Job Design – Characteristics and Job design Techniques

What is Job Design?

Job Design is defined as a process of deciding on a job’s duties and responsibilities, as well as the techniques, systems, and procedures that will be used to carry out the job. The job design also lays down the relationships that are required between the job holder and his superiors, subordinates, and coworkers. The practice of job designing included simplifying the tasks to make the employment highly specialised. The process of establishing a job that helps the organisation accomplish its objectives while inspiring and rewarding the employee is known as Job design. This indicates that a well-designed job increases output and quality, as well as job satisfaction, decreases absence rates, as well as the chance of employee turnover. Various Job design techniques are used in the organisation to make the overall work of employees effective and efficient. Techniques, like Job Simplification, Job Rotation, Job Enlargement, and Job Enrichment are widely famous.

Characteristics of Job Design 

1. Task Variation: Task Variation changes the required actions so that a single employee can switch between jobs at different times. This enables employees to shift to various job verticals, and these changes differ in both their mental activity and their physical well-being. Moving from one vertical job to another (job to job) causes changes in brain activity, and changing body postures for different kinds of jobs causes variations in physical well-being.

2. Task Identity: Wherever possible, tasks should fit together to form a full job, as this offers the employee the sensation of accomplishing a complete job from start to finish, with a visible output. One of the most significant advantages of task identity is that it makes it easier for employees to link their performance to the organisation’s broader objectives and target success. Employees might develop a sense of belonging and begin to recognise that they are partners in the organisation’s progress.

3. Task importance: By determining task importance, organisations can give employees a feeling that they have accomplished something significant while working. They become more significant as a result, which raises their self-esteem.

4. Autonomy: To promote autonomy in job design, organisations should, if possible, provide input to their employees on how their jobs should be done—the order of tasks, the speed of work, and so on. After that, these employees should be given more freedom by lessening the level of supervision and control so that they can begin to understand that they are in charge of their work and that they are the ones who own the position.

5. Feedback: The provision for feedback is the last aspect of job design. Employees get the chance to learn about their strengths and limitations through feedback, which helps them grow and attain higher excellence in their future work projects. Automated feedback systems are widely available in organisations so that employees can assess their level of performance.

Job Design Techniques

I. Job Simplification

With the help of job simplification, a job can be simplified by being divided into smaller tasks. Then, each task is allocated to a worker who consistently does the same task. This enables the employee to become more skilled and fit while performing the repetitious task. This results in an increase in worker productivity, which ultimately leads to a rise in profits. Since these simplified duties only demand a very minimal degree of skill, the training expenditures are almost negligible or eliminated. It also seeks to increase job speed by facilitating the execution of several minor jobs continuously and quickly. Time and motion studies are commonly used to apply this technique. However, labourers become tired of their monotonous jobs. They frequently choose to stay away. In addition, boredom contributes to errors and mishaps. Overall, it negatively impacts the output quantity and quality.

Advantages of Job Simplification

• Small work requires little training, hence the cost of training is negligible.
• It allows employees to learn jobs quickly and achieve mastery in simpler or less difficult job units.
• It increases job speed by breaking down a major task into several smaller ones.
• It covers a shorter work cycle that is simple for workers with low pay and skill levels to complete.

Disadvantages of Job Simplification

• It creates tension and boredom in the minds of employees.
• It leads to low job satisfaction for employees. 
• It results in demotivation and alienation.
• It leads to decreased output and higher costs.

II. Job Enlargement

Job enlargement is the process of adding additional tasks to a job. This is a horizontal growth within a position. Job expansion broadens the work’s scope by adding more tasks, and it gives the job holder a wider range of tasks. For instance, the duties of a mail sorter could be expanded to include physically delivering mail to the various organisational departments. In other words,  job enlargement aims to add comparable responsibilities or activities to their current work profiles to make employees’ jobs more exciting. Moreover, the new tasks or responsibilities can be carried out with the same abilities and efforts as before and do not require new expertise. For instance, by adding the same responsibilities to their current job description, a clerk’s position within an organisation can be expanded. Job enlargement is said to reduce monotony and improve employee engagement. However, in actuality, the same is not supported. Even with job enlargement, the job may eventually grow dull to the employee, especially if the job is already boring.

