It is believed that a well designed job motivates the employees for higher level of performance. Poorly designed jobs often result in boredom and employee frustration, high turnover, reduced motivation, low level of productivity and increase in operating cost. To avoid such negative consequences, the jobs have to be designed systematically and scientifically
Thus, job design is a systematic process of organizing work into the tasks required to perform a specific job. It defines the contents and the way the tasks are combined to complete a job. Job design integrates the tasks, function and relationship in order to achieve certain organizational objectives. It is a logical sequence of job analysis which provides job-related data and skill requirement of the incumbent. There are three important influences of job design, they are- work flow analysis, business strategy and organizational structure.
Job design is a process through which job related data are revealed and the contents as well as methods of performing different tasks are specified. It plays a key role in bringing organizational productivity and employee motivation at work.
Therefore, job design is a process by which required and job-related information is gathered to determine different tasks to be included in the job. The manner in which the work activities are scheduled can influence the motivational level of employees. Hence it is an essential tool of human resource management which helps to enhance organizational productivity and challenges at work.
A brief description of steps in job design are as follows:
1. Specification of tasks: This is the first step of job design under which the individual task is specified. It means different tasks to be included in a job are categorized and specified.
2. Combination of task: After specifying the individual tasks to be included in a job, they are combined into a group and assigned to individual employee or group for performance.
3. Specification of method: Under this step, different methods of performance of each tasks are identified and determined.