Assignment 7

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CH06PPT-withnotes.pptx

Chapter 6

Job Design and Performance

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Introduction

The jobs that people perform in organizations are the building blocks of all organization structures

A major contributor to effective job performance is job design

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Job Design Defined

The process of specifying the tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a job

As jobs evolve they require redesign

Job design is an ongoing, dynamic process

We will use job design to refer to any and all managerial efforts to create jobs whether initially or subsequently.

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While job design specifically refers to the initial determination of job tasks duties and responsibility, jobs evolve and will redesign. We will look at job design as all managerial efforts to create jobs whether initially or subsequently.

Quality of Work Life

Quality of work life (QWL) refers to a philosophy of management that…

Enhances the dignity of all workers

Introduces changes in an organization’s culture

Improves the physical and emotional well-being of employees

QWL embodies the theories and ideas of

The human relations movement of the 1950s

Job enrichment efforts of the 1960s and 1970s

Has been partially responsible for inspiring research and interest in work–family conflict issues in the 1980s to today

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Quality of work (QWL) life is an important consideration in job design. It attempts to improve the physical and psychological well-being of workers.

Quality of Work Life

Indicators of QWL

Accident rates

Sick leave usage

Employee turnover

Stress

Number of grievances filed

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Indicators of quality of work life include accident rates, sick leave usage, employee turnover, stress, and number of grievances filed. In some organizations, QWL programs are intended to increase employee trust, involvement, and problem solving so as to increase both worker satisfaction and organizational effectiveness. Thus, the concept and application of QWL are broad and involve more than jobs, but the jobs that people do are important sources of satisfaction.

The continuing challenge to management is to provide for quality of work life and to improve production, quality, and efficiency through revitalization of business and industry. At present, the trade-offs between the gains in human terms from improved quality of work life and the gains in economic terms from revitalization aren’t fully known.

Quality of Work Life and Job Design

Job design attempts to…

Identify the most important needs of employees and the organization

Remove obstacles in the workplace that frustrate those needs

Improve organizational effectiveness

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Job design attempts (1) to identify the most important needs of employees and the organization and (2) to remove obstacles in the workplace that frustrate those needs. Managers hope that the results are jobs that fulfill important individual needs and contribute to individual, group, and organizational effectiveness. Managers are, in fact, designing jobs for teams and groups. Some studies have reported that employees who participate in teams get greater satisfaction from their jobs. But other studies report contrary results. So we’re left with the uncomfortable, but realistic, conclusion that quality of work life improvements through job design cannot be ensured in specific instances. Obviously, designing jobs is complex. This chapter reviews the important theories, research, and practices of job design.

EXHIBIT 6.1 Job Design and Job Performance

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The conceptual model in Exhibit 6.1 is based on extensive research and practical experience. The model includes the various terms and concepts appearing in the research literature. When linked together, these concepts describe the important determinants of job performance and organizational effectiveness. The model takes into account a number of sources of complexity. It recognizes that individuals react differently to jobs. While one person may derive positive satisfaction from a job, another may not. It also recognizes the difficult trade-offs between organizational and individual needs.

Job Performance Outcomes

Objective

Personal Behavior

Intrinsic and Extrinsic

Job Satisfaction

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Quantity and quality of output, absenteeism, tardiness, and turnover are objective outcomes that can be measured in quantitative terms. For each job, implicit or explicit standards exist for each of these objective outcomes. Industrial engineering studies establish standards for daily quantity, and quality control specialists establish tolerance limits for acceptable quality. These aspects of job performance account for characteristics of the product, client, or service for which the job holder is responsible. But job performance includes other outcomes.

Job Performance Outcomes

Intrinsic

Extrinsic

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Job outcomes include intrinsic and extrinsic work outcomes. The distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic outcomes is important for understanding people’s reactions to their jobs. In a general sense, an intrinsic outcome is an object or event that follows from the worker’s own efforts and doesn’t require the involvement of any other per-son. Contemporary job design theory defines intrinsic motivation in terms of the employee’s “empowerment” to achieve outcomes from the application of individual ability and talent. Such outcomes typically are thought to be solely in the province of professional and technical jobs; yet all jobs potentially have opportunities for intrinsic out-comes. Such outcomes involve feelings of responsibility, challenge, and recognition; they result from such job characteristics as variety, autonomy, identity, and significance.

