Human Resource Management-17MBA21

Job Analysis and Human Resource Planning

UNIT 2 Notes

Unit 2: (10 hours)

Job Analysis: Meaning, process of Job Analysis, methods of collecting job analysis data, Job Description
and Job Specification, Role Analysis.
Human Resource Planning: Objectives, Importance and process of Human Resource Planning, Effective
HRP.

Job:

 Job may be defined as “collection or aggregation of tasks, duties and responsibilities which as a
whole, are regarded as a regular assignment to individual employees.”
 Job: A regular activity/task performed in exchange for payment in an organization.
E.g.: Technical assistants, Sales executive.
 Task: An identifiable work activity carried out for a specific purpose.
 Essential piece of a job that serves as a unit of work
E.g... Typing a letter

JOB ANALYSIS
The systematic way of gathering and analyzing information about a job is termed as job analysis. Job
analysis is formal and detailed examination of job. The process of determining, observing and studying and
reporting information related to the nature of a specific job.

The process of determining by, observation, study and reporting information related to the nature of the
specific job

Job Description: “Statement of duties and responsibilities”

 A list of job’s duties, responsibilities, reporting relationship, working conditions, and supervisory
responsibilities.
 Job description is an overall written summary of task requirements

Job Specification: Minimum acceptable human qualities and skills

 It is a written statement of qualification, traits, physical and mental characteristics that an individual
must possess to perform the job.
 A list of job’s “human requirements” that is, the requisite education, skills, personality and so on.

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 Job Specification is an overall written summary of worker requirements

E.G. Job Description and Specification

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 Recruitment, Selection, Training and
development, Industrial relations,
Performance management

Stages in the Job Analysis Process:

 Organizational analysis:
 Organization analysis is necessary because various jobs contribute to the efficiency and
effectiveness of the organization.
 We are required to have detail information of various jobs in organization. This helps to
determine the interrelationship between the various jobs.
 This information will be available in organization charts and workflow charts. Finally link
each and every job with the organizational objectives. To analyze the relation of one job
with another job in an organization.

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  Selection of representative position to be analyzed:
 Sample of jobs should be selected in organization on which job analysis will be conducted.
Select the job which needs to be analyzed keeping time and money in the mind.
 All the position or job cannot be analyzed by the job analyst, they have to select the required
positions to analyze, which increases the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization

 Collection of job analysis data:

 This step involves collecting data about the characteristics of job, required behavior,
personal qualification etc. Here techniques used to collect data need to be selected. And
Decide regarding the respondents and method of analysis.
 Data collection methods like questionnaire, interview, dairies, and direct observation can be
used.
 Data sources like employees, supervisors, superiors, job analyst etc.

 Preparation of job description:

 It involves describing the contents of the job in terms of functions, duties, responsibilities,
operations etc.
 Based on the data collection, the nature, duties, responsibilities can be defined

ⅠWork Activities
a. Description of work activities (tasks)
b. Interface with other jobs and equipment
c. Procedures used
d. Behaviors required on the job
e. Physical movements and demands of the job
ⅡMachine, Tools, Equipment, and Work Aids Used
Ⅲ Job Context
a. Physical working conditions
b. Organizational context
c. Social context
d. Work schedule
e. Incentives (financial and nonfinancial)
 Preparation of job specification:
 It involves conversion of job description to job specification.
 It is a written statement of personal attributes in terms of traits, skills, training, experience
needed to carry out the job.
 The roles, duties, nature, responsibilities defined in job description, job specification can be
defined in line with job description.

