CHAPTER 6:

DESIGN & REDESIGN

OF
WORK SYSTEMS

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 Exhibit 6-1
Model for Design of Work Systems

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 Design of Work Systems

Job Specialization
Creates jobs with very narrow task (activity) assignments
Resulted in high efficiency, quickly achieved job competency,
low training costs, but created monotonous jobs
Job Enlargement
An increase in task variety to relieve boredom
Job Rotation
Employees moved across different specialized positions
Enlargement & rotation add variety but not necessarily
responsibility

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 Design of Work Systems

Job Enrichment
Increasing amount of responsibility for quality &
productivity that employees have for their own work
Vertical Loading
Reassignment of job responsibility formerly
delegated to supervisor to employee

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 Five Core Job Characteristics
Skill variety
Extent to which work allows
employee to use variety of skills
Task identity
Extent to which work allows
employee to complete whole or
identifiable piece of work
Task significance
Extent to which employee
perceives that work is important
& meaningful to those inside or
outside organization
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Autonomy
Extent to which employee is able
to work & determine work
procedure at own discretion
Feedback
Extent to which work allows
employee to gain sense of how
well job responsibilities are met
15
 Exhibit 6-2
Job Characteristics Model

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 What Workers Need

Changing demographics Employee needs

& life styles representation (voice)
Worker needs vary by age, Workers want to be involved
gender, race, religion, in work-related issues &
physical abilities, sexual expect organization to listen
orientation, & marital & family to concerns
status Employee concerns about
Employee needs for safety in workplace
work/life balance Workers want safe, hazard-
Workers less committed to free working environment
organizations today
Also suffer from burnout &
lower performance

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 Types of Task Interdependence

Pooled interdependence Reciprocal

Individual employees work interdependence
independently of each other in Workflow is random
performing tasks but utilize Responds to immediate
coordination of activities situation
Sequential Employees have joint &
interdependence shared responsibilities for
Work in process flow is linear, work
from one individual to another Higher levels of
One individual depends on interdependence require
timely completion of quality higher levels of
work from another coworker
coordination & attention

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 Redesign of Work Systems

Current & future work systems more broadly

defined & more closely related to strategic choices
Workers becoming more involved in design &
reengineering of jobs
Cross-function teams strategically beneficial
Also create challenges in effectively managing themselves
Employees raised in individualistic cultures need
training to be effective team members

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 Outsourcing

Involves contracting out some of organizations

noncore work activities to outside specialists
Can do work more effectively
Often for less than cost of doing work in-house
Areas frequently outsourced:
Payroll
Benefits
Technological support
More than 75% of organizations outsource at least
one HR function

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 Outsourcing

Can free up HR staff to focus on more

strategic issues
Considerations:
Cost savings
Whether contractor can deliver
Compliance with laws
Impacts on employees whose jobs might be lost
Impacts on morale of remaining employees

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 Offshoring

Involves exporting tasks & jobs to countries

where labor costs significantly less than in U.S.
India remains largest market
Wages approximately 10% of those paid in U.S.
Often considered good by local standards
Challenge of managing virtual global teams
Need for tight organizational & operational
control to ensure coordination & communication

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 Offshoring

Advantages Disadvantages
Cost savings Loss of domestic
Extend work day to jobs
24 hours Transfer of technical
knowledge
Public image/loyalty
concerns

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 Mergers & Acquisitions

Mergers pursued for a variety of reasons:

Economies of scale in operations
Consolidation in saturated markets
Improving competitive position through larger asset
base
Two thirds of mergers fail
Largely because of inability to merge cultural &
other human factors

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 Barriers to Change

Disrupting status quo may be met with resistance

by both employees and managers
Costs & reallocation of resources
Employees will resist change unless they
Perceive need to change
See benefits from change
Risk & uncertainty; no guarantee of
improvements
Poor coordination & communication can
undermine change initiatives
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 To Overcome Resistance to Change

Promote & implement change so it provides

benefits to those impacted
Involve employees in change process to
increase their commitment to change
Open, two-way communication
Early before change decisions are made
Dispel rumors
Increase trust & acceptance of change by keeping
employees informed & asking for input
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 Reading 6.1
Restructuring Teams for Re-engineered Organizations

