Chapter Four:

Job Design & Work Measurement

 Job Analysis
 Job analysis: A systematic process of determining Duties, Skills,
& Knowledge required for performing a job.
 systematic process of collecting information about all of the
parameters of a job:
Basic responsibilities,
Required behaviors,
Skills, and
the physical and mental requirements of the people who do
it.

3
 Outcomes of Job Analysis
• A job description-
– is a written statement about the overall tasks, duties, and
responsibilities of a job.
• A job specification/Person Specification/
– is incorporated into the job description document and spells out the
minimum acceptable qualifications a person needs to perform a
particular job.
– A written explanation of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other
characteristics (KSAOs) necessary for effective performance on a given
job.

4
 Basic Terminologies In Job Analysis

Element:
• an aggregation of two or more micro motions
forms an element.
• An element is a complete entity, such as
–picking up,
–transporting, and
–positioning an item.
 Basic Terminologies In Job Analysis

Task
– is the smallest unit of job or
– a specific statement of what a person does.
– A group of work elements makes up a work task.
– It is one of the distinct activities that constitute logical and
necessary steps in the performance of work by an employee.
– is performed whenever human effort, physical or mental, is
exerted for a specific purpose.
– Example: one task of a receptionist is answering a phone.
 Basic Terminologies In Job Analysis

Duty
– consists of one or more tasks that constitute a significance activity
performed by a jobholder.
– Related tasks comprise the duties of a job.
– Distinguishing between tasks and duties is not always easy.
– It is sometimes helpful to view tasks as subsets of duties.
– For example,
• suppose one duty of a receptionist is to handle all incoming
correspondence.
• One task, as part of this duty, would be to respond to all routine
inquires.
 Basic Terminologies In Job Analysis

Responsibility
–is one or several duties that identify and
describe the major purpose or reason for the
job’s existence.
–It is an obligation to perform certain tasks
and assume certain duties.
 Basic Terminologies In Job Analysis

Position
–Duties, when combined with define a position.
–is the collection of tasks & responsibilities constituting
the total work assignment of a single employee.
–There is a position for every person in an
organization.
–Example: all tasks done by a secretary.
 Basic Terminologies In Job Analysis

Job
– is a group of positions that are identical with respect to their
major or significant tasks and responsibilities,
– and all require the same basic knowledge, abilities, and skills.
– The difference between a position and a job is that a job may be
held by more than one person, whereas a position cannot.
– One or several people may be employed in the same job.
• For example, an organization may have two
computer programmers performing the same job;
however, they occupy two separate positions.
 Basic Terminologies In Job Analysis

Occupation
–A group of similar jobs forms an occupation.
–Because the job of receptionist requires similar
skills, effort, and responsibility in different
organizations, being receptionist may be viewed
as an occupation.
–Occupation is a group of jobs with broadly similar
content.
–Example: Managerial, technical, crafts etc.
4.1. Job Design

12
 4.1 JOB DESIGN
• A job is the set of tasks an individual performs.
• Job design involves determining the specific job tasks and
responsibilities, the work environment, and the methods by which
the tasks will be carried out to meet the goals of operations.
– Job designers focus on
–what will be done in a job,
–who will do the job,
–how the job will be done, and
–where the job will be done.
• The objectives of job design include productivity, safety, and
quality of work life. 13
 It involves:
• Task analysis
– how tasks fit together to form a job
• Worker analysis
– determining worker capabilities and responsibilities for a job
• Environment analysis
– physical characteristics and location of a job
• Ergonomics
– fitting task to person in a work environment

14
• aaa
• In designing given job the job designer must answer:
 Work Design- A Systems Perspective
Work Design External
Factors

Work Job Design Worker

Measurement •Who? Compensation
•Time Study •How?
•Predetermined •Where? •Time Based
Standard •Output Based
•Work Sampling Job Simplification •Incentive Plans

17
 Components of Job Design

1) Job specialization,
2) Job expansion,
3) Psychological components,
4) Self-directed teams, and
5) Motivation and incentive systems.

