...pp. 49-62 Effects of Job Redesign: A Field Experiment‘ EDWARD LAWLER J. RICHAKD E. III? HACKMAN, STANLEY AND KAUFMAN Yale University A telephone company project to redesign the job of directory assistance operator was: studied in order to determine the effects on workers of “job enrichment” programs. The change increased the amount of variety and the decisionmaking autonomy in the operator’s job. However, no change in work motivation, job involvement, or growth need satisfaction occurred as a result of the changes; instead, the changes had a significant negative impact on interpersonal relationships. After the changes, the older employees reported less satisfaction with the quality of their interpersonal relationships, and those supervisors whose jobs were affected by the changes reported less job security and reduced interpersonal satisfaction. Implications of these findings for the theory of job redesign proposed by Hackman and Lawler (1971) are discussed. Numerous studies in recent years have demonstrated that jobs and tasks designed in accord with the principles of scientific management (i.e., standardization, specialization, and simplification) can lead to significant dysfunctional consequences both for the organization and for individual workers (Argyris, 1964; Blauner, 1964; Davis, 1957; Friedman, 1961; Guest, 1955; Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959; Walker, 1950; Walker & Guest, 1952). It has been shown that simple, routine, nonchallenging jobs often produce dissatisfaction...
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...Job Redesign Functional flexibility is a concept that advocates job redesign as a method to improve organizational performance. “The re-organization of work and the redeployment of staff associated with the implementation of functional flexibility are likely to have significant implications for the employees and managers involved” (Desombre, 2006, para. 1 [1]). Job redesign will focus on enhancement of services through a holistic approach by increasing the number of skills to a job description and reducing the number of employees required to fulfil all tasks. Collection of Information Successful redesign of a job requires the person assigned to the task to collect all available information on the current job and work environment (Hayman, 2008 [2]). This task includes current job descriptions, documents pertaining to the different tasks assigned to the job, databases, minutes of meetings, duty rosters, employee behavior, and outcomes of tasks. Another important aspect of this preparatory phase is observation of workers during their daily routine. Movement and work studies provide valuable information on the workflow and productivity of staff members in their current roles. Observation of interaction between employees among themselves and with patients and associated activities provides good insight of the efficiency of the current job specifications. Meetings with staff and informal conversations about their expectations of the job are good sources for planning job redesign...
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...Introduction Job redesign is the alteration of a given (specific) job with the intention of increasing the on-job-productivity of employees as well as their quality of work experience as noted by Hackman (1975,p.4). Slocum (1981) on the other hand described the process of job redesign as the deliberate and yet purposeful planning of a given job and includes all of its social and structural aspects as well as the effects of these aspects on the employee. Mergers can have profound effects on the design of organizations. Certain changes may occur within the administration while other may occur within the general organizational workforce structures as well as organizational processes. There may be a need for the managerial positions to be simplified with the truncation of the redundant management positions. Some organizational functions may also need to be merged or even adjusted. As a result of politics as well as economics, there would be a need for service line assimilations during the merger. Additionally, there would be a need for the optimization of medical as well as operational procedures. The standardization of the clinical, information technology, business as well as clinical programs can be necessary for the increasing of the quality of the patient care as well as safety. This can also help in the improvement of staff as well as physician satisfaction as noted by Betka, & Mengwasser (2009). How to begin the process of job redesign The process of job redesign begins after...
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...Job Redesign and Workplace Rewards Assessment PSY/320 Maria Spencer 15 December 2014 Organizations face massive challenges in attracting and retaining a high-quality and productive workforce. Companies are continually looking for new ways to keep their employees satisfied at all levels in order to harness greater productivity and ideas from people while keeping them motivated and happy. One real challenge examined earlier is the need to transform General Motors to be a much more productive and fully utilized organization by examining the hourly workforce. This is a great change from the traditional "us versus them" mentality of the past between management and the union. Intrinsic and extrinsic types of motivation have been widely studied and the understanding of each has led to great changes in how organizations run their businesses. It is clear that hourly employees have many great extrinsic motivators but lack intrinsic motivation in their job assignments, which is a characteristic of our work culture. Changing the culture is one of the keys to improving motivation at that level of the organization because the best motivation occurs when employees perform because they want to and not because they are being made to do so. There are many kinds of motivation techniques that one can use when motivating salary and to a lesser extent hourly employees. Factors such as strong communication, added responsibility, achievement, recognition and advancement are all...
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...Job Redesign and Workplace Rewards Eric R. Taylor PSY/320 January 26, 2012 Eshanda James Job Redesign and Workplace Rewards Working in today's business has positive and negative rewards. People normally focus on the positive rewards. This is the reason why people tend to stay in his or her job for a long period. Rewards can create motivation to people, and it can also cause workplace disparate to the group. Workplace rewards are typically set by the company standards and regulations. One important thing about rewards is it should also come from job positions. Some companies redesigned its job positions to accommodate this type of incentive. Company’s designed lower level position to offer rewards to employees. This makes it easier for upper management to stay neutral in the rewards process. Doing this gives coworkers an opportunity to recognize each other for his or her job performance. When a company look at ways to motivate his or her employees. The company must focus on job descriptions and responsibilities. Employers need to give power to its employees and trust the decisions made by the employee. At Oshkosh, employee’s job positions revealed little meaning, the reward program was nonexistence, and positions held by employees had no clear goal on how to function in the workplace. With this going on, the company failed in motivating employees. This made the workplace just a place to get a paycheck. Oshkosh needs to redefine job positions and make sure all employees...
