Research Proposal into Designing a Job to Maximize Employee Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction plays a vital role in most of the organizations. Job design is one of the most important factor that effects the employee satisfaction of the employee independently, or of a group.

Managers have mainly been interested in maximizing output from available resources. Job satisfaction is an exciting state after one’s job experiences are evaluated (Locke, 1976). Importantly, if job satisfaction is decreasing then it is negatively related to individual and organizational performance, such as customer service (Judge, Thoresen, Bono, & Patton, 2001).

The purpose of the study is to understand the importance of job design on employee satisfaction of Government and Private Sector, which one has the effective job design to affect the productivity.

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

As a student of MBA, we came up with an idea to make a research based on job design, which is the backbone of any job. There are more things for us to learn and to apply all those things, which we have learned from the teachers and from books

F.W was the first person to introduce the job design concept in the management science. His theory explains that the jobs should be break down into smaller tasks it helps in increasing the efficiency of worker. Organization is the power of any business. The well-organized components in the business are better its functions and produces. Breaking down tasks of the job are linked with each part has led to the idea of job design. There is rapid technological process in the job design when mass production and assembly line operations become known. Jobs are becoming more and more complicated and specific; so well educated and motivated employees should be managed so that they can perform well and helps achieve productivity.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

As there is a lot of space between the job designs of Government and the Private sector, so there is a need to evaluate the job design, its impact on job satisfaction and differences between both the sectors.

RESEARCH QUESTION

What is the impact of job design on employee’s satisfaction in Government and the Private Sector?

OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH

To understand the impact of job design in Private and Government Sectors.

To see the relationship of satisfaction with the variables Like Autonomy, Skill variety, Task identity, Task significance and Feedback

RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

Work understanding is designed at reducing job dissatisfaction arise from repeated and mechanistic tasks. Organizations try to raise the level of productivity by presenting non-monetary rewards such as personal achievement in meetings that increased challenge and duty through job design. There are few methods of performing job design and making employee satisfy which are as follows Job enlargements, job enrichment, and job rotation.

The main reason of job design is to enlarge both employee satisfaction and productivity. Increased productivity can be in various forms. For example, the focus can be improving the quality and quantity of product and services reduce operation costs, reduce turnover and training costs.

On the other hand, increasing employees’ satisfaction can be achieved through better work satisfaction. The factors of satisfying and dissatisfying affect an employee’s self-esteem and opening for self-actualization in the workplace

Job design help employees to do their work effectively and efficiently, through which companies tries to raise its level of productivity, while the productive factors also help the employee increase motivation to continue the job and reach self actualization. 

The study will help understand the importance of job design on employee satisfaction of Government and Private Sector, which one have the effective job design to affect the productivity

The study also helps understand elements of job design that can help improving job satisfaction

Skill Variety: carry out special tasks that require different skill. These changes from job enlargement, which may need the worker to do more tasks, but require the same set of skills.

Task Identity: generate or carry out a total piece of work. This gives wisdom of conclusion and job for the product.

Task Significant: This is the quantity of impact that the job has on other people, as the employee thinks.

Autonomy: This gives employees maturity and manages over job related decisions.

Feedback: tells a worker about his performance comes straight from the job (task feedback) or orally form someone else.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

From Hackman and Oldham’s (1976) job characteristics model:

Theoretical framework

JOB DESIGN

Job Satisfaction

Task significance

Task identity

Skill variety

Autonomy

Feedback

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

Private Sector

HA1 There is a relationship between Job satisfaction and Autonomy

H02 There is not a relationship between Job satisfaction and Task Variety

H03 There is not a relationship between Job satisfaction and Task Significance

HA4 There is a relationship between Job satisfaction and Task Identity

HA5 There is a relationship between Job satisfaction and Task Feedback

Government Sector

H01 There is not a relationship between Job satisfaction and Autonomy.

HA2 There is a relationship between Job satisfaction and Task Variety

HA3 There is a relationship between Job satisfaction and Task Significance

H04 There is not a relationship between Job satisfaction and Task Identity

HA5 There is a relationship between Job satisfaction and Task Feedback

SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH

The scope of this study will be limited to the employees of Government and Private sector located in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. This survey will be conducted with in Rawalpindi and Islamabad and this type of organization would be studied include data from employees of government and private sector.

LIMITATIONS

Because of the limited time frame this study was limited to the Employees of Government and Private sectors of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Also the employees appeared to be reluctant in giving all the information because of fear of losing the job or facing any inconvenience from their supervisors therefore employees might have given inaccurate information.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Job enrichment

A basic element of pull towards you, inspiring, and hold talented people, mainly where work is rhythmic or dull is enrichment. To make it well, you need a great competition among the way your jobs are planned and the skills and benefit of the employees working for you.

