CASE STUDY DONE ON IMPACT OF  JOB DESIGN ON EMPLOYEES PERFORMANCE

This case study has been done by the some Educational Officials of South Eastern University few years back.(http://repository.kln.ac.lk/)

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of job design on employees’ performance in the school of Kalmunai Zone in Sri Lanka and which factors of job design highly influence on employees’ performance in the organizations.

Introduction,Research Framework,Employee Performance,Method,Simple Random Sampling,Measures,Data analysis,Results mentioned in their case study can be shortlisted and summarized as follows,

                           IMPACT OF JOB DESIGN ON EMPLOYEES’ PERFORMANCE

 (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SCHOOL TEACHERS IN THE KALMUNAI ZONE)

                                                               MAM. Hussain Ali 

                                    Department of Management South Eastern University of Sri Lanka

                                                            hussainm@seu.ac.lk 

                                                      and Mrs. MACF. Aroosiya 

                                                           BBA(HRM) Special 

                                                    fathimaaroosiya@gmail.com 

Abstract 

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of job design on employees’ performance in the school of Kalmunai Zone in Sri Lanka and which factors of job design highly influence on employees’ performance in the organizations. To analyze this condition, one hypothesis was formulated using deductive approach. The study was conducted by using a random sample of five school in Kalmunai Zone. Type of investigation was correlational and it was cross-sectional on time horizon. 

The unit of analysis was organizational level; each school. Teachers served as respondents on behalf of the firm. Measures of the study were of good quality after assuring reliability and validity. Data were collected from 103 respondents which was 100% response rate. In order to test the hypothesis that was concerned with relationship between perceived level of job design and perceived degree of employees’ performance the Pearson ProductMovement Correlation technique was applied. The results of the study showed a significant and positive relationship between perceived level of job design and perceived degree of employees’ performance in the schools. Found relationship was significant (correlation coefficient was .363 that was significant at 0.01 level) implying that a school 2 should adopt an effective task identity, autonomy and feedback in order to improve teachers’ performance. 

Keywords: Job Design, Teacher’s Performance, Government School

Introduction

 Human Resource is the most important resource compared with other resources like machine, material, land, etc. In the organizational context, the effectiveness of human resource depends on designing the job according to human capability and characteristics. Job design is the most important function of Human Resource Management. It indicates that, designing of contents, methods, functions of a job.

Research Framework 

Job Design: In the view of Opatha (2002), ‘Job design is the functions of arranging task, duties and responsibilities in to an organizational unit of work’. The working definition for the study purpose is that, ‘The job design is the way to organize the contents, methods and relationship of jobs in order to achieve organizational goals and objectives as well as satisfaction of job holders. There are various approaches to job design. Regarding this Aswathappa (2006) explained that, various approaches to job design are namely; Job Rotation, Job Engineering, Job Enlargement, and Job Enrichment. 

In the view of Garg & Rastogi (2006), it is closely associated with sophisticated computer applications, Computer Assisted Design (CAD), and human – machine interactions. Job rotation and job enlargement were designed to take advantage of specialization of labor from the job engineering approach (Luthans, 2005). Job rotation allows an employee to work in different departments or jobs in an organization to gain better 5 insight in to operations (http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/arossett/pie/menu.htm).Job enlargement can be used to increase motivation by giving employees more and varied task (http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/arossett/pie/menu.htm). Job enrichment (JE) is the technique entails enriching job, which refers to the inclusion of greater variety of work content, requiring a higher level of knowledge and skill, giving workers, autonomy and responsibility in terms of planning, directing, and controlling their own performance, and providing the opportunity for personal growth and meaningful work experience (Garg & Rastogi, 2006). According to Herzberg (2003), job enrichment provides the opportunity for the employees’ psychological growth, while job enlargement merely makes a job structurally bigger.

 According to Hertzberg’s theory, only a challenging job has the opportunity for achievement, recognition, advancement and growth that will motivate personnel. Because of that, job characteristics model (JCM) superseded the two-factor theory and it is the most widely recognized model (Garg & Rastogi, 2006). The Hackman & Oldham model suggests the relationship between five core job dimensions – skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feed back – and the occurrence of intrinsic motivation (Samarakoon , 2002). 

In the view of Garg & Rastogi (2006), Skill variety refers to the extent to which the job requires the employee to draw from a number of different skills and abilities as well as upon a range of knowledge, Task identity refers to whether the job has an identifiable beginning and end or how complete a module of work the employee performs, Task significance refers the degree to which the job affects the lives or work of other people, Autonomy refers the degree to which the job provides freedom, independence, and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and in determining the procedures, and Feedback refers the degree to which carrying out the work activities required by the job results in the individual’s obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance.

Employees Performance

  In the view of Putterill and Rohrer (1995), Job performance is defined as it focuses directly on employee productivity by assessing the number of units of acceptable quality produced by an employee in a manufacturing environment, within a specific time period. Hence the researcher has developed the working definition for study purpose is that, achievement of targets of the tasks assigned to employees within particular period of time. The success of business depends on employees’ performance. One of the most effective ways to increase business performance and profit is to increase the performance of employees, from the lowest levels of the organization to senior management 

(http://www.quantisoft.com/index/html). Performance improvement is not only a result of well functioning system but also depends on effective human resource strategies that succeed in recruiting and maintaining a committed and motivated workforce (Al-Ahmadi, 2009). The dimensions of performance on which an employee is evaluated are called the criteria of evaluation (Ivancevich, 1998). (Opatha, 2002) suggested that several criteria becomes needed in order to evaluate job performance of an employee accurately. In the view of Mathis& Jackson (2003), the data or information that managers receive on how well employees are performing their jobs can be of three different types. 

