Job refers to the sum total of an individual’s assignment at the workplace. Tasks refer to the various activities that need to be performed to get the job done. The nature of tasks, it’s executives by various individuals, nature of interdependence and inter-relatedness, group activities etc have implication for organizational effectiveness. Thus the jobs and tasks have to be designed and managed properly.
Core Job Characteristics: There are five job characteristics which are central to providing potential motivation to workers. They are: Skill variety, Task identity, Task significance, Autonomy, and Feedback from the job itself.
Core Job Characteristics: There are five job characteristics which are central to providing potential motivation to workers. They are: Skill variety, Task identity, Task significance, Autonomy, and Feedback from the job itself.
- Task Variety: This denotes the extent to which any particularly job utilizes a range of skills, abilities and talents of the employees. If number of different skills is used by the employee on the job, the job is going to provide challenge and growth experience to the workers.
- Task Identity: This indicates the extent to which the job involves a ‘whole’ and identifiable piece of work. If the job involves the whole components (eg – painting a portrait), then the individual can identify with the ultimate creation turned out by him and derive pride and satisfaction from having done a good job.
- Task significance: This refers to the meaningfulness or significance of the impact that a job has on the lives of others – both inside and outsider of the organization. If what one does has an impact on the well being of others, the job becomes psychologically rewarding to he person who performs it.
- Autonomy: This refers to the extent to which the job provides an employee the freedom, independent and discretion to schedule work and make decision and formulate the procedures to get the job done without interference from others. The greater the degree of autonomy, the more the person doing the job feels in control.
- Feedback from the Job itself: This indicates the extent to which the person who is working on the job can assess whether they are doing things right or wrong even as they are performing the job. That is, the job itself is stimulating one and enjoyable.
Job Design: Jobs can be designed to range from highly simple to highly complex tasks in terms of the use of the workers skill. Some of the job design options are as follows:
- Job Simplification: The jobs are broken down into very small parts as in the assembly line operations where a fragmented task is repeatedly done over and over again by the same individual.
- Job Rotation: This involves moving employees among different tasks over a period of time. Management does not have to bother with combining tasks, but at the same time, the workers do not get bored with doing one simple task over several years. The employee is periodically rotated from one job to another within the work setting
- Job Enlargement: This involves simply adding more tasks to the job so that the workers have a variety of simple tasks to perform rather than doing just one task repetitively. Two or more tasks are combined and the individual does the combined tasks altogether.
- Job Enrichment: This offers a greater challenge to the workers because it requires the use of variety of skills possessed by them. This involves building in motivating factors into the job, giving the workers more responsibility and control over work, and offering learning opportunities for the individual on the job.