HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Topic 10: Job and role design development

Ali Huzam Hassan

Contents

➢ Introduction
➢ Job design
➢ Role development
Introduction

❑ If you want someone to do a good job, give them a good job to

do (Frederick Herzberg quoted by Dowling, 1971)

❑ Job design is the process of creating a job that enables the

organization to achieve its goals while motivating and

rewarding the employee.

Introduction

❑ A job consists of a related set of tasks that are carried out by a

person to fulfil a purpose.

❑It can be regarded as a unit in an organization structure that

remains unchanged whoever is in the job.

Introduction

❑ What is done, how it is done and the results achieved depend

more and more on the capabilities and motivation of individuals

and their interactions with one another and their customers or

suppliers.
Introduction

❑ A role is the part people play in carrying out their work.

Individual roles are those carried out by one person.

❑Generic roles are those in which essentially similar activities

are carried out by a number of people. They may cover a whole

occupation.
Introduction

❑ A role can be described in behavioural terms – given certain

expectations, this is how the person needs to behave to meet

them.
Job design

❑ Job design has been defined by Davis (1966) as: ‘The

specification of the contents, methods, and relationships of

jobs in order to satisfy technological and organizational

requirements as well as the social and personal requirements

of the job holder’.

Job design

❑ Job design has two aims: first, to satisfy the requirements of

the organization for productivity, operational efficiency and

quality of product or service, and second, to satisfy the

needs of the individual for interest, challenge and

accomplishment, thus providing for ‘job engagement’.

Job design

❑ The process of job design starts from an analysis of what

work needs to be done – the tasks that have to be carried out

if the purpose of the organization or an organizational unit is

to be achieved.
Job design

❑ The job designer can then consider how the jobs can be set up

to provide the maximum degree of intrinsic motivation for

those who have to carry them out with a view to improving

performance and productivity.

Job design

❑ Consideration has also to be given to another important aim

of job design: to fulfil the social responsibilities of the

organization to the people who work in it by improving the

quality of working life.

Factors affecting job design
Intrinsic motivation

❑ The case for using job design techniques is based on the

premise that effective performance and genuine satisfaction in

work follow mainly from the intrinsic content of the job.

Intrinsic motivation

❑ This is related to the fundamental concept that people are

motivated when they are provided with the means to achieve

their goals.
Intrinsic motivation

❑ Work provides the means to earn money, which as an extrinsic

reward satisfies basic needs and is instrumental in providing

ways of satisfying higher-level needs. But work also provides

intrinsic rewards, which are under the direct control of the

worker.
Task structure

❑ Job design requires the assembly of a number of tasks into a job.

❑An individual may carry out one main task, which consists of a

number of interrelated functions or task functions may be

allocated to a team working closely together in a manufacturing

‘cell’ or customer service unit, or strung along an assembly line.

Task structure

❑ In other words, the complexity of the job depends upon the

number and variety of tasks to be carried out.

❑planning, executing and controlling is considered as

important element for each task and an ideal job design

integrates all these elements in an effective manner.

Autonomy

❑ Autonomy is regarded as the degree to which the individual is

free to take any decision regarding his work.

❑The sense of autonomy makes him more responsible and he

feels accountable for the job and its effectiveness. It bring a

sense of recognition and self-esteem among the employee.

Method of working

❑ Job design needs to consider the method of working in the

sense of how the dimensions of the job will be defined. There

are two approaches.

Method of working

❑ The first and most common is fixed-time working in which the

amount of time the employee is normally expected to work (ie

excluding overtime) is defined.

❑The second approach is output-based working which requires

the employee to work towards an agreed output.

Ergonomics

❑ It is concerned with designing and shaping the jobs in such a

manner that it suits the physical abilities of the individual who

has to perform the job effectively.

Ergonomics

❑ It creates a balance between the physical abilities and job

demands. Ergonomics do not disturb the nature of the job but

only bring changes to make it more comfortable for handling

Social and cultural expectation

❑ There was a time when worker was ready to take any job and

any type of work. The only need it had was money.

Social and cultural expectation

❑ The change in the business scenarios brought many changes in the

thinking of worker and they started expecting much from their job in

terms of facilities like rests, holidays, vacation and lunch breaks.

Social and cultural expectation

❑ Hence the job must be designed to meet the expectations of

the employees. Ignorance to these expectations may create

dissatisfaction and low motivation among the employees.

Variety

❑ The job must be designed in such a manner that it has a

variety of tasks.

❑ A job of repetitive nature brings monotony and employees

may feel fatigue and demotivated.