Reasons for using teams in organizations:

Unlikely one individual will have all of knowledge &
information needed to make complex decisions
Teams provide more buy-in to decisions
Managers believe teams enhance motivation &
productivity
Facilitate acquisition & sharing of information vital to
organizational growth and flexibility
Facilitate variety of internal quality control initiatives

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 Reading 6.1
Restructuring Teams for Re-engineered Organizations

Problems with teams

May fail without proper training & support
Often poorly integrated into organizations hierarchy
Individuals often feel their team contributions dilute
personal success
Few teams have found effective means to deal with
freeloaders
Usually not represented at top levels of organizations,
sending a mixed message about their importance

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 Reading 6.1
Restructuring Teams for Re-engineered Organizations

U.S. & Japanese culture differences

Individualism versus collectivism
Conflict & conformity
Power & authority
Time orientation
Cultural & demographic homogeneity

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 Reading 6.1
Restructuring Teams for Re-engineered Organizations

Three keys to successful teams

Value & endorse dissent
Encourage fluidity of membership
Enable teams to make decisions

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 Figure 1
Three Key Elements for Success of US Teams

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 Figure 2
Team Development Model

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 Reading 6.2
HRM Outsourcing: Make or Buy Decision

Five competitive forces driving

organizations to outsource HR activities:
Downsizing
Rapid growth or decline
Globalization
Increased competition
Restructuring

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 Reading 6.2
HRM Outsourcing: Make or Buy Decision

Operational rationales for outsourcing

Small firms lack resources; large firms gain
economies of scale
Specialized HR expertise & objectivity
Reduced liability & risk in legally sensitive HR
areas
Innovations & economies of scale in HRIS
technology used by outside vendors
Simplify transactions
Reduce HR costs
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 Reading 6.2
HRM Outsourcing: Make or Buy Decision
Operational rationales for outsourcing
(continued):
Time-sensitive issues better handled by outsourcing
Temporary or cyclical increases in HR needs
Efficient vendor management practices drive costs
down more than economies of scale
Specialized vendors offer activities as their core
business & strategic focus

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 Reading 6.2
HRM Outsourcing: Make or Buy Decision
Strategic rationales for outsourcing:
Outsourcing nonstrategic activities permits HR to
move away from administration toward strategic role
Decentralization of HR function through
redeployment of some of assets to operating units
Develop less bureaucratic HR departments
Downsizing may require HR to reduce staff,
eliminating specialized in-house expertise
Outsourcing provides big picture perspective

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 Reading 6.2
HRM Outsourcing: Make or Buy Decision
Positive outcomes
Lower HR costs
Higher service quality
Realignment or redeployment of internal HR
expertise
Development of negotiation & broker skills
Enhanced credibility of HR function
Risk & uncertainty absorption by HR vendor

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 Reading 6.2
HRM Outsourcing: Make or Buy Decision

Negative outcomes
Significant cost savings not always
experienced
Vendor switching costs
Long-term vendor contracts
Disruption of firms culture
Removal or distancing of HR function from
employees
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 Reading 6.3
Productivity in Downsizing
Many downsizing firms face immediate
challenge of keeping operations going with
minimal staff
Productivity often declines
Survivors
Working more hours
Receive with bigger workload
Morale often plummets

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 Reading 6.3
Work Redesign

Typical problems
Failure or inability to identify & categorize
duties & assignments
Failure to identify when employee is over-
tasked
Failure to see when business units demands
exceed its capacity

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 Reading 6.3
Work Redesign: Task Categories
Critical tasks Minor tasks
Enable company to Add value to firm but
accomplish primary will not hinder
objectives operations or goals if
Sub-critical tasks left undone
Need to be Unnecessary tasks
performed, but Can be discarded
average standard of because they drain
quality will suffice resources

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 Reading 6.3
Work Redesign
Output from work categorization process
must be shared with all employees so they
have list of tasks for which they are
accountable
These tasks are used to drive performance
management process

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