Solutions to Assignments
MBA and MBA (Banking & Finance)
MMPC 002 - Human Resources Management
MMPC-002/TMA/JULY/2022
Question No. 3. Explain the importance of job analysis, job design, socialization and mobility in Human resource planning citing relevant examples.
IMPORTANCE OF JOB ANALYSIS
According to scientific management, the key to productivity is a precise
understanding of the tasks that constitute a job. If the motions of workers are
to become standardized and machine-like, then it is necessary to be certain
about what is to be accomplished, as well as what abilities and materials are
necessary to do the job. For many years, job analysis was considered the
backbone of the scientific clipboards and stopwatches, was the method used
to determine the most efficient way to perform specific jobs.
As the popularity of scientific management declined after World War II,
however, so did the popularity of job analysis. With the new emphasis on
human relations as the key to productivity job analysis was used primarily to
set salary scales. But in the modern times workers and employers began to
take renewed interest in this area because of concerns about two issues:
unfair discrimination and comparable worth.
There are two areas where unfair discrimination in hiring can occur: in the
standards set for being hired; and in the procedures used to assess the
applicant‟s ability to meet those standards. Job analysis addresses the
question of what tasks, taken together actually constitute a job. Without this
information, standards for hiring may appear to be arbitrary – or worse,
designed to exclude certain individual or groups from the workplace.
More recently, the issue of comparable worth has also contributed to a new
interest in job analysis. Comparable worth refers to equal pay for individuals
who hold different jobs but perform work that is comparable in terms of knowledge required or level of responsibility. The major issue of the
comparable worth controversy is that women who are employed in jobs that
are comparable to those held by men are paid, on the average, about 65
percent of what a man would earn. In order to determine the comparability of
job tasks so that salaries can also be compared, a proper job analysis is
necessary. Comparable work is an issue of considerable interest to many
people.
IMPORTANCE OF JOB DESIGN
Job design has emerged as an important area of work analysis. It is based on
growing conceptual and empirical base and has commanded research
attention and is being widely applied to actual practice of management.
Job design concern and approaches are considered to have begun with the
scientific management movement. Pioneering scientific managers like Taylor
and Gilbreth examined jobs with techniques such as time and motion
analysis. Their goal was to maximize human efficiency on the job. Taylor
suggested that task design might be the most important single element in
scientific management.
Job designing evolved into what is popularly known as job engineering. The
industrial engineering approach is basically concerned with products,
process, tool design, plant layout, operating procedures, work measurement,
standards, and human-machine interactions. It has also been closely
associated with sophisticated computer applications involving Computer
Assisted Design (CAD). These computer systems had a positive impact by
reducing task and workflow uncertainty. Top management could readily
perceive the immediate cost savings form job engineering, but certain
behavioural aspects like quality absenteeism, and turnover were generally
ignored.
In the 1950s, different methods were being adopted by practicing managers.
For example, IBM job rotation and job enlargement programmes were
introduced. Job enlargement programmes essentially loaded the jobs
horizontally, and expanded the number of operations performed by the
worker and made the job less specialized.
Job rotation programmes reduced boredom by switching people around to
various jobs. Although boredom at work is still a significant problem in the
last several years, attention has shifted to new demanding challenges facing
employees on the job. For example, because of downsizing of organizations
and increasingly advanced technology, jobs have suddenly become much
more demanding and employees must differently adapt to unpredictable
changes. For example, in manufacturing assembly line methods are being
replaced by flexible, customized production and computer-integrated
manufacturing. This new manufacturing approach requires workers to deal
with an ever-increasing line of product and sophisticated technology.
In this context, job design takes on special importance in today‟s human
resource management. It is essential to design jobs so that stress can be
reduced, motivation can be enhanced, and satisfaction of employees and their
performance can be improved so that organizations can effectively compete
in the global market place.
Job Rotation: An alternative to boredom in work place is job rotation. Job rotation implies
moving of employees form one job to another without any fundamental
change in the nature of the job. The employee may be performing different
jobs that are of similar nature. The advantages of job rotation may be reduced
boredom, broadening of employees‟ knowledge and skills, and making them
competent in several jobs rather than only one. However, caution needs to be
exercised while shifting people frequently form one job to another, as it may
cause interruption or the employee may feel alienated in a new job. Another
factor is job rotation does not provide the employee any challenge on the job
and, hence, those employees who are seeking challenge may feel frustrated.
Job Enlargement: Job enlargement involves adding more tasks to a job. It is a horizontal
expansion and increases jobs scope and gives a variety of tasks to the
jobholder. It is essentially adding more tasks to a single job. It definitely
reduces boredom and monotony by providing the employee more variety of
tasks in the job. Thus, it helps to increase interest in work and efficiency. In
one study it was found that by expanding the scope of job, workers got more
satisfaction, committed less errors, and customer service improved. However,
research has provided contrary evidence also in that enlargement sometimes
may not motivate an individual in the desired direction.
Job Enrichment.
Job Enrichment: Another approach to designing jobs in job enrichment. In the earlier two
methods, human capabilities are not being utilized to a maximum and
employees are feeling frustrated. Job enrichment involves a vertical
expansion of a job by adding more responsibilities and freedom to it.
According to Herzberg, job enrichment is the type of expansion of a job that
gives employees more challenge, more responsibility, more opportunity to
grow and contribute his or her ideas to the organization‟s success. In other
words, job enrichment increases job depth that refers to the degree of control
employees have over their work.
