(Page 13 & 14) Case study: Job Enrichment

(Page 13 & 14) Case study: Job Enrichment

(Page 13 & 14) Case study: Job Enrichment at Volvo 1.

Itemise the differences in the hygiene factors when the Kalmar plant is compared with the Torslanda plant. Answer: The working condition at Torslanda plant was extremely noisy, making conversation at a normal level impossible whereas the Kalmar plant has special insulation installed which is used to keep noise down. This is particularly important as this was problem at the Torslanda plant so the company decided to install special insulation at the new production facility at Kalmar.

This is very important as important decisions between workers and supervisors can be heard and made. The deployment of dust extractor fans which removes dust from the plant were also installed at the new production facility at Kalmar whereas the Torslanda plant had dust in abundance which effected workers as dust can cause health problems. The Torslanda plant was based in traditionally assembly line principles: the moving assembly line which was 1 mile long, transported cars under assembly through a series of work stations where assembly line work is carried out short and sharply.The work cycles varied between 30 & 60 seconds, and often involved difficult work postures, e.

g. leaning into the car and moving at the same time as completing the work task. Whereas the new Kalmar plant had 240 individual carriers, these carriers are electronically powered through magnetic tracks. They function as a transport device; each carrier transports a car in various stages of completion to a work area. The rate at which carriers arrive at and pass through the work area is controlled by the workers whereas at the Torslanda plant it wasn’t.The carriers are designed so that it can be easily tilted by 90 degrees, and the car on the carrier can be also moved in a vertical direction. Both these features can be used to provide more comfortable working positions whereas at the Torslanda plant it involved difficult work postures.

The supervision of work in the Torslanda plant were, for example, the pace of work was determined by speed of the line, jobs were allocated by supervisors and permission to go absent from the line always had to be permitted by supervisors. Decision making on the job was at minimum.Whereas at the new production facility at Kalmar the supervision of work is totally different to the Torslanda plant. The work team function as autonomous work groups.

They contract with their management for the amount of work they will complete, are free to pace the work as they like, and they decide how the work will be allocated between them. They generally operate in groups of two, following a car from station to station and carrying out the work function allocated to their team. Each work team will have groups of 8 to 10 groups doing the functional tasks the group is responsible for.The spirits between the workers are strong. In most work areas, some of the work will be viewed as bad e. g.

heavy work or monotonous pre-assembly operations. Most teams rotate these jobs to make their allocation as fair as possible. The work cycle ranges from 16 to 40 minutes depending on the teams function whereas at the previous plant work cycles varied between 30 & 60 seconds, and often involved difficult work postures.

Company policy and administration at the new production facility at Kalmar has changed as the company decided to implement a number of changes in the form of employee communication and information.For example, all employees’ receive information on the budget, large plant assemblies are held twice a year and the team representative receive a presentation on the final budget when it finalised for the year ahead & they can pass on this information to other workers. They also receive different types of information from the production team, e. g. on hours worked and spoilage. All these types of information weren’t available at the Torslanda plant as staff input relating to decisions within the company weren’t encouraged by the hierarchy.

The total absence rate was 15% per annum and labour turnover was 50% at the Torslanda Plant whereas at the new production facility at Kalmar in the first ten years of its operation labour turnover was around 5% per annum absenteeism around 7%. As you can see there is large difference between the absence and labour turnover between the two plants percentage wise. It could be due to lots of factors such as improved working conditions, wages, improved supervision and changes implemented to the Company policy and administration.There were also a massive change in productivity as measured by staff hours per car was 15 % higher than in the Torslanda plant which is a massive increase. 2.

Kalmar is often cited as positive evidence of the value of job enrichment. Explain how jobs were enriched at Kalmar. Answer: One of the factors behind the new production facility at Kalmar was to enrich the jobs so the employee’s efforts lead to greater performances. They did this by removing the assembly line and its substitution by 240 individual carriers. These carriers are electronically powered through magnetic tracks.They function as a transport device; each carrier transports a car in various stages of completion to a work area. The rate at which the carriers arrive at and pass through the work area is controlled by the workers.

