Job design and its importance

 

According to Rush, Harold F. M. (1971) Job design is a core function of human resource management   and it is related to the specification of contents, methods and relationship of jobs in order to satisfy technological and organizational requirements as well as the social and personal requirements of the job holder or the employee. Which is also referred to as work design or task design. The core aim of a job  design is to improve employee’s job satisfaction, to improve through-put, to improve quality and to reduce employee problems. Main intentions are leading to higher job satisfaction, lower absence, and lower employee turnover.

Back in 1980, Hackman & Oldham proposed that each job should have five core job characteristics to be motivating for the individual. These characteristics remained consistent over time and are still used today. Those five characteristics are as follow.

1. Skill variety 
2. Task identity
3. Task significance 
4. Autonomy
5. Feedback 

    When a job has above mentioned five characteristics it will be more meaning full and have more knowledge of the work results. Interesting part is the Employee will feel more responsible person. which will leads to achieve the organizations goals in a productivity manner. In addition it will cover high motivation, high quality of work, high job satisfaction and low absenteeism and turnover. The process how generating advantages to an organization is shown below in a chart. 

Job design strategies 

In order to increase the motivational potential of a job, four common job design strategies are used.

1. Job rotation
2. Job enlargement 
3. Job enrichment 
4. Job simplification

Frederick Herzberg's Two factor theory (Motivator-Hygiene Theory) proposes that the factors that correlate to motivation in the work environment are separate to those factors that correlate to dissatisfaction. He relates these factors to the perceived satisfaction of a set of needs as a reward for completing a task, universal necessities and expectations such as healthcare and salary do not contribute to motivation as much as factors such as achievement or recognition. Employees of a work environment therefore are motivated and dissatisfied by two sets of factors:

1. Hygiene factors   - ( Reasonable salary and friendly working environment) 
2. Motivational factors - (Sense of important)

Job design is a systematic approach to creating jobs that are both motivating for employees and add value to the organization. The latter is important – the role needs to fit in the organizational framework and help to contribute to organizational goals.This shows a fine balance and difficulty when it comes to designing jobs.

References 

Rush, Harold F. M. (1971). Job Design for Motivation. New York: The Conference Board. 

https://www.managementstudyguide.com/job-redesign.htm

Herzberg, Frederick; Mausner, Bernard; Snyderman, Barbara Bloch (2017-07- 28).                                 The Motivation to Work.