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Job Satisfaction

Refers to feelings, beliefs, and attitudes that employees have regarding their jobs

Job satisfaction depends on the levels of intrinsic and extrinsic outcomes and how the job holder views those outcomes

These outcomes have different values for different people

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Job satisfaction depends on the levels of intrinsic and extrinsic outcomes and how the job holder views those outcomes. These outcomes have different values for different people. Other important individual differences include job involvement and commitment to the organization. People differ in the extent to which (1) work is a central life interest, (2) they actively participate in work, (3) they perceive work as central to self-esteem, and (4) they perceive work as consistent with self-concept. Persons who are not involved in their work or the organizations that employ them cannot be expected to realize the same satisfaction as those who are. This variable accounts for the fact that two workers could report different levels of satisfaction for the same performance levels.

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Job Designs

Range

Relationships

Depth

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Job designs are the results of job analysis. They specify three characteristics of jobs: range, depth, and relationships.

The Results of Job Design

Job range- The number of tasks a jobholder holds

Job depth- The amount of discretion an individual has to decide job activities and outcomes

Two employees with the same job title may possess more, less, or the same amount of job depth

Job range and depth distinguish one job from another, within the same organization, and among organizations

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Job range refers to the number of tasks a jobholder performs. The individual who performs eight tasks to complete a job has a wider job range than a person performing four tasks. In most instances, the greater the number of tasks performed, the longer it takes to complete the job.

A second characteristic is job depth, the amount of discretion an individual has to decide job activities and job outcomes. In many instances, job depth relates to personal influence as well as delegated authority. Thus, an employee with the same job title who’s at the same organizational level as another employee may possess more, less, or the same amount of job depth because of personal influence. Job range and depth distinguish one job from another not only within the same organization, but also among different organizations.

EXHIBIT 6.2 Job Depth and Range

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To illustrate how jobs differ in range and depth, Exhibit 6.2 depicts the differences for selected jobs of firms, hospitals, and universities.

Highly specialized jobs are those having few tasks to accomplish by prescribed means. Such jobs are quite routine; they also tend to be controlled by specified rules and procedures (low depth). A highly despecialized job (high range) has many tasks to accomplish within the framework of discretion over means and ends (high depth).

Within an organization, there typically are great differences among jobs in both range and depth. Although there are no precise equations that managers can use to decide job range and depth, they can follow this guideline: Given the economic and technical requirements of the organization’s mission, goals, and objectives, what is the optimal point along the continuum of range and depth for each job?

Job Relationships

Job relationships are determined by managers’ decisions regarding

Departmentalization bases

Spans of control

The wider the span of control, the larger the group

Consequently, the harder it is to establish friendship and interest relationships

Cohesiveness

Depends on the quality and kind of interpersonal relationships within the group

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Job relationships are determined by managers’ decisions regarding departmentalization bases and spans of control. The resulting groups become the responsibility of a manager to coordinate toward organization purposes. These decisions also determine the nature and extent of jobholders’ interpersonal relationships, individually and within groups. As we already have seen in the discussion of groups in organizations, group performance is affected in part by group cohesiveness. And the degree of group cohesiveness depends upon the quality and kind of interpersonal relationships of job-holders assigned to a task or command group.

The wider the span of control, the larger the group and consequently the more difficult it is to establish friendship and interest relationships. Simply, people in larger groups are less likely to communicate (and interact sufficiently to form interpersonal ties) than people in smaller groups. Without the opportunity to communicate, people will be unable to establish cohesive work groups. Thus, an important source of satisfaction may be lost for individuals who seek to fulfill social and esteem needs through relationships with co-workers.

Basis for Departmentalization

Functional job bases place jobs with similar depth and range in the same groups

Product, territory, and customer bases place jobs with dissimilar depth and range into groups

People in homogeneous, functional departments feel less stress and more job satisfaction than those in heterogeneous groups

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The basis for departmentalization that management selects also has important implications for job relationships. The functional basis places jobs with similar depth and range in the same groups, while product, territory, and customer bases place jobs with dissimilar depth and range in different groups. Thus, in functional departments, people will be doing much the same specialty. Product, territory, and customer departments, however, are comprised of jobs that are quite different and heterogeneous. Individuals who work in heterogeneous departments experience feelings of dissatisfaction and stress more intensely than those in homogeneous, functional departments. People with homogeneous backgrounds, skills, and training have more common interests than those with heterogeneous ones.