18
 1)Job specialization,

• The importance of job design as a management variable is

credited to the 18th-century economist Adam Smith.
• Smith suggested that a division of labor, also known as labor
specialization (or job specialization), would assist in
reducing labor costs of multi-skilled artisans.
• This is accomplished in several ways:
– Development of dexterity(skill) and faster learning by the
employee because of repetition
– Less loss of time because the employee would not be
changing jobs or tools
– Development of specialized tools and the reduction of
investment because each employee has only a few tools
needed for a particular task 19
Advantages and Disadvantages of
Specialization

21
 2. Job expansion
The theory of job expansion is that variety makes the job
“better” and that the employee therefore enjoys a higher
quality of work life.
Consists of:
•Job enlargement,
•Job rotation,
•Job enrichment, and
•Increased use of mechanization.
22
 Job enlargement
• occurs when we add tasks requiring similar skill to an existing job-
• It constitutes horizontal loading (horizontal expansion) —the
additional work is on the same level of skill and responsibility as
the original job.
• The goal is to make the job more interesting by increasing the
variety of skills required.
• For example,
– a production worker’s job might be expanded so that he or she is
responsible for a sequence of activities instead of only one activity.
– Instead of knowing how to operate only one machine, a person is taught
to operate two or even three, but no higher level of responsibility is
required. 23
 Job rotation
occurs when the employee is allowed to move from
one specialized job to another
having workers periodically exchange jobs.
It allows workers to broaden their learning experience
and enables them to fill in for others in the event of
sickness or absenteeism

24
  Job enrichment

• Involves an increase in the level of responsibility for

planning and coordination tasks.
• It is sometimes referred to as vertical loading or vertical
expansion .
• An example:
–Having stock clerks in supermarkets handle reordering
of goods, thus increasing their responsibilities.
–having department store salespeople responsible for
ordering, as well as selling, their goods. 25
 Some examples of job enrichment

Giving the employee an entire job rather than just a piece of the
work
Increasing the employee’s accountability for work by reducing
external control
Expanding assignments for employees to do new tasks and
develop special areas of expertise
Directing feedback reports to the employee rather than only to
management
27
 3) Psychological Components of Job Design

• An effective human resources strategy also requires

consideration of the psychological components of job
design. These components focus on how to design jobs
that meet some minimum psychological requirements:
–Hawthorne Studies
–Core Job Characteristics

28
 Hawthorne Studies
• The Hawthorne studies introduced psychology to the workplace.
• They were conducted in the 1920s at Western Electric’s Hawthorne
plant near Chicago.
• These studies were initiated to determine the impact of lighting on
productivity. However, they found that
– the dynamic social system and distinct roles played by
employees to be more important than the intensity of the lighting.
– individual differences may be dominant in what an employee
expects from the job and what the employee thinks her or his
contribution to the job should be.
29
 Core Job Characteristics

• Substantial research regarding the psychological components

of job design has taken place since the Hawthorne studies.
• Hackman and Oldham have incorporated much of that work
into five desirable characteristics of job design.
• They suggest that jobs should include the following
characteristics:

30
 characteristics of job design:
 Skill variety: The degree to which a job entails a variety of
different activities, which demand the use of a number of
different skills and talents by the jobholder
 Task identity: The degree to which the job requires completion
of a whole and identifiable piece of work, that is, doing a job
from beginning to end with a visible outcome
 Task significance: The degree to which the job has a
substantial impact on the lives or work of other people,
whether in the immediate organization or in the external
environment
 Autonomy: The degree to which the job provides substantial
freedom, independence, and discretion to the individual in
scheduling the work and in determining the procedures to be
used in carrying it out
 Feedback: The degree to which carrying out the work activities
required by the job results in the individual being given direct and
clear information about the effectiveness of his or her
performance

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 4) Motivation and incentives in Job Design

• Motivation is a willingness by an employee to

work hard to achieve the company’s goals
because that effort satisfies some employees’
need or objective.
•In general, job performance is a function of
motivation combined with ability.

