Wk 5

• Job characteristics model (JCM)

  A model proposing that any job can be described in terms of five core job dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback
• Job design


  • The way elements in a job are organized can influence employee effort
• Job redesign


  1. Job rotation

  2. Job enrichment

  3. Relational job design
• Job rotation


  Periodic shifting of an employee from one task to another with similar skill requirements at the same organizational level (also called cross-training)
• Strengths of job rotation

  • Reduces boredom, increases motivation, helps employees better understand their work contributions
• Weaknesses of job rotation

  • Creates disruptions, requires extra time for supervisors addressing questions and training time, reduced efficiencies
• Job enrichment


  Adding high-level responsibilities to the job to increase a sense of purpose, direction, meaning, and intrinsic motivation
• Relational job design


  Shifts the spotlight from the employee to those whose lives are affected by the job that the employee performs, making jobs more prosocially motivating
• Flextime


  Flexible work time arrangements, including breaks, shifts, and compressed workweeks
• Flextime in Finland


  • Majority of full-time workers have a legal right to decide the location and timing for at least half of their working schedule
• Job sharing


  Two or more individuals splitting a traditional full-time job
• Benefits of job sharing

  • Allows an organization to draw on the talents of more than one individual for a given job, opens the opportunity to acquire skilled workers who might not be available on a fulltime basis
• Challenges of job sharing

  • Can be difficult to find compatible pairs of employees who can successfully coordinate the intricacies of one job, employer's decision often based on policy and financial reasons
• Telecommuting


  Working at home or anywhere else the employee chooses that is outside the physical workplace
• Benefits of telecommuting


  • Increases performance and job satisfaction, reduces role stress and turnover intentions, more benefits for employees who work virtually more than 2.5 days a week
• Downsides of telecommuting


  • May lead to social loafing, manager working remotely can negatively affect performance, can increase feelings of isolation and reduce coworker relationship quality
• Employee involvement and participation (EIP)

  A process that uses employees' input to increase their commitment to organizational success
• Participative management


  A process in which subordinates share a significant degree of decision-making power with their immediate superiors
• Participative management


  • Acts as a panacea for poor morale and low productivity, trust and confidence in leaders is essential, studies have yielded mixed results
• Representative participation


  A system in which workers participate in organizational decision making through a small group of representative employees
• Forms of representative participation

  • Works councils
  • Board representatives
• Almost every country in Western Europe requires representative participation