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Organizational Performance and Work Design

Galbraith and Lawler's book entitled Organizing for the Future captures the importance of organizational performance and work design and redesign: “organizations in the future will have to be able to innovate, to improve their processes, and to redesign themselves” (Galbraith & Lawler, 1993, p. 88).

Over the years, there has been an accumulation of tools and methods for innovation and improvement processes in organizations. In overview, these include the following:

  • 1940s: Sensitivity training for the interaction of the person and the environment
  • 1950s: Conflict resolution and team building
  • 1960s: Intergroup development and open systems planning
  • 1970s: Sociotechnical systems analysis and quality of work life
  • 1980s: Organization transformation, total quality, largescale change with future search
  • 1990s: Re-engineering, large-group intervention, transcultural planning, and transnational community building

Organizational efforts to improve work design operate out of a set of core values:

  • Integration of individual and organization needs
  • Choice, freedom, and responsibility
  • Dignity, integrity, self-worth, and fundamental rights
  • Cooperation and collaboration
  • Authenticity and openness
  • Effectiveness, efficiency, interdependence, and alignment
  • Holistic, systemic vantage point and stakeholder orientation
  • Participation, confrontation, and adaptability

Organization change has traditionally relied on the interpersonal strategy of normative re-education without giving attention to the economic, political, technological, legal, and ethical issues that affect the organization. Organizational performance improvement and work design and redesign efforts have been added to the tools and methods of innovation. When dealing with the organization as a whole, one must ask questions that in their simplicity usually generate profound answers.

  • Where are we going? Develop goals for work, process, organization. (Goals)
  • How shall we get there? Develop design for attaining them. (Processes)
  • How will we know we've arrived? Develop management systems. (Feedback)

The primary question that encompasses the entire organization in its answer is, What intervention should we choose for organizational performance improvement and work design and redesign? There are three general categories of interventions that help improve organizational performance and work design and redesign, as follows.

Training Interventions

  • Learner-controlled/self-paced instruction
  • Instructor-led seminars, courses
  • Experiential learning design
  • Curriculum design
  • Instructional design
  • Evaluation design
  • Computer-based training
  • Health and wellness programs
  • Employee assistance programs
  • Networking systems
  • Tuition reimbursement programs
  • Scholarship programs
  • Support for profession/civic activities
  • Literacy programs
  • Leadership and ethics development programs
  • Team building
  • Culture change programs
  • Group dynamics
  • Change management
  • Value clarification
  • Conflict management
  • Organizational rites and rituals

Organizational Performance Improvement Interventions

Selection Systems Design

  • Succession planning
  • Personnel recruiting and hiring systems
  • Leadership development programs

Information Systems Design

  • Electronic performance support systems
  • Expert systems
  • Intranet delivery
  • Internet delivery
  • Interactive multimedia
  • Online information/reference
  • Prototyping
  • Rapid application development
  • On-the-job training
  • Job aids

Career Development Design

  • Internal recruitment systems
  • Job rotation systems
  • Work assignment rotation systems
  • Cross-training
  • Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) programs
  • Affirmative action programs
  • Diversity programs
  • Assessment centers
  • Mentoring
  • Coaching
  • Loaned executive/job exchange
  • Tuition reimbursement programs
  • Scholarship programs
  • Experiential learning
  • Structured practices

Work Systems Design Interventions

Management Science

  • Strategic planning
  • Goal setting
  • Visioning
  • Supervision and management
  • Marketing systems
  • Public relations
  • Financial systems
  • Problem-solving and decision-making systems
  • Performance management systems

Job and Workflow Design

  • Workflow analysis
  • Job classification
  • Work schedule/shift programs
  • Business process re-engineering

Communication Systems Design

  • Electronic mail
  • Voice messaging systems
  • Computer networking
  • Memo distribution systems
  • Meeting planning
  • Corporate/organizational
  • Newsletters and bulletins
  • Memo design/format systems
  • Negotiation systems

Feedback Systems Design

  • Performance appraisal systems
  • Identification of performance indicators
  • Performance information systems
  • Customer/client feedback mechanisms

Resource Allocations Involved in Work Design

  • FTE allocation plans and ceilings
  • Budgeting
  • Reward/recognition systems design
  • Compensation systems
  • Merit award systems
  • Bonus systems
  • Motivation programs
  • Incentive and recognition programs
  • Benefits programs

Documentation and Standards

  • Policies
  • Procedures
  • Guidelines
  • Reference manuals
  • Quality assurance documents
  • Bylaws
  • Articles of incorporation
  • Partnership agreements
  • Contracts, letters of intent, and so forth

Human Factors Involved in Work Design

  • Facilities design
  • Technological advances
  • Tools and equipment acquisitions
  • Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) compliance (handicapped access)
  • Safety planning

Continuous Improvement of Work Design

  • Quality circles
  • Quality assurance programs
  • Quality of work life programs

Innovations, process improvements, and better work designs and redesigns in the preceding categories of interventions bring about the following results. First, they provide opportunities for employees to function as human beings rather than as resources in the productivity process. Second, they provide opportunities for each organization member and the organization itself to develop to their fullest potential. Third, they increase an organization's effectiveness by helping it achieve its strategic business goals and objectives. Fourth, they help create an environment in which employees find exciting and challenging work. Fifth, improved organizational performance provides opportunities for employees and managers to influence the way in which they relate to work, the organization, and the work environment. Sixth, they enable every employee to be treated as a human being with a complex set of needs and values, all of which are important in his or her work and life.

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