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...Job Redesign and Workplace Rewards Assessment Aubrey Snyder Human Motivation PSY/320 July 25, 2011 Laurel Taron Job Redesign and Workplace Rewards Assessment Motivating employees demands a clear understanding of motivational theories and human behavior, alike. Only then will the employer be in a position to reach the true self of his or her employees. Understanding human behavior and motivation and in turn knowing how to apply this information to the workplace potential is essential to good management, which allows employers to successfully motivate employees as well as ensure employee satisfaction (Reeve, 2009). Employee motivation and satisfaction are positively related to performance and productivity. So, motivational strategies can purposefully be used as a catalyst that is very beneficial for the employer and the employee alike (Reeve, 2009). An organization’s success is built on its employees’ performance. Companies offer innovative ways to engage employee’s motivation, essentially enhancing the employee’s drive and determination. In addition to increasing motivation, companies create effective ways for employees to manage conflict. Without patience and care, an organization can be faced with damaging results. Each company has its own way of analyzing and resolving unwanted conflict, usually with the help of its ethics program. Employees play a major role in the company’s success. Therefore, conflict and motivation management should be created with employee’s...
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...Change and Culture Case Study II: Job Redesign Duane S. Goggins-Week#5 Assignment HCS/514 January 9, 2012 Sara Brown Change and Culture Case Study II: Job Redesign To adjust to greater competition and pressures of obtaining increased organizational efficiency and cost containment, many organizations have begun to examine strategies related to restructuring and downsizing to maintain organizational viability. These processes have included mergers and acquisitions, and redefining occupational roles of workers within the organization. Consequently, successful management of the structural change process can be daunting and overwhelming if not handled in an organized and thoughtful process. Those who are responsible for the process must recognize the barrier that may be hindrances to conception and implementation of the change process These barriers include: (a) lack of concise and coordinated planning/goals, (b) resistance to change within the organizational workforce, (c) failure to consistently evaluate the progress of the proposed change within context of the entire system, and adjust methodology as necessary. Thus, in order to achieve a balance between achieving organizational goals and addressing the uncertainty that may occur in the workforce, organizational leaders are tasked with the responsibilities of finding creative means to facilitate the mandated objectives while at the same time finding vehicles to maintain adequate levels of employee satisfaction and productivity...
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...Case 1: Heart Attack Managing People and Ethics 3/25/2011 Management 301- Business Organization and Management Eboni Thrower, Jennifer Jackson, Gerald Grant III, Taneisha Pryor Dr. Makamson 1.___________________________ 2.___________________________ 3.____________________________ 4.____________________________ I. Problem Statement Was Mr. Hamid wrong for firing Shauna? Mr. Hamid placed an ad for a part-time bookkeeper at a local college and Shauna came across it. The work Mr. Hamid needed finished for his company would only require the bookkeeper to stay in work with him for about two months. She applied for the job and received the job the same day. During the interview Mr. Hamid stated that he would pay her $150 per week. Realizing that if she accepted $150 per week she would not be making as much money as she would if she worked on an hourly rate; she had to come up with a plan. Shauna negotiated with Mr. Hamid and agreed to work Monday, Wednesday and Friday for seven hours a day for 21 hours a week at $10 per hour. In this agreement Shauna would be put on a three month probationary period, which consisted of no time off, vacation, sick days or holidays off. Shauna was a hard worker and an excellent bookkeeper for Mr. Hamid. She always completed every project and obligation that was ever asked of her beforehand. Shauna constantly asked Mr. Hamid for extra work to do in the office to keep her busy. She never took any time off from work, nor did she ever...
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...occurred? | My co-worker thought that I was trying to take over as the representative of his student. | How could the misunderstanding have been avoided? | The misunderstanding could have been avoided if the co-worker would have called me back before going to his supervisor. | In this situation, I was the one who made the first mistake; that being that I didn’t put my notes into our database when my student referred her husband as a possible student. My student’s husband then called the next day and spoke with my co-worker, Michael, who took all of his information and enrolled him. I received a phone call from my student the next asking why I had told her one thing and Michael had told her husband another. With Michael being new to the job, I thought he made a simple mistake, so I called and left him a voicemail suggesting that we talk about the students to make sure that we were on the same page in what we were telling our students. I then wrote my supervisor an email telling him what I did and said. Michael, upon hearing the message, went to his supervisor because he had the impression that I was trying to take his student from him. His supervisor went to mine asking what was going on. My supervisor explained everything and the matter was resolved. As a result, both the students did not complete the enrollment process or start school. The main thing I learned from this whole ordeal was to make sure that all of my notes are complete and to make sure...
