Job Design

Job design pertains to the allocation and arrangement of organizational work activities and tasks into individual jobs. The process seeks to specify three aspects: the number and variety of tasks to be performed; the discretion or independence with which an employee may perform the job; and the relationships that will need to be maintained to perform the job successfully. For example, in the health care industry, anesthesiologists may enjoy a great deal of discretion over job activities, yet the range of tasks they perform may be fewer than those performed by other physicians. In contrast, although nurses may perform a wide range of job duties, their input into how their jobs are structured or performed may be limited. At its core, job design attempts to increase employee motivation, the belief being that employees will be more likely to work efficiently and effectively if their jobs are structured in a way that facilitates those goals. However, in designing jobs for their organizations, employers should bear in mind that the needs of both the employee and the organization should be taken into account. What might work for one organization will not necessarily be beneficial in another; similarly, one employee might respond better to a certain job structure than might another. Keeping these considerations in mind, organizations may want to explore various types of job design strategies.

One common strategy is job enlargement, which increases the number and variety of tasks performed by employees. Another strategy is that of job enrichment, involving the increase in control over the planning and performance of a job. For example, employers may allow individuals to schedule some part of their work or to be personally accountable for work outcomes.

Furthermore, another popular approach is based on the job characteristics model, which essentially integrates the job enlargement and job enrichment strategies. This model describes five core dimensions of all jobs. Skill variety entails the number of tasks or activities that the job requires. The term task identity refers to the degree to which a job requires completion of an entire piece of work (doing a job from beginning to end). Task significance measures the impact the job has on other people, either from within the organization or outside of it. The term autonomy refers to the discretion that employees maintain in determining job procedures. Finally, task feedback entails whether the work performed results in clear information regarding the employees’ effectiveness. These dimensions were originally thought to affect three psychological states of employees: experienced meaningfulness of work, experienced responsibility for work outcomes, and knowledge of results. These psychological states were then theorized to lead to desired work outcomes, such as increased worker motivation, performance, and job satisfaction, and lower absenteeism and turnover. Although research has generally not supported the role of psychological states as originally hypothesized, studies have supported the correlation between an increase in the core job dimensions and higher job satisfaction, employee performance, and attendance.

Finally, alternative job design strategies have been growing in popularity. Three of the most common such strategies are flextime, job sharing, and telecommuting. The term flextime refers to the notion of flexible working hours. This arrangement allows employees to determine when they will start and finish their workday, contingent on having worked a certain required number of hours. With job sharing, two or more employees share the same job. Last, telecommuting allows employees to work from home or other places outside the office. Advances in technology continue to make this option ever more feasible.

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