Chapter 16: Work Design & Technology

1. Chapter 16: Work Design & Technology • Technology in the workplace affects employee behavior in a variety of ways… • Continuous Improvement Processes The goal is to continuously reduce/eliminate variations from a set of standards to lower costs, reduce errors and improve quality. • Processes Reengineering Start with a “clean sheet of paper” and re-think/re-design everything in terms of the processes used in operations. Distinctive competencies define what it is that an organization does better than its competition

2. Technology (cont…) Mass Customization • Mass production: Using division of labor, standardization, and automated processes to manufacture products in large quantities. • Mass customization: Processes that are flexible enough to create products and services that are individually tailored to individual customers (e.g., built to order products)

3. OB in an E-World • E-commerce: the sales side of electronic business • E-business: the full breadth of activities included in a successful internet-based enterprise • E-organization: a profit or • Internet: a worldwide network of interconnected computers. • Intranets: an organization’s private internet • Extranet: extended intranets accessible

4. Selected Implications for Individual & Group Behavior • Motivation: • ex) “cyberloafing” = surfing non-job related sites during formal work hours • Ethics: • ex) electronic surveillance • Decision making (group): • ex) team-based e-organizations and decision making • Communication: • ex) virtual meetings (e.g. WebEx) • Politics/networking: • ex) cyber-schmoozing

5. Requisite Task Attributes Theory Job complexity (variety, autonomy, responsibility, knowledge & skills, required social interaction, optional social interaction) relates to satisfaction and absenteeism. Why is this theory useful? We learned that employees respond differently to different types of jobs, a preliminary set of task attributes can be assessed, and individual differences should be considered in terms of employee reactions to jobs.

6. The Job Characteristics Model • Identifies 5 job characteristics and their relationship to personal and work outcomes. The 5 core job dimensions (split as “high” or “low” for each) are: • Skill variety • Task identity • Task significance • Autonomy • Feedback

7. Job Characteristics Model • The bottom line: • people who work on jobs with high-core job dimensions are…. • generally more motivated, satisfied and productive than those who do not…. • he core job dimensions lead to personal and work outcomes through “critical psychological states” and “employee growth-need strength” and not directly.

8. Social Information Processing (SIP) Model • Employees adopt attitudes and behaviors about their jobs (for better or worse) in response to the social cues provided by others with whom they have contact.

9. Work Redesign Options • Job Rotation (or what many call cross-training) The periodic shifting of a worker from one task to another. • Job Enlargement The horizontal expansion of jobs. • Job Enrichment The vertical expansion of jobs (it increases the degree to which employees control the planning, execution and evaluation of his/her work)

10. Work Space Design • Size (i.e., square feet per employee) - used to be linked to status. • Arrangement – (i.e., distance between people and facilities – you tend to interact more with those who are close to you in terms of where they work) • Privacy – (i.e., the presence or absence of walls, partitions, cubes - about 40 million US workers work in cubicles), • Feng Shui – (i.e., an ancient Chinese system for arranging a person’s surroundings so they are in harmony/balance with nature. Goal = maximize “Chi” or life force)

11. Work Schedule Options • Flextime (i.e. flexible work hours) workers must be at their jobs during “core” hours but can either start early and leave early or start late and leave late • Job Sharing (i.e. having 2 or more employees split a 40 hour work week). This can be done by splitting each day (i.e. working from 8am-12noon and another employee works 1pm to 5pm) or by splitting the week (i.e. working Monday thru Wed and another employee works Wed thru Friday). • Telecommuting – working from home via a computer linked to the office. This is often associated with a “virtual” office.

12. Summary and Implications for Managers • Technology is changing people’s jobs and their work behavior. • Quality management can increase employee stress as individuals discover performance expectations are constantly being increased. • Reengineering is eliminating millions of jobs and completely reshaping the jobs of those who remain. • Mass customization require employees to learn new skills and accept increased responsibilities. • E-organizations can create distractions for workers and is changing communication within organizations • An understanding of work design can help managers design jobs that positively affect employee motivation. • Work conditions and design variables can directly influence employee satisfaction • Alternative work schedule options have grown in popularity and are important tools in changing workplaces.