OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

QUESTIONS

a)  With examples, discuss on the impact of job design on employee performance in manufacturing sectors in Tanzania

b)  Discuss on the effects of job design and ergonomics considerations on employee performance in service sectors in Tanzania

SOLUTIONS

Discussion on the Influences of Job Design on Employee Performances in in Tanzania

Introduction

Job design are among tools adopted in modern management strategies as it has been contributing in the influence of values added to employee within workplace by incorporating organization goals and individual factors toward common objective achievement (Engidaw, 2021). Since improving performance of the workforces become priority of the organization management to develop tools and strategies that enhance employee motivation, productivities, and performance (Tao, Lee, Sun, & Li, 2022), the management forced to change the strategic focus to incorporate more tools which provide opportunities for employee to maximize their productivities by participating to the organization core function which results to the development new skills and knowledge necessary for improving performances. The performance of business operation are depended on the contribution of human capital toward effectively performance of their function since employee are considered as heartbeat of organization, performance of human capital contributed by working environment that influenced by job design (Malkanthi & Ali, 2016).

For better control and manage of competitive advantages in dynamic marketing environment companies shifted on leveraging its workforces as competitive strategies, job design are considered as techniques for improving performance of workforces through driving satisfaction promotion factors which influence employee motivation (Lawalson, 2021). The objective of job design are to ensure workforces and company objective are integrated to ensure achievement of those goals through weaponizing employees with necessary skills knowledge, exposures, and task competence to enable then execute effectively and efficiency those complexity assigned task and enable performance of organization (Munyiri, 2014).

In a global context where business environment are dynamic and intensified by the high level of competition while skilled and experienced employee are scarce and highly demanded it forced organization to in developing countries such as USE, Italy, France, German, and others to made huge investment on organization job design units which would be tasked with conceptualizing company demand with skills and knowledge of human capital under company to ensure effectively adaptation of significant task (Sunday & Paul, 2015).

The job design define requirement of the job, means of the task developed, also the job design provide procedure to perform those task, the job design develop the relationship between task and business goals to ensure all employee are executing those task with aim to meet core business goals (Munyiri, 2014). Job design are the systematical framework that that integrate organization factors and employee factors to form the relationship between nature and scope of the task toward quality of workforces under the organization. The good job design structure are the one that does not exclude human factors in construction of task and responsibilities since those ergonomics factors play huge influence on motivation and productivities of employee in workplaces.

The human factors like physical capacity and psychological aspect have critical contribution to the employee behavior within workplace (Ravindran, 2019), which are necessary for management to integrate ergonomics to the job design framework when formulating task or rearranging work environment.

Problem Statement

Increase in job boredom due to anatomy and low motivated employee which lead to high turnover rate that contributed by internal and external factors of organization like unfavorable working environment, lack of motivation factors or others related to managerial (Hom, Allen, & Griffeth, 2019), those factors contributed to poor performance or organization as well as poor performances of employees In controlling effect related to anatomy factors that results to more damage to the organization performances, job design was utilized by most companies as tools for motivating employees and boost their performances.

Job design have several tools and techniques that have contribution to the performance of human capital toward efficiently and effectively performing their task with focus to meet company objective, selection of right tools accordingly to the capacity of human capital has been another challenges that faced by modern human resource managers (Tsuma, 2015). Thus, this study prepared to discuss different concept and tools of job design and ergonomic and their contribution toward employee performance in manufacturing sector and services sector respectively.

Study Objectives and Questions

The general objective of the paper are to discuss concept of job design in relation to its influence on employees performances, the specific objectives are the following.

·         Discuss the impact of job design on employee performances in manufacturing sector in Tanzania

·         Discussing the effect of job design and ergonomic consideration on employee performance in services sector in Tanzania

Research Questions

·         How does job design impact employee performances in manufacturing sector in Tanzania?

·         What are effect of job design and ergonomic consideration on employee performance in services sector in Tanzania?

