Chapter

Developmental Job Assignment

Developmental job assignment (DJA) is an on-the-job development
(OJD) intervention capable of providing opportunities to the people, for learning
new behaviours, for stretching more on the job to create new performance
benchmarks, for familiarizing with the most important but unfamiliar aspects of
job roles and for ensuring overall development of competencies so as to remain
fit for meeting any kind of unstructured or unprecedented work challenges. The
intentions behind any of the above assignments may not be developmental but
the challenges; such assignments bring creates scope for development.
According to Ohlott (2004), a developmental job assignment is something that
stretches people, pushes them out of their comfort zone and requires them to
think and act differently.
Job Transition
Jobs that encompass a transition, for the managers, have been identified as
developmental by several researchers like McCall (1988); Nicholson and West,
(1988) and Steward (1984). Job transition is a change in work roles or
responsibilities such as a change in job content, status or location. Transitions
often occur when moving from one functional area to another, such as from
marketing to human resources; when moving up in the organization or when
moving to a job in another organization. One reason transitions are challenging
is because managers who move to different jobs are often closely watched and
must prove themselves all over again. They take managers out of familiar
situations in which they have set routine behaviours and place them in situation
in which they must develop new ones (McCauley et al.,1999).
Task Characteristics
Higher responsibility: Higher the level of responsibility, higher the opportunities
for learning. Higher level jobs stimulate motivation due to increased visibility and
the opportunity to make significant-impact (Steward, 1984). These two factors
can encourage the role-holders to enhance their managerial skills for successful
accomplishments of goals.
Non-authority relationships: Managers are traditionally known for getting the
things done downward, that is, achieving results by directing people who are
under their control. In another study, CEOs attributed substantial developmental
impact to experiences requiring negotiation skills and coordination among
different departments. Relationships which are authentic, appealing, open and
mutual are capable of delivering results without authority.
Obstacles: The higher the difficulties the higher, the learning opportunities in a
job (Field & Harris, 1991). Obstacles create adverse business climate. Learning
stems from the desire to reduce discomfort associated with difficult situations.
Characteristics of DJA
DJAs are characterized by real workplace challenges (opposed to simulated
assignments in laboratory settings like managerial assessment centres) the
successful performance of which is likely to develop the capabilities of the
performer. DJAs do not come with safety devices attached; rather, they totally
expose the performers to unprecedented and multiple challenges. Important
among them are (1) the challenge of unfamiliarity (2) the challenge of uncertainty
(3) the challenge of wide scope (4) the challenge of higher responsibility (5) the
challenge of higher visibility (6) the challenge of managing multiple stakeholders
(7) the challenge of more work and (8) the challenge of unprecedented
problems.

Cont….
 Unfamiliarity

High risk Wide scope

Developmental
Job
Higher Fluid situations
responsibility
Assignment
Characteristics

Unprecedented High visibility

problems
External
pressures

Characteristics of a developmental job assignment

DJA Process
DJA process will help us
understand how to go about using Identify the
job assignments for development person

of employee capabilities. The

developmental need of each
employee is unique. In the same
Process of
way, the developmental potential Support the developmental job Identify the job
of each job is unique in itself. performance assignment

Placing people into difficult jobs

by itself will not result in
development automatically. A
Match the person
supportive climate of learning has and job
to be created. Ultimately, there is
no use if the organization does Process of developmental job assignment
not have a performance culture to
recognize, motivate and utilize the
potential of high performers.
The Other Side of The Coin
While enough research has been conducted to assess the components of DJAs,
the possible darker side of it is yet to be explored. Is it a suitable solution to all
individuals needing development? Not necessarily. Everybody may not like to
learn under the stressful situations of ambiguity, risk and unfamiliarity. Such
assignments, if made compulsory, will lead to unbearable stress and burnout,
higher rate of employee attrition and may even trigger suicides. Throwing
someone into a stretch assignment without providing a clear understanding of
what is expected is risking failure or at least a wasted growth opportunity
(Butteriss M, 1998). The legal and ethical issues of training profession will wake
up. Can the results of a failed assignment be used for terminating the services of
the said employee? As it is only a developmental programme how appropriate is
it to do so? The performance outcome of a DJA may not be promising all the
time because of the difficulties involved. Thus is it right to link DJA performance
to compensation and promotion decisions. Cont….
In spite of the limitations mentioned above and the areas to be researched, DJA
approach to management development brings out an altogether new dimension
of learning. Certain organizations like the Centre for Creative Leadership
(America) have done substantial work in this regard and the Job Challenge
Profile developed by them is noteworthy to mention here. The possible options
for job assignment and the levels of difficulty are given in Table.
Option Level of difficulty Some options to
Within the company, within the country, within the function at a different level 1 (Low) create developmental
job assignments
Within the company, within the country in a different function at the same level 2

Within the company, outside the country , within t he function at the same level 3

Outside the company , within the country, within the function at the same level 4

Outside the company , outside the country , within the function at the same level 5

Outside the company , outside the country , different fu nction, at same level 6

Outside the company , outside the country , different function , at different level 7 (High) Cont….
Possibilities for Moving People in DJA
Geographical movement: Urban to rural area and vice versa, advanced region
to backward region and vice versa, hot climate to freezing climate zones,
agriculture economy to industrial economy, different customer preferences,
different government policy, educated population to uneducated population and
home country to foreign country.
Cultural movement: Different religious values, different languages, different
food habits, different life styles (say individualistic to collectivistic), power
distances, time orientations, tolerance to ambiguity, different motivation styles,
different leadership styles, different degree of respect for law and order and so
on.
Hierarchical movement: Higher level to lower level: In this approach, the salary
and service conditions of the DJA holder remains unchanged. Working at a lower
level helps understanding the challenges of grassroot level workers and their
work roles. Here you get instructed by others rather than instructing others and
Cont….
get reprimanded for mistakes rather than reprimanding others.
Lower level to higher level: Higher responsibility, higher visibility, getting the
work done from others rather than doing oneself, interacting with top level people
rather than the grass root level people and process driven work to thought driven
work.
Functional movement: Marketing to production or finance to HR, line function
to staff function, routine functions to customized functions, facilitative functions to
performance functions supervisory functions to strategic functions or back office
functions to front line functions.
Sectoral movement: Private sector (resource crunch, service quality and
competition) to public sector (bureaucracy, corruption, political interference,
market monopoly) service sector (dealing with people) to manufacturing (dealing
with machines) Profit sector (borrowing repayable loans for interest) to not-for-
profit sector (raising donations), serving the able and powerful customers for a
price to helping disabled and helpless people free.