This job process is much more comfortable and efficient than the previous one at Torslanda plant. Another way the Company enrich the jobs in Kalmar was to give employers the freedom to space their work as they like however their work team contract with their management for the amount of work they will complete and they decide how the work will be allocated between them.They generally operate in groups of two, following a car from station to station and carrying out the work function allocated to their team.

Each work team will have groups of 8 to 10 groups doing the functional tasks the group is responsible for. Another way they enrich the jobs was by letting all employees know and receive information on the budget, large plant assemblies are held twice a year and the team representative receive a presentation on the final budget when it finalised for the year ahead & they can pass on this information to other workers. 3.State, indicating your reasons, whether the evidence in the case study supports the view that the improved performance at Kalmar was due to the motivational effects of job enrichment. Answer: Job design is an important aspect of motivational effect of job enrichment. Both organisations and employers benefit from designing jobs that offers skill, challenge, responsibility and control to workers.

All these reasons below are motivational effects of job enrichment (underlined). These are evidence gathered from the case study which supports the view that improved performance at Kalmar was due to the motivational effects of job enrichment.First the company re-engineered the job process making much more comfortable and efficient than the previous one at Torslanda plant. The company provided enough freedom to facilitate job excellence by giving the employers the freedom to space their work as they like. The company decided to implement a number of changes in the form of employee communication and information by giving free flow of information eliminating secrecy. They did this by letting all employees know and receive information on the company’s budget and more.The company provided job variety & job-sharing as in most work areas, some of the work will be viewed as bad e.

g. heavy work. Most teams rotate these jobs to make their allocation as fair as possible. 4. What does this case study show you about the way work was designed in the past 25 years of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century? Can you find any parallels with the ideas from traditional work design? Answer: In the past 25 years of 20th century work was designed in traditional principles. But now the modern era the work is more technical and design aspects that differentiate modern cars from old ones.The modern era has been one of increasing standardisation, platform sharing, and computer-aided designs.

I found parallels with the ideas from traditional work design in the article below. URL (http://en. wikipedia.

org/wiki/History_of_the_automobile) “Some particularly notable advances in modern times are the widespread of front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive, the adoption of the V6 engine configuration, and the ubiquity of fuel injection. While all of these advances were first attempted in earlier eras, they so dominate the market today that it is easy to overlook their significance.Nearly all modern passenger cars are front-wheel drive monocoque/unibody designs, with transversely-mounted engines, but this design was considered radical as late as the 1960s”.

LEARNING LOG PEOPLE & ORGANISATIONS Multiple choice Questions SEMINAR 2 – ACTIVITY 2 Question – Concept of learning Answer – e Question – Cognitive learning approach Answer – c Question – Learning Organization Answer – d Question – Pieter Answer – c Question – Pavlov Answer – b SEMINAR 3 – ACTIVITY 3 Question – Carl Jung Answer – a Question – Nomothetic Approach Answer –d Question – Costa & McCrae Answer – d Question – Global Chemicals Answer –eQuestion – Moodiness Answer – a SEMINAR 4 – ACTIVITY 4 Question – Interpersonal Communication Answer –e Question – What time is it? Answer – c Question – Conversational Control Signal Answer – d Question – Comedians Answer –d Question – History Answer – d SEMINAR 5 – ACTIVITY 5 Question – Perception Answer – c Question – Psychologists Answer – b Question – Stereotyping Answer – c Question – Interviewer Answer – c Question – A child broke Answer – b SEMINAR 6 – ACTIVITY 6 Question – Hierarchy of Needs Answer – c Question – Motivation Theories Answer – d Question – Frederick Herzberg Answer – e Question – Call Centre ManagerAnswer – a Question – Jean-Paul Answer – a SEMINAR 7 – ACTIVITY 7. 1 Question – Face -to -Face Interaction Answer – e Question – Researchers Answers – e Question – Flat consist of 4 students Answer – a Question – Leader of a local scout group Answer – d Question – Belbin’s Team role Answer – a SEMINAR 8 – ACTIVITY 8 Question – A manager Answer – b Question – Ford Answer – b Question – Unbroken line of authority Answer – b Question – A company divides Answer – b Questions – Two negative aspects of bureaucratic Answer – b Questions – Lars Answer – d SEMINAR 9 – ACTIVITY 9 Questions – Rensis Likert’s Answer – aQuestions – Author in 1977 Answer – c Questions – Leadership theory Answers – b Questions – the least preferred Co-worker Answer – e Questions – Edgar Schein Answers – b Questions – Organization’s Culture Answers – a Questions – Geert Hofstede Answer – a SEMINAR 10 – ACTIVITY 10. 2 Questions – Juan in Mexico City Answers – d Questions – Edgar Schein Answers – c Write up Purple Covered Module – Handbook (Page 7) Seminar 1 – Activity 1 • OB – Organizational behaviour is an academic discipline concerned with describing, understanding, predicting, and controlling human behaviour in an organizational environment.