Presentation of Keyword

This section describe key term as used in the study, there three major concepts used in the paper which are job design, employee performance, and ergonomic concept.

Concept of Job Design

Job design are structured system that describe landscape which arrange responsibilities to human resources of the company, the job design define the relationship between employee and job contents designed which provide procedure and meaning of the task provided (Etim, 2016). There five major components within job design that aimed in specifying job constituent to employees which are job specialization, job expansion, motivations factors, team design, and psychological factors.

Job specialization. This considered as process whereby employees within manufacturing sectors or services based organization acquire or develop skills tailored to specific task necessary in achieving business objectives, the specialization are performed through development of program that aimed to excel skills and knowledge in selected task (Stevenson, 2012). The specialization are considered key factors in boosting employees performances in manufacturing industry which results in increasing effectively and efficiency execution of assigned task and lead to productivities for example in manufacturing sector employee can specialize into assembly lines, machinery operation, or processing of raw input while in services based sector employees can specialize in marketing, sales, accounting sector and others (Dorling, 2018).

Job expansion. One of common components of job design are expansion that involve diversifying task performed within organization through assigning variety of task to employee across similar working environment which add more responsibilities (Van Vulpen, 2022), this influence job design as company evaluate related task that can be integrated to employee responsibilities in order to increase productivities for instance within manufacturing industry employees can operate machines and also assigned to handle warehouse or store keeper to be tasked with selling responsibilities and in services industry finance officers in bank can be assigned to perform bank taller task (Stevenson, 2012).

Motivations factors. The engagement of employee within work environment are key aspect to the company as it improve productivity and influence goal achievement, the job design focused on enabling integration of several working environment factors that influence employee morale to raise and being motivated with aim to increase productivity (Liu, Wang, & Zhang, 2022)

Team design. The objectives of manufacturing companies to increase productivity and gain competitive advantages as well as increase customer orientation factors, for those goals being achieved most or organization restructured their job design framework basis to non-routine design that based team (Stevenson, 2012), the job designed to empower self-directed team which assign more responsibilities and task to group with mutual objectives and autonomy to make decision based on assigned task.

Psychological factors. As one of components within job design are consideration of psychological requirement of employee within working environment, due to attitude and behavior differences most of employee have distinct characteristics that influence on decision making. Thus the job design should focus on employee’s individual factors contribution which aim to promote skills variation which enable employee to exploit individual skills and talent possessed also to define nature of job that allow employees to understand job identity from initial stage to final stages, also the job design should include autonomy factors that allow creativity and independents with framework that define job significant and feedback structure explained contribution to the performance of individual (Stevenson, 2012).

There several theories that establish the relationship of different job aspect such as Taylorrism, job characteristics approach, and others

Taylorrism

The theory developed in 1910’s by Winslow, Frederick Taylor after postindustrial era which increased the need of specialization for speeding production to cover the market demand. Taylor introduce systematic management approach which breakdown complexity task into simple task to increase performance, the assumption was to define each work with the procedure for implementation, allocate right labor toward selected job, improve quality of labor by offer training, and provide assistance in performing those task (Gobena, 2020).

Job characteristic Model

The model developed in 1976 by Hackman and Oldham that describe influence of the assigned task in promoting motivation on employees in organization, the model based on assumption of enriching job within organization to prevent monotonous and boredom within workplace through diversification of job responsibilities. The model developed five factors that provide direction for effectively job design, those element are skills variety, task Identity, Task significance, autonomy, and feedback.

 

Source: (Sunday & Paul, 2015)

Skills variety describe diversifying employee engagement to wider range of activities to develop more skills, task identity are developing competent to employee to handle task from start to the end, task significant considered as adding meaning to the employees through increase responsibility. Autonomy advocate freedom to the employee to execute responsibilities based on his own structured framework that aligned with business objective, and feedback are means of communication that create interaction between employee and management which develop positive relationship that lead to motivation and performance.

From above components and present job design mode, the paper present four tools that used in job design which are job rotation, Job enrichment, and job enragement, job simplification.