Job enlargement

The straight expansion of a job and it occupies the addition of tasks at the equal level of skill and responsibility. It is done to keep workers from getting bored.

Job rotation

Organization growth where a person is moved through an agenda of assignments planned to give him or her, a breadth of experience to the entire action.

Employee satisfaction

Employee satisfaction means unusual things to diverse people. The dictionary defines satisfaction as “pleasure of an appetite and joy.”

Ergonomics

The term “ergonomics” is a combination of two Greek words: “ergon”, means work and “nomoi” means natural law. The study gives human ability in association to work burden. The study gives human ability in association to work burden.

Ergonomics is the study of design factors, usually in the workplace, in order to make the most of user comfort and productivity

Culture

Culture is the usual activity of a society that includes attitude, way of life, information, and practices. It persuades human deeds, even though it rarely enters into their aware thinking.

CHAPTER NO.2

LITERATURE REVIEW

In many multinational organizations the employee satisfaction plays an important role in employee performance. Employee satisfaction is the part that leads organization to the greater productivity and performance and induces the internal motivation in the employees. In the last decade the researchers had put most of their efforts in studying the major factors that direct to the employee satisfaction. Job design is also one of the major factors that lead to the employee satisfaction. Different researchers have defined the job design in own way depending on their research. .

The Armstrong (1991) has defined the job design in different ways; according to him job design is a relationships that exist between the duties and responsibilities and the relationships that exist between the jobholder and his or her superiors, subordinates and colleagues.

According to Freeman (1989) and Ayodeji (2004), Job design is the division of organization’s work among its employees. Job design refers to the way tasks are combined to form complete jobs (Robbins and Staut-Kortze, 1986).

Job design is the foundation of employees’ satisfaction and productivity (Werther and Davis, 2005). According to Werther and Davis (2005), well designed jobs are becoming even important in retaining and attracting employees that leads to motivated work force capable of producing quality product and services). In short we can say that a well-designed job can motivate an individual and provide opportunities for their personal development and career development, while making work more meaningful can motivate workers to improve their productivity and increase their satisfaction.Job design is the process of planning and specifying job related tasks. It addresses issues like the methodology of doing the job, the person responsible for-doing the job, and the place of accomplishing the job. From the above we have analyzed that the primary aim of job design is to ensure that people and other resources are effectively and efficiently utilized. An effective job design serves two purposes; Job Design keeps the employees satisfied and Job Design helps in enhancing employee productivity

F. W. Taylor first introduces the concept of job design in his scientific management theory. In this theory he focused on designing a job to increase efficiency by breaking it down and monitoring and measuring it and this was the basic approach to job design at that time.

For employees the most comprehensive framework for guiding job design keeping in mind the needs of the employees is the Job Characteristic Model of Hackman and Oldham, in this model he gives five dimensions that leads to employee motivation. They are skills variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. These dimensions are further categorized in three elements that are organizational elements, behavioral elements, and environmental elements (Werther and Davis, 2005).

Employee Satisfaction is a dependent variable while Job Design is an independent variable.

Independent variable and dependent variable

Job Design

Skill variety

Task identity

Task significance

Autonomy

Feedback

Employee Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction provides feedback on how well the job is designed. It means that poorly designed jobs may lead to employee dissatisfaction. Job design involves envisioning and defining specification of work system related to a particular job. It is an activity to ensure that people and other resources are effectively and efficiently utilized. (Clegg and Spencer, 2007). So job design is predictive things that can help to satisfy the workers and can affect the productivity of the employees and therefore they can be changed to increase satisfaction and performance.

According to Stoner et al (1989), job design consists of three activities: specifying individual work tasks; specifying the method of performing the work tasks and combining work tasks into jobs for assignment to individuals i.e. job content. It means that the job design is mixture of three activities i.e. is organizational perspective, behavioral perspective and environmental perspective.

ELEMENTS OF JOB DESIGN: ­

The design of a job mediates the relationship between the organizational, environment, and behavioral elements and the performance (Ang and Slaughter, 2002). These elements are placed into consideration before the job is designed and try to create both productivity and satisfaction. These elements are the inputs and the job design is the process that the organizations take to produce productivity and satisfying job output. (Werther & Davis, 2005)

Organizational Elements:

Organizational elements are concerned with the efficiency, as it was first formulized by Fredrick Taylor and other management scientists. They spent most of their time to design efficient jobs. They came up with new procedures like motion pictures and concluded that when workers are limited with few repetitive tasks output is usually higher. According to Werther & Davis (2005), there are several approaches that show that impact of job design on the employee satisfaction. It involves different approaches like, mechanistic, work flow and ergonomics. Mechanistic approach involves identifying every task in a job so that tasks can be arranged to minimize the time and effort consumed by workers. Workflow is the method to improve the productivity with the sequence of the work. Ergonomics includes the physical dimension of the human body, the mechanical principles that govern physical movements and physiology

Environmental Elements: ­

The second aspect of job design is concerned with the environmental elements such as social and cultural expectations.

