Designing Jobs and Managing People

Application of Effective Effort

The right person applying the right effort to the right job in the right atmosphere in the right
place at the right time.

Alternative HR Approaches:
Individual: business deals with employees individually, creates different motivation for each
employee depending on abilities and skills, allows greater flexibility, takes into account each job
content, individual empowerment.
Team: deals with different teams within the business
Organization: deals with the organization as a whole, for entire strategic alignment

Motivation Defined:
Conscious decision to perform 1 or more activities with greater effort than one performs other
activities competing for attention.
Contains 3 elements:
1. A need, motive or goal that triggers action
2. A selection process that directs the choice of action
3. A level of intensity applied to the chosen action

Early Ideas on Work Motivation
Scientific management and the work of F.W Taylor
The Hawthorne Experiment (lighting levels and contact from higher ups were improved,
and employees worked harder as a result, once lighting and contact were reduced there
was not a drop in efficiency) and Human Relations Approach
Development on many competing theories on the nature of work motivation
Content Theories
Development on what motivates employees
Maslow, Alderfer, Herzberg, McClelland
Process Theories
Emphasis on the actual process of motivation
Expectancy theories, equality theory, goal theory, attribution theory

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs (1943)
need to fulfil the lower needs before you can build up the higher needs
lowest to highest goes: physiological needs, safety, belonging, esteem and self-
actualisation (ego)
Herzberg (1959)
If you want people to do a good job for you, then you must give them a good job to do





















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Human Resource Management Strategy
Considerisation of skills and experience accros the organisation (look within instead of
employing people from the outside)
Carry out GAP analysis of the organisations needs and current position
This will effect approach to recruitment, training, career paths, health and safety

Job Design and its Approaches
The way the job of each employee is structured with regard to the content, environment,
technology and facilities that they use.

Division of Labour: assigning different parts of a task to different people, this repetition
improves efficiency
Scientific Management: a method of studying work to determine the most efficient way to
perform specific tasks
Ergonomic Design: how the human body fits with process facilities and the environment ie: how
to lift properly, workstation design
Team Working
Multitasking
Empowerment

Job Design Components
Balances the needs of the organization (quantity, quality, flexibility, cost) with the individuals
needs in terms of:
Content (nature of tasks to be carried out)
Contact (with customers and colleagues)
Control (trust and responsibility vs control and supervision)
Communication (expectations and feedback)

Job Content
Grouping should be natural (people doing the same jobs together)
Paced to match co-workers
Responsibility for complete tasks
Effective feedback on performance

Role Stress
When an employee is unsure of the tasks or is unable to carry them out
role misunderstanding
role overload (or underload)
multiple role conflict
inter-client conflict
role incompatibility


Reducing role stress


Rewards
Rates of pay and overtime
Bonus for good performance
Recognition schemes, all these need to be fair -
frequency, selection criteria, employee
involvement, communication to others
Motivation
How does the organisation actually motivate?
(praise, punish, incentive payments)
How consistent are they individually? (does
everyone get the same rewards)
How consistent is the management team?
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Managers
Clarify job design and job content
Increase training
Put controls in place to monitor/change
behaviour
Using scripting to standardise behaviour if
appropriate
Employee
Make extra effort to change behaviour
Negotiate changes to role
Prevent problems from occurring
Job Control v Job Involvement
Job Enrichment: more tasks which give increased
responsibility or decision-making
Job Enlargement: more tasks of the same type
Job Rotation: different tasks which give new experiences

Behaivour Approaches to Job Design Hackman and Oldhams Model (1976)
Techniques of Job Design -> Core Job Characteristics -> Mental States -> Performance and
Personal Outcomes

Identification of Labour Resources
Labour Structure Issues
managers and employed staff
fixed cost and variable cost staff (hourly paid workers)
full time/part time/casual staff
core/opportunist/peripheral staff (small business units and contracting out of some
activities)

Flexible Resourcing Choices
Functional Flexibility:
employees have the capacity to undertake a variety of tasks instead of specialising in one
area
Horizontal flexibility: staff becoming multi skilled so that they can be used where they
are needed
Vertical flexibility: able to do work previously done by those higher/lower in the
organisational hierarchy
Financial Flexibility:
pay and other employment costs reflect the supply and demand of labour in order to
shift to new pay and remuneration systems.


Work Balance






Control Model
Theodore Levitt
simplification, technology, equipment,
systems
standardised, tightly controlled,
procedurally driven operations
Job Involvement
exercise initiative and innovation
reverse of doing things by the book
looks to the performer of the task for
solutions to problems
Internal Labour Market
External Labour Market

Labour market conditions can affect recruitment
due to
size of local population
demographic profile
proportion of unemployed/employed
skills/expertise of available workforce
qualification of the workforce
Organisational Analysis
Business Strategy

Business Context: Labour Scheduling
matching labour supply to customer
demand
modifying demand or change labour
supply
workforce scheduling (identify tasks, set
standards, forecast demand, schedule to
match demand)
need for flexibility

Stress
Enough to feel that
we are working
Time
Do we have
enough of it
Stimulation
The task or profession
Job Satisfaction
What is culture?
Shared values, beliefs and norms which influence the way employees think, feel and act towards
others inside and outside the organisation.

Elements of Culture
Values
a sense of common direction
linked to how company aims to achieve success (McDonalds Quality Service Convenience
Value)
espoused values, what we say to what we actually do
Heroes and Heroines
successful by sticking to corporate values
employee of the month scemes etc.
Rites and Rituals
standards of behaviour, dress, language, events

Culture
affects strategy, individuals, change
supports or hinders organisational effectiveness

Cultures in Organisation

Power Culture
central power source
centered on individuals and relationships
abrasive
results orientated
precedent bound
few rules and procedures
Role Culture
logical, rational
procedures and rules dominate
strong sub organisations (functions,
departments)
stable and predictable
Task Culture
task, project or assignment based
project teams or task forces
matrix structure
adaptable
control through resources
eg: oil companies, IT firms
Person Culture
organisation serves the people within it
personalities dominate
eg. universities