Define job design to increase productivity

EMPLOYEES today no more hold jobs which require them to handle a single task and work within set boundaries.
With companies expanding, subject matter increasing and the scope widening, one often finds that our job tasks do
not revolve around a single work allotment. It is often a combination and a mix 'n match of varied tasks, which
makes up a single job post.

Your job could also entail you to take on inter-related elements, which broaden the job outlook. Your area of
specialisation might be the central subject of work, but certain amount of variance does enter your work. This is due
to the multi-displinarity of job tasks and scope of particular posts. At the end of the day, your job must be in co-
ordination with that of your colleagues and other employees of your company.

Nevertheless, when the tasks a job requires are diverse, one is often confused about what exactly one does for the
organisation or what the exact field of work is. To counter this chaos and to make it to work in favour of the
organisation, defining your job is vital. This is a HR focal point, which is termed as 'Job Design'. This translates into
meaning that job integration could be productive for the organisation, if employees are enlightened and informed
about why certain tasks are integrated, and the exact importance of their tasks to the organisation. Primarily, it is
important to look into what are the varied factors that influence the integration of specific tasks in your workload.

Structure: As the first step, analysing the essential structure of a job is taken up. Every job requires working on the
lines of planning a task, implementing the planned framework and finally, organising the executed task. Once this is
comprehended, matching the three with the ultimate requirements of your company is needed.

Ergonomics: With stress-related disorders becoming very common, organisations are looking to plan and design
jobs, with special importance being given to physical conditions and limitations of workers. Therefore, designing
jobs as per the physical qualities and characteristics of the workers helps develop comfort, maintenance of health
and thereby better productivity.

Work output: Having the knowledge about the role your organisation plays in the market, the products and services
it renders to consumers and the like, helps evolve a set pattern of work among employees, as they work towards
attaining the output needed. If the content of output is known, it could motivate workers to work towards achieving
that target. Similarly, the quality of the products and the final costs they would garner is to be kept in mind, while
deciding how much work you need to put in, in which spheres and what would be the result. Once a set pattern is
seen, it can be worked upon to chalk out the job design of different posts.

Practices: Over a period of time, there has been an evolution of particular modes of performing certain tasks.
Traditional ways of working have been combined with modern psychologically and professionally tested modes of
work. This again exudes a pattern of work, which when observed can help frame job designs for varied posts.

Society and environment: The social setting plays an important role in affecting the way a person perceives his job.
Certain beliefs and traditional approaches can differ from place to place. Besides this, the technological settings rule
the disposition of a job. It is important to consider the same, in designing the job of an employee, to create an
understanding and a cooperative work setting.

Taking these factors into consideration and designing job positions in your organisation is the recommended way to
achieve increased productivity, employee interest and coordination, to ensure success and progress.

PREETI RAGHUNATH

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Perceived Task Characteristics and Employee Productivity
and Satisfaction
Ricky W. Griffin

Department of Management, College of Business Administration, Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas
77843.

This study tests the relationships among employee perceptions of task attributes and long-term
productivity and job and overall satisfaction. Measures of perceived task attributes, individual
growth need strength, and job and overall satisfaction were obtained by questionnaire from 100
randomly selected employees of a manufacturing firm. Productivity was computed as the average
daily output (quantity adjustedfor quality) of each employee for a one-year period of time. Strong
positive correlations were found between certain task attributes and productivity and job
satisfaction. Overall satisfaction was unrelated to task attributes. Further, growth need strength
was found to moderate the task attribute-job satisfaction relationships. This moderating effect
was demonstrated by both subgroup and moderated regression analyses. No moderating effects
were detected for either of the other two relationships. Finally, implications for future task design
research are discussed.

Human Relations, Vol. 35, No. 10, 927-938 (1982)

DOI: 10.1177/001872678203501007
Job Enrichment
Increasing Job Satisfaction

Most of us want interesting, challenging jobs where we feel that we can make a real difference to
other people's lives. As it is for us, so it is for the people who work with or for us.

So why are so many jobs so boring and monotonous? And what can you do to make the jobs you
offer more satisfying? (By reducing recruitment costs, increasing retention of experienced staff
and motivating them to perform at a high level, you can have a real impact on the bottom line.)

One of the key factors in good job design is job enrichment, most notably promoted by
psychologist Frederick Herzberg in his 1968 article “One More Time: How Do You Motivate
Employees?”. This is the practice of enhancing individual jobs to make the responsibilities more
rewarding and inspiring for the people who do them.

