Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A federal court has determined that in New London, Connecticut, the police were justified in denying employment to an applicant who was too smart to be a policeman. Yep, he was too smart for the New London police force. The Atlanta Mobile Register writes "Police throughout the country should be enraged, because the policy at issue in this case feeds the unfortunate stereotype of the "dumb cop." For that matter, the citizens of New London, Conn., should be enraged, too, because it is their police department that is ensuring that the officers who serve the public are of only average intelligence. The policy is insane. The case began when Robert Jordan, a 49-year-old college graduate, applied for the New London police force. When he took the entrance exam, he scored 33 points - which indicates an IQ of about 125. But the department only considers candidates who score between 20 and 27, with 20 representing an IQ of about 100, which is supposed to be average. "The department's theory is that those who score too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after receiving costly training. "Mr. Jordan sued, saying that he was the victim of illegal discrimination. Two federal courts have now refused to uphold his claim, though, saying that because the same standards were applied to all applicants, no illegal discrimination occurred. The courts also ruled that even though the policy might be unwise - we would say flat-out stupid - it was at least arguably a rational way to reduce expensive job turnover." (Atlanta Mobile Register 09/11/00)"
The principal object of management - secure the maximum prosperity for both employers and employees, but soldiering was prevalent.
Causes of Soldiering - The fallacy that efficiency improvement will lead to layoffs - Systematic free-riding from imperfect management (hourly wage system) - Inefficient rule-of-thumb methods
JOB FAMILY A group of individual jobs with similar characteristics; e.g. marketing, engineering, office support, technical.
JOB A collection of tasks/duties that a person is required to perform at work.; e.g. customer support representative.
TASK /DUTY A specific statement of what a person does; for example, answers the telephone.
Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) A systematic occupational classification structure based on interrelationships of job tasks and requirements. Contains standardized and comprehensive descriptions of twenty-thousand jobs.
O*NET Database
A online database of all DOT occupations plus an update of over 3,500 additional DOT occupations. Data are collected and published continuously. http://online.onetcenter.org
Evaluation of Taylorism
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Contributions
- cost-efficiency and productivity improvement, especially under stable environment (competitors, client needs, technology), mass-production, market-dominant players
Limitations
1. Inhumanization overlook the value of intrinsic rewards and social relationships, work alienation 2. Adversarial labor relations conflict between labor and management regarding the appropriate level of goal and profit distribution, Drive System focusing on productivity 3. Deskilling 4. Inflexibility social, political, psychological, and economic costs for change
Breath of job
The number and variety of tasks that will be grouped together to form employee jobs
Autonomy
the extent to which individual workers are given the freedom and independence to plan and carry out work tasks. potential benefits: information & learning, motivation & ownership, flexibility to adapt quickly to change
Interdependence
the extent to which an individuals work actions and outcomes are influenced by other people.
Figure 4-1
Job Analysis
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Job are identified through a process known as Job Analysis. Job analysis is a process of getting detailed information about jobs to determine the responsibilities of a job and the associated knowledge, skill, and ability requirements. collect information that identifies similarities and differences in the work
Job Description
Job Specification
Statement of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that an individual must have to perform the job
Most analyses require responses for at least 100 different task statements. These task statements usually begin with an action verb that describes a specific activity
Done
1=small amount : 5=large amount
Example: Task inventory for customer service duty of a Drug Clerk in a Pharmacy Pharmacy Task X if Time Spent Difficulty Importance
1=one of the easiest : 5=one of the hardest 1=not important : 5=extremely important
1. Answer customers questions about products and services 2. Call patient about script not picked up after 7 days 3. Make refunds 4. Recommend products to
Critical-incidents technique
Job agents are asked to generate a number of statements that describe behaviors they consider particularly helpful or harmful for accomplishing work.
Each statement includes a description of the situation and the actions that determined whether the outcome was desirable or undesirable.
a structured questionnaire that assesses the work behaviors required for a job. Such as:
Information inputwhere and how a worker obtains needed information such as education and or experience (e.g., use of written material) Mental processesreasoning and decision-making activities (e.g., using mathematics) Work outputphysical actions required for the job, as well as tools or devices used (e.g., use of keyboard devices) Relationships with other personsthe interactions and social connections that a worker forms with others (e.g., Instruction, supervision) Job contextthe physical and social surroundings where work activities are performed (e.g., low temperature) Other job characteristicsactivities, conditions, or characteristics that are important but not contained in the other five dimensions (e.g., controlled work pace)
collects information not about tasks or duties but rather about the characteristics people must have in order to do the job well. transcribed into smaller document called a Job Description by the job analysts.
Competency Modeling
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An alternative to traditional job design that focused on competencies (a broader set of characteristics and capabilities) that workers need to effectively perform job duties
Competencies include both can-do (knowledge, skills, and abilities) and will-do (motivation, values, and interests) characteristics of people. One area of difference between competency modeling and traditional job analysis is that competency modeling tends to link work analysis procedures and outcomes to business goals and strategies
Job Requirements
Recruitment / Selection Performance Appraisal Training and Development
Determine the qualifications necessary to perform a job Provide performance criteria for evaluating employees Determine training needs and develop instructional programs
Compensation Management
Organizational Structure
When an organization makes hiring or promotion decisions that have discriminatory effects, the organization can defend itself successfully by showing that it based its decisions on good, solid analyses of the jobs involved.
Job Design
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The process of job design focuses on determining what tasks will be grouped together to form employee jobs
Design for Efficiency (Mechanistic Approach / Industrial engineering)
simplify work tasks as much as possible
Jo b
Core job dimensions Skill variety Task identity Task significance Autonomy
Critical Psychological status Experienced meaningfulness of the work Experienced responsibility for work outcomes Knowledge of results Employee growth need strength
Personal and Work outcomes High intrinsic work motivation High work performance High job satisfaction Low absenteeism and turnover
Feedback
Often the same factors that enhance efficiency (e.g., repetition, standardization) reduce motivation.
Important not to overload and stress employees. Probably curvilinear: moderate levels of job enrichment/enlargement enhances performance.
Balancing costs
Increased employee responsibility means higher wages. Enlarged/enriched jobs will require more training and more selective hiring systems. Biological or perceptual job redesign will involve altering or replacing equipment, technologies, etc Need to balance gains in productivity vs. upfront costs.
Closing Questions
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Giving workers more autonomy is a sure way T or to improve their performance F The primary objective of good work design is to cluster tasks into jobs that maximize the T or efficiency of workers F
People who continuously perform repetitive T or tasks often find their work to be unsatisfying F