I. Personal Requirements inherited

A. Specific skills
B. Specific education and training
C. work experience (related jobs)
D. physical characteristic
E. Aptitudes

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Purpose/uses of Job Analysis:

1. HRP: It helps in forecasting HR requirement in terms of skills and knowledge, on the basis of
information obtained from job analysis, HRP will be carried out.
2. Recruitment & selection: In order to hire a right person for a right job, it helps people to find out
how and when to hire people and provide proper understanding about the required skills and the
positions that will be vacant in future. As job analysis describes the requirement of job in
systematic manner it makes the process of selection easier by providing specification about the
qualities required for job. Mainly Job analysis provides job specification and job description which
can be used for recruitment & Selection.
3. Placement and orientation: Placing best person on the right job. Candidate can be effectively
introduced in organization only when HR is aware about his interest and activities that is been
carried on in organization. Job analysis provides regular updates on various job profiles available in
company which makes the orientation program effective.
4. Training & Development: Job analysis provides valuable information which helps training by
identifying the training needs, as job analysis clearly specifies the Knowledge Skills Abilities
required to perform given job designing the content of training program becomes easy task for
trainer.
5. Job evaluation: Job evaluation determines the relative worth of the jobs which helps in
determining the remuneration for the job, JA helps in finding relative worth of job based on criteria
like degree of difficulty, type of work, skills, knowledge needed etc.
6. Performance appraisal: Job analysis provides standards of performance for every job, as job
analysis mention standard performance to be delivered by employees it makes process of
comparison easier to evaluate the performance of employee.
7. Employee Counseling: JA Identifies the area that employee need to improve further for career
advancement. Job analysis point out the area that an employee is required to develop at which
makes it easier for counselor to communicate feedback to employees and suggest them strategies to
overcome their problem. JA indirectly help employees to cope up with the job stress
8. Employee safety & Health: JA provides information regarding hazardous & unhealthy
environment such as heat, noise, and dust etc. job analysis reveals unsafe conditions associated with
the job which helps management to take precautionary measures to ensure safety of employees. JA
can provide required information regarding the risk factors in the job so that necessary step can be
taken to minimize the risk.
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Methods of Collecting Job Analysis Data:

1. Direct observation: In this method analyst observes the task performed by employees where
employees should not be aware that they are being observed and analyst is required to make note of
employee’s behavior and specific needs of job. Analyst will make note of employee behavior & need of
the job.
 This method is suitable for jobs that consist primarily of observable physical ability, short
job cycles activities. The jobs of draftsman, mechanic, spinner or weaver are the examples
of such jobs. However, the flip side of this method is that this method is not suitable for jobs
that involve unobservable mental activities reveal overlaps and grey areas and have not
complete job cycle.
 This method is very tedious task and time consuming
2. Interview: In this method, the job analyst directly interviews the job holder through a structured
interview form to elicit information about the job. This method is found suitable particularly for jobs
wherein direct observation is not feasible. By way of directly talking to the job holder, the interviewer
job analyst may extract meaningful information from the job holder about his/her job.
a. However, the interview method is both time consuming and costly. Particularly, the
professional and managerial jobs due to their complicated nature of job, require a longer
interview’ This may also be a possibility that bias on the part of the analyst and the job holder
i.e., the respondent may cloud the accuracy and objectivity of the information gathered through
interview. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of the interview method will depend on the ability of
both interviewer and respondent in asking questions and responding them respectively.
3. Diary method: employees in organization are asked to maintain work diary in which they are required
to mention about their day to day work activity and time taken to perform those activities. Analyst
refers these work diaries and prepares job analysis depending upon data available in work diary. This
method is time consuming and expensive
a. In this method, the job holder is asked to maintain a diary recording in detail the job-related
activities each day. If done judiciously, this method provides accurate and comprehensive
information about the job. This overcomes memory lapses on the part of the job holder. As
recording of activities may spread over several days, the method, thus, becomes time-
consuming one.
b. The disadvantage associated with this method is that it remains incomplete because it does not
give desirable data on supervisor relationship, the equipment used and working conditions
prevalent at the work place.
4. CRITICAL INCIDENT TECHNIQUE
1. End users are asked to identify specific incidents which they experienced personally and which had
an important effect on the final outcome. The emphasis is on incidents rather than vague opinions.
2. Job analysis method focuses on identifying the critical incidents that distinguishes satisfactory
worker from unsatisfactory workers.
3. Ask them first to identify a 'critical incident'. This is something that is important or somehow
significant within the job. It may be positive or negative in nature. It should also be a real incident
that has happened, not something that might happen in the future.
4. Then ask them about what they did, with the goal of seeking effective or ineffective behaviors.
Thus ask 'What worked?' and 'What didn't work so well?'.
5. The critical incident technique involves observation and recording of examples of particularly
effective or ineffective behaviors. Behaviors are judged to be "effective" or "ineffective" in terms
of results produced by the behavior.

