The Design of Jobs

Abstract

JOB DESIGN means specification of the contents, methods, and relationships of jobs in order to satisfy technological and organizational requirements as well as the social and personal requirements of the job-holder.For the purposes of discussion only, specification of job contents can be divided into two categories: (1) physical-environment and physiological requirements, and (2) organization, social, and personal requirements. An extensive body of knowledge exists on the first category and is assiduously applied in designing plant environment, work methods, equipment, and tools, and in fitting the physical work demand to the capabilities of workers. No conflict exists over the application of this physiological and ergonomic knowledge for it does not require any models of human behaviour in complex organizations. Man's responses to the physical environments and work tasks are studied at the microscopic level with man taken as a machine element, albeit a human one, in the system. The objectives are either adjustment of man, as by training, or adjustment of environment or technology, as by design of tools, equipment, and dials and machine controls for rapid and error-free operation or to suit particular human capabilities, such as those of older workers.On the side of organizational, social, and personal requirements, what is the state of job design today? There is a large discrepancy between available knowledge and practice, although-paradoxically perhaps-there is much evidence that management faithfully keeps abreast of developments in job and organization design research. The thinking of many a management today appears to be not unlike that of an old farmer who went to a lecture delivered by a county agent to a group of small farmers in a remote rural area about a new development in farming that would increase crop yield. When asked by the county agent whether he would use the new development, the old-timer said, &dquo;I won't-I already know how to farm better than I am doing.&dquo;Managements are well aware that there now exists a considerable body of evidence which challenges accepted organizational and job design practices. Experimental and empirical findings, for instance, indicate that imposed pacing of work is detrimental to output and to quality, yet paced work is common and is considered to be desirable.' There is extensive evidence concerning the positive effects of group reward systems in achieving an organization's primary objectives. There is also considerable evidence of the effects of variety of job content and of task assignments that permit social relationships and communication patterns to develop, all of which enhance performance and personal satisfaction on the job.2 Yet in a very few instances do we find application of such findings to job designs.

Personality and Organization Theory Revisited

“…Herzberg (1966), Davis (1966), Davis and Valfer (1965,1966), and Emery, Thorsrud, and Lange (1966) represent the groups which have worked longest on horizontal and vertical job enlargement. All, together with Ford (1969), Sorcher (1967), and Paul, Robertson, and Herzberg (1969), have concluded that through the design of jobs that permit increased self-regulation, self-evaluation, self-adjustment, and participation to set goals, increases have been produced in productivity and positive attitudes.…”

Office Automation — Its Design, Implementation and Impact

“…In these cases the introduction of office automation appeared to have improved the quality of the jobs themselves, on the basis of standard job design criteria [14]. There tended to be an accompanying increase in positive job attitudes, such as interest, involvement and enjoyment.…”

Social Skills

“…In the occupational context, motivation is considered as the background to the interest in work design (Davis and Taylor, 1972), quality of working life (Davis and Cherns, 1975),job satisfaction (Sell and Shipley, 1979) and worker participation (Wall and Lischeron, 1977). Collectively these represent the 'job enrichment' movement which flourished in the sixties and early seventies when the western world was still in a period of full employment and there had been several decades of continuously increasing prosperity.…”