Chapter Five

Job Design and

Work Structures
 Chapter Objectives

Explain the relationship between motivation

and employee performance.
Discuss job design, including its evolution
and alternative approaches.
Describe the relationship among participation,
empowerment, and motivation.
Identify and describe key alternative work
arrangements.

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 Figure 5.1: Enhancing Performance in
Organizations

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 Job Designs in Organizations

Job Design
How organizations define and structure jobs
Properly designed jobs can have a positive
impact on the motivation, performance, and job
satisfaction of those that perform them.
Job Specification
The first widespread model of job design.
As advocated by scientific management, it can help
improve efficiency, but can also promote monotony and
boredom.

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 Early Alternatives to Job Specialization

Job Rotation
Involves systematically moving workers from one
job to another to minimize monotony and
boredom.
Negatives
still leaves workers with narrowly defined, routine jobs
the workers simply experience several routine and boring
jobs instead of just one
Positives
a worker rotated through a variety of related jobs acquires
a larger set of job skills

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 Early Alternatives to Job Specialization
(continued)

Job Enlargement (horizontal job loading

Entails expanding a workers job to include tasks
previously performed by other workers
For example, in the assembly of washing machine water
pumps, jobs done sequentially by six workers at a
conveyor belt were modified so that each worker
completed an entire pump alone.
Unfortunately, job enlargement has failed to have
the desired effects.
Generally, if the entire production sequence consists of
simply, easy-to-master tasks, merely doing more of them
does not significantly change a workers job.

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 Job Enrichment

Job Enrichment
Entails giving workers more tasks to perform and
more control over how to perform them.
Job enrichment relies on vertical job loading: not only
adding more tasks to a job, as in horizontal loading, but
also giving the employee more control over those tasks.
Mixed Results
The results on job enrichment programs have
been mixed and as a result, it recently has fallen
into disfavor among managers.

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 Job Characteristics Theory

Job Characteristics Approach

Identifies three critical psychological states
of people
Focuses on five motivational properties of
tasks

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 3 Critical Psychological States

If employees experience these states at a

sufficiently high level, they are likely to feel
good about themselves and respond
favorably to their jobs
Experienced Meaningfulness of the Work
The degree to which individuals experience their jobs as
generally meaningful, valuable, and worthwhile
Experienced Responsibility for Work Outcomes
The degree to which individuals feel personally
accountable and responsible for the results of their work
Knowledge of the Results
The degree to which individuals continuously understand
how effectively they are performing the job

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 5 Job Characteristics

Oldham suggests that the 3 psychological

states are triggered by these 5 job
characteristics:
Skill Variety - The degree to which the job requires
a variety of activities that involve different skills
and talents
Task Identity - The degree to which the job has a
beginning and end with a tangible outcome
Task Significance - The degree to which the job
affects the lives or work of other people, both in
the immediate organization and in the external
environment

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 5 Job Characteristics (continued)

5 job characteristics (continued):

Autonomy - The degree to which the job allows
the individual substantial freedom, independence,
and discretion to schedule the work and determine
the procedures for carrying it out
Feedback - The degree to which the job activities
give the individual direct and clear information
about the effectiveness of his or her performance

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 Figure 5.2: The Job Characteristics Theory

Reference: From J.R.

Hackman and G.R.
Oldham, Motivation
Through the Design of
Work: Test of a Theory, in
Organizational Behavior
and Human Performance,
Volume 15, 250-279.
Copyright 1976, Elsevier
Science (USA).

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 Figure 5.3: Implementing the Job
Characteristics Theory

Reference: J.R. Hackman, G.R. Oldham, R. Janson, and K. Purdy, A New Stage for Job Enrichment.
Copyright 1975 by the Regents of the University of California.
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 Participation, Empowerment, and Motivation

Participation
The process of giving employees a voice in
making decisions about their own work.
Empowerment
The process of enabling workers to set
their own work goals, make decisions, and
solve problems within their sphere of
responsibility and authority.

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 Early Perspectives on Participation and
Empowerment

Human Relations Movement

Assumed happy and satisfied employees will work
harder
Encouraged worker participation and input
Viewed employees as valuable human resources
Techniques and Issues in Empowerment
Techniques to extend participation beyond
traditional areas:
suggestion boxes
question-and-answer meetings
The establishment of work teams

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 Alternative Work Arrangements

Variable Work Schedules

In a compressed workweek, employees work a full
forty-hour week in fewer than the traditional five
days.
Flexible Work Schedules (or flextime)
Gives employees more control over the hours
they work each day
Job Sharing
Two or more part-time employees share one full-
time job.

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 Figure 5.4: Flexible Work Schedules

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 Telecommuting

Telecommuting
A work arrangement in which employees
spend part of their time working off-site
By using email, computer networks, and
other technology, many employees can
maintain close contact with their
organizations and do as much work at
home as they could in their offices.

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 Pros of Telecommuting

Many employees like telecommuting because

it gives them added flexibility.
By spending one or two days a week at home, for
instance, they have the same kind of flexibility to
manage personal activities as the alternatives of
flextime or compressed schedules allows.
Some employees also believe they get more
work done at home because they are less
likely to be interrupted.

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 Cons of Telecommuting

Many employees do not thrive under this

arrangement.
Some feel isolated and miss the social interaction
of the workplace.
Others lack the self-control and discipline to walk
from the breakfast table to their desk and start
work.
Managers may also encounter coordination
difficulties in scheduling meetings and other
activities that require face-to-face contact.

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