With job enrichment, you expand the task set that someone performs. You provide more
stimulating and interesting work that adds variety and challenge to an employee's daily routine.
This increases the depth of the job and allows people to have more control over their work.

Before you look at ways to enrich the jobs in your workplace, you
need to have as your foundation a good, fair work environment. If
there are fundamental flaws – in the way people are compensated,
their working conditions, their supervision, the expectations placed
upon them, or the way they're treated - then those problems should be
fixed first. If they are not resolved, any other attempts to increase
satisfaction are likely to be sterile.

Designing Jobs that Motivate

There are five factors of job design that typically contribute to people's enjoyment of a job:

• Skill Variety – Increasing the number of skills that individuals use while
performing work.

• Task Identity – Enabling people to perform a job from start to finish.

• Task Significance – Providing work that has a direct impact on the

organization or its stakeholders.

• Autonomy – Increasing the degree of decision making, and the freedom to

choose how and when work is done.
 • Feedback – Increasing the amount of recognition for doing a job well, and
communicate the results of people's work.

Job enrichment addresses these factors by enhancing the job's core dimensions and increasing
people's sense of fulfillment.

Job Enrichment Options

The central focus of job enrichment is giving people more control over their work (lack of
control is a key cause of stress, and therefore of unhappiness.) Where possible, allow them to
take on tasks that are typically done by supervisors. This means that they have more influence
over planning, executing, and evaluating the jobs they do.

In enriched jobs, people complete activities with increased freedom, independence, and
responsibility. They also receive plenty of feedback, so that they can assess and correct their own
performance.

Here are some strategies you can use to enrich jobs in your workplace:

• Rotate Jobs – Give people the opportunity to use a variety of skills, and
perform different kinds of work. The most common way to do this is through
job rotation. Move your workers through a variety of jobs that allow them to
see different parts of the organization, learn different skills and acquire
different experiences. This can be very motivating, especially for people in
jobs that are very repetitive or that focus on only one or two skills.

• Combine Tasks – Combine work activities to provide a more challenging and

complex work assignment. This can significantly increase "task identity"
because people see a job through from start to finish. This allows workers to
use a wide variety of skills, which can make the work seem more meaningful
and important. For example, you can convert an assembly line process, in
which each person does one task, into a process in which one person
assembles a whole unit. You can apply this model wherever you have people
or groups that typically perform only one part of an overall process. Consider
expanding their roles to give them responsibility for the entire process, or for
a bigger part of that process.

These forms of job enrichment can be tricky because they may

provide increased motivation at the expense of decreased
productivity. When you have new people performing tasks, you may
have to deal with issues of training, efficiency, and performance.
You must carefully weigh the benefits against the costs.
• Identify Project-Focused Work Units – Break your typical functional lines
and form project-focused units. For example, rather than having all of your
marketing people in one department, with supervisors directing who works on
which project, you could split the department into specialized project units -
specific storyboard creators, copywriters, and designers could all work
 together for one client or one campaign. Allowing employees to build client
relationships is an excellent way to increase autonomy, task identity, and
feedback.

• Create Autonomous Work Teams – This is job enrichment at the group

level. Set a goal for a team, and make team members free to determine work
assignments, schedules, rest breaks, evaluation parameters, and the like.
You may even give them influence over choosing their own team members.
With this method, you'll significantly cut back on supervisory positions, and
people will gain leadership and management skills.

• Implement Participative Management – Allow team members to

participate in decision making and get involved in strategic planning. This is
an excellent way to communicate to members of your team that their input is
important. It can work in any organization - from a very small company, with
an owner/boss who's used to dictating everything, to a large company with a
huge hierarchy. When people realize that what they say is valued and makes
a difference, they'll likely be motivated.

• Redistribute Power and Authority – Redistribute control and grant more

authority to workers for making job-related decisions. As supervisors delegate
more authority and responsibility, team members' autonomy, accountability,
and task identity will increase.

• Increase Employee-Directed Feedback – Make sure that people know

how well, or poorly, they're performing their jobs. The more control you can
give them for evaluating and monitoring their own performance, the more
enriched their jobs will be. Rather than have your quality control department
go around and point out mistakes, consider giving each team responsibility
for their own quality control. Workers will receive immediate feedback, and
they'll learn to solve problems, take initiative, and make decisions.

Job enrichment provides many opportunities for people's development. You'll give them lots of
opportunity to participate in how their work gets done, and they'll most-likely enjoy an increased
sense of personal responsibility for their tasks.

Tip:
Don't just accept these points wholesale - they'll work in some
situations and not in others. Apply these ideas sensibly and in a way
that is aligned with the realities of your workplace and your
organization's mission.

