4: Designing Work

Roles in Defining Work

  • Job: a group of related activities and duties

  • Position: specific duties and responsibilities performed by one employee.

  • Work: tasks or activities that need to be completed

  • Role: the part played by an employee within an organization and the associated expected behaviour

We inherently know if we’ve enjoyed a job we’ve worked —> that’s job design. Are my skills being appropriately used?

Managers determine what work is to be performed and in what order. The manager determines the skills and abilities necessary to perform work.

The employee contributes by providing information that may only be known by the person doing the job.

  • Job analysis: process of obtaining information about jobs by determining the duties, tasks or activities and the skills, knowledge and abilities associated with the jobs.

    • This is the cornerstone of HRM. Information collected through job analysis informs and supports processes.

    • Purpose: to improve organizational performance and productivity.

    • Conducted through individual interviews, questionnaires, diaries and work logs and observations.

    • This guides recruitment, selection. performance management, training and development, health and safety and compensation.

    • In a changing environment, analysis must be future-oriented, competency-based and the job role must be living and fluid.

    • Business strategy translated into work.

    • Non-human sources, e.g. records, blueprints, training manuals, and human sources, e.g. supervisors, incumbents are used.

  • Used for recruitment, planning, training, compensation, H&S, performance and evaluation.

  • Job design strategies: job rotation, job simplification, job enlargement, job enrichment.

    • Job rotation: being able to move people around to motivate and deploy.

    • Enlargement: assignment of more tasks and responsibilities

    • Enrichment: more tasks to remove monotony

    • Simplification: making sure jobs are clear.

Job design is usually applied for more complex work. If jobs are simple, those are AI jobs. Entry level jobs are usually more tactical, routine, consistent and intuitive.

Proficient become more strategic, specialized, ambiguous & risky.

Masters in their field have autonomy.

  • Job description: document that lists the tasks, duties, responsibilities of a job to be performed, along with the skills, knowledge and abilities/competencies needed to successfully perform the work.

    • Job title

    • Reports to

    • Date

    • Written & approved by

    • Summary

    • Duties & responsibilities

    • Job specification

    • Performance standards

  • Job descriptions quickly become out of date and may not contain performance standards. Could be poorly written and may not address expected behaviours, causing conflict and grievances.

  • Therefore, use statements that are concise, direct and simple. Use present tense and action-oriented verbs. Descriptions must match requirements.

  • Consider human rights legislation; performance criteria must be based on valid job-related criterion. Appropriate and acceptable ways must be used to describe a job.

  • Provides an expectation. Provides protection when sued, e.g. providing working conditions at the bottom. Can help people filter themselves out.

  • Midterm: job descriptions!!

Designing the job

  • Manager’s responsibility. Achieves organizational objectives. Well-designed jobs can also achieve employee goals.

  • Job Characteristics Model:

    • Skill variety → degree to which a broad range of skills are required

    • Task identity → degree to which an individual completes a whole piece of work.

    • Task significance → how the work impacts others. Real value and connected.

    • Autonomy → level of independence and freedom

    • Feedback → information about performance.

  • Work must be designed to enhance collaboration, synergy and empower employees with ownership, risk-taking, information sharing and responsibility.

Process of creating jobs that enable the organization to achieve its goals while motivating and rewarding employees.

Until now, you took the skills of the employees, matched them into jobs that performed functions in teams and produced the final product. Now, AI is integrated.

Employee teams: groups of employees who assume a greater role in the production or service processes. Effective teams have various characteristics.

Management must be clear on what is expected of managers, including necessary skills. Organizational structure must be attended to. Managers are team leaders.

Future design of work:

  • Non-traditional employment, e.g. contract work, telecommuting, e-work

  • Convergence of social, mobile and cloud computing

  • Dynamic and fluid relationships

  • Organizational context and culture must be a part of design

AI in Job Design

  • Imperial Oil layoffs in Calgary: originally structured for steadiness — now 900 employees are being laid off.

    • why? efficiency → aka AI and technology.

  • 1/4th of all jobs will change as a result of AI. → automation of activities, e.g. customer support. Routine information processing, e.g. AI lawyers in entry-level roles.

    • human resources & administrative supports. Wages are stagnant.

  • Each new AI job results in 2 - 3 entry-level job losses. Workers are cut and AI specialists are hired… and asks for nothing back.

  • And yet, companies don’t realize return on investment → might be inappropriate job design. Consultancy helps organizations realize benefits from AI.