Solange De Santis - Job design :: essays research papers

Introduction: Solange De Santis joined a General Motors van assembly plant in 1991. During her eighteen months at GM she suffered from boredom, strain, psychological distress, job dissatisfaction, a feeling of distrust and a lack of job security. All of these factors had a detrimental effect on her health, safety and productivity. What job re-design opportunities are available to foster a healthier and more productive workplace? In order to answer this question we adopt job and work design theory that will analyze her role and provide tangible solutions. The following three  ¡Ã‚ ®Job Design Approaches ¡Ã‚ ¯ will be explored: 1) Job rotation 2) Job enrichment 3) Teamworking. The article outlined below elaborates on three small psychological changes to make working conditions for De Santis much better, improving her job safety and productivity. We hope that ¡Ã‚ ±Little changes make a big difference in the long term. ¡Ã‚ ±(Julian Barling, Topic 9, slide 3) Job Rotation: De Santis is an autoworker on the van assembly line at the General Motors plant. She performs the same simple task, and repeats the same procedures everyday. There are no opportunities for her to learn new skills or face any new challenges. It is easy to imagine how boring and frustrated anyone in her position would become. In addition to the challenge of her routine she also works on high stress and overload because of the non-stop, always catching up nature of the assembly line. According to research, boredom can cause daydreams and strain which together can threaten her safety. These negative experiences impact her job satisfaction and motivation. What we should do is reduce boredom, strain and dissatisfaction. Through job rotation it is possible to re-design her job and make it much more interesting and fun which should reduce her current levels of boredom and stress. How is this possible? Job rotation can reduce De Santis ¡Ã‚ ¯s boredom, relieve her from repetitive movements, and increase motivation by diversifying her experience; job rotation provides the kind of flexibility and experience that will allow her to feel much more control of her work and develop important skills that can help to off-set feelings of uncertainty; job rotation also helps to improve morale, increases ownership and should enable her to reach her potential; it is also shown to lower fatigue and helps to produce greater satisfaction that reduces absenteeism/turnover problems. Therefore, job rotation can make her job healthier and more productive How to implement job rotation?