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5. Questionnaire:
6. The questionnaire is a widely used method of analyzing jobs and work. Here the job holders are
given a properly designed questionnaire aimed at eliciting relevant job-related information. After
completion, the questionnaires are handed over to supervisors. The supervisors can seek further
clarifications on various items by talking to the job holders directly. After everything is finalized,
the data is given to the job analyst.
7. The success of the method depends on various factors. The structured questionnaire must cover all
job related tasks and behaviors. Each task or behavior should be described in terms of features such
as importance, difficulty, frequency, and relationship to overall performance. The job holders
should be asked to properly rate the various job factors and communicate the same on paper. The
ratings thus collected are then put to close examination with a view to find out the actual job
requirements.
8. Here analyst design the questionnaire depending upon the type of job, employees are required to fill
in those questionnaire and depending upon the data in questionnaire the analyst goes in for
preparing job analysis. This method is highly economical but accuracy is based on the structure
questions framed by analyst.
5a. Position analysis questionnaire: Scientifically & quantitatively group job elements into job
dimensions. PAQ model developed by McCormick, Jeanneret, and Mecham (1972), is a
standardized, structured instrument of job analysis to measure job characteristics and relate them to
human characteristics. It consists of 194 job elements that describe generic human work behaviors.
Contents of PAQ method / technique: (What Information should be collected?): 195 items of
job elements include six categories:

 Information input: where and how the worker gets information needed to perform the job.
 Mental processes: reasoning, decision making, planning and information processing that are
involved in performing the job
 Work output: physical activities, equipment and tools used by the worker to perform the job
 Interpersonal activities: Relationships with other persons that are required in performing the
job
 Job context: the physical and social contexts of work
 Miscellaneous aspects: Other Job Characteristics like activities, condition that are relevant to
the job like health, stress, satisfaction etc.
6. Panel of expert: In this method, Collect information from senior job incumbents and superiors with
extensive knowledge of the job, Group interview or Group interaction regarding job

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Benefits/Advantages of Job Analysis

9. Provide with first hand job – related Information: As Information are collected directly from
Job Incumbents (Holders), seniors, superiors, subordinated and top management.
10. Helps in creating right job-employee fit: JA try to fit the employee skills and talents and
capability with that of the content of the job.
11. Helps in establishing effective hiring strategies: JA provides data and job content to set the
strategies for hiring the right person for the right job.
12. Guides through performance evaluation and appraisal process: Based on the job content &
standards set for a particular job, performance can be evaluated by comparing actual with the
standards
13. Helps in analyzing training & development needs: Based on the JA data the training need can be
identified, Job content provides the details that what type of training can be given to employees in
future.
14. Helps in deciding compensation & benefits: JA provides information about the job, based on the
job compensation can be fixed.

Role Analysis:
Role analysis (also known as job evaluation) is a systematic approach used to determine the relative value
(or size) of roles within an organization by measuring the demands and responsibilities of the role.
A job evaluation is a systematic way of determining the value/worth of a job in relation to other jobs in an
organization. It tries to make a systematic comparison between jobs to assess their relative worth for the
purpose of establishing a rational pay structure.

Role Analysis: a role is a set of expectations people have about the behavior of people in a position

3 types of role played/performed:

 Expected role: what other people expect from a person
 Perceived role: individual thinks he should behave to fulfill the expected role
 Enacted role: the actual role is the way the person actually behaves in an organization.

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Role analysis involves the following steps:
 First, the objectives of the department and its functions must be identified
 Second, the role incumbent is asked to state his key performance areas and his understanding of the
roles to be played by him.
 Third, other role partners (boss, subordinate, peers etc) are asked to state their expectations from the
role incumbent.
 Finally, the incumbent‘s role is clarified and expressed in black and white (called role description) after
integrating the diverse viewpoints expressed by various role partners.

HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

 “It is the process of determining manpower requirements and the means of meeting those
requirements in order to carry out the integrated plan of the organization.” -----Coleman

 “HRP is a process by which an organization should move from its current manpower position to its
desired manpower position, through planning, management strives to have the right kind of people
at the right time, doing things which result in both the organization and the individual receiving
max. long run benefit.”- E.W. Vetter

 In simple words, HRP is the process of forecasting an organization's future demand for & supply of
the right type of people in the right number.

 “It is the process of determining manpower requirements and the means of meeting those requirements
in order to carry out the integrated plan of the organization.” ---- Coleman
 It is the process of determining right kind of people required to do the specific job
 Trends and events that affect the economy also create opportunities and problems in obtaining human
resources.
 Human resource planning – defined as identifying the numbers and types of employees the
organization will requires in future for reaching its objectives.
 The first step in human resource planning is forecasting.
 The primary goal is to predict which areas of the organization will experience labor shortages or
surpluses.
 The process of deciding what positions the firm will have to fill, and how to fill them. Personnel
planning cover all the firm’s future positions, from low position to Top level. However, the term

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 Succession planning is used to refer to the process of deciding how to fill the company’s most
important executive jobs.

FEATURES OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

 It is future oriented: –It involves forecasting the manpower needs for a future period so that adequate
and timely provisions may be made to meet the needs.
 It is a continuous process: – Human Resource Planning is a continuous process because the demand
and supply of Human Resource keeps fluctuating throughout the year.
 Optimum utilization of resources: – The basic purpose of Human Resource Planning is to make
optimum utilization of organization's current and future human resources.
 Both Qualitative and Quantitative aspect: – ‘Quantitative’ meaning the right number of people and
‘Qualitative’ implying the right quality of manpower required in the organization.
 Long term and Short term: –, Human Resource Planning keeps long-term goals and short-term goals
in view while predicting and forecasting the demand and supply of Human Resource.
 Involves study of manpower requirement: – Human Resource Planning involves the study of
manpower availability and the manpower requirement in the organization.
OBJECTIVES OF HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING
 To assess the HR Needs: Assessing manpower needs for future. HR planner should assess the quality
and quantity of employees required.
 Assessing skill requirement in future: Evaluate the skills of employees and skills required to perform
the job.
 Anticipate surplus and shortage: Predict the surplus or shortage of manpower to avoid the
unnecessary detention & dismissals in the organization.
 Optimum utilization of manpower: HR Planning ensures the optimum use of manpower in the
organizations.
 To meet the needs of expansion and diversification programs: HRP helps in the implementation of
future changes/plans in the organization. If the company is going for expansion then HR plans can be
made to meet the manpower requirement.
 To cope with the technological development: The HRP objective is to help People to Adopt with the
technological changes, modernization.
 Controlling wage and salary cost: The HRP objective is to control the wages and salary of the
employees.
 Determining training and development needs of organization: HRP helps to determine the needs of
the training in the organization.
 Replacement of persons: a large number of employees will be expected to quit the organization after
period of time due to retirement, old age, death etc. company is required to prepare details of
employees who will take over the position.
 Labor turnover: as new employees require training & development to adjust to organization, initial
investment is required during the process of recruitment HRP will provide data well in advance to
estimate the future expenditure.
 Assess Manpower Requirements: Helps in assessing the human resource requirements of
organizations.

Shortage Surplus
Work will get affected Increases the labor cost.
 Organization Structure: Changes in the structure of organization then HRP is needed to implement
the changes in the structure

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BENEFITS / IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

 Reduced labor cost: HRP planning provides timely data to organization which helps future cost
estimation leading to effective allocation and utilization of financial resources in organization.
 Optimum utilization of manpower force: it focuses on assignment of jobs to employees according to
area of interest which ensures efficient accomplishment of task assigned to employees.
 Identification of gap existing in manpower: HRP help to identify knowledge gap, that is knowledge
require being possessed and actual level of knowledge employees have.
 Growth of organization: manpower planning facilitates the expansion and diversification of
organization through means of providing timely information relating to manpower availability and
future requirement in organization.
 Improvement in overall business planning: HRP is integral part of organization. Companies cannot
work effectively in long run without right type and right number of people doing the right job at right
time. Information about the same is available through the process of HRP.
 Career succession planning: HRP facilitates succession planning in organization. It provides lead
time for internal succession of employees to higher position through promotions.
 Creates awareness in the organizations: HRP leads to organizational awareness about the
effectiveness of sound manpower management, as it helps in judging the effectiveness of human
resource policies and programmes of management.

