What Factors Affect Job Design?

INTRODUCTION

According to Michael Armstrong, “Job Design is the process of deciding on the contents of the job in terms of his duties and responsibilities, on the methods to be used in carrying out the jobs, in terms of techniques, systems and procedures, and on the relationships that should exist between the job holder and his superior subordinates and colleagues.” Therefore job design can be called the process of deciding the contents of the job, deciding methods to carry out the job and deciding the relationship which exists in the organization to improve the productive unit of the work. It is how organisations define and structure jobs. According to Parker, Wall and Cordery job design is “concerned with changing, modifying,

Therefore, most organizations combine industrial engineering with other approaches to job design so that when organizations have to compete for employees, depend on skilled knowledge workers, or need a workforce that cares about customer satisfaction a pure focus on efficiency will not achieve human resource objectives. Thus, to motivate the employees to the fullest and to gain their fullest potential, the organization should motivate them and make their job satisfying.

FACTORS AFFECTING JOB DESIGN

Job design is not an exclusive one. It affects and is also affected by various factors. All the factors that affect job design are broadly classified into three categories:

1. Organisational factors 2. Environmental factors 3. Behavioural factors.

1. Organisational Factors:

~ Task Features: A job design involves tasks performed by a group of workers where each task consists of three internal features, namely, (i) planning, (ii) executing and (iii) controlling.

~Work Flow: To perform work in an effective and efficient manner, the tasks involved in a job needs to be sequenced and balanced Taking an example of a car as a product, the frame of a car needs to be built before the fenders, and similarly the doors will be built later. Therefore, once the sequences of tasks are determined, the balance between tasks are

It is concerned with designing jobs that include a greater variety of work content; require a higher level of knowledge and skill; give workers more autonomy and responsibility in terms of planning, directing, and controlling their own performance and provide the opportunity for personal growth and a meaningful work experiences. There is an attempt to build into jobs a higher sense of challenge and achievement through vertical job