Implementing a Job Enrichment Program

• Step One – Find out where people are dissatisfied with their current work
assignments. There's little point to enriching jobs and changing the work
environment if you're enriching the wrong jobs and making the wrong
changes. Like any motivation initiative, determine what your people want
 before you begin.

Surveys are a good means of doing this. Don't make the mistake of
presuming that you know what people want: Go to the source - and use that
information to build your enrichment options.

• Step Two – Consider which job enrichment options you can provide. You
don't need to drastically redesign your entire work process. The way that you
design the enriched jobs must strike a balance between operational need and
job satisfaction. If significant changes are needed, consider establishing a
"job enrichment task force" - perhaps use a cross-section of employees, and
give them responsibility for deciding which enrichment options make the
most sense.

• Step Three – Design and communicate your program. If you're making

significant changes, let people know what you're doing and why. Work with
your managers to create an enriching work environment that includes lots of
employee participation and recognition. Remember to monitor your efforts,
and regularly evaluate the effectiveness of what you're providing.

Key Points:
Job enrichment is a fundamental part of attracting, motivating, and retaining talented people,
particularly where work is repetitive or boring. To do it well, you need a great match between the
way your jobs are designed and the skills and interests of the employees working for you.

When your work assignments reflect a good level of skill variety, task identity, task significance,
autonomy, and feedback, members of your team are likely be much more content, and much less
stressed. Enriched jobs lead to more satisfied and motivated workers.

Your responsibility is to figure out which combination of enrichment options will lead to
increased performance and productivity.
Stress at Work

How to Reduce and Manage Job and Workplace Stress

In this difficult economy, you may find it harder than ever to cope with challenges on the job.
Both the stress we take with us when we go to work and the stress that awaits us on the job are
on the rise – and employers, managers, and workers all feel the added pressure. While some
stress is a normal part of life, excessive stress interferes with your productivity and reduces your
physical and emotional health, so it’s important to find ways to keep it under control.
Fortunately, there is a lot that you can do to manage and reduce stress at work.

In This Article:

• Coping with work stress

• Warning signs
• Taking care of yourself
• Prioritizing and organizing
• Improving emotional intelligence
• Breaking bad habits
• What managers or employers can do
• Related links

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Coping with work stress in today’s uncertain climate

For workers everywhere, the troubled economy may feel like an emotional roller coaster.
"Layoffs" and "budget cuts" have become bywords in the workplace, and the result is increased
fear, uncertainty, and higher levels of stress. Since job and workplace stress grow in times of
economic crisis, it’s important to learn new and better ways of coping with the pressure. The
ability to manage stress in the workplace can make the difference between success or failure on
the job. Your emotions are contagious, and stress has an impact on the quality of your
interactions with others. The better you are at managing your own stress, the more you'll
positively affect those around you and the less other people's stress will negatively affect you.

You can learn how to manage job stress

There are a variety of steps you can take to reduce both your overall stress levels and the stress
you find on the job and in the workplace. These include:

• Taking responsibility for improving your physical and emotional well-

being.
• Avoiding pitfalls by identifying knee jerk habits and negative attitudes that
add to the stress you experience at work.
• Learning better communication skills to ease and improve your
relationships with management and coworkers.

Warning signs of excessive stress at work

When people feel overwhelmed, they lose confidence and become irritable or withdrawn,
making them less productive and effective and their work less rewarding. If the warning signs of
work stress go unattended, they can lead to bigger problems. Beyond interfering with job
performance and satisfaction, chronic or intense stress can also lead to physical and emotional
health problems.

Signs and symptoms of excessive job and workplace stress

• Feeling anxious, irritable, or • Muscle tension orheadaches
depressed • Stomach problems
• Apathy, loss of interest in work. • Social withdrawal
• Problems sleeping • Loss of sex drive
• Fatigue,
• Using alcohol or drugs to cope
• Trouble concentrating

Common causes of excessive workplace stress

• Fear of layoffs
• Increased demands for overtime due to staff cutbacks
• Pressure to perform to meet rising expectations but with no increase in job
satisfaction
• Pressure to work at optimum levels – all the time!

Reducing job stress by taking care of yourself

When stress on the job is interfering with your ability to work, care for yourself, or manage your
personal life, it’s time to take action. Start by paying attention to your physical and emotional
health. When your own needs are taken care of, you’re stronger and more resilient to stress. The
better you feel, the better equipped you’ll be to manage work stress without becoming
overwhelmed.

