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Job Design and Work Measurement

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Title: Job Design and Work Measurement


1
Job Design and Work Measurement
  • HUMAN RESOURCES IN THE SYSTEM DESIGN

2
The Theory X and Theory Y assumptions of McGregor
  • Theory X assumptions (negative)
  • average person has an inherent dislike for work
    and will avoid it, if possible.
  • People must be coerced, controlled, directed and
    threatened with punishment to put in adequate
    work efforts.
  • People prefer to be directed, wish to avoid
    responsibility, and have little ambition.
  • The average person is only interested in security.

3
The Theory X and Theory Y assumptions of McGregor
  • Theory Y assumptions (positive)
  • Physical mental effort in work as natural as
    play or rest
  • People will exercise self-direction and
    self-control in the objective of the
    organization.
  • Commitment to objectives is a function of
    rewards associated with achievement.
  • average person learns under proper conditions
    to accept and to seek responsibility.
  • capacity to exercise relatively high degree of
    imagination, ingenuity, and creativity, is
    common among people.

4
Principle of Job Design
  • job design based on view to enable motivation,
    jobs must be interesting and challenging.
  • allows job satisfaction and enables high
    productivity.
  • Without proper job design jobs are likely to be
    dull, boring and monotonous.
  • scientific management broke jobs down into small
    elements that worker would do repetitively during
    working day.

5
Principle of Job Design
  • This was seen to reduce training costs and
    thought to lead to faster work,
  • especially if related to an individual financial
    incentive.
  • This however was the approach taken a hundred
    years ago.
  • It worked in the class-structured society of the
    time when employee attitudes were not considered
    to be important.

6
JOB DESIGN
  • Job design entails matching tasks or work
    activities to individuals or work groups.
  • ultimate objective is to increase the efficiency
    of an organization, with the parallel goal of
    making working conditions more agreeable.
  • As will be illustrated, for some situations, job
    design may be progressive moving from
    specialization to empowerment, concepts that will
    now be illustrated.

7
Empowerment
As skills increase, responsibility and job
motivation will climb
Job enrichment
Job enlargement
Job rotation
Job specialization
8
Job specialization
  • Job specialization involves having people with
    certain skills who are dedicated to a certain
    activity in the operation.
  • For example, specialization may involve
  • foundry workers pouring molten metal
  • intricate soldering on computer circuit boards
  • wiring electrical control boards
  • performing certain assembly-line jobs in
    automobile production.

9
Job specialization
  • Frederick Taylor emphasized that job
    specialization should mean efficiency people
    performing work they know how to do well.
  • However, repetitive nature means jobs can be
    boring to the point that people become sloppy
  • then quality suffers and costs rise.
  • Job specialization is contrary to some
    philosophies of human resource management
    although can be difficult to find people who are
    completely flexible.

10
Job specialization
  • foundry worker may not have the dexterity to work
    on the same companys assembly line, for example.

11
Job rotation
  • Job rotation moves beyond specialization, so
    people who have required skills can rotate (say
    on a weekly basis) from one job to another to get
    away from the job specialization rut.
  • For example, assembly line workers working one
    week on engine mountings and following week on
    assembling dashboard components.
  • Incorporating job rotation can help to reduce the
    monotonous aspects of the job.

12
Job rotation
  • Job rotation may not be desired for everyone,
    even though the necessary skills are in place.
  • In a certain chocolate factory, several groups of
    women were on the packing line, putting various
    chocolate varieties into boxes.
  • Suggested these groups changed periodically, both
    in makeup and location of work.
  • Idea rejected by the women they felt comfortable
    remaining with the group they knew, and in a job
    requiring little additional thought.

13
Job rotation
  • Multiskills and plant flexibility
  • Job rotation implies multiskills in personnel.
  • advantageous and motivating for employee,
  • gives employer flexibility to adjust to client
    needs.
  • If customer increases order requirement, modifies
    product specifications or brings forward delivery
    date, production manager needs to have facility
    to reassign personnel accordingly.
  • But company must provide appropriate training.

14
Job enlargement
  • Job enlargement intended to avoid employee being
    trapped in job specialization by trying to
    improve the variety within a certain sphere of a
    persons ability and interest.
  • Enlargement would mean expanding the tasks
    involved in a job.
  • For example, a cutting operation could be
    enlarged by adding shaping and forming.
  • This would be horizontal expansion of the job.