Behavioral Elements: -­

Jobs cannot be designed by using only the elements that aid efficiency. Instead jobs designers should pay great importance on behavioral research to provide a work environment that helps satisfy individuals’ needs. According to Job Characteristics Theory of Hackman and Oldham, any job can be described in terms of five core job dimensions, which are defined as follows (Hackman and Oldham 1966: see also Campion et al 1993).

Autonomy: – (Responsibility for work)

The degree of freedom, independence and discretion in scheduling work and determining procedures (Business Line , 2008).

According to Ayodeji (2004), Autonomy is having responsibility for what one does. It is freedom to control one response to the environment. Jobs that give workers authority to make decisions provide added responsibility that increase sense of recognition and self esteem (Ang and Slaughter, 2002). The absence of autonomy will cause poor performance of the employees and they won’t feel satisfied on the job (Environmental Health and Safety, 2009).

The other side of autonomy focuses on group level autonomy at the individual job level. Regardless of management involvement in decision-making, work groups can still be distinguished in terms of the degree to which all members are allowed to participate in decisions (Werther & Davis, 2005). Self-management and participation are presumed to enhance group effectiveness by increasing members’ sense of responsibility and ownership of the work. These characteristics may also enhance decision quality by increasing relevant information and by taking decisions as near as possible to the point of operational problems and uncertainties (Campion.et al, 1993). This increases the performance of the employees on the job because they can make some decision according to their own requirements this gives them satisfaction on the job.

Variety: – (Use of different skills and abilities)

The number of different activities, skills and talents that job requires. (Business Line, 2008)

A lack of variety may cause boredom. Boredom leads to fatigue that causes error. Introducing variety in the job reduces the fatigue that causes error (Ayodeji, 2004). The studies show that diversity of work is responsible for effective performance and employee satisfaction. The variety of tasks leads to the opportunity to learn new skills that gives them extra edge on the job. These task varieties will help them to learn more which will be helpful to them in their career growth. (Campion and Thayer, 1990)

Task variety gives chance to perform a number of the tasks in the job. Variety motivates by allowing members to use different skills in both interesting and dull tasks. (Hackman 1987, Campion et al 1993).

Task identity: – ­

The degree to which the job requires completion of a whole piece of work while performing the job. (Business Line, 2008). Some ancient researchers have identified that task identity plays a great deal of impact on employee satisfaction and productivity. Due to the identity of the task the employees do feel stressed and fatigued that leads to the boredom.

Task significance: -­

The jobs impact on the lives or work of other people. (Business Line, 2008)

This is closely related to task identity. Doing an identifiable piece of work makes a job more satisfying. Task significance makes employees to realize that work is important to other in the organization or outside (Environmental Health and Safety, 2009). It makes the job more meaningful for incumbent. The personal sense of self-importance is increased because they know that other is depending on your work (Werther & Davis, 2005). This results in increased motivation, satisfaction and performance.

Feedback: ­

The degree to which direct and clear information about effectiveness of performance is provided. (Business Line, 2008)

When jobs do not give the workers any feedback on how well they are doing, the performance and satisfaction will not further increase. The manager or supervisors are responsible for the collection of this feed back from the employees (Ayodeji, 2004). With this process employees feel their importance in the organization and they can further give their own opinion to improve the job design. (Schuler and Jack, 2000)

Some Ancient researchers have identified six important characteristics called “requisite task characteristics”; they are variety, autonomy, required interaction, optional interactions, knowledge and skill and responsibility. An incorporated view suggests that the following motivating characteristics are of major significance in job design: autonomy, discretion, self-control and responsibility, variety, use of abilities, feedback. (Ayodeji, 2004).

In short the entire job dimensions have an impact on workers psychologically. The three dimensions Variety, Task identity, Task significance affect whether or not workers view their job as meaningful. Autonomy determines the extent of responsibility workers feel. Feedback allows for feelings of satisfaction for a job well done by providing knowledge of results.

