6.3 Improving organisational design and HR flow Flashcards
What is job design?
grouping together/ dividing up tasks + responsibilities to create complete jobs.
-> attempts to motivate + engage employees by avoiding repetitive work.
what is Job enlargement?
Keeps the same level of complexity of tasks for employees
But increases the number of similar duties.
‘Horizontal loading’
- Allows employees to do a range of tasks
Receptionist: answering phone, recording petty cash + updating customer records
An example of job enlargement is job rotation: what is this?
Employees switching from one duty to another
Front service, tills, fitting rooms, stockroom.
Why do businesses do this?
Keeps employees motivated and avoids boredom.
what is Job enrichment?
- > when jobs are redesigned to provide more challenge and complex tasks
- > This is called ‘vertical loading’
- > Makes their job harder
- > Giving more responsibility to the employee
- > Giving authority to solve own problems
- > Giving employees more training to allow them to carry out their enriched jobs effectively
What is empowerment?
- > Gives workers greater control over their working life
- > Opportunity to decide how to carry out their duties and organise their work
- > May spend some of their time analysing their problems to find a solution
Hackman and Oldham Model: (5 steps)
Model states it is important to design jobs which have:
- Skill variety
- Task significance - what they do, matters
- Task identity - handing over a complete unit of work to the next stage of the process
- Autonomy - independence to make decisions
- Feedback - information regarding the quality of employee work
What recent developments have there been in job design?
- Flexible working times
- Flexible contract options
- Flexible location
What would influence job design?
- Businesses overall objectives
- Employee performance
- Health and safety & other legal requirements
- Meeting customer requirements
- Existing and potential skills of the workforce
- The resources available
- Expected future developments
Features of Organisational Design
- More than just organisational structure
- Should include mission and values
- Shows the way in which decisions are made and who makes them
- Should reflect the culture of the business
Shows:
- > Route of communication
- > Authority and responsibility
- > Roles and titles
- > Who is accountable to who
Key factors in organisational design:
- Levels of hierarchy
- Span of control
- Delegation
- Authority
- Centralisation and decentralisation
Levels of hierarchy:
Large number of levels is a ‘tall structure’
Small number of levels is a ‘flat structure’
Tall structures:
-> often used once a business has grown
-> Therefore has a longer chain of command
HOWEVER
Tall structures can experience communication issues
-> Messages can be distorted or not passed on (chinese whispers)
Span of control:
- Number of people who report directly to a manager
- Usually span of control and levels of hierarchy have an inverse relationship
- The taller the structure, the narrower the span of control and vice versa
- One structure can incorporate a wide and narrow span of control
- > Narrow span of control: Allows leaders to control their subordinates
- > Traditional view is that span of control shouldn’t exceed 6 if leaders want to maintain control
- > Wide span of control: Gives subordinates more independence
Delegation:
- Passing down of authority through the organisation
- Small businesses: owner tends to make decisions
- Bigger business: decision making gets passed down
- Can reflect organisation’s culture
Giving employees more authority is likely to lead to a wider span of control.
Authority:
- Linked to delegation as it involves passing down authority down the structure
- Where authority resides is an important decision
- Giving authority includes power to decide:
- Actions in situations
- Committing of resources
- Ordering of subordinates
