Job design strategies discuss the relationship between job design dimensions and employee’s need, the interpretation concepts, job characteristic dimensions, critical psychological states, personal and work outcomes and employee’s growth needs and the original implementation concept.
Implementation concepts include varied tasks, their combinations, forming natural work units, establishing client relationships, vertical loading and opening feedback channels.
The various tasks of an organization are identified and recognized for proper design of job strategies.
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Thereafter, a task combining process is exercised. The highly specialized tasks are segregated and put together.
A scientific management approach is exercised by combining higher specialized tasks into one work module.
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The combining of tasks is based on task variety and identity. This facilitates understanding of jobs and designing.
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The combining task is not only a necessary step in design strategy, it is the first and foremost step which is adopted before forming natural work units.
The efficiency and effectiveness of job design depends on the natural work group formation. A natural group process helps in the smooth continuity of job. Marketing, production and human behaviour will move forward smoothly.
Effectiveness of job design depends on the natural work group formation. Task identity and task significance is easily realized, which helps establishment of client relationships.
Employees get new perspectives by the establishment of direct relationships with clients. When employees get an opportunity to interact directly with clients, they feel a sense of satisfaction.
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When customers are given facilities to meet employees to express their grievances, satisfaction and mutual trust is enhanced, which helps in developing quality of production.
The meaningfulness of the job and the performance of organizations are increased. This procedure helps job enrichment.
The attitudes of the employees are expanded along with job enrichment functions. Vertical loading becomes instrumental for the better performance of the organization and job satisfaction to the employees.
Many improvement-oriented activities such as quality-checking, work section, decision schedules, deciding work methods, etc. are developed. Employees feel happy with the autonomy, task variety, identity and significance.
Employees get an adequate platform to provide feedbacks to the management for improvement and development.
It helps learning through performance. Self-assessment and customer feedback help to understand job and design. Redesigning is suggested accordingly.
Core characteristic:
Dimensions Core dimensions in job design are factors which directly affect attainment of individual satisfaction while the employees are at work.
They are mainly characterized as task variety, identity, significance, autonomy and feedback. Individual satisfaction differs because of different perceptions of these factors by employees.
A supervisor may feel highly contented. It indicates that core dimension characteristics are influenced by the psychological states of individuals for employee’s satisfaction and growth.
Job characteristics, viz. job variety, autonomy, identity, significance and feedback, are supported by employees with a high growth need.
In other words, individual job dimensions are reengineered or combined and redesigned to help high profile employees to continue in the organization.
They are required to develop other people and low profile employees. Employees’ education, cultural values and past family records contributes towards job reengineering. Highly qualified employees prefer sophisticated jobs and a challenging atmosphere.
Intrinsic work values, job content factors, achievement oriented extrinsic values and other related factors help in redesigning jobs and implementing them with success.
Employees with intrinsic value, i.e. job-oriented achievement, skills and challenges, are more competent than employees with extrinsic values, i.e. friendship, affiliation, etc. People who aim at higher growth react highly to job characteristics such as job identity, etc.
Growth oriented employees are more satisfied with job reengineering than value attached employees.
Individual characteristics such as desires, wants, learning, work outcomes, design, structure, response, etc. have been observed as influencing factors for the success of reengineering.
Job characteristics are influenced by work outcomes, job expectancy and extrinsic and intrinsic values of employees.
Psychological states:
Workers’ psychology has a direct impact on personal needs and work performances. Their perception of learning, personality, experience and knowledge are helpful for maintaining a stable psychological balance.
If the psychological states are at a lower level the employees are satisfied with a lower level of performance.
The expectation of performance decides the satisfaction level. Expectations are the determinant of psychological tenets.
Similarly, higher order psychological needs suggest an employee’s growth need and strength. Many employees have strong growth needs and have a desire for increasing their knowledge and abilities.
An accountant seeks a new design of functions for self satisfaction and higher performance. Some employees have a liking for challenging tasks so they prefer to adopt tough and strong jobs.
Where employees are growth oriented, they prefer redesign and on the contrary if the employees are satisfied with their present job, they do not like transfer and change in their work designs.
Many Indian employees prefer no change at all, even though it would bring many growth opportunities, as employees who believe in keeping low profile are unwilling to develop themselves.
The dimensions of a job are governed by psychological states of mind. People who need high growth are positively motivated with their jobs, whereas people uninterested in growth may not be satisfied with job dimensions.
Employees who are not growth oriented react adversely to jobs that are high in core job dimensions, viz. task variety, identity, autonomy and significance.
People’s feelings of stretching their abilities and skills, encourage them to perform their jobs effectively.
Job enrichment, job favourable atmosphere aim at improving people’s growth need and strength.
High growth need employees react favourably and low growth need employees react adversely to job reengineering. However, there is no hard and fast rule for such categorization.
High growth need and higher strengths may be negatively influenced in some unfavourable situation, whereas low growth need employees may be motivated to work hard at some favourable time and place. Therefore, job re- engineering should be taken as accepted by high profile people and negated by low need employees.
Work outcomes:
Growth-oriented employees perform their jobs for better performance and satisfaction, provided they get internal work motivation and high quality performance.
If they find a favourable atmosphere, they are encouraged to exercise their psychological states.
Similarly, employees with lesser needs may be encouraged and willing to adopt job reengineering, if they are assured of high satisfaction and awards for higher turnover.
Management should adopt flexible attitudes towards employees, because rigid attitudes and influential categories may cause problems to the corporation.
At a particular place of time, employees may react favourably although they may have a low need profile.
High profile employees may work negatively if they are not treated properly at a point of time and are not given due importance at some place.
Inspite of these categorizations of high and low growth need, employees are plain and high desiring people who should be given opportunities to understand job reengineering and adopt them happily.
Employees may develop higher growth needs over a number of years. Making employees satisfied helps them to understand job reengineering. They prefer job changes and better redesigning.
Once employees are developed, they prefer growth, changes and reengineering. Meanwhile, employees who do not get opportunities for development may return to their original low growth needs.
Corporate units are responsible for developing a favourable atmosphere for achieving success in reengineering.
Employees, who need lesser growth, if converted to high growth needing employees by the corporate sector, would like to develop the organization.
On the contrary, high growth needing employees who are not getting new challenging positions and reengineered jobs will prefer to shift to other organizations.
Employee behaviour is dependent on their perceptions, work outcomes and job characteristics. Attempts are being made for accurate and reliable diagnosis.
The job characteristics model has become a core factor for success of job reengineering. Giving significance to task variety, identity, autonomy, significance and feedback has helped the success of job reengineering.