Chapter 7
Work Design
Purpose and Overview
• Purpose
– Provide a framework for jobs and
organizational work groups
– Describe relationships among work design,
motivation, and information flow
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Purpose and Overview
• Overview
– Changes in Design of Health Care Work
– Contrasting Approaches to Work Design
– Dividing Work into Jobs
– Job Requirements
– Psychological Approach
– Technical Approach
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Changes in Design of
Health Care Work
• Major Changes in Health Care
– Cost
– Nursing shortage
– Managed care and shorter hospital stays
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4
Contrasting Approaches to
Work Design
• Contrasting Approaches to Work Design
– Technical Approach
– Psychological Approach
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5
Dividing Work into Jobs
• Vertical and Horizontal Division of Labor
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6
Job Requirements
• Behaviors for Effective Task Performance
– Decisions to join/remain in an organization
– Dependable role performance
– Effort above minimum levels
– Spontaneous and innovative behavior
– Cooperative behavior
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Job Requirements
• High uncertainty requires cooperative
behavior
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8
Psychological Approach
• Focus: Worker Motivation
– Individuals perform work that meets their
needs for growth
– Jobs are intrinsically motivating
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Psychological Approach
• Perspectives on Job Design and
Motivation
– People are motivated and exert effort to satisfy
unmet needs
– People evaluate courses of action to choose
among them
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Psychological Approach
•
Connection: Behavior and Rewards
– Experienced meaningfulness
– Experienced responsibility
– Knowledge of results
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11
Psychological Approach
• Contributory Job Characteristics
– Skill variety
– Task identity
– Task significance
– Autonomy
– Feedback
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Psychological Approach
• MPS = 1/3 (Skill Variety + Task Identity +
Task Significance) x Autonomy x
Feedback
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13
Technical Approach
• Scientific management school of thought
• Focus:
– Design jobs that use technology and minimize
waste
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Technical Approach
• Assumptions
– Divide work into repetitive routine elements
– Train and motivate workers to perform
dependably
– Motivation is derived from economic rewards
not from job itself
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Technical Approach
• Interconnectedness of Work
– Design jobs to minimize interconnected
elements over several people
– Organize work to contain interconnected
elements within a single work group
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Technical Approach
• Coordinating Interconnected Work Within
Units
– Programming methods
– Feedback methods
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Technical Approach
• Programming Approaches
– Standardization of work processes
– Standardization of skills
– Standardization of output
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Technical Approach
• Feedback Approaches
– Supervision
– Mutual adjustment
– Group coordination
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In Conclusion
• Psychological Approach
– Increasing worker motivation
• Technical Approach
– Improving flow of information among
interconnected jobs
• In Reality
– Both approaches contribute
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