Source: (Kalpana, 2022)

Concept of Ergonomic

Ergonomics tools for job design that incorporate human factors in workplaces by consider capabilities and physical limitation of employees, the aim are to maximize relationship and interaction between workplace and employee which boost efficiency and performance (Heizer, Render, & Munson, 2016), the ergonomic are consideration of designing working places to ensure it reduce discomfort within workplaces which involve arrangement of workstation to enable reduction of musculoskeletal disorder (MSDS) and promote productivity within organization (Garg, Garg, & Dutta, 2016). Ergonomics have three categories which are main focus on designing job in services sectors, those are physical ergonomics, cognitive ergonomics, and organizational ergonomics.

Source: (Christy & Duraisamy, 2020)

Physical ergonomics. These are ergonomics that explain interaction of human bodies with task designed in workplace that executed in regular basis which include furniture arrangement, and overall setup of workplace (Christy & Duraisamy, 2020).

Cognitive ergonomics. These are ergonomic that deals with mental reasoning and processing like human perception toward exposed environment and other factors that are interactive within workplace (Christy & Duraisamy, 2020).

Organizational ergonomics. This are ergonomics that based on managerial framework that link all function within organization through policies, regulatory structure, communication mean, and  other managerial strategies that aimed into enhancement of health relationships within workplace that create supportive structure for performance development (Smith, 2017).

Working environment have included different aspect which include furniture arrangement, equipment, interior design and lighting amount, destruction level, atmosphere  temperature and other elements that included workspaces. Those elements are contributing to the performance of employee in workplace

Sources: (Samson, Waiganjo, & Koima, 2015)

Methodology used in Paper

The objective of the study was to discuss job design and its influence on employee performances in workplace, thus the variable measures was job design as independent variable and employee performance as independent variable. Due to nature of the study descriptive statistics approach was adopted from the study of (Ravindran, 2019), cross-sectional survey design was used that establish relationship between different scenarios by comparison without depending on control group as benchmark for measuring outcome (Chineme, Ogochukwa, & Onwumelu, 2017).

Both primary data that was gathered through interview from randomly organization engaged in manufacturing and services sector in study premises and secondary data that was collected though review of published data from library and internet sources. Phenomenography tools was used for data interpretations and analysis of qualitative research design to measure the relationship between job design and employees performance in Tanzania.

Results Presentation

After discussion on the key concept related with the study, the results of the study that guided by two study question was presented in this section. The research question was;

·         How does job design impact employee performances in manufacturing sector in Tanzania?

·         What are effect of job design and ergonomic consideration on employee performance in services sector in Tanzania?

Job design impact employee performances in manufacturing sector

The first objectives was to discuss the impact of job design impact employee performances in manufacturing sector. As presented in introduction section job design are structured system that describe landscape which arrange responsibilities to human resources of the company by defining relationship between employee and job contents designed which provide procedure and meaning of the task provided, the paper discussed four tools that used in job design as adopted from study of (Sunday & Paul, 2015) which are job rotation, Job enrichment, and job enragement, job simplification.

Job rotation

This are predetermined structure that allow employees to shift between different task and roles within same ecosystem in organization with purpose to improve skills set and knowledge (Munyiri, 2014), the job rotation involve systematic movement of employee from one job specialization to another within similar department in to control monotonous and boredom due to performing similar task repeatedly (Tantua & Nwimana, 2020). Through rotation it enable organization to prepare skills profiles of employee and design job accordingly to showcased skills that best fit to the individual. The job rotation have impact on employee performance as through this mode employee gain new skills and develop flexibilities which keep the occupied and reduce boredom which lead to motivation and hence productivities performance improved for example when salesman allocated to customers care he will gain commutation skills that utilized in sales. But when the job rotation are not well managed it can discourage employee and lead to poor performances.