Advantages of Job Enlargement

• It increases the range of duties to decrease monotony and boredom in the current job by increasing the number of tasks.
• It increases job satisfaction by giving employees the chance to grow and acquire new skills.
• It maximises the use of employees’ mental and physical strengths while also making them feel satisfied.
• It gives employees the freedom to change the pace and sequence of their work at their own pace to enjoy their job.

Disadvantages of Job Enlargement

• It increases the cost of training.
• It causes a decline in productivity as employees get used to the new system over time.
• It leads to conflict with trade unions because they want higher salaries as the workload increases.
• It is difficult to eliminate monotony and boredom from various jobs as another set of monotonous work is added to the present set of boring tasks.

III. Job Rotation

Job rotation refers to the systematic moving of employees between jobs. Job rotation involves transferring people from one job to another to promote diversity and reduce boredom. The person would be transferred to another job at the same level with comparable skill requirements if the task stopped being demanding. It involves changing up the activities of the employees, reducing monotony and a lack of interest. The management has more flexibility in scheduling tasks, adjusting to change, and filling vacancies when there are employees with a wider variety of skills. Job rotation is a management strategy for a development program in which a person is rotated through a schedule of responsibilities. It is also intended to give skilled and talented workers a deeper understanding of the various business processes. Job rotation provides job variety, which reduces monotony and increases job satisfaction.

On the positive side, it enhances the intrinsic reward potential of a job due to the various talents and abilities required for performing it. In this, employees learn new skills, become more knowledgeable about a variety of jobs, and grow personally. The employee also becomes more valuable to the company. On the downside, it could not be as energetic or as efficient. Furthermore, occupations may not improve the link between tasks if activities and objectives remain the same. It can also demotivate educated and ambitious trainees who are seeking specific responsibility in their chosen specialisations and increase the costs of additional training.

Advantages of Job Rotation

• It reduces monotony and boredom.
• It decreases employee lack of interest and encourages the development of new ideas.
• It increases job holders’ overall work experience.
• It turns the experts into generalists.
• It prepares employees to take on higher responsibilities.

Disadvantages of Job Rotation

• It promotes the price of training and development
• It reduces productivity as workers are transferred to new roles before reaching their full potential.
• Under this method, ambitious and talented trainees who demand specific tasks in their areas of interest are demotivated and degraded.
• It disrupts the job since it takes time for rotated employees to become used to the new setup and the environment.

IV. Job Enrichment

Job enrichment is creating a job that gives people more freedom in terms of planning, making decisions, and regulating. The potential for success, adulation, accountability, and advancement is what drives employees the most. Herzberg is credited with creating the idea of job enrichment. In his two-factor theory of motivation, he placed a higher focus on job enrichment. Job enrichment refers to adding to a job’s responsibilities to make it more satisfying for the employees. When a work includes characteristics of excitement, challenge, and creativity, it is said to be enriched. It enhances job depth, which is the amount of control people have over their work. It can also raise productivity levels, employee satisfaction, and employee motivation.

Advantages of Job Enlargement

• It increases employee interest in their work.
• It increases a sense of responsibility, self-control, and self-esteem by granting more autonomy in the duties.
• It encourages employees to work hard by giving them chances to develop and progress.
• It promotes job satisfaction among employees.
• It helps employees to acquire new skills
• It helps in carrying out task reinforcement
• It lowers the attrition and absence rates.

Disadvantages of Job Enlargement

1. It has a higher implementation cost.
2. It lacks long-term financial commitment.
3. It is difficult to maintain a balance between their usual jobs and their new responsibilities.