PROBLEMS OF HRP

 Accuracy of forecast: Accuracy of forecast depends on the accuracy of data manpower is planning
involves forecasting the demand and supply of human resource. Effectiveness of forecast depends upon
the accuracy of data collected from forecast if the data is inaccurate it will lead to breakdown in process
of organization.
 Identity crisis: manpower planning concept may not be understood by all level employees in
organization until HRP is implemented in full-fledged manner in organization.
 Support from top management: HRP requires full and wholehearted support from the top
management, as the expenditure and resources required for manpower planning is provided by
management in organization. If level of support decreases, then process of HRP will be ineffective for
employees in organization. In the absence of top management support and commitment, the HRP will
not get success.
 Resistance from employees: employee do not prefer supporting HRP as they will be of opinion that
HRP will increase the work load and result in unemployment problems for unskilled employees in
organization.
 Insufficient initial efforts: new concepts introduced in organization requires certain period of time to
be implemented, even HRP will not be successful unless matched with the needs and environment of
particular environment.
 Management information system: HRP requires relevant data if the available data is not relevant,
process of HRP becomes ineffective in organization.
 Uncertainties: it is difficult to depend upon the HRP estimates as process of HRP is done during the
stable conditions of organization which will not be applicable during the situation of crises. Technical
changes, marketing fluctuation, employee turnover are the uncertainties.
 Expensive and time consuming: manpower planning is expensive and time consuming process as it
requires service of experts for process of HRP in organization.
 Coordination with other managerial functions: as process of HRP is developed by HR department it
becomes difficult to integrate task of others department in process.

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 Unbalanced Approach: It is an unbalanced approach as quantity aspect of human resource if focused
more that qualitative aspect. Fails to consider the quality aspects of manpower planning like career
development, planning and morale etc. In Balance approach, it considers both quality and quantity
aspects.
Quality Quantity

HRP PROCESS

1. External Environment: The External factors that influences HRP are economy of the country,
technology adopted, competitors, labour market and govt. regulations and so on.

2. Internal Environment: The Internal factors that influences HRP are company’s strategy, current
manpower, employee turnover, policies and procedure etc.

3. Strategic Planning: These strategies and programs are monitored and evaluated on a regular basis to
ensure that they are moving the organizations in the desired direction, including closing employee
competency gaps, and corrections are made as needed.

4. Human resource planning: is a process that identifies current and future human resources needs for an
organization to achieve its goals. Human resource planning should serve as a link between human resource
management and the overall strategic plan of an organization.

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5. Company’s Requirement and availability: During this step you will observe where your organization
is currently, and where you want to be in the future. You will identify things such as, the employee counts,
and the skills evaluation and compare it to what will be needed to achieve your future goal.

6. Demand Forecasting: HR REQUIREMENTS:

A process in which an organization attempts to estimate the demand for labor and evaluate the size, nature
and sources of supply which will be required to meet the demand. Organizations estimates how many
employees they require in future based on the objectives of the organization. Predicting future demand for
the manpower uses following forecasting techniques:
 Managerial Judgement: Managerial judgement technique is very common technique of demand
forecasting. This approach is applied by small as well as large scale organisations. This technique
involves two types of approaches i.e. 'bottom-up approach' and 'top-down approach'. Under the
'bottom-up approach', line mangers send their departmental requirement of human resources to top
management. Top management ultimately forecasts the human resource requirement for the overall
organisation on the basis of proposals of departmental heads. Under the Top-down approach', top
management forecasts the human resource requirement for the entire organisation and various
departments. This information is supplied to various departmental heads for their review and
approval. However, a combination of both the approaches i.e. 'Participative Approach' should be
applied for demand forecasting. Under this approach, top management and departmental heads meet
and decide about the future human resource requirement. So, demand of human resources can be
forecasted with unanimity under this approach.
 Expert Forecast/Delphi Method: In this method, manager estimated future manpower
requirement using their experience and judgment. Here the Experts opinions are taken. Experts use
their experience and predict the future.
 Trend Analysis: HR needs can be estimated by examining past trends. Past rate of changes can be
projected in the future or employments growth can be estimated by its relationship with a particular
index. Tread analysis E.G