Job enlargement

The job design technique that increase responsibilities horizontally to the employee within the company by considered those task fallen in same business line (Gobena, 2020), the tools which enable adding more scope toward the responsibilities of employees by increasing volume of the task performed. This design are considered as internal training as employee offered opportunities to improve his skills by provided with additional task in presented responsibilities. For example plan technician added more responsibilities to supervise production process that trigger motivation behavior which lead performances

Job enrichment

Job enrichment. The study found out job enrichment have positive contribution to the employee’s performances in manufacturing sector as it add more complex task vertically that offer more authority to the employees and challenged responsibilities which involve making own decision on performing those task. This increase responsibilities that promote engagement which lead to increase in performance due to development of new advanced skills.

Job simplification

The simplification based on breaking complex task simple task and assign to an individual for the purpose of improving concentration, this job design was established by Frederick Taylor who assumed simplification of job task to enable employee have concentration on simple task that promote productivities, also through job simplifications organization promoted employee performances and also organization performance include saving additional cost that would have incurred by the firm. But when are less attention paid simplification have negative impact as it influence boredom from performing less challenge function which affect performance.

The above results was supported by several literature bodies such as study of (Mac-Ozigbo & Daniel, 2020) aimed to assess effect of job enrichment on employee’s performance, the results indicated that there positive relation between job training offered, job depth provided, and challenge task to the employee performance. Also the study conducted by (Dosso, 2021) that measured the effect of job design on employee performance: the mediating role of job satisfaction, the results showed that there significant positive relationship between job design that used job rotation tools and employees satisfaction that results to the effectively improvement of employee performance. And also study of (Ali & Ziar-ur-Rehman, 2014) that measured the impact of job design on employee performances in Pakistan through adaptation of job characteristic model and the results show that there positive relationship between job design and employee performance.

Effect of Job Design and Ergonomic Consideration on Employee

The second objective was concerned with interaction of job design and ergonomic and their effect on employee performance. Working environment have included different aspect which include furniture arrangement, equipment, interior design and lighting amount, destruction level, atmosphere  temperature and other elements that included workspaces. Those elements are contributing to the performance of employee in workplace

Furniture arrangement

The study found out there positive relationship between employees performances and working environment in services sector where employee spend all times performing desk function that basically uses furniture as tools and platform to organize their function, when to furniture arranged in a manner that provide comforts in workplace it possibly to influence performances of employee as they motivated with work areas but when the furniture affect health of employees such as causes pain it will discourage engagement that results to poor performance of employees.

Aptitude consideration

The purpose of ergonomic are to promote consideration of human factors in job design which influence creating job that match abilities of individuals, when the job designed fail to match aptitude of employees to designed job it affect performance of employee , this means the designing should not base only on skills and knowledge but also the willingness.

Employee’s skill level

The performance of employee are contributed by matching skills level to the designed job which will increase engagement and productivities as the employee aware of the activities performing, but when there les relationship between employees skills and knowledge to job design it will cause burn-out and tiresome to the employee which have negative effect to the performance (Smith, 2017).

Environmental Consideration

The working environment include different aspect that interact with employee within workplace which include office décor, distraction level, furniture, artificial odors, and others within workplace since environment factors have effect on performance of employees within executing their activities either directly interaction or in indirectly form. Environment of the organization are included psychological and physical aspect which have to be incorporated on job design.

The above results supported by study of (Bhatia & Arora, 2021) that aimed to measure the effect of Job design and ergonomic on Employee Performance in Indian automobiles, the results show that there statistical relationship between job design and ergonomics toward employee performances. Also by (Garg, Garg, & Dutta, 2016) to assess the impact of office ergonomics on business performance, the outcome showed that ergonomic deficiencies was contribution to poor performances of organization due to outdated furniture and poor arrangement, also low quality decoration was lowering employee morale as lack of ergonomics factors was affected working health and safety.

Conclusion

The result indicated that job design have positive contribution to the performance of employee which are become significant tools for managers to implements in order to increase quality and value of significant resources, also from the results the study it was found out there positive relationship between ergonomic consideration and employee performance that means managers should invest more on work environment to incorporate human factors when prepare job design or rearranging task to include workplace setup.

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