Organisation – An organization or organisation is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, controls its own performance, and has a boundary separating it from its environment. • Organisational Dilemma – Social dilemmas are situations in which private interests are at odds with collective interests. Such situations arise because people frequently attach more weight to their short-term selfish interests than to the long-term interests of the group, organization, or society to which they belong. • Independent Variable – An Independent Variable is a factor that can be varied or manipulated in an experiment (e. . time, temperature, concentration, etc). It is usually what will affect the dependent variable.

• Dependent Variable – A dependent variable is a variable dependent on another variable: the independent variable. In simple terms, the independent variable is said to cause an apparent change in, or simply affect, the dependent variable. • Organisational Effectiveness – Organizational effectiveness is the concept of how effective an organization is in achieving the outcomes the organization intends to produce. Balanced Scorecard – The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a strategic performance management tool for measuring whether the smaller-scale operational activities of a company are aligned with its larger-scale objectives in terms of vision and strategy.

• Operational Definition – An operational definition is a demonstration of a process – such as a variable, term, or object – in terms of the specific process or set of validation tests used to determine its presence and quantity. • Behaviour – Behaviour or behaviour refers to the actions or reactions of an object or organism, usually in relation to the environment.Behaviour can be conscious or subconscious, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary. • Behaviourism – Behaviourism (or behaviourism), also called the learning perspective (where any physical action is a behaviour), is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things which organisms do — including acting, thinking and feeling — can and should be regarded as behaviours. • Positivism – Positivism is a philosophy which holds the only authentic knowledge is that which is based on actual sense experience. • Action – In philosophy, action has developed into a sub-field called philosophy of action.Action is what an agent can do.

• Cognitive Psychology – Cognitive psychology is a discipline within psychology that investigates the internal mental processes of thought such as visual processing, memory, problem solving, and language. • Phenomenology – Phenomenology is a philosophical movement. It was founded in the early years of the 20th century by Edmund Husserl, expanded together with a circle of his followers at the universities of Gottingen and Munich in Germany, and spread across to France, the United States, and elsewhere, often in contexts far removed from Husserl’s early work. Social Construction of Reality – The Social Construction of Reality is a book about the sociology of knowledge written by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann and published in 1966. The work introduced the term social construction into the social sciences and was strongly influenced by the work of Alfred Schutz.

Activity 1. 2 An organization’s effectiveness is also dependent on its communicative competence and ethics. The relationships between these three are simultaneous. Ethics is a foundation found within organizational effectiveness.An organization must exemplify respect, honesty, integrity and equity to allow communicative competence with the participating members. Along with ethics and communicative competence, members in that particular group can finally achieve their intended goals. Foundations and other sources of grants and other types of funds are interested in organizational effectiveness of those people who seek funds from the foundations.

Foundations always have more requests for funds or funding proposals and treat funding as an investment using the same care as a venture capitalist would in picking a company in which to invest. (Page 9) Seminar 2 – Activity 2Behaviourism only concerns itself with the behaviour that can be observed. It assumes that we learn by associating certain events with certain consequences, and will behave in the way with the most desirable consequences. It also assumes that when events happen together, they become associated and either event will have the same response. It does not note any difference between animal behaviour and human behaviour. Whereas Cognitive psychology assumes that humans have the capacity to process and organise information in their mind.