7. Supply Forecasting: HR AVAILABILITY the basic purpose of preparing manpower inventory is to

find out the size and quality of manpower available within and outside the organization.
 Internal labor supply
 External Labor supply
Some of the Forecasting techniques are used and survey shows the availability of suitable candidates for
the job

Supply forecast technique:

 Markov analysis: this technique uses historical rates of promotion, transfer and turnover to estimate
future availabilities in workforce. It analyses about who will be in various positions with organization
in future. Managers need to anticipate the movement of people into, within and out of an organization.
 Skills inventory: is an assessment of knowledge, skill, and abilities experience and career aspirations
of each of the current employees. There should be regular up gradation of information in organization.
use of HRIS

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 Replacement charts: it shows the profile of job holders department wise and offers snapshot of who
will be replacing who if there is opening in organization.

8. Determine manpower gaps: The existing number of employees and their skills are compared with the
forecasted manpower needs to determine the qualitative and quantitative gaps in the workforce. Once an
organization’s personnel and supply are forecast, the two must be reconciled or balanced in order that
vacancies can be filled by the right employees at the right time. Based on the outcome of the analysis, HR
Plan can be formulated.
If Demand = Supply = No change
If Demand > Supply = Shortage
If Demand < Supply = Surplus.
Surplus: When number of employees are greater than the requirement/demand, then surplus employees so
organization should plan for retrenchment and there are many ways to reduce employees.

 The least distressing for employees is to use a combination of attrition and a freeze hiring to bring
the workforce numbers down.
 This is practical only if there is a relatively small surplus of employees and if the reduction is not
needed in the short term.
 Another less demoralizing method of reducing employee numbers is voluntary separation such as
early retirement buyouts or VRS. These have up-front costs due to severance payments and
benefits extensions, and some employees the company may wish to retain may opt to leave.
 Layoffs are effective during temporary downturns because employees can be called back if
business improves.
 Redundancy: Redundancy is the dismissal of an employee from their job, due to the employer
reducing the work force.

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  Redeployment: the assignment of employees to a new place or task.

Shortage: When there is a shortage of employees, the company can go for recruitment or workload can be
increased for the existing employees.

Plans are:
 Recruitment plan: Plan for hiring the required employees
 Training Plan: Train the employees to handle the other work or task
 Workload: Increase the work load by making the employees to work for extra hours (Over time)
 Temporary assignment: Give additional assignment for the existing employees.

EFFECTIVE HRP.

 Formulation of the business plan and their integration with HRP: First of all in order to meet the
organizational goal, the business plan should be formulated. After formulating the business plan,
planning about the human resource should be done. Then after there should be integration between a
business plan and HRP.
 Manpower Forecasting: On the basis of received information from job analysis, what is the real
requirement of the job should be identified and on its basis manpower be forecasted using different
techniques.
 Top Management Support: HRM affects all types of organizational activities. Top management
should extend total support to human resource planning. HRP should form an integral part of their
personal and managerial philosophy.
 Developing manpower: Human resource planning is a professional job. People responsible for
planning in human resource department should possess planning skills. Continuous training and
development should upgrade their skills.
 Information System: An effective human resource information system (HRIS) should be established
to provide up-to-date information about employees and jobs. It should contain the following data.

Job Design:
Job design is the recent origin. The design of the job influences the productivity and job satisfaction. The
poorly designed jobs often results in the job dissatisfaction, lower productivity and increased turnover.

Job Design Objectives/dimension:

“Job design is deliberate and systematic attempt to structure the technical and social aspect of the work to
improve the technical efficiency and job satisfaction”

“Job design is a process which integrates work content, the rewards and the qualifications required for each
job in a way that meet the needs of the employees and the organization.

Job design is a way of organizing tasks, duties and responsibilities into a productive unit of the work.