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Factors that motivate employees include:

– financial compensation is a major motivating factor

– self-actualization (such as integrity, responsibility, and
naturalness),
– achievement and accomplishment,
– recognition,
– relationships with coworkers and supervisors,
– the type and degree of work supervision,
– job interest,
– trust and responsibility, and
– the opportunity for growth and advancement

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 How to improve motivation
Positive reinforcement and feedback
Effective organization and discipline
Fair treatment of people
Satisfaction of employee needs
Setting of work-related goals
Design of jobs to fit the employee
Work responsibility
Empowerment
Restructuring of jobs when necessary
Rewards based on company as well as individual
performance
 achievement of company goals 36
Evolution of Theories of Employee Motivation

37
Monetary rewards take the form of.
▶Bonuses - cash or stock ownership
▶Profit-sharing - distributes part of the profit to employees
▶Gain sharing - which rewards employees for
improvements made in an organization’s performance.
▶Incentive plans - based on individual or group productivity
production rates
▶Knowledge-based systems (or skill based) pay
systems, a portion of the employee’s pay depends on
demonstrated knowledge or skills
 Ergonomics and the Work Environment

• Ergonomics means “the study of work.” ( Ergon is the Greek

word for “work.”)

• Ergonomics is a study of building a good interface between

humans, the environment, and machines.

• Ergonomics(human factors) is the scientific discipline

concerned with the understanding of interactions among
humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that
applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order
to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.
45
• “Ergonomists contribute to the design and evaluation of tasks,
jobs, products, environments and systems in order to make
them compatible with the needs, abilities and limitations of
people.”

• Ergonomics helps to increase productivity by reducing worker

discomfort and fatigue.

46
• The International Ergonomics Association organizes
ergonomics into three domains:
– Physical (e.g., repetitive movements, layout,
health, and safety);
–Cognitive (mental workload, decision making,
human–computer interaction, and work stress); and
–Organizational (e.g., communication, teamwork,
work design, and telework).

47
 Goals of Ergonomics

– Prevent and reduce workplace illness and accidents

• Example:
–Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSI):
–Bending, reaching, movement, motion
–Carpal Tunnel Syndrome-swelling of wrist
– Design safe workplace environment
• Temperature, humidity, noise, lighting, ventilation, vibration
– Design workplace for improved efficiency and productivity
– Design products safe and easier to use by consumers
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 Work Environment
• Working conditions Includes:
can effect –Temperature
–worker productivity, –Ventilation i.e.,
–product quality and quality of air
–worker safety –Noise
–Lighting
–Paint of the wall

49
50
4.2. Quality of Work Life

51
• People work for a variety of reasons
– to earn a living.
– seeking self-realization, status,
– physical and mental stimulation, and
– socialization.
• Quality of work life affects
– workers’ overall sense of well-being and contentment
– worker productivity.
• Quality of work life has several key aspects
– Getting along well with coworkers and having good managers
– Leadership style.
– working conditions and compensation 52
 a) Working Conditions
• Working conditions are an important aspect of job
design.
• Physical factors such as:
– temperature,
– humidity,
– ventilation,
– illumination, and
– noise can have a significant impact on worker
performance in terms of productivity, quality of output, and
accidents.

53
 Working Conditions
Temperature & Ventilation
Humidity

Illumination Color
 Working Conditions (cont’d)

Noise & Vibration Work Breaks

Safety Causes of Accidents

 b) Compensation

• Developing suitable compensation plans for employees is

important.
• If wages are too low, organizations may find it difficult to
attract and hold competent workers and managers.
• If wages are too high, the increased costs may result in lower
profits, or may force the organization to increase its prices,
which might adversely affect demand for the organization’s
products or services

59
 Approaches to Compensate Employees

• Time-based systems,
– known as hourly and measured day work systems,
compensate employees for the time the employee has
worked during a pay period.
• Output-based systems,
– compensate employees according to the amount of output they
produce during a pay period, thereby tying pay directly to
performance.
• Knowledge-based systems.
– A pay system used by organizations to reward workers
who undergo training that increases their skills.