Principles of job design (Robertson and Smith, 1985)

✓To influence skill variety, provide opportunities for people to do

several tasks and combine tasks.

✓To influence task identity, combine tasks and form natural work

units.
Principles of job design (Robertson and Smith, 1985)

✓To influence task significance, form natural work units and

inform people of the importance of their work.

Principles of job design (Robertson and Smith, 1985)

✓To influence autonomy, give people responsibility for

determining their own working systems.

✓To influence feedback, establish good relationships and open

feedback channels.
Job enrichment

❑ Job enrichment aims to maximize the interest and challenge

of work by providing the employee with a job that has

following characteristics:
Job enrichment

➢it is a complete piece of work in the sense that the worker can

identify a series of tasks or activities that end in a recognizable

and definable product;

Job enrichment

➢it affords the employee as much variety, decision-making

responsibility and control as possible in carrying out the work;

➢it provides direct feedback through the work itself on how well

the employee is doing his or her job.

Job enrichment

❑ Job enrichment is not just increasing the number or variety of

tasks (job enlargement), nor is it the provision of opportunities

for job rotation (moving between different jobs).

❑These approaches may relieve boredom, but they do not result

in positive increases in motivation.

The job characteristics model

The most influential model for job design has been the job

characteristics model developed by Hackman and Oldham

(1974). They identified five core job characteristics:

The job characteristics model

Skill variety: the degree to which a job requires an employee

to perform activities that challenge his or her skills and

abilities.
The job characteristics model

Task identity: the degree to which the job requires completion

of an identifiable piece of work.

Task significance: the degree to which the job outcome has a

substantial impact on others.

The job characteristics model

Autonomy: the degree to which the job gives an employee

discretion in scheduling work and determining how it is

performed.
The job characteristics model

Feedback: the degree to which an employee gets information about the

effectiveness of his or her efforts – with particular emphasis on feedback

directly related to the work itself rather than from a third party (for

example, a manager).
The job demands-resources model

❑The job demands-resources model based on research by

Demerouti et al (2001) and Crawford et al (2010) classifies job

attributes and other related work experiences into two broad

categories.
The job demands-resources model

❑First; job demands that can be challenging (eg complexity,

responsibility, workload) or a hindrance (eg role ambiguity,

conflict and overload),

❑Second; job resources (eg autonomy, supervisory support,

feedback, access to information, development opportunities).

The job demands-resources model

❑ Challenging demands and job resources are positively related

to engagement levels and hindrance demands are negatively

related.
Job design practice (The approaches to job design emerging from these concepts are;)

✓Combine tasks to create natural work units for which there is

an identifiable end result.

✓Provide as much variety as possible.

Job design practice (The approaches to job design emerging from these concepts are;)

✓Enhance autonomy by giving employees as much freedom as

possible to make decisions, determine their own methods of

work and exercise control over what they do.

Job design practice (The approaches to job design emerging from these concepts are;)

✓Enable employees to obtain direct feedback on how well they

are doing from the work itself.

✓Design jobs to minimize the risk of errors and to impose a

degree of self-checking by employees to ensure highest

possible quality standards

Job design practice (The approaches to job design emerging from these concepts are;)

✓Provide opportunities to enhance existing skills and learn new

ones.

✓Provide the resources required to do a good job, including

supervisory support.
Job design practice (The approaches to job design emerging from these concepts are;)

✓Ensure that job responsibilities are clearly defined and

understood to avoid role ambiguity.

✓Review job demands to ensure that they are not excessive and

therefore negatively affect work/life balance and lead to undue

stress and even burnout.

Job design practice (The approaches to job design emerging from these concepts are;)

✓Review working conditions and ergonomic factors to ensure

that they provide for the physical wellbeing of employees.

Responsibility for job design

❑ Any line manager or specialist who is involved in deciding

what work needs to be done and what work system should be

adopted is responsible for designing jobs.

Responsibility for job design

❑ Wherever possible the process should be shared with the

employees concerned who will, after all, have to carry out the

work and may in any case be more knowledgeable about what

needs to be done.
Role development

❑ Job design takes place when a new job is created or an existing

job is substantially changed, often following a reorganization.

Role development

❑ But the part people play in carrying out their jobs – their roles – can

evolve over time as people grow into them and grow with them, and as

incremental changes take place in the scope of the work and the degree

to which individuals are free to act (their autonomy).

Role development

❑ Roles will be developed as people develop in them,

responding to opportunities and changing demands, acquiring

new skills and developing competencies.

Role development

❑ Role development is a continuous process which takes place

in the context of day to day work, and it is therefore a matter

between managers and the members of their teams.

THANK YOU