Taylor’s View on Job Design

Taylor proposed that the way to improve work is to determine…

The best way to do a task (motion study)

Standard time for task completion (time study)

Job design based solely on technical data ignored the human aspects

Workers have different backgrounds, needs, and motivations

They experience the social setting of the job in unique ways

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The way people do their jobs depends in part on how they perceive and think of their jobs. Even though Taylor proposed that the way to improve work (that is, to make it more efficient) is to determine (1) the “best way” to do a task (motion study) and (2) the standard time for completion of the task (time study), the actual performance of a job goes beyond its technical description. The belief that job design can be based solely on technical data ignores the very large role played by the individual who performs the job. Individuals differ profoundly, as we noted in the chapter on individual differences. They come to work with different backgrounds, needs, and motivations. Once on the job, they experience the social setting in which the work is performed in unique ways. It’s not surprising to find that different individuals perceive jobs differently.

The Way People Perceive Their Jobs

You can’t understand the causes of job performance without considering individual differences

Personality

Needs

Span of attention

Social setting

To understand perceived job content, some method for measuring it must exist

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Perceived job content refers to characteristics of a job that define its general nature as perceived by the jobholder. We must distinguish between a job’s objective properties and its subjective properties as reflected in the perceptions of people who perform it.

Managers can’t understand the causes of job performance without considering individual differences such as personality, needs, and span of attention. Nor can managers understand the causes of job performance without considering the social setting in which the job is performed. According to Exhibit 6.1, perceived job content precedes job performance. Thus, if managers desire to increase job performance by changing perceived job content, they can change job design, individual perceptions, or social settings—the causes of perceived job content.

Requisite Task Attribute Index (RTAI)

Perceived Job Characteristics

Feedback

Task identity

Autonomy

Variety

Friendship opportunities

Dealing with others

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If management is to understand perceived job content, some method for measuring it must exist.

In response to this need, organization behavior researchers have attempted to measure perceived job content in a variety of work settings. The methods that researchers use rely upon questionnaires that jobholders complete and that measure their perceptions of certain job characteristics.

The pioneering effort to measure perceived job content through employee responses to a questionnaire resulted in the identification of six characteristics: variety, autonomy, required interaction, optional interaction, knowledge and skill required, and responsibility. The index of these six characteristics is termed the Requisite Task Attribute Index (RTAI). The original RTAI has been extensively reviewed and analyzed. One important development was the review by Hackman and Lawler, who revised the index to include six characteristics.

Variety, task identity, and feedback are perceptions of job range. Autonomy is the perception of job depth; dealing with others and friendship opportunities reflect perceptions of job relationships. Employees sharing similar perceptions, job designs, and social settings should report similar job characteristics. Employees with different perceptions, however, report different job characteristics of the same job.

Individual Differences

Provide filters

Different persons perceive the same stimuli in different manners

Differences in need strength influence the perception of task variety

Those with weak higher-order needs are less concerned with performing a variety of tasks than are employees with strong growth needs

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Individual differences “provide filters such that different persons perceive the same objective stimuli in different manners.” Individual differences in need for strength, particularly the strength of growth needs, have been shown to influence the perception of task variety. Employees with relatively weak higher-order needs are less concerned with performing a variety of tasks than are employees with relatively strong growth needs. Thus, managers expecting higher performance to result from increased task variety would be disappointed if the jobholders did not have strong growth needs. Even individuals with strong growth needs cannot respond continuously to the opportunity to perform more and more tasks. At some point, performance turns down as these individuals reach the limits imposed by their abilities and time. The relationship between performance and task variety (even for individuals with high growth needs) is likely to be curvilinear.

Social Setting Differences

Differences in social settings affect perceptions of job content

Includes leadership style and what others say about the job

How one perceives a job is greatly affected by what other people say about it

Job design strategies, attempt to improve job performance through changes in actual job characteristics

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Differences in social settings of work also affect perceptions of job content. Examples of social setting differences include leadership style and what other people say about the job.