It is concerned less with visible behaviour and more with the thought processes behind it.Cognitive psychology tries to understand concepts such as memory and decision making. The only real similarities between the two are that they are both attempts to explain human behaviour. (Page 10) Seminar 3 – Activity 3 In, psychology, Trait theory is a major approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of traits, which can be defined as habitual patterns of behaviour, thought, and emotion. According to this perspective, traits are relatively stable over time, differ among individuals (e. g.

some people are outgoing whereas others are shy), and influence behaviour.It is important to note that these traits have been found to organize personality at the highest level, and so they are most helpful as a conceptual, organizing framework for regular, lower-level personality traits. However, because the Big Five traits are so broad and comprehensive, they are not nearly as powerful in predicting and explaining actual behavior as are the more numerous lower-level traits. In mathematics, logic and computer science, type theory is any of several formal systems that can serve as alternatives to naive set theory, or the study of such formalisms in general.In programming language theory, a branch of computer science, type theory can refer to the design, analysis and study of type systems, although some computer scientists limit the term’s meaning to the study of abstract formalisms. While the benefits of type systems have long been recognized, there are some areas where the standard systems in programming languages are not expressive enough.

Language designers usually trade expressiveness for decidability of the type system. Some interesting programs will always be rejected or be assigned uninformative types. Page 11) Seminar 5 – Activity 5 The Halo and Horns effect An effect in which one person’s judgement of another is influenced by a first impression it may be either unfavourable (horns) or favourable (halo). The effects can be misleading when interviewing job applicants. For example, a well-qualified candidate who arrives late for an interview, for a good reason, may be passed over as a bad timekeeper, while a poorly qualified but punctual and well-groomed candidate may be offered the job. (Page 15, 16) Seminar 7 – Activity 7.

1Dr Meredith Belbin studied team-work for many years, and he famously observed that people in teams tend to assume different “team roles”. He defines a “team role” as “a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way” and named nine such team roles that underlie team success. Belbin suggests that, by understanding your team role within a particular team, you can develop your strengths and manage your weaknesses as a team member, and so improve how you contribute to the team.

Team leaders and team development practitioners often use the Belbin model to help create more balanced teams.Teams can become unbalanced if all team members have similar styles of behavior or team roles. If team members have similar weakness, the team as a whole may tend to have that weakness.

If team members have similar team-work strengths, they may tend to compete (rather than co-operate) for the team tasks and responsibilities that best suit their natural styles. The Belbin model can be used with your team to help ensure that necessary team roles are covered, and that potential behavioural tensions or weaknesses among the team member are addressed. Page 18/19) Seminar 8 – Activity 8 The difference between leadership and management is leadership is setting a new direction or vision for a group that they follow e. g.

a leader is the spearhead for that new direction whereas management controls or directs people/resources in a group according to principles or values that have already been established. (Page 19/20) Seminar 10 – Activity 10. 2 Taylorism is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflow processes, improving labour productivity.Individuals are different from each other; the most efficient way of working for one person may be inefficient for another. This criticism is valid for me as all individuals are different from each other therefore that person might prefer do his won work his way which might be inefficient for another person. The economic interests of workers and management are rarely identical, so that both the measurement processes and the retraining required by Taylor’s methods are frequently resented and sometimes sabotaged by the workforce.

Both difficulties were recognised by Taylor, but are generally not fully addressed by managers who only see the potential improvements to efficiency. Taylor believed that scientific management cannot work unless the worker benefits. In his view management should arrange the work in such a way that one is able to produce more and get paid more, by teaching and implementing more efficient procedures for producing a product. (Page 21) Seminar 9 – Activity 9 Organisational culture plays a powerful role in changing organisations.

Therefore, it is my contention that a thorough understanding of the fabric of the culture of an organisation and its values will facilitate the initiation and implementation of context-fitted reforms. In addition, understanding organisational culture is vital in seeking new ways for changing organisations in a time of global economy and turbulent policy environment. However, organisational culture is always embedded into the regional and national culture. Organizational culture is an idea in the field of Organizational studies and anagement which describes the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values, personal and cultural values of an organization. It has been defined as “the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization. Other – Seminar Discussions Understand Human Behaviour – “Boozer” Marsh 1.