Taking care of yourself doesn’t require a total lifestyle overhaul. Even small things can lift your
mood, increase your energy, and make you feel like you’re back in the driver’s seat. Take things
one step at a time, and as you make more positive lifestyle choices, you’ll soon notice a
noticeable difference in your stress level, both at home at work.

Get moving

Aerobic exercise –perspiring -is an effective anti-anxiety treatment lifting mood, increasing
energy, sharpening focus and relaxing mind and body. For maximum stress relief, try to get at
least 30 minutes of hear pounding activity on most days but activity can be broken up into two or
three short segments.

For more information, see Making Exercise Fun.

Make food choices that keep you going and make you feel good

Eating small but frequent meals throughout the day maintains an even level of blood sugar in
your body. Low blood sugar makes you feel anxious and irritable. On the other hand, eating too
much can make you lethargic.

To learn more about food that have a calming effect, lift your mood and make you feel good, see
Tips for a Healthy Diet.

Drink alcohol in moderation and avoid nicotine

Alcohol temporarily reduces anxiety and worry, but too much can cause anxiety as it wears off.
Drinking to relieve job stress can also start you on a path to alcohol abuse and dependence.
Similarly, smoking when you're feeling stressed and overwhelmed may seem calming, but
nicotine is a powerful stimulant – leading to higher, not lower, levels of anxiety.

Get enough sleep

Stress and worry can cause insomnia. But lack of sleep also leaves you vulnerable to stress.
When you're sleep deprived, your ability to handle stress is compromised. When you're well-
rested, it's much easier to keep your emotional balance, a key factor in coping with job and
workplace stress.

For more information, see Tips for a Good Night's Sleep.

Reducing job stress by prioritizing and organizing

When job and workplace stress surrounds you, you can’t ignore it, but there are simple steps you
can take to regain control over yourself and the situation. Your growing sense of self-control will
also be perceived by others as the strength it is, leading to better relationships at work. Here are
some suggestions for reducing job stress by prioritizing and organizing your responsibilities.

Time management tips for reducing job stress

• Create a balanced schedule. Analyze your schedule, responsibilities, and

daily tasks. All work and no play is a recipe for burnout. Try to find a balance
between work and family life, social activities and solitary pursuits, daily
responsibilities and downtime.
• Don’t over-commit yourself. Avoid scheduling things back-to-back or
trying to fit too much into one day. All too often, we underestimate how long
things will take. If you've got too much on your plate, distinguish between the
"shoulds" and the "musts." Drop tasks that aren't truly necessary to the
bottom of the list or eliminate them entirely.
• Try to leave earlier in the morning. Even 10-15 minutes can make the
difference between frantically rushing to your desk and having time to ease
into your day. Don’t add to your stress levels by running late.
• Plan regular breaks. Make sure to take short breaks throughout the day to
sit back and clear your mind. Also try to get away from your desk for lunch.
Stepping away from work to briefly relax and recharge will help you be more,
not less, productive.

Task management tips for reducing job stress

• Prioritize tasks. Make a list of tasks you have to do, and tackle them in
order of importance. Do the high-priority items first. If you have something
particularly unpleasant to do, get it over with early. The rest of your day will
be more pleasant as a result.
• Break projects into small steps. If a large project seems overwhelming,
make a step-by-step plan. Focus on one manageable step at a time, rather
than taking on everything at once.
• Delegate responsibility. You don’t have to do it all yourself, whether at
home, school, or on the job. If other people can take care of the task, why not
let them? Let go of the desire to control or oversee every little step. You’ll be
letting go of unnecessary stress in the process.

Reducing workplace stress by improving emotional

intelligence
Even if you’re in a job where the environment has grown increasingly stressful, you can retain a
large measure of self-control and self-confidence by understanding and practicing emotional
intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage and use your emotions in positive
and constructive ways. It's about communicating with others in ways that draw people to you,
overcome differences, repair wounded feelings, and defuse tension and stress.
Emotional intelligence in the workplace:

Emotional intelligence in the workplace has four major components:

• Self-awareness – The ability to recognize your emotions and their impact

while using gut feelings to guide your decisions.
• Self-management – The ability to control your emotions and behavior and
adapt to changing circumstances.
• Social awareness – The ability to sense, understand, and react to other's
emotions and feel comfortable socially.
• Relationship management – The ability to inspire, influence, and connect
to others and manage conflict.

Reducing stress in the workplace with emotional intelligence

The more emotional intelligence you have, the more stress you can avoid in the workplace.
Fortunately, emotional intelligence is not something we’re born with; it’s something we can
learn and develop.