In addition, as more than one research study has pointed out, how one perceives a job is greatly affected by what other people say about it. Thus, if a worker’s friends state their jobs are boring, he is likely to state that his job is also boring. If the individual perceives the job as boring, job performance will suffer. Job content, then, results from the interaction of many factors in the work situation.

The field of organization behavior has advanced a number of suggestions for improving the motivational properties of jobs. Invariably, the suggestions, termed job design strategies, attempt to improve job performance through changes in actual job characteristics.

Designing Job Range

Scientific management

Created jobs that were limited, uniform, and repetitive

Resulted in high levels of job discontent, turnover, absenteeism, and dissatisfaction

Two strategies widen job range by increasing the number of job activities…

Job rotation

Job enlargement

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The earliest attempts to design jobs date to the scientific management era. Efforts at that time emphasized efficiency criteria. In so doing, the individual tasks that comprise a job are limited, uniform, and repetitive. This practice leads to narrow job range and, consequently, reported high levels of job discontent, turnover, absenteeism, and dissatisfaction. Accordingly, strategies were devised that resulted in wider job range through increasing the requisite activities of jobs. Two of these approaches are job rotation and job enlargement.

Job Rotation and Job Enlargement

Job Rotation

Individuals move from one job to another

More job activities because each job includes different tasks

Increasing the range of jobs and the perception of variety in job content

Job Enlargement

Increasing the number of tasks for which an individual is responsible

Increases job range, but not depth

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Job rotation involves increasing the range of jobs and the perception of variety in the job content. Increasing task variety should, according to recent studies, increase employee satisfaction, reduce mental overload, decrease the number of errors due to fatigue, improve production and efficiency, and reduce on-the-job injuries.

However, job rotation doesn’t change the basic characteristics of the assigned jobs. Some relatively small firms have successfully used job rotation.

Critics state that job rotation often involves nothing more than having people perform several boring and monotonous jobs rather than one. An alternative strategy is job enlargement. Job enlargement strategies focus upon the opposite of dividing work—they’re a form of despecialization or increasing the number of tasks that an employee performs.

Job Enlargement

Focuses on increasing the number of job tasks

Requires a longer training period, but job satisfaction increases and boredom is reduced

Some employees can’t copy with enlarged jobs

Enlarged jobs come at a price

Job enlargement is a necessary pre-condition for job enrichment

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The concept and practice of job enlargement have become considerably more sophisticated. In recent years, effective job enlargement involves more than simply in-creasing task variety. In addition, it’s necessary to design certain other aspects of job range, including providing worker-paced (rather than machine-paced) control. Each of these changes involves balancing the gains and losses of varying degrees of division of labor. Contemporary applications of job enlargement involve training individuals to perform several different jobs, each requiring considerable skill, whether in manufacturing or service organizations.

Job Enrichment

Changes in job depth

New learning

Uniqueness

Control over resources

Personal accountability

Direct feedback

Scheduling

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The impetus for designing job depth was provided by Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation. The basis of his theory is that factors that meet individuals’ need for psychological growth (especially responsibility, job challenge, and achievement) must be characteristic of their jobs. The application of his theory is termed job enrichment. The implementation of job enrichment is realized through direct changes in job depth. Managers can provide employees with greater opportunities to exercise discretion by making the changes in the areas shown on the slide.

Job Enrichment: Increasing the core dimensions of a job

Job enrichment is a process that…

Combine task elements

Assign whole pieces of work

Allow discretion in selection of work methods

Permit self-paced control

Open feedback channels

Job enrichment and job enlargement aren’t competing strategies

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Important changes include giving workers greater authority to participate in decisions, to set their own goals, and to evaluate their (and their work groups’) performance. Job enrichment also involves changing the nature and style of managers’ behavior. Managers must be willing and able to delegate authority. Given employees’ ability to carry out enriched jobs and managers’ willingness to delegate authority, gains in performance can be expected. These positive outcomes are the result of increasing employees’ expectations that efforts lead to performance, that performance leads to intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, and that these rewards have power to satisfy needs. These significant changes in managerial jobs, when coupled with changes in nonmanagerial jobs, suggest that a supportive work environment is a prerequisite for successful job enrichment efforts. Jobs can be designed on the basis of range and significant depth (called job specialization), a moderate amount of range and depth (called job enlargement), or significant depth and generally low range.