CHAPTER NO.3

METHODOLOGY

POPULATION/SAMPLE SIZE/ DATA COLLECTION

For this research project I have selected a sample size of 30, which includes different Government Sectors and Private Sectors

Following is the distribution of sample among the two sectors

Sampling distribution

Government Sector

15

Private Sector

15

TOOLS FOR MEASUREMENT

I used SPSS to apply different methods on my data, which I collected, from both Private and Government sectors. Similarly I used excel for formatting the huge tables and for composing the tables into visible format.

Sources Of Information

Questionnaire surveys

Personal observation

Articles

PROCEDURE

The first part of the procedure after distribution of the questionnaires was to collect the data. The respondents manually filled up questionnaires on the pages. The respondents’ responses were then added to the statistical tool for the management sciences software named as SPSS. Before adding, the responses were changed from a qualitative value to the quantitative value. For example the “Strongly disagree” was given the value 1; “Disagree” was given the value 2 and so on. After adding these values into SPSS their results were analyzed with the help of the Statistical tests. Based upon the favorable and unfavorable responses the conclusion was drawn and finally the impact of Job Design on Government and Private sectors were concluded.

MODE OF ASSESSMENT

The sample size for this study was 30 respondents. I analyzed what methods were applied on the sample data. After discussion and reading thoroughly the literature, the data under consideration was categorical data. So with this type of data I applied following analysis on my sample data, which are as follows:

Descriptive statistics

Correlation

Regression/Linear Regression

Descriptive statistics is used to check whether the data is biased or unbiased and to check the nature of the data and Mean values.

Correlation is used to check the relationship between decision making power and job design performance decision among two sectors. We have five variables that are decision based.

Regression analysis is a statistical technique that is used to survey and represent the relationship between two or more variables. A linear regression model is used to explain the relationship between two or more variables, Using the Formula Y= a + bX.

We will use both qualitative and quantitative methodology in data collection and data analysis.

CHAPTER NO.4

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Descriptive statistics is used to check whether the data is biased or unbiased and to check the nature of the data and Mean values. It simply describes what the data shows and is used to present the quantitative description in a convenient form.

Table 4.1

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS OF PRIVATE SECTOR

Questions

N

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

 

Statistic

Statistic

Statistic

Statistic

Decision making Schedule

15

1

5

3.45

Plan how to work

15

1

5

3.7

Decision on my own

15

1

5

4.1

Decision on method

15

1

5

4.2

Opportunity for independence

15

1

5

3.67

Variety of Tasks

15

1

5

3.57

Involve different things

15

1

5

2.5

Finish complete piece of work

15

1

5

4.01

Complete work i start

15

1

5

4

Impact on outside

15

1

5

4.56

Work impact on people outside

15

1

5

3.8

Feedback on performance

15

1

5

4

Job Satisfaction

15

1

5

3.5

 

 

 

 

49.06

Mean Value of Private Sector

Mean= ΣX / N = 49.06/ 15 = 3.27

Table 4.2

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS OF GOVERNMENT SECTOR

Questions

N

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

 

Statistic

Statistic

Statistic

Statistic

Decision making Schedule

15

1

5

2.47

Plan how to work

15

1

5

2.99

Decision on my own

15

1

5

2.64

Decision on method

15

1

5

2.43

Opportunity for independence

15

1

5

3.01

Variety of tasks

15

1

5

2.55

Involve different things

15

1

5

3.69

Finish complete piece of work

15

1

5

2.6

Complete work I start

15

1

5

2.72

Impact on outside

15

1

5

4.06

Work impact on people outside

15

1

5

3.58

Feedback on performance

15

1

5

2.34

Job Satisfaction

15

1

5

2.33

 Total

 

 

 

37.41

Mean Value of Government Sector

Mean= ΣX / N = 37.41 / 15 = 2.49

By having the results of descriptive statistics between Private and Government Sectors, there is a difference of responses between the employees of Private and government sectors. Private Sector shows the mean of 3.75, so the most of the employees marked agree or strongly agree. On the other hand, Government sector showing the mean value of 2.49, that is more towards disagree with their responses

CORRELATION

Correlation is used to check the relationship between variables among two sectors. We have five variables that are decision based. Correlation coefficient is a measure of the relationship between two attributes. It is also known as the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. The value of coefficient can range from -1 to +1.

Consider the variables x and y;

If r = 1, then x and y are perfectly positively correlated.

If r = 0, then x and y are not correlated.

If r = -1, then x and y are perfectly negatively correlated.

Table 4.3

Coefficients of Correlation for Private Sector

Questions

Decision on doing my work

Complete work I start

Variety of Task

Involve Different Things

Job Satisfaction

Decision making

Schedule

0.048

 

 

 

  0.23

Involve Different

Things

 

0.138

 

 

 

Opportunity for independence

 

 

0.085

 

 