What lessons did Gary Learn? Gary learnt that he didn’t have any self control, was very weak and continued cycle drinking both at work and at home.Gary over consume on alcohol. He had alcohol on lunch breaks and when he went home had few drinks just before dinner.

2. Do you think that Gary Marsh would have developed a ‘drink problem’ if he had worked elsewhere? Yes due to his easy going personality. Drinking alcohol safely comes with experience. Inexperienced drinkers like Gary can often find themselves in bad situations. Even people with years of experience can make mistakes with alcohol, however according to faqs. org/health/topics, one in every 13 adults either abuse alcohol or are alcoholics. 3.

What caused the problem his personality, job, girlfriend, friends (peers), situation or others? A number of factors caused the problems such as his personality like I stated above he is easy going, his girlfriend not being able to him a decent meal, himself no self control at all and his friends because it was a norm for the boys to go drink at lunchtimes. Some argue all the advertisements for beer companies and during sporting events contribute to this desire need to over consume alcohol. While others argue it is society as a whole. Maybe it’s the individual its Gary himself. . How did Gary Manage to give up drink? By receiving treatment and joining a local self help organisation as Gary knew the problem was becoming public knowledge and he was painfully aware of the problem. 5.

Do you think that he will stay of the booze? No he admitted himself he has a problem. Now he started to bring lunch to work. He still misses the company the camaraderie, the lively discussion at lunchtimes, but he had learned a lesson about himself. Personality: Costa & McRae 1. How accurate, in your view, is your personality profile as revealed by this assessment?My openness shows me that am more of a preserver & efficient guy rather than a curious one. My conscientiousness is more balanced between each other.

2. Does this assessment indicate that you have one or more dominant traits? Yes my dominant trait is agreeableness. Have a high agreeableness which means that am very trustable and a team player.

I love being a team player for example; I play for a local football club. I show up at every training session with commitment up front. I always want to give a good effort in trainings and in matches. 3. Given your profile, what jobs or occupations would you not be suitable for?These are the jobs that I would not be suitable for due to my personality profile a librarian, chef, pilot & taxi driver. 4.

How helpful is this personality assessment in enabling a manager to make predictions about a potential employee’s future job performance? Personality assessment is very helpful as recruitment is a high cost to any business, as is the cost of testing those top candidates. As we all know, behavioural personality profile assessment testing is part, not the only aspect of the interview process, so why not make it highly cost effective and efficient.Behavioural personality testing is vitally important to ensure you remove any bias from the interview process, but more so because you can measure much of the rest of the process.

Skills gained, degrees studied for, results checked along with references are tangible, but temperament is far harder to judge or even notice during interviewing. The individual’s true personality can impact on their likelihood of success in any given role. All Recruitment companies and recruitment agencies, as well as HR (Human Resource) Managers, should all be considering these products in their testing of candidates and internal staff Corine and the interview . Do you think Ed will do well on this job? Why or why not? Ed will do very well on the job as he has experiences working in the foundry during the summer as a supervisor. He has taken some business classes while at the university during his studies as well as some additional courses at a nearby business college. His experiences would help at the management and administrative side of the business and has the ability to get along easily with his co workers.

He’ very open minded and seemed very enthusiastic about the job. 2. Do you think that Corines’s evaluation was biased in any unfair way? Did she do anything illegal?Don’t think Corines’s evaluation was biased as it wasn’t her fault that Ed used to go the same university as her it was just a total coincidence that both her and Ed likes hiking and outdoor activities. She definitely didn’t do anything illegal it was just a coincidence that both went to the same universities and certainly it’s not her fault that they had lively conversation between each other as Ed was very friendly. 3. What sort of changes would you suggest in the interview process? The sort of changes I would suggest is the interview panel should been made up of anything from two to four people not one person as will prevent any biased.

Personality assessment is very helpful as recruitment is a high cost to any business, as is the cost of testing those top candidates. In order to gain as much information as possible about each candidate’s ability for the post, there could carry out a job-related exercise. This is generally a PC-based written exercise/test, but in some cases it may involve a practical exercise such as a presentation.

Where presentations are requested, each candidate will be given the opportunity to prepare in advance – in which case they will be sent details prior to the interview. Case: Pushing papers can be fun . What is the behaviour that the captain wants to motivate? The paperwork to support the court cases is rubbish.