Trait-based information, Behavior-based information, Result based information. Opatha (2002) indicated that trait-based information identifies a subjective character of the employee such as attitude, initiative or creativity. Behavior-based evaluations of job performance focus on what is included in the job itself (Mathis& Jackson, 2003). Results are outcomes produced by the employee. Result based information consider employee accomplishment. For jobs in which measurement is easy and obvious, a results-based approach works well (Opatha, 2002). 

There are various evident for relationship between job design and employees’ performance. Al-Ahmadi (2009) indicated that the nature of job itself was found positively correlated with performance , which indicates that satisfaction with amount of variety and challenge in one’ s job actually influence performance. The sense of job 7 significant, feeling important in eyes of others, realizing ones’ competence, and freedom to make decisions are positively related to performance. Ivancevich (1998) suggested that, approaches to job design place different emphasize on performance and satisfaction as desired outcomes. 

In other words, certain methods of job design are primarily interested in improving performance; others are more concerned with satisfaction. According to Borman, employee training and job redesigning, the focus is almost always on improving job performance (Borman, 2004 as in Kahya, 2007). Some argue that job design improves workers motivation and dedication to work however at closer examination job design can only contribute to better efficiency within an organization eliminate some health problems. 

But will not impact employees’ morals and enthusiasm at work (http://www.customwritings.com/blog/author/admin/). In the view of Garg & Rastogi (2006), well designed jobs can have a positive impact on both employee satisfaction and quality of performance. The perceived work demands, job control and social support through job design leads to high productivity(Love & Edwards, 2005 as in Garg & Rastogi,2006). Like wise Campion et al (2005) suggested that Nature of work has a substantial impact on an employee’s performance and attitude. 

These finding stated that there is a strong relationship between Job design and Employees’ performance. So according to these findings the following hypothesis was developed; H1: Perceived systematic use of job design of a firm is significantly and positively related to employees’ job Performance. Figure: 1 presents the relevant schematic diagram. Systematic design of job is labeled as the independent variable and perceived employees’ performance is labeled as the dependant variable. 

Figure:1 Schematic Diagram of the Research Framework 

 Independent Variable Dependent Variable Method Study Design The researchers were interested in investing whether job design (JD) relates to employees’ performance of school teachers. There was no intention of establishing definite cause effect relationship between the two variables. The type of investigation of this study was correlational rather than causal. Because this study attempted to analyze the relationship between the dependent variable and independent variable, this study was analytical in nature or purpose. 

Study was conducted in the natural environment of the organization with direct interference by the researchers with the normal flow of work. The researchers used a questionnaire to individuals. Hence, the extent of research interference was high as this study was a field study. Population of this research included the Schools in the Kalmunai Zone. There are 59 schools in Kalmunai Zone. Simple random Sampling method was applied and following Table gives the sample information. 

Table 1 Simple Random Sam

Selected Schools No. of Teachers Random Selection Random Selection 

1. College N=106  25% N=27 

2. College N=92   25% N=23 

3. College N=64 25% N=16 4. College N=103 25% N=26 

5. College N=45 25% N=11 

Total N=410 25% N=103 (Source: Survey data)

Measures Job Design: 

The perceived degree of job design in an organization was operationalized into five dimensions i.e., Skill Variety, Task Identity, Task Significance, Autonomy and Feed Back (Samarakoon , 2002; Garg & Rastogi 2006; Luthans, 2005). The questionnaire assesses dimensions of job design and employee performance. dimensions of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback. The questionnaire finds out the extend to which one possesses job design. The 15 question items are divided into 5 factors: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback. A 5-point Likert scale is used to evaluate answers. 10 Employee Performance: 

The perceived degree of employee past performance was operationalized into three dimensions such as traits, behaviors, and results Trait-based information, Behavior-based information, Result based information (Opatha, 2002; Duraisingam and Skinner, 2005; Mathis and Jackson, 2003). A questionnaire was developed to measure the variable of employee performance and it has 29 question items. The 29 question items were divided into three factors: traits, behaviours and results. A 5- point Likert scale was used to evaluate the answers.

Employee Performance: The perceived degree of employee past performance was operationalized into three dimensions such as traits, behaviors, and results Trait-based information, Behavior-based information, Result based information (Opatha, 2002; Duraisingam and Skinner, 2005; Mathis and Jackson, 2003). A questionnaire was developed to measure the variable of employee performance and it has 29 question items. The 29 question items were divided into three factors: traits, behaviours and results. A 5- point Likert scale was used to evaluate the answers. 

Results 

The teachers’ job design and their performance have been reviewed by the researcher and found that the few dimensions of job design must be improved. Based on the result of Univariative analysis, the degree of systematic quality level of each dimension of job design and teachers performance is shown in the table 2 below.

Table 2 Results of Measurement of Job Design and Teachers Performance 

Variables                     Mean        Standard deviation        Level 

Job design                   61.24                  4.27                      High 

Skill variety                13.01                  1.54                      Very high 

Task identity               12.52                  1.81                     High

Task significance       12.88                   1.64                     Very high

 Autonomy                 11.30                   1.10                     High 

Feedback                    11.52                  1.02                     High 

Teachers’ performance 119.8                4.75                    High level (Source: Survey Data)

Table: 3 Correlation between Job Design and Employee performance

 Pearson correlation          .363**    

 Sig. (1-tailed)                              000 

 N                                             103

(Source: Survey data)

Conclusion 

The results of the study lead to confirm the prediction made by the researchers regarding a significant and positive relationship between perceived systematic use of Job Design and perceived degree of Employees’ Performance of School Teachers. It is more likely that an improvements of quality of JD for School Teachers results in improvements of Employees’ Performance.

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