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

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

Extent to which employee

perceives that work is important
& meaningful to those inside or
outside organization

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Exhibit 6-2

Job Characteristics Model

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What Workers Need

Changing demographics
& life styles
Worker needs vary by age,
gender, race, religion,
physical abilities, sexual
orientation, & marital & family
status

Employee needs for

work/life balance
Workers less committed to
organizations today
Also suffer from burnout &
lower performance
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Employee needs
representation (voice)
Workers want to be involved
in work-related issues &
expect organization to listen
to concerns

Employee concerns about

safety in workplace
Workers want safe, hazardfree working environment

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Types of Task Interdependence

Pooled interdependence
Individual employees work
independently of each other in
performing tasks but utilize
coordination of activities

Sequential
interdependence
Work in process flow is linear,
from one individual to another
One individual depends on
timely completion of quality
work from another coworker

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Reciprocal
interdependence
Workflow is random
Responds to immediate
situation
Employees have joint &
shared responsibilities for
work

Higher levels of
interdependence require
higher levels of
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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110

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
Cost savings
Extend work day to
24 hours

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Disadvantages
Loss of domestic
jobs
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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114

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 overtasked
Failure to see when business units demands
exceed its capacity

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Reading 6.3

Work Redesign: Task Categories

Critical tasks
Enable company to
accomplish primary
objectives
Sub-critical tasks
Need to be
performed, but
average standard of
quality will suffice

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Minor tasks
Add value to firm but
will not hinder
operations or goals if
left undone
Unnecessary tasks
Can be discarded
because they drain
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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