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Job characteristics approach: Hackman and Oldham Model

 Based on job characteristics theory of Hackman and Oldham: The theory states that employees
work hard when they are rewarded for their hard work. Identifies specific job characteristics that
affect productivity, motivation and satisfaction
 Core characteristic of a job are:
o Skill variety – the degree to which the job necessitates the use of different skills
o Task identity – the degree to which the job requires completion of task
o Task significance – the degree to which the job makes an impact on the lives or the work of
the people
o Autonomy – the degree to which the job provides freedom
o Feedback – the degree to which objective, direct and timely information about performance
is given to the employees
 Skill variety, task identity & task significance gives job satisfaction
 Autonomy gives sense of responsibility & commitment
 Feedback enables to analyze performance

Motivating Potential Score (MPS) of a job =

(Skill variety + task identity + task significance) X autonomy X feedback

3
1. Skill Variety: The extent to which the work requires several different activities for successful
completion. Different types of skill required to complete the entire job.
2. Task Identity: The extent to which the job includes a “whole” identifiable unit of work that is
carried out from start to finish and that results in a visible outcome. This gives more clarity for each
job and reduces the ambiguity.
3. Task Significance: The impact the job has on other people.
4. Autonomy: The extent of individual freedom and discretion in the work and its scheduling.
5. Feedback: Amount of information employees receive about how well or how poorly they have
performed.

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  The first three dimensions--skill variety, task identity, and task significance--combine to create
meaningful work. The jobs that possess autonomy give the worker a feeling of personal
responsibility for the results. If a job provides feedback, the worker will know how well he or she is
performing. From the standpoint of motivation, internal rewards are obtained by a worker who
learns (knowledge of results) that she personally (experienced responsibility) has done well on a
task that she cares about (experienced meaningfulness). The more that these three elements are
present, the greater will be the employee’s motivation, performance, and satisfaction.

 The links between job dimensions and outcomes are moderated by the strength of the individual’s
growth need: that is, by his or her desire for self-esteem and self-actualization. Therefore, those
with high growth needs are more likely to experience the psychological states when their jobs are
enriched than those with low growth need.

JOB DESIGN OPTIONS: (TECHNIQUES)

1. Job Rotation:
Job rotation refers to the movement of an employee from one job to another; here jobs themselves are
not actually changed; only employees are rotated among various jobs.
An employee who works on a routine job moves to another job for hour/days/months and back up to
the first job.
This relieves the employees from boredom and monotony, improves employees skills regarding various
jobs. This is one of the methods to provide the personal growth.
• E.G. An electrical engineer may go from circuit design to fabrication to assembly every few years
• Assistant HR would be sent for 6months abroad to do the projects, once the project completed,
the Assistant HR would be taking up the first job itself.

2. Job simplification
In this method job are divided into smaller components and these smaller units are assigned to workers
in organization.
Job is broken into smaller task and is analyzed for job specification and job description.

3. Job Enlargement:

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 Job enlargement means adding more and different tasks to a specialized job to provide greater variety.
This process is called as “HORIZANTAL JOB LOADING or HORIZANTAL JOB
ENLARGEMENT”

It tackles the
dissatisfaction and reduces
monotony by increasing
the variety and scope of
tasks.
It improves the worker
satisfaction, quality of
production and overall efficiency of the organization.
4. Job Enrichment:
Job enrichment loads the job vertically. Job enrichment means adding
duties and responsibilities that will provide the skill variety, task
identity, autonomy and feedback on job performance.

Job enrichment means improvement, or an increase with the help of

upgrading and development, whereas job enlargement means to add
more tasks, and an increased workload. By job enrichment, an
employee finds satisfaction in respect to their position and personal
growth potential

Difference between Job enrichment and enlargement:

1. Job enrichment is dependent on job enlargement, whereas job

enlargement is not dependent on enrichment.
2. Job enlargement means taking charge of more task and
responsibilities which are not mentioned in the job description.
3. Job enrichment gives more control and managerial access to perform roles and responsibilities.
4. Job enlargement is horizontal, whereas job enrichment is vertical expansion.
5. Job enlargement and job enrichment are tools for motivation and growth.

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