job design follows job analysis i.e. it is the next step after job analysis. It aims at outlining
and organising tasks, duties and responsibilities into a single unit of work for the achievement
of certain objectives. It also outlines the methods and relationships that are essential for the
success of a certain job. In simpler terms it refers to the what, how much, how many and the
order of the tasks for a job.
Job design is the process of
a) Deciding the contents of the job.
b) Deciding methods to carry out the job.
c) Deciding the relationship which exists in the organization.
Job analysis helps to develop job design and job design matches the requirements of the job
with the human qualities required to do the job.
Job analysis helps to develop job design and job design matches the requirements of the job
with the human qualities required to do the job.

Methods of Job Design

Job Rotation
Job rotation implies systematic movement of employees from one job to the other. Job
remains unchanged but employees performing them shift from one job to the other. With job
rotation, an employee is given an opportunity to perform different jobs, which enriches his
skills, experience and ability to perform different jobs
Job rotation is done to decide the final posting for the employee e.g. Mr. A is assigned to the
marketing department whole he learns all the jobs to be performed for marketing at his level
in the organization .after this he is shifted to the sales department and to the finance
department and so on. He is finally placed in the department in which he shows the best
performance

Job rotation gives an idea about the jobs to be performed at every level. Once a person is able
to understand this he is in a better understanding of the working of organization.
Advantages of job rotation

1. Avoids monopoly :- Job rotation helps to avoid monopoly of job and enable the
employee to learn new things and therefore enjoy his job
 2. Provides an opportunity to broaden one’s knowledge: - due to job rotation the
person is able to learn different job in the organization this broadens his knowledge.
3. Avoiding fraudulent practice: - In an organization like bank jobs rotation is
undertaken to prevent employees from doing any kind of fraud i.e. if a person is
handling a particular job for a very long time he will be able to find loopholes in the
system and use them for his benefit and indulge ( participate ) in fraudulent practices
job rotation avoids this.

Disadvantages of Job Rotation

1. Frequent interruption :- Job rotation results in frequent interruption of work .A

person who is doing a particular job and get it comfortable suddenly finds himself
shifted to another job or department .this interrupts the work in both the departments.
2. Reduces uniformity in quality :- Quality of work done by a trained worker is
different from that of a new worker .when a new worker I shifted or rotated in the
department, he takes time to learn the new job, makes mistakes in the process and
affects the quality of the job.
3. Misunderstanding with the union member :- Sometimes job rotation may lead to
misunderstanding with members of the union. The union might think that employees
are being harassed and more work is being taken from them. In reality this is not the
case.

Job Enrichment
Job Enrichment, a job design technique that varies the concept of job enlargement. Job
enrichment adds new sources of job satisfaction by increasing the level of responsibility of
the employee in organization.

While job enlargement is considered as horizontal restructuring method, job enrichment is

considered as vertical restructuring method of moral excellence of giving the employee
additional authority, autonomy, and control over the way the job is accomplished. Also called
job enhancement or vertical job expansion.
Job enrichment is 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. While that may be true for a small
group of people, the majority of workers today like to work and to be appreciated for the
work they do. Job enrichment— allowing the employees to have more control in planning
their work and deciding how the work should be accomplished—is one way to tap into the
natural desire most employees have to do a good job, to be appreciated for their contributions
to the company, and to feel more a part of the company team. Job enrichment

is an attempt to motivate employees by giving them the opportunity to use the range of their
abilities. It is an idea that was developed by the American psychologist Frederick
Hertzberg in the 1950s. It can be contrasted to job enlargement which simply increases the
number of tasks without changing the challenge. As such job enrichment has been described
as 'vertical loading' of a job, while job enlargement is 'horizontal loading'. An enriched job
should ideally contain:
  A range of tasks and challenges of varying difficulties (Physical or Mental)
 A complete unit of work - a meaningful task
 Feedback, encouragement and communication

For example, rather than having all of your marketing people in one department, with
supervisors directing who works on which project, you could split the department into
specialized project units - specific storyboard creators, copywriters, and designers could all
work together for one client or one campaign. Allowing employees to build client
relationships is an excellent way to increase autonomy, task identity, and feedback.

