Methods of job design

There are various methods in which job design can be carried out. These methods help to analysis the job, to design the contents of the and to decide how the job must be carried out .these methods are as follows :-

Job rotation

Job enlargement

Job enrichment

Work Design (Job Engineering)

Job Rotation :Job rotation involves shifting a person from one job to another, so that he is able to understand and learn what each job involves. The company tracks his performance on every job and decides whether he can perform the job in an ideal manner. Based on this he is finally given a particular posting.

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

Avoids monopoly :-

Job rotation helps to avoid monopoly of job and enable the employee to learn new things and therefore enjoy his job

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

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 th system and use them for his benefit and indulge ( participate ) in fraudulent practices job rotation avoids this.

Disadvantages of Job Rotation

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

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.

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 Enlargement

Job enlargement is another method of job design when any organization wishes to adopt proper job design it can opt for job enlargement. Job enlargement involves combining various activities at the same level in the organization and adding them to the existing job. It increases the scope of the job. It is also called the horizontal expansion of job activities.

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.

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 Enrichment

Job enrichment is a term given by Fedric herzberg. According to him a few motivators are added to a job to make it more rewarding, challenging and interesting. According to herzberg the motivating factors enrich the job and improve performance.

In other words we can say that job enrichment is a method of adding some motivating factors to an existing job to make it more interesting. The motivating factors can be

1.Giving more freedom.

2.Encouraging participation.

3.Giving employees the freedom to select the method of working.

4.Allowing employees to select the place at which they would like to work

5.Allowing workers to select the tools that they require on the job.

6.Allowing workers to decide the layout of plant or office.

Job enrichment gives lot of freedom to the employee but at the same time increases the responsibility. Some workers are power and responsibility hungry. Job enrichment satisfies the needs of the employees.

Advantages of job enrichment

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.

Improves decision making :-
Through job enrichment we can improve the decision making ability of the employee by asking him to decide on factory layout, method and style of working.

Identifies future managerial caliber :-

When we provide decision making opportunities to employees, we can identify which employee is better that other in decision making and mark employees for future promotion.

Identifies higher order needs of employees :-

This method identifies higher order needs of the employee. Abraham maslow’s theory of motivation speaks of these higher order needs e.g. ego and esteemed needs, self actualization etc. These needs can be achieved through job enrichment.

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

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.

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.

Superiors may feel that power is being taken away from them and given to the junior’s. This might lead to ego problems.

This method will only work in certain situations. Some jobs already give a lot of freedom and responsibility; this method will not work for such jobs.

Some people are internally dissatisfied with the organization. For such people no amount of job enrichment can solve the problem.