Job Design Approach
It is incumbent upon intelligent business executives to strategically align organizational employees to its business strategy. Business organizations which thrive on success have tailored specific jobs for specific employees by tactically integrating efficient job design principles incorporated in functional job requirements reflected on an organization’s innovative strategy.
Success could therefore depend on how the organization’s employees work efficiently and effectively in attaining the organization goals and objectives envisaged in its strategy and vision. This calls upon the organization’s business managers to innovatively set a benchmark for productivity and performance improvement.
Therefore productivity and performance improvements could be witnessed in the organization based on an efficient job design for the relevant departments. Appropriate job design could be the key element in identifying employees with the required abilities and self motivation in propelling the organization to higher levels of productivity and performance based on performance improvement plans and benchmarks.
Job design has the benefit of offering employees the possibility of promotions and future career developments incorporated in the organization’s strategic approach to human resource management.
Cross Functional Requirements
Once the job design component is integrated in the organization’s corporate strategy, its mission, vision, goals and objectives will be tailored to reflect the new strategy with clearly defined cross functional requirements. This strategic approach to change management initiatives calls upon the development of plans and programs for tactful implementation of the change initiatives.
These initiatives should sustainably reflect the organization’s corporate responsibilities by incorporating a well defined ethical approach to the proposed business goals. This approach demands a dynamic involvement of employees in initiating change. In addition, the business leaders should identify the fact that human resources form a fundamental component for initiating change.
Therefore, to induce change could rest on the tactical abilities of the business managers to influence the human resources in the company in the pursuit of its mission, goals and objectives. In addition to the job design, a job enrichment scheme should be adapted based on the significance of the jobs and work tasks for departmental employees.
Job Enrichment Program
According to the article, Advancing Employee Productivity (2010), the job enrichment program could motivate de-motivated employees by incorporating among other concepts job identity and job rotation programs, calling upon employee appraisal programs including employee motivation schemes.
Excellent motivation and compensation practices embedded in an organization’s job description and job design should be integrated in an organization’s business culture.
These could help address problems associated with insufficient compensation for the employees of the business organization in question (Human Resources, 2010). Adequate compensation plans coupled with good organizational and individual culture if efficiently utilized could act as a driving force in employee effectiveness in reaching the business organization’s goals and objectives.
Employees should be assigned sufficient work units for the period they are at work, information on work progress should be collected on a regular basis by ensuring good interdepartmental, vertical and lateral communication within the organization. Specific tasks should be assigned those employees with specialized skills, and employees should be made to exercise authority and freedom at the workplace.
This could lead to employee empowerment in decision making regarding specific tasks within the organization. These could result in adequate employee satisfaction and improved productivity.
Hertzberg’s Checklist
Another approach to adapt is Hertzberg’s checklist in job design. This checklist incorporates components which include conducting a cost benefit analysis on technical changes and incorporating those with the least costs, analyzing the causes of job dissatisfaction, integrating performance improvement measures, analyzing cost implications in hygiene, and initiating change (Advancing Employee Productivity, 2010).
All members in a business organization should work with concerted effort in initiating and bringing about change. In addition, business managers should be well skilled in change management initiatives to ensure a smooth transition from the old to the new vision.
Brainstorming employees on the type of changes to be incorporated in the change initiatives inspires and prepares them for culture change. Motivational factors should address each employee and the right mechanisms should be used in motivating them. However, when conducting a job design, employee involvement may be undesirable as bias and other conflicts may be generated. In addition to this, change should be evaluated effectively.
Culture acts as a driving force in individuals. Staffing schedule could be addressed by incorporating the element of culture in the organization’s employees based on individual responsibilities. Individual needs could be incorporated in the scheduling scheme to address employee needs, making the working environment conducive.
Good leadership skills could help the business managers address staffing needs by addressing individual and organizational needs. Good leadership is characterized by honesty and integrity. According to Lindenberger (1999), a good leader must address employee needs in a competent manner by clearly setting goals and objectives and communicating these to the respective employees.
Employee involvement should be incorporated. A forward looking business manager with inspiring qualities, characterized by fair-mindedness and intelligence with straight forward imaginative skills, should steer the organization from its current position which spells doom to a brighter future.
Personal issues such as culture, work description, employee needs and responsibilities, organizational needs, should form key elements in employee scheduling (What are the Skills Needed to be a Good Manager, 2000).
Ethical Issues and Legal standards
Ethical issues and legal standards should form fundamental components in managing organizational behavior. Desired standards will be achieved by integrating an ethics program without intruding on individual privacies. This calls upon business managers to identify ethical values and norms in the relevant department and of the organization at large.
Ferrell (2005) identify key components of an organization’s values and norms. These includes the ethical values and beliefs of trade associations, values and norms of competitors, ethical values and norms of environmental groups, values and norms of customer groups, and values and norms of employee groups. Ethical leadership could be fundamental in avoiding ethical disasters. Purposeful leadership should be value based in planning and bringing about organizational change.
Ferrell (2005) assert that personal values play a vital role in decision making in an effort to bring about change. These could guide decisions and policies which could guide change. In addition this could rely on a continuous effort from the business leadership in providing leadership in improving performance on the job in regard to established legal standard.
Thus, leading change could be a continuous effort embedded in the organization’s culture. This will be based on a strategy that identifies the appropriate job description, appropriate job design, job rotations to enhance productivity, appropriate job staffing techniques, and ethical considerations and legal standards.
References
Advancing Employee Productivity. (2010). The Characteristics of a Leader: Demonstrating Good Leadership Skills. Web.
Ferrell, O.C. (2005), “A Framework for Understanding Organizational Ethics,” in Business Ethics: New Challenges for Business Schools and Corporate Leaders, R.A. Peterson and O.C. Ferrell, eds. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, pp. 3-17.
Human Resources. (2010). Employee Motivation, Recognition, Rewards, Retention. Web.
Lindenberger, J. (1999). Management and Human Resources. Web.
What are the Skills Needed to be a Good Manager. (2000). Web.