15
Job enrichment
  • Job enrichment means expanding the job vertically
    by adding design and planning elements.
  • For example, purchasing secretary whose basic job
    is correspondence for a group of purchasing
    people could have the job enriched by planning
    the work assignments of the group, being an
    intermediate in customer contacts and perhaps
    helping evaluate some proposals.

16
Job enrichment
  • That is, the secretarys job is enriched from
    becoming a secretary to being more an assistant.
  • This is certainly the situation today when many
    of the classic secretarial duties are less
    required as more and more people have their own
    personal computer.

17
Empowerment
  • Empowerment is an extension of job enrichment
  • by adding complete employee trust to the job and
    responsibilities not originally associated with
    the job.
  • Consider the two following examples, one in a
    service industry, the other in manufacturing.

18
Empowerment
  • Nordstrom
  • US fashion retailer, based in Seattle,
    Washington,
  • believes in empowering its workers.
  • Employee Handbook consists of a single sheet of
    paper urging people to set their goals high,
  • stating the companys confidence in their ability
    to meet them and spelling out a single corporate
    rule
  • Use your good judgement in all situations.

19
Empowerment
  • Nordstrom (contd)
  • employees respond by serving customers
    assiduously, even writing personal thank-you
    notes or pumping up flat tyres in the car park.
  • company run by collective leadership of
    fourth-generation Nordstroms,
  • company devolves merchandise-buying to local
    level, in contrast to most department stores,
    which buy centrally.

20
Empowerment
  • Chrysler
  • When Chrysler, US-based car manufacturer, sets
    out to create new model, or revamp an old one, it
    forms team of about 700 people from engineering,
    design, manufacturing, marketing and finance,
  • includes specialists of all kinds. Chrysler
    labels them a self-contained multidisciplinary
    group.
  • A vice-president acts as father to the group,
    but the actual work directed by leaders below
    that rank

21
Empowerment
  • Chrysler (contd)
  • Top management meet with the group to sketch out
    a vision for the vehicle and set aggressive goals
    for design, fuel economy and cost.
  • Management works out a contract with the team,
    setting out objectives, after which the group is
    empowered to take over complete responsibility.

Decision making
Non-interference
Support/ facilitation
22
Special considerations in job design
  • Equal Opportunities
  • Ergonomics
  • Basic skill level
  • Work schedules

23
  • Equal Opportunities
  • At beginning of last century, men dominated the
    workforce, principally in manufacturing.
  • Women moving into the factories began in World
    War I.
  • When war broke out, women filled role of men who
    were on the war front and some remained when war
    ended.
  • similar situation occurred during World War II.

24
  • Equal Opportunities
  • Since 1950s, proportion of women in work- force
    has continued to rise,
  • in Europe in 1994, women represented 41.4 per
    cent of the work force.
  • from 48.7 in Sweden to 34.0 in Spain.
  • Data are similar for USA and Japan and, in all
    three regions, proportion of women working is
    increasing.

25
  • Equal Opportunities
  • Thus, in job design, aptitudes and
    characteristics of women, compared to men, need
    considering.
  • In assembly work, involving activities like
    detailed soldering, mounting of sub-assemblies in
    motors, clocks or computers, women are considered
    to have more dexterity than men.
  • Work anatomically fits a man better that involves
    physical strength, such as erecting scaffolding,
    building construction, etc.

26
  • Equal Opportunities
  • NOT stereotyping people in employment, but
  • are jobs, the design of which is better suited to
    women, and vice-versa.
  • women replacing men in many forms of employment,
    but wages/salaries less than men.
  • argument that women perform better than men in
    certain activities is sometimes hiding the fact
    that company can pay them lower wages which
    reduces product costs!

27
  • Ergonomics
  • Ergonomics in job design pays attention to
    equipment and machinery by balancing work of
    employee with the machine or task at hand
  • to minimize human effort and make work as
    comfortable as possible, for example
  • Renault VI designed its buses so assembly work on
    roof of bus can be performed at arms length,
    rather than operator straining at connecting
    elements above his or her head.

28
  • Ergonomics
  • Computer keyboards have been redesigned so that
    they are more comfortable to the operator.
  • Cooking appliances in restaurant kitchens are,
    where possible, placed so that chefs do not have
    to do excessive bending.
  • (Back and neck problems among restaurant kitchen
    staff are common.)

29
  • Basic skill level
  • In job design, even though an individual may be
    competent at performing the work, some basic
    skills may be lacking.
  • For example, with globalization, there is
    considerable movement of people whose language or
    other skills may not be sufficient.
  • At the work-centre level, operators may not speak
    the native language.