To learn how to increase your emotional intelligence, read Five Key Skills for Raising Your
Emotional Intelligence.

The skill set that enables you to acquire these capabilities can be learned but requires the
development of emotional and nonverbal ways of communicating that include:

• Learning to recognize your particular stress response and become familiar

with sensual cues that can rapidly calm and energize you.
• Staying connected to your internal emotional experience so you can
appropriately manage your own emotions. Knowing what you are feeling will
not only add to your self confidence and improve your self control but
enhance your understanding of others and help you build more satisfying
relationships.
• Learning to recognize and effectively use the nonverbal cues that make up
95-98% of your communication process including eye contact, facial
expression, tone of voice, posture , gesture and touch. Its not what you say
but how you say it that impacts others –for better or worse.
• Developing the capacity to meet challenges with humor. There is no better
stress buster than a hardy laugh and nothing reduces stress quicker in the
workplace than mutually shared humor. But, if the laugh is at someone else’s
expense, you may end up with more rather than less stress.
• Learning to navigate conflict by becoming a good listener and someone who
can face conflict fearlessly with the expectation that differences resolved will
strengthen the relationship.
Reducing workplace stress by breaking bad habits
As you learn to manage your job stress and improve your work relationships, you’ll have more
control over your ability to think clearly and act appropriately. You will be able to break habits
that add to your stress at work – and you’ll even be able to change negative ways of thinking
about things that only add to your stress.

Eliminate self-defeating behaviors

Many of us make job stress worse with patterns of thought or behavior that keep us from
relieving pressure on ourselves. If you can turn around these self-defeating habits, you’ll find
employer-imposed stress easier to handle.

• Resist perfectionism. No project, situation, or decision is ever perfect, and

you put undue stress on yourself by trying to do everything perfectly. When
you set unrealistic goals for yourself or try to do too much, you’re setting
yourself up to fall short. Do your best, and you’ll do fine.
• Clean up your act. If you’re always running late, set your clocks and
watches fast and give yourself extra time. If your desk is a mess, file and
throw away the clutter; just knowing where everything is saves time and cuts
stress. Make to-do lists and cross off items as you accomplish them. Plan your
day and stick to the schedule — you’ll feel less overwhelmed.
• Flip your negative thinking. If you see the downside of every situation and
interaction, you’ll find yourself drained of energy and motivation. Try to think
positively about your work, avoid negative-thinking co-workers, and pat
yourself on the back about small accomplishments, even if no one else does.

Find Ways to Dispel Stress

• Get time away. If you feel stress building, take a break. Walk away from the
situation. Take a stroll around the block, sit on a park bench, or spend a few
minutes meditating. Exercise does wonders for the psyche. But even just
finding a quiet place and listening to your iPod can reduce stress.
• Talk it out. Sometimes the best stress-reducer is simply sharing your stress
with someone close to you. The act of talking it out – and getting support and
empathy from someone else – is often an excellent way of blowing off steam
and reducing stress.
• Cultivate allies at work. Just knowing you have one or more co-workers
who are willing to assist you in times of stress will reduce your stress level.
Just remember to reciprocate and help them when they are in need.
• Find humor in the situation. When you – or the people around you – start
taking things too seriously, find a way to break through with laughter. Share
a joke or funny story.

Adapted from Quintessential Careers

What managers or employers can do to reduce stress at
work
It's in a manager's best interest to keep stress levels in the workplace to a minimum. Managers
must act as positive role models, especially in times of high stress. All of the tips mentioned in
this article are twice as important for managers to follow. If someone that we admire remains
calm, it is much easier to remain calm ourselves – and vice versa! There are also organizational
changes that managers and employers can make to reduce workplace stress.

Improve communication

• Share information with employees to reduce uncertainty about their jobs and
futures.
• Clearly define employees’ roles and responsibilities.
• Make communication friendly and efficient, not mean-spirited or petty.

Consult your employees

• Give workers opportunities to participate in decisions that affect their jobs.

• Consult employees about scheduling and work rules.
• Be sure the workload is suitable to employees’ abilities and resources; avoid
unrealistic deadlines.
• Show that individual workers are valued.

Offer rewards and incentives

• Praise good work performance verbally and institutionally.

• Provide opportunities for career development.
• Promote an “entrepreneurial” work climate that gives employees more
control over their work.

Cultivate a friendly social climate

• Provide opportunities for social interaction among employees.

• Establish a zero-tolerance policy for harassment.
• Make management actions consistent with organizational values.