Industrial Psychology: Chapter 5

•External organisational factors

Environmental uncertainty, availability & introduction of new technology

Designing jobs

the manipulation of the content, functions and relationships of jobs in a way that both accomplishes organisational goals and satisfies the personal needs of individual job holders.

What JD determines

determines how work is preformed and greatly affects how an employee feels about a job, how much authority an employee has over the work, how much decision-making the employee performs on the job and how many tasks the employee should complete.

Designing Jobs (Continued)

•Specialisation-intensive jobs

oJob simplification (job specialisation) - jobs with very few tasks that are repeated often during the workday

oProblem of over-specialisation

oRepetition

oMechanical pacing

oNo end product

oLittle social interaction

oNo inut

Job dimensions

Motivation-intensive jobs

-Job rotation: the process of shifting an employee from job to job

-Job enlargement:A change in the scope of a job to provide greater variety to an employee. More tasks are added on the same level (horizontal expansion).

-Job enrichment: Enhancing a job by adding more meaningful tasks and duties to make the work more rewarding or satisfying. More tasks are added, but on more advanced levels (vertical expansion).

The Office Environment

•Work environment (space, workstations, light etc.) affects employee morale, productivity and quality, absenteeism & turnover

•Creativity can happen anywhere

•Retain the services of an architect or design consultant

Industrial robots

Anthropomorphic: approximate the appearance and functions of humans

Nonanthropomorphic: machine-like with limited functionality

Ergonomics

An approach to designing equipment and systems within the work environment to ensure that employees can use them easily and efficiently

Productivity

A measure of the output

of goods and services directly relative to the input of labour, material and equipment

Three components of productivity

•Utilization - the extent to which we use the resources.

•Efficiency - doing things right.

•Effectiveness - doing the right things

Job design issues

•Work schedules

Flexitime

Compressed workweeks

•Alternative physical work locations

Telecommuting

Uses of Job description

Recruitment, interviewing, Orientation, training

Elements of a JD

Job identification

Job summary

Job duties & responsibilities

Job specification (JS)

Skills

Knowledge

Abilities

Job description

A written summary of task requirements for a particular job

Total quality management

A philosophy aimed towards the continued improvement of the quality of products/services of the organisation and its processes to meet/exceed the expectations of customers/clients