Job enrichment and job enlargement aren’t competing strategies. Job enlargement but not job enrichment may be compatible with the needs, values, and abilities of some individuals. Yet job enrichment, when appropriate, necessarily involves job enlargement. A promising new approach to job design that attempts to integrate the two approaches is the job characteristics model.

EXHIBIT 6.3 The Job Characteristics Model

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Implementing the job characteristics model in a particular situation begins with a study of existing job perceptions by means of the job diagnostic survey. Hackman and Oldham have reported numerous applications of the model in a variety of organizations. They have also compiled normative data for a variety of job categories so that managers and practitioners can compare the responses of their own employees to those of a larger population. Although the track record of job design efforts is generally positive, some caveats are warranted. The positive benefits of these efforts are moderated by individual differences in the strength of employees’ growth needs. That is, employees with a strong need for accomplishment, learning, and challenge will respond more positively than those with relatively weak growth needs. In more familiar terms, employees with a high need for self-esteem and self-actualization are the more likely candidates for job design. Employees who are forced to participate in job design programs but who lack either the need strength or the ability to perform designed jobs may experience stress, anxiety, adjustment problems, erratic performance, turnover, and absenteeism.

Problems Associated With Job Design

Unless lower-level needs are satisfied, people will not respond to opportunities to satisfy upper-level needs.

As workers are told to expect higher-order need satisfaction, they may raise their expectations beyond what’s possible.

Job design may be resisted by labor unions.

Job design efforts may not produce tangible performance improvements for some time after the beginning of the effort.

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Problems associated with job design include:

1. Unless lower-level needs are satisfied, people will not respond to opportunities to satisfy upper-level needs. And even though our society has been rather successful in providing food and shelter, these needs regain importance when the economy moves through periods of recession and high inflation.

2. Job design programs are intended to satisfy needs typically not satisfied in the workplace. As workers are told to expect higher-order need satisfaction, they may raise their expectations beyond what’s possible. Dissatisfaction with the program’s unachievable aims may displace dissatisfaction with the jobs.

3. Job design may be resisted by labor unions that see the effort as an attempt to get more work for the same pay.

4. Job design efforts may not produce tangible performance improvements for some time after the beginning of the effort. One study indicated that significant improvements in effectiveness couldn’t be seen until four years after the beginning of the job design program.

Self-Managed Teams

Self-managed teams represent a job enrichment approach at the group level

SMTs determine their own work assignments with the team

They are responsible for an entire process

They select their own members and evaluate their own performance

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Self-managed teams (SMTs) represent a job enrichment approach to redesign at the group level. An SMT is a relatively small group of individuals who are empowered to perform certain activities based on procedures established and decisions made within the group, with minimum or no outside direction. SMTs can take many forms, including task forces, project teams, quality circles, and new venture teams.

Self-Managed Teams

Switching from a traditional hierarchy structure to work teams is not easy

Barriers include resistance and misunderstanding

Requires new workflows, processes, attitudes, behaviors

Some may not like being responsible for goals that other team members did not help achieve

Managers fear loss of control and status

Managers are often not clear about their duties

Must balance too much involvement and not enough

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The difficulty of switching from a traditional hierarchical structure to one in which work teams assume responsibility for their own decisions is not easy. Two notable barriers to SMTs are resistance and misunderstanding. SMTs require not only a new workflow and set of processes, but also new attitudes and behaviors. Team members may not like being responsible for goals that others on the team have not helped to achieve. Managers often fear loss of control and status.

The implementation of SMTs causes changes in thinking about “yourself,” leadership, and organization. It is hard for employees to understand how SMTs apply to themselves. Also, managers are often not clear about what employees should be doing under an SMT arrangement.

Simply assuming that SMTs will work is not accurate since resistance and misunderstandings are obvious problems. Team leaders who strike a balance between too much involvement and not enough are needed.

Alternative Work Arrangements

Giving employees control over when they perform their work is increasingly popular

Alternative work arrangements

The compressed work week

Flextime

Job sharing

Telecommuting

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Enriching the content of a job is not the only way to provide enrichment. Enrichment can also be achieved within the context of a job. One aspect of job context relates to when the job is performed, or the work schedule. Giving employees decision-making control over when they perform their work is an increasingly popular approach to job redesign. It has led to a variety of innovations we will collectively refer to as alternative work arrangements.