60
Work Measurement

70
• Job design determines the content of a job, and methods
analysis determines how a job is to be performed
• Work measurement is concerned with determining the length
of time it should take to complete the job.
– Job times are vital inputs for capacity planning, workforce
planning, estimating labor costs, scheduling, budgeting, and
designing incentive systems.
– from the workers’ standpoint, time standards reflect the
amount of time it should take to do a given job working under
typical conditions.
– The standards include expected activity time plus
allowances for probable delays.
71
• A standard time is the amount of time it should take a
qualified worker to complete a specified task, working at a
sustainable rate, using given methods, tools and equipment,
raw material inputs, and workplace arrangement.

72
Methods of work measurement are:
(1)stopwatch time study,
(2)historical times,
(3)predetermined data, and
(4)work sampling.

73
 a. Stopwatch Time Study
• Stopwatch time study is used to develop a time standard
based on observations of one worker taken over a number of
cycles. That is then applied to the work of all others in the
organization who perform the same task.
• The basic steps in a time study are the following:
1. Define the task to be studied, and inform the worker who will
be studied.
2. Determine the number of cycles to observe.
3. Time the job and rate the worker’s performance.
4. Compute the standard time.

74
• Development of a time standard involves
computation of three times:
–the observed time (OT),
–the normal time (NT), and
–the standard time (ST).

81
 Observed Time(OT)

• The observed time is simply the average of the recorded

times. Thus,

82
•Note: If a job element does not occur each cycle, its
average time should be determined separately and
that amount should be included in the observed time,
OT.

83
 Normal Time(NT)
• The normal time is the observed time adjusted for worker
performance. It is computed by multiplying the observed time
by a performance rating. That is,

84
• This assumes that a single performance rating has
been made for the entire job.
• If ratings are made on an element-by-element basis, the
normal time is obtained by multiplying each element’s
average time by its performance rating and summing
those values:

85
• The reason for including this adjustment factor is that the
worker being observed may be working at a rate different from
a “normal” rate, either to deliberately slow the pace or because
his or her natural abilities differ from the norm. For this reason,
the observer assigns a performance rating, to adjust the
observed times to an “average” pace. A normal rating is 1.00.
A performance rating of .9 indicates a pace that is 90 percent
of normal, whereas a rating of 1.05 indicates a pace that is
slightly faster than normal. For long jobs, each element may
be rated; for short jobs, a single rating may be made for an
entire cycle. Machine segments of a job are typically given a
rating of 1.00.

86
 Standard Time(ST)

• The normal time does not take into account such factors as
personal delays (worker fatigue, getting a drink of water or going
to the restroom), unavoidable delays (machine adjustments and
repairs, talking to a supervisor, waiting for materials), or breaks.
• The standard time for a job is the normal time multiplied by an
allowance factor for these delays. The standard time is:

87
 Example 1
• A time study of an assembly operation yielded the following
observed times for one element of the job, for which the
analyst gave a performance rating of 1.13. Using an
allowance of 20 percent of job time, determine the appropriate
standard time for this operation

90
91
 Example 2
The time study of a work operation yielded an average observed
time of 4.0 minutes. The analyst rated the observed worker at
85%. This means the worker performed at 85% of normal when
the study was made. The firm uses a 13% allowance factor. We
want to compute the standard time.
SOLUTION:
Normal time = (average observed time) x (rating factor)
= (4.0)(.85)
= 3.4 minutes
normal time 3.4 3.4
Standard time = = =
1 - allowance factor 1 - .13 .87
92
= 3.9 minutes
 Example 3

• A time study analyst timed an assembly operation for 30

cycles, and then computed the average time per cycle, which
was 18.75 minutes. The analyst assigned a performance
rating of 0.96, and decided that an appropriate allowance was
15 percent. Assume the allowance factor is based on the
workday. Determine the following:
a) the observed time (OT),
b) the normal time (NT), and
c) the standard time (ST).
93
Solution

94
 Exercise

• A job was timed for 60 cycles and had an average of 1.2

minutes per piece. The performance rating was 95 percent,
and workday allowances are 10 percent. Determine each
of the following:
a) Observed time.
b) Normal time.
c) Standard time.

95
• A time study was conducted on a job that contains four
elements. The observed times and performance ratings for
six cycles are shown in the following table.

a) Determine the average cycle time for each element

b) Find the normal time for each element.
c) Assuming an allowance factor of 15 percent of job time, compute the
standard time for this job.
96