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...benefits of tuition reimbursement to student-employees. She states that these companies help a student with their school costs as well as money in pocket. As well as filling your pockets the author explains how building a solid resume while in college is also important. Ramachandran sums up her article with explaining how important your schoolwork can be. She states some helpful tips; do not expect to pay off college while still in college. The author brings everything into perspective by explaining that students that work 10 hours a week on average have a much better GPA than those students that work 25 or more hours. With dealing with the financial stress of college jobs are not always the answer. Financial aid advisors can help you get money that you won’t have to pay off until later. “After all, the primary job for those in college is to be a...
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...director. The participant group was asked to self-report on perceptions of role ambiguity, experienced levels of anger, anxiety and workplace threat appraisal. In this study, participants were asked questions as to whether they fully understood what was expected of them at work on a day-to-day basis regarding particular tasks, or a range of tasks. This data was then compared with responses to questions which probed whether they had felt anxious or angry at work. Threat appraisal was determined by whether the respondent felt it was more or less likely that their work day was going to be a negative experience for them. Dr Searle’s study found statistically significant correlations between a lack of clarity an individual has regarding their job requirements and reported feelings of anger, anxiety and their threat appraisal. These findings reinforce earlier research conducted by Robert Pearsall from the University of Maryland which demonstrated that these increases in anxiety, anger and threat appraisal can...
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...many organizations implementing the same. It provides flexibility to work part-time and work from home, which is a critical issue for many working females particularly and also among the male members where they can manage their family and work life very well. It provides a heightened sense of loyalty to the employees because they know that their boss trusts them to do their job sincerely, which in turn increases their pride and responsibility towards their work. It has been witnessed that productivity improves when the focus on work improves. It allows people to develop a better understanding of their job and eliminate office space time-wasters like "fake meetings" etc. ROWE also eliminates the illusion of productivity created by the "come early, leave late" mentality many firms require for promotion. Thus the focus is primarily towards results instead of punching the time clock or logging desk time. 2. Identify factors in the ROWE program that might make using it for retail employees more difficult than using it for managers and employees in corporate offices, technical centers, and nonretail jobs and locations. The ROWE-type program has been implemented by various organizations across a broad spectrum in different departments such as IT, back office, etc. But at places like retail stores or bank branches, where one to one customer interaction and service...
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...environment may cause can be detrimental to a person’s health. When anyone| | |is stressed, it can create a number of problems with their health. | |Identify a situation in which you experienced stress in the workplace or provide a |Fictional example: I had been scheduled to work 4 late shifts, out of 5 working days. Every other | |fictional example. |employee only had to work 1 late shift. I brought it to her attention and explained that it was not part| | |of the job requirements when I was hired on. She was visibly upset that I had brought it up and did not | | |want to discuss it at all. Instead, she changed the schedule and made it unbearably tense for the | |...
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...website. The matter of stress is serious and is an ongoing concern. As indicated by both articles that the tough economic times that lead to significant changes within the workplace, has contributed to the increased in stress factors among workers and greatly affect businesses. One major stress factor stemmed from the economic crisis is uncertainty or the fear for the lost of job. The American Psychological Association explains that bankruptcies are among the list of things that caused hundreds of thousands of workers their jobs. Additionally, while millions more have been shifted to unfamiliar tasks within their companies, this dramatic shifting has caused many to wonder how much longer they will be employed. Holmes-Rahe Life Events Scale, in the PDU Magazine Article, also pointed out that many of the most stressful events are related to the workplace and in addition to the lost of job, “firings” on the list mentioned, is the changes in financial status. Undoubtedly, being put out of a job has alarming effects on the individual. According to the American Psychological Association, “the loss of a job can be devastating, putting unemployed workers at risk for physical illness, marital strain, anxiety, depression and even suicide”. In the same light, the PDU Magazine Article has listed the same effects and more, but looked at these effects as a “heavy price” since they take a toll on the individual not only physically but psychologically. Employers and employees within various...
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...Effective Communication will help with better understanding of each other, and have a broader perspective. With effective communication bring more confidence, admiration, and a better work environment where we as people would be able to excel within the work place, having more creative thoughts, being able to problem solve more complex situations. Effective communication is good to have so that both parties will be able to convey the message in which each will understand. It will also help with everyday life setting whether it be dealing with work related relationships , or personal life. I have a experience a few times where I was to use effective communication in the workplace. One time I can recall, were there had been a discrepancy between a co-worker and I that was work related . I work for a Bank, within their retail card service department, lending for private label credit cards where I have to make decisions for financing based on a clients credit ratings, and my co-worker and I had a issue pertaining to lending of credit to the client. A few weeks had went pass where my co-worker and I had not spoken to each; although we were both on the same team, we had no form of communication towards each other, we were both stubborn when it came to issue at hand and wasn't backing down to each other opinions. It soon became a problem where it was becoming noticeable in the work place, and affecting my quality of work. Not only was the discrepancy affecting me and work-related...
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