Advantages of job enrichment

1. Interesting and challenging job :- When a certain amount of power is given to

employees it makes the job more challenging for them, we can say that job
enrichment is a method of employee empowerment.
2. Improves decision making :- Through job enrichment we can improve the decision
making ability of the employee by asking him to decide
3. vation speaks of these higher order needs e.g. Ego and esteemed needs, self-
actualization etc. These needs can be achieved through job enrichment.
4. Reduces work load of superiors :-Job enrichment reduces the work load of senior
staff. When decisions are taken by juniors the seniors work load is reduced.

Disadvantages of job enrichment

1. Job enrichment is based on the assumptions that workers have complete knowledge to
take decisions and they have the right attitude. In reality this might not be the case due
to which there can be problems in working.
2. Job enrichment has negative implications ie. Along with usual work decision making
work is also given to the employees and not many may be comfortable with this.
3. Superiors may feel that power is being taken away from them and given to the
junior’s. This might lead to ego problems.
4. This method will only work in certain situations. Some jobs already give a lot of
freedom and responsibility; this method with not work for such kind of jobs.

Job Enlargement
Job Enlargement, a job design technique in which the number of tasks associated with a job is
increased (and appropriate training provided) to add greater variety to activities, thus
reducing monotony.

Job enlargement is considered a horizontal restructuring method in that the job is enlarged by
adding related tasks. Job enlargement may also result in greater workforce flexibility.
Job Enlargement is the horizontal expansion of a job. It involves the addition of tasks at the
same level of skill and responsibility. It is done to keep workers from getting bored. It is
different than job enrichment.
Examples: Small companies may not have as many opportunities for promotions, so they try
to motivate employees through job enlargement.

Job enlargement can be explained with the help of the following example - If Mr. A is
working as an executive with a company and is currently performing 3 activities on his job
after job enlargement or through job enlargement we add 4 more activities to the existing job
so now Mr. A performs 7 activities on the job.

It must be noted that the new activities which have been added should belong to the same
hierarchy level in the organization. By job enlargement we provide a greater variety of
activities to the individual so that we are in a position to increase the interest of the job and
make maximum use of employee’s skill. Job enlargement is also essential when policies like
VRS are implemented in the company.

Job enlargement is doing different tasks and not just the same thing all the time. It may
involve taking on more duties and adds variety to a person's job. Horizontal loading is often
used which is giving people more jobs to do that require the same level of
Advantages of job enlargement

 Variety of skills :- Job enlargement helps the organization to improve and increase
the skills of the employee due to organization as well as the individual benefit.
 Improves earning capacity :- Due to job enlargement the person learns many new
activities. When such people apply foe jobs to other companies they can bargain for
more salary.
 Wide range of activities :- 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. This reduces the salary bill for the company.

Disadvantages of job enlargement

 Increases work burden :- Job enlargement increases the work of the employee and
not every company provides incentives and extra salary for extra work. Therefore the
efforts of the individual may remain unrecognized.
 Increasing frustration of the employee :- In many cases employees end up being
frustrated because increased activities do not result in increased salaries.
 Problem with union members :- Many union members may misunderstand job
enlargement as exploitation of worker and may take objection to it.

Job Simplification

 Under this method, the job is simplified by breaking it down into small sub-parts.
Then, each part of the job is assigned to a worker who does the same task over and
over again. This enables the worker to gain proficiency and fitness in doing the
repetitive task. This increases worker s productivity, on the one hand, and, in turn,
 profits, on the other. I he training costs of so simplified jobs are virtually nil because
very low level of skill is required to do these simplified jobs.

 However, due to the repetitive job, workers feel boredom. They tend to remain absent
frequently. Boredom also leads to mistakes and accidents. On the whole, the quality
and quantity of output gets adversely affected-“. Thus, the company may not always
reap the benefits of task specialization due to work simplification.