The captain wants the police officers to do the paperwork properly not inadequately as poor reporting causes them lose more cases than any other factor. The officers like the contact they have with the public, the action involved in crime prevention and the apprehension of criminals. The only problem is when they get back to the office they hate the paperwork and that side of the job is frequently put off or done inadequately therefore leading them to lose in courts. 2.

What are the characteristics of the situation that cause problems for motivational systems? Lack of job enrichment because it’s boring and there isn’t much you can do abut it, is always the same routine paperwork. Very difficult to get promotion due to lack of financial resources as a matter of fact the captain needs to lay off some people in the near future. 3. Do you think he has tried everything he can do? Yes because there isn’t much the captain can do as there’s no money available etc. The captain tries to motivate them but there aren’t any financial rewards at his disposal.He tried setting up team competitions based upon the excellence of the reports, but the guys caught on to that pretty quickly. On one was getting any type of reward for winning the competition and they figured why they should bust a gut when there was no payoff.

4. What would you suggest he do? Think of some specific strategies that might help? These are some suggestions that he captain can do for example: New on the job training, employee of the month scheme and etc. It also seems like the captain himself doesn’t care as he lacks the motivation. Teams and Jack O’Brian 1. Was Jack O’Brian’s preparation for this problem adequate?Did he have all the information he needed? He’s preparation was quite adequate because he got an outside consultant to analyse the system; they had stopwatches, cameras to help gather the date. 2. Was the composition of the group the best one possible? Don’t think the composition of the group was the best possible as it didn’t help Jack the slightest at all and on top of that the company lost out too.

To hire outside consultant is very expensive and the results they find weren’t that useful for Jack. He should’ve consulted the supervisors first before carrying on with failed project which lead to nothing. 3.How about the group process – could it or should have been structured. Should the decisions rule have been a majority rule voting procedure? The group process could have been more structured as well as O’Brian could let the supervisors come up with some recommendation after all they work in the actual supermarkets where as Jack O’Brian is a regional manager.

4. All in all, had O’Brian chosen the right level of participation? The right level of participation is very important but Jack O’Brian Boss being the manager should have came and taking the lead up with major decisions as she is paid more wages than O’Brian himself.She clearly should’ve done that when she saw Jack O’Brian struggling very badly.

. McDonaldisation 1. What are the benefits of this approach – to the company, to the employee, to the customer, to society as a whole? The benefits of McDonaldization result in an efficient, logical sequence of methods that can be completed the same way every time to produce the desired outcome. The outcome is predictable. All aspects of the process are easily controlled. Additionally, quantity (or calculability) becomes the measurement of good performance. Ritzer points out on pp. 2-13 that fast-food restaurants spend a lot of money to tell you their advantages. They are clean, predictable, the food tastes good. In terms of predictability, it is satisfying to know that wherever you are in the world, a French fry will be more or less the same. For parents your children are entertained in the McDonald’s playgrounds, and you leave with a full stomach. They also give you the illusion of costing less, and delivering more. Finally, McDonald’s (and other similar corporations) have commendable policies for hiring people from many different socio-economic backgrounds, and getting them involved in paying work.For the corporation, there are the advantages that standard quality controls can be used everywhere. New ideas and products are diffused quickly and efficiently through the marketing networks. This creates a stable and profitable corporate environment. 2. What are the disadvantages of this approach? A work force with the minimum abilities possible to complete simple focused tasks. This means that they can be quickly and cheaply trained and are easily replaceable. One of the disadvantages things about McDonaldization is how consumers get tricked into becoming unpaid employees. They do the work that was traditionally performed by the company.The prime example of this is diners who bus their own tables at the fast food restaurant. They carry their trash. “The extreme rationalization of this is the drive-thru; consumers take their trash with them. Other examples are many and include: ATM’s, salad bars, automated telephone menus, and pumping gas”. 3. Identify example of McDonaldization from sectors other than fast foods – work, travel, family, medical care and commerce. The world of fast food is the prime example, but the effects of McDonaldization can be found in virtually every other form of business and human activity including health care, religion and education to name a few.