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• Work design


  Specifying the contents and methods of jobs
• Importance of work design

  • An organization's dependence on human efforts (i.e., work) to accomplish its goals
• Job design


  The act of specifying the contents and methods of jobs
• Two basic approaches to job design

  • Efficiency school
  • Behavioral school
• Efficiency approach


  • Advocates for high levels of specialization, where workers focus on performing narrow and repetitive tasks to achieve efficiency and productivity gains
• Behavioral approach


  • Promotes job enrichment and job rotation to provide employees with opportunities for skill development, autonomy, and a sense of achievement, thereby reducing monotony and enhancing job satisfaction
• Specialization


  Work that concentrates on some aspect of a product or service
• Behavioral approaches to job design

  • Job enlargement
  • Job rotation
  • Job enrichment
  • Self-directed teams
  • Ergonomics
• Job enlargement


  Giving a worker a larger portion of the total task, by horizontal loading
• Job rotation


  Workers periodically exchange jobs
• Job enrichment


  Increasing responsibility for planning and coordination tasks, by vertical loading
• Self-directed teams


  Groups empowered to make certain changes in their work processes
• Ergonomics


  Incorporation of human factors in the design of the workplace
• Reasons people work


  • Earn a living
  • Self-realization
  • Status
  • Physical and mental stimulation
  • Socialization
• Quality of work life


  Affects workers' overall sense of well-being and contentment, as well as worker productivity
• Working conditions


  • Temperature and humidity
  • Ventilation
  • Illumination
  • Noise and vibration
• Work Time and Work Breaks


  Reasonable (and sometimes flexible) work hours can provide a sense of freedom and control over one's work
• Occupational Health Care


  Good worker health contributes to productivity, minimizes health care costs, and enhances workers' sense of well-being
• Safety


  Worker safety is one of the most basic issues in job design. This area needs constant attention from management, employees, and designers.
• OSHA


  Occupational Safety and Health Administration, created by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970
• Ethical issues affecting operations

  • Work methods
  • Working conditions and employee safety
  • Accurate record keeping
  • Unbiased performance appraisals
  • Fair compensation
  • Opportunities for advancement
• Time-based system


  Compensation based on time an employee has worked during a pay period
• Output-based (incentive) system


  Compensation based on amount of output an employee produced during a pay period
• Types of incentive pay systems

  • Individual incentive plans
  • Group incentive plans
  • Management Compensation
• Methods analysis


  Analyzing how a job is done
• Methods analysis techniques


  • Flow process chart
  • Worker-machine chart
  • Motion study
• Therbligs


  Basic elemental motions that make up a job
• Micromotion study


  Use of motion pictures and slow motion to study motions that otherwise would be too rapid to analyze
• Work measurement


  Determining how long it should take to do a job
• Standard time


  The time it should take a fully trained and qualified worker to complete a specific task, working at an efficient yet sustainable pace, using specific methods, tools and equipment, raw materials, and workplace arrangement
• Time study methods


  • Stopwatch time study
  • Standard elemental times
  • Predetermined time standards
• Stopwatch time study


  Development of a time standard based on observations of one worker taken over a number of cycles
• Work sampling


  Technique for estimating the proportion of time that a worker or machine spends on various activities and in idle time
• Random number table


  Table consisting of unordered sequences of numbers, used to determine random observation schedules
• Knowledge-based pay


  Pay system used by organizations to reward workers who undergo training that increases their skills.
• Management Compensation


  Many organizations that traditionally rewarded managers and senior executives on the basis of output are now seriously reconsidering that approach.
• Flow process chart


  Chart used to examine the overall sequence of an operation by focusing on movements of the operator or flow of materials.
• Worker-machine chart


  Chart used to determine portions of a work cycle during which an operator and equipment are busy or idle.
• Motion study


  Systematic study of the human motions used to perform an operation.
• Motion study principles


  Guidelines for designing motion-efficient work procedures.