RJS People, Jobs& Organization

7/30/2019 RJS People, Jobs& Organization

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People, jobs and organization

Operations management is often presented as a

subject the main focus of which is on technology, systems,

procedures and facilities in other words the non-human

parts of the organization.

The manner in which an organizations human

resources are managed has a profound impact on theeffectiveness of its operations function. In this chapter we

look especially at the elements of human resource

management which are traditionally seen as being directly

within the sphere of operations management. These are,how operations managers contribute to human resource

strategy, organization design, designing the working

environment, job design, and the allocation of work

timesto operations activities.


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Work-related stress: The idea that there is a link between humanresource strategy and the incidence of stress at work is not new. Even

some of the early scientific management pioneers accepted that

working arrangements should not result in conditions that promoted

stress. Now it is generally accepted that stress can seriously undermine

the quality ofpeoples working lives and, in turn, their effectiveness of

the workplace. Here stress is defined as the adverse reaction people

have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them. In

addition to the obvious ethical reasons for avoiding work-related stress,there are also business-related benefits, such as the following.

Staff feel happier at work, their quality of working life is improved and

they perform better.

Introducing improvements is easier when stress is managedeffectively.

Employment relations: problems can be resolved more easily.

Attendance levels increase and sickness absence reduces.

Table 9.2 illustrates some of the causes of stress at work and what

operations managers can do about it.


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Job design is about how we structure each individuals jobs, the

team to which they belong (if any), their workplace and their

interface with the technology they use. It involves a number of

separate yet related elements.What tasks are to be allocated to each person in the operation?

Producing goods and services involves a whole range of different

tasks which need to be divided between the people who staff the

operation. Different approaches to the division of labour will lead todifferent task allocations.

What is the best method of performing each job? Every jobshould have an approved (or best) method of completion. And

although there are different ideas of what is best, it is generally the

most efficient method but that fits the task, and does not unduly

interfere with other tasks. How long will it take and how manypeople will be needed? Work measurement helps us calculate thetime required to do a job, and therefore how many people will be

needed.


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How do we maintain commitment? Understanding how wecan encourage people and maintain job commitment is,

arguably, the most important of the issues in job design. This is

why behavioral approaches, including empowerment,

teamwork and flexible working are at the core of job design.

What technology is available and how will it be used?Many operational tasks require the use of technology. Not

only does the technology need to be appropriately designed,

but also so does the interface between the people and the

hardware.

What are the environmental conditions of the workplace?The conditions under which jobs are performed will have a

significant impact on peoples effectiveness, Although often

considered a part of job design, we treat it separately in this

chapter.


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Task allocation the division of labour: Any operation must decide

on the balance between using specialists or generalists. This idea is

related to the division of labour dividing the total task down into

smaller parts, each of which is accomplished by a single person or

team. There are some real advantages in division of labour: It promotes faster learning. It is obviously easier to learn how todo a relatively short and simple task than a long and complex one.

This means that new members of staff can be quickly trained and

assigned to their tasks when they are short and simple.Automation becomes easier. Dividing a total task into small partsraises the possibility of automating some of those small tasks.

Substituting technology for labour is considerably easier for short and

simple tasks than for long and complex ones.

Reduced non-productive work. This is probably the most importantbenefit of division oflabour. In large, complex tasks the proportion of

time spent picking up tools and materials, putting them down again

and generally finding, positioning and searching can be very high

indeed.


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There are also serious drawbacks to highly divided jobs:

Monotony. The shorter the task, the more often operators willneed to repeat it. Repeatingthe same task, for example every 30

seconds, eight hours a day and five days a week, can hardly becalled a fulfilling job. As well as any ethical objections, there are

other, more obviously practical objections to jobs which induce

such boredom. These include the increased likelihood of

absenteeism and staff turnover, the increased likelihood of errorand even the deliberate sabotage of the job.

Physical injury. The continued repetition of a very narrowrange of movements can, in extreme cases, lead to physical

injury. The over-use of some parts of the body (especially thearms, hands and wrists) can result in pain and a reduction in

physical capability. This is sometimes called repetitive strain

injury (RSI).


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Low flexibility. Dividing a task up into many small partsoften gives the job design a rigidity which is difficult to change

under changing circumstances. For example, if an assembly

line has been designed to make one particular product but thenhas to change to manufacture a quite different product, the

whole line will need redesigning. This will probably involve

changing every operators set of tasks, which can be a long and

difficult procedure. Poor robustness. Highly divided jobs imply materials (orinformation) passing between several stages. If one of these

stages is not working correctly, for example because some

equipment is faulty, the whole operation is affected. On theother hand, if each person is

performing the whole of the job, any problems will only affect

that one persons output.


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Designing job methods scientific management: The term

scientific management became established in 1911 with the

publication of the book of the same name by Fredrick Taylor. In

this work he identified what he saw as the basic tenets of

scientific management: All aspects of work should be investigated on a scientific basis

to establish the laws, rules and formulae governing the best

methods of working.

Such an investigative approach to the study of work isnecessary to establish what constitutes a fairdayswork.

Workers should be selected, trained and developed

methodically to perform their tasks.

Managers should act as the planners of the work (analysing

jobs and standardizing the best method of doing the job) while

workers should be responsible for carrying out the jobs to the

standards laid down.

Cooperation should be achieved between management and

workers based on the maximumprosperity of both.


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Designing for job commitment behavioral approaches

to: job design: Jobs which are designed purely on division of

labour, scientific management or even purely ergonomic

principles can alienate the people performing them. Jobdesign should also take into account the desire of individuals

to fulfill their needs for self-esteem and personal development.

This is where motivation theory and its contribution to the

behavioral approach tojob design is important.

Job rotation: If increasing the number of related tasks in the

job is constrained in some way, for example by the technology

of the process, one approach may be to encourage job

rotation.

Job enlargement: The most obvious method of achieving atleast some of the objectives of behavioral job design is by

allocating a larger number of tasks to individuals. If these

extra tasks are broadly of the same type as those in the

original job, the change is calledjob enlargement.


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Job enrichment: Job enrichment, not only means increasing

the number of tasks, but also allocating extra tasks which

involve more decision making, greater autonomy and greater

control over the job.

E E i i f h b


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Empowerment: Empowerment is an extension of the autonomy job

characteristic prominent in the behavioural approach to job design.

However, it is usually taken to mean more than autonomy. Whereas

autonomy means giving staff the ability to change how they do their

jobs, empowermentmeans giving staff the authority to make changesto the job itself, as well as how it isperformed.

Team-working: A development in job design which is closely linked

to the empowerment concept is that of team-based work

organization.The benefits of teamwork can be summarized as:

improving productivity through enhanced motivation and

flexibility;

improving quality and encouraging innovation;

increasing satisfaction by allowing individuals to contribute more

effectively;

making it easier to implement technological changes in the

workplace because teams are willing to share the challenges this

brings.

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