30
  • Basic skill level
  • Thus, in the job design, operating instructions
    need to be translated, or kept simple.
  • It may be better to avoid figures and letters and
    use colours and symbols instead.
  • Cashiers at McDonalds and Burger King use symbol
    cash registers, which avoid the need for the
    cashiers to perform calculations.

31
  • Work schedules
  • Countries have legal standard work schedules
    based on a certain number of hours per week.
  • Britain and USA 40 hours.
  • France 39 hours, with proposal to go to 35 hours
    per week by 2000.
  • these times used to be spread evenly over a
    five-day week.
  • Now, many firms have flexible work schedules to
    suit both employee and employer.

32
  • Work schedules
  • For example, may work ten hours for four days
    rather than eight hours for five.
  • Or if eight hours a day, employee can start
    later and finish later, provided is present
    during core hours of the firm.
  • Or employees works 50-hour week when there is
    heavy customer demand and 30 or less hours per
    week when demand is slack.
  • requires attention to scheduling, so firm does
    not lose competitiveness.

33
Attitude Towards Employees
  • Communication
  • Working environment
  • Company objectives
  • Management style and decision making

34
Attitude Towards Employees
  • All operations involve members of management, or
    senior people, dealing with lower-level
    employees.
  • The way these lower-level people are treated and
    addressed can have a significant impact on
    working relationships and on motivation, which
    have a direct bearing on productivity and cost.

35
WORK MEASUREMENT
  • Machine standard
  • Labour standard
  • Time and motion study.
  • Reasons for standards
  • Criticism of labour standards

36
WORK MEASUREMENT
  • Work measurement is process of establishing time
    a given task would take when performed by
    qualified worker working at defined level of
    performance.
  • various ways in which work may be measured and
    variety of techniques been established.
  • Basic procedure, irrespective of measurement
    technique being used, consists of three stages

37
WORK MEASUREMENT
  • analysis phase where job divided into convenient,
    discrete components, known as elements
  • measurement phase where a measurement technique
    is used to establish time required (by a
    qualified worker working at a defined level of
    performance) to complete each element of work
  • synthesis phase various elemental times added,
    together with appropriate allowances (see below),
    to construct standard time for complete job.

38
WORK MEASUREMENT
  • Techniques used to measure work can be classified
    into those relying on direct observation of the
    work, and those that do not.
  • E.g., some techniques, such as predetermined
    motion-time systems and use of synthetic or
    standard data can provide times from simulation
    or even visualisation of the work.
  • However, data on which such techniques are based
    likely based on earlier observation of actual work

39
WORK MEASUREMENT
  • Direct observation techniques (such as time study
    and analytical estimating) include a process for
    converting observed times to times for the
    "qualified worker working at a defined level of
    performance."
  • The commonest of these processes is known as
    rating.

40
WORK MEASUREMENT
  • involves observer (after appropriate training)
    making assessment of worker's rate of working
    relative to the rate of standard rating.
  • assessment based on factors involved in the work
  • effort, dexterity, speed of movement, consistency
  • assessment made on rating scale, of which there
    are three or four in common usage.
  • On 0-100 scale, observer judges worker's rate of
    working as age of standard working rate (100)

41
WORK MEASUREMENT
  • The rating is then used (in a process known as
    "extension" in time study) to convert the
    observed time to the basic time using the simple
    formula
  • Basic time observed time x observed rating/
    standard rating
  • Rating regarded as controversial measurement
  • Where different observers rate differently,
    resulting basic times are not comparable.
  • However, practised rating practitioners are
    remarkably consistent.

42
WORK MEASUREMENT
  • advantage of structured systematic work
    measurement gives common currency for evaluation
    and comparison of all types of work.
  • results are commonly used as basis of planning
    and scheduling of work, manpower planning, work
    balancing in team working, costing, labour
    performance measurement, and financial
    incentives.
  • less common product design, methods comparison,
    work sequencing workplace design.

43
Any Questions?
Taken from Operations Management A Supply
Chain Approach by Derek L. Waller, Chapter 8,
published 2001 by Thompson Learning Unit 98, Job
Design by Coventry University, revised Oct. 1999.
Web address http//www.kbe.cov.ac.uk/EMDATA/98JOB
DES.html Productivity Futures Work Measurement.
Web address http//www.lmu.ac.uk/lis/imgtserv/too
ls/workmeas.htm
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