Benefits of Flexible Work Programs

Higher recruitment and retention rates

Improved morale

Higher levels of employee productivity

Lower absenteeism and tardiness

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Employees like alternative work arrangements because they give them the flexibility to balance their work–life demands. Companies, especially during an economic downturn, are increasingly experimenting with job sharing, reduced workweeks, sabbaticals, and telecommuting programs as a way to reduce costs and avoid layoffs that may lessen productivity and motivation. An interesting twist is that although some companies are offering employees more flexible work options, some employees who engage in flextime and telecommuting are fearful of being “out of sight and out of mind” and, thus, easy targets for layoffs. As a result, employees are less likely to take advantage of these alternatives during hard times.

EXHIBIT 6.4 Two Possible Flextime Schedules

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An arrangement that provides employees even greater individual control over work scheduling is flextime. In a flextime arrangement, employees can determine, within some limits, when they work at the office and when they work from home or the office. As is shown in the two examples in Exhibit 6.4, employees are required to be present during the “common core” hours. They may make up the rest of their workday in any combination during flextime hours. Employees like alternative work arrangements because they give them the flexibility to balance their work–life demands.

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Virtual Teams

Virtual teams are geographically distributed, diverse groups of individuals

Technology allows interaction and cooperation

Benefits of virtual team include…

More flexible work arrangements

Decreased travel expenses

Increased customer responsiveness

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As organizations aggressively pursue ways in which to cut costs, decrease product cycle times, increase customer responsiveness, and integrate more fully with suppliers, many are creating and using virtual teams to help achieve those objectives. Other benefits of virtual teams include the ability to offer employees more flexible work arrangements (e.g., telecommuting), provide 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week customer service for geographically dispersed customers in different time zones, and decrease the amount of travel time and expenses that team members have to incur.

Defined as “a team that relies on interactive technology to work together when separated by physical distance,” a virtual team can draw on a variety of interactive technology.

Virtual Teams

Face-to-face meetings and team-building exercises facilitate the development of trust

Extra effort must go into avoiding misunderstandings and miscommunications

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To successfully manage virtual teams, organizations may want to consider several factors. First, the technology should fit the purpose of the collaboration. If all members of the group need to receive the same information quickly, then a bulletin board or group e-mail is appropriate. If training needs to be done, then a Web conference with real-time whiteboard and data sharing may be more suitable. Second, virtual team members must be carefully selected. Choosing members who have the necessary skills, experience, work ethic, and interpersonal skills is critical to effective team functioning. Third, trust between team members should be cultivated early in the process. Face-to-face meetings and/or team-building training exercises should be used during the initial periods of team formation to facilitate the development of trust. This trust will be critical later when problems, disagreements, and deadlines stress the relationships of members who can’t just walk down the hallway to discuss and resolve these issues. Fourth, teams need to develop a sense of purpose and shared goals. Last, leaders must be able to set a vision for the team and help resolve conflicts between members as well as assist members in overcoming obstacles.

Total Quality Management (TQM)

TQM refers to an organizational culture that is dedicated to continuous improvement, ultimately resulting in higher levels of customer satisfaction

TQM requires that people must be to make necessary decisions and enabled with knowledge to know when to exercise that authority

Job design strategy

Focuses individuals’ needs for economic well-being and personal growth

Sociotechnical theory

Focuses on interaction between technical and social demands

Too much emphasis on one demand or the other results in poor job design

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Total quality management (TQM) refers to an organizational culture that is dedicated to continuous improvement and the production of high-quality products and services, ultimately resulting in higher levels of customer satisfaction. TQM, according to those who espouse and practice it, combines technical knowledge and human knowledge. To deal with the inherent complexity and variability of production and service delivery technology, people must be empowered with the authority to make necessary decisions and must be enabled with the knowledge to know when to exercise that authority.

Job design strategy focuses on jobs in the context of individuals’ needs for economic well-being and personal growth. But let’s put the strategy in a broader framework and include the issue of the sociotechnical system. Sociotechnical theory focuses on interactions between technical demands of jobs and social demands of people doing the jobs. The theory emphasizes that too great an emphasis on the technical system in the manner of scientific management or too great an emphasis on the social system in the manner of human relations will lead to poor job design. Rather, job design should take into account both the technology and the people who use the technology.

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