Job enrichment basically provides autonomy while retaining accountability. It
generates feeling of personal responsibility and achievement. Job enrichment
certainly improves the quality of work output, employee motivation, and
satisfaction.
IMPORTANCE OF SOCIALIZATION
The idea of role comes form sociology and it is the pattern of actions
expected of a person in his activities involving others. It arises as a result of
the position one occupied in the social structure as he/she interacts with other
people. In order to be able to coordinate his work with others in an
organization, one needs some way to anticipate their behaviour as one
interacts with them. Role performs this functions in the social system.
A person functions in roles both on the job and away from it, as shown in
Figure 2. One person performs the occupational role of worker, the family
role of father, the social role of club president, and many others. In his
various roles he is both buyer and seller, boss and subordinate, a father and
son, and an advisor and seeker of advice. Each role calls for different types of
behaviour. Within the work environment alone, a worker has more than one
role. He may be a worker in group A, a subordinate of foreman in B, and
machinist, a member of a union, and a representative on the safety
committee. Undoubtedly role is the most complexly organized response
pattern of which a human being is capable. Activities of manager and
workers a like are guided by their role perceptions, that is, how they think
they are supposed to act in a given situation. Since mangers perform many
different roles, they must be highly adaptive in order to change from one role
to another quickly. The factory foreman‟s role particularly requires that he be
adaptive in working with the extremes of subordinate and superior, staff and
line, technical and non-technical, and education and uneducated.
A role set is the entire configuration of surrounding roles as they affect a
particular role, such as the foreman‟s role just described. That is, all the
different persons with whom the foreman interacts in this role of foreman
have role expectations concerning the way in which he should act, and these
expectations collectively make up the role set for his role as foreman, this
role set arises partlyfrom the nature of the job itself, because managers in
equivalent jobs but in different companies tend to perceive and play their
roles in about the same way.
The existence of role expectations means that a manager or other person
interacting with someone else needs to perceive three role values, and shown
interacting with someone else needs to perceive three role values, as shown in
Figure 3. First, he needs to see his own role as required by the function he is
performing. Then he needs to see the role of the person he contacts. Finally,
he needs to see his role as seen by the other person. Obviously he cannot
meet the needs of others unless he can perceive what they expect of him.
Research shows that where there is wide variance in a manager‟s role
perception of his job and the employee‟s role expectations of that job, there
tends to be poor motivation and inefficiency. They may even have difficulty
communicating because they will not be talking about the same things in the
same way. For example, difficulties may arise because a manager sees his
role as that of a hard boiled pusher, but his employees expect the opposite.
When role expectations of a job are materially different or opposite, the
incumbent in the job tends to be in role conflict because he cannot meet one
expectation without rejecting the other. A president in one company faced
role conflict, for example, when he learned that both the controller and the
personnel director expected him to allocate
Complex Web as they interact:The new organizational planning function to
their departments. Regarding the existence of role conflict research suggests that a manager bases his decision primarily on legitimacy (which
expectations he thinks is more “right” and reasonably) and sanction (how he
thinks he will be affected if he follows one expectation in preference to the
other).
In case role expectations are substantially unknown because of poor
communication or are inadequately defined, role ambiguity exists, and it is
more difficult to predict how a person in that role will act.
From a manager‟s point of view, a fuller understanding of roles should help
him know what others expect of him and how he should act. Knowing this he
should be more adaptable to each unique role relationship. His decision
making should improve because he will understand why other people are
acting the way they are. He will also recognize the variety of roles each
employee plays and will try to provide motivations and satisfactions for those
several job roles.
IMPORTANCE OF MOBILITY
Mobility is an organizational activity to cope with the changing
organizational requirements like change in organizational structure,
fluctuation in requirement of organizational product, introduction of new
method of work etc. Mobility in an organizational context includes mainly
„promotion‟and „transfer‟. Sometimes, „demotion‟also comes under mobility.
Purposes of Mobility
Mobility serve the following purposes:
a) To improve organizational effectiveness;
b) To maximise employee efficiency;
c) To cope with changes in operation; and
d) To ensure discipline.
A. Promotion
In simpler terms, promotion refers to upward movement in present job
leading to greater responsibilities, higher status and better salary. Promotion
may be temporary or permanent depending upon the organizational
requirement. According to Clothier and Spriegel, “promotion is the transfer
of an employee to a job which pays more money or one that carries some
preffered status.”
B. Demotion
Demotion refers to the lowering down of the status, salary and responsibilites
of an employee. Demotion is used as a disciplinary measure in an
organization. The habitual patterns of behaviour such as violation of the rules
and conduct, poor attendance record, insubordination where the individuals
are demoted. Beach (1975) defines demotion as “the assignment of an
individual to a job of lower rank and pay usually involving lower level of
difficulty and responsibility”.
C. Transfer
A transfer is a horizontal or lateral movement of an employee from one job,
section, department, shift, plant or position to another at the same or another
place where his salary, status and responsibility are the same. Yoder and
others (1958) define transfer as “a lateral shift causing movement of
individuals from one position to another usually without involving marked
change in duties, responsibilities, skills needed or compensation”. Transfer
may be initiated either by the company or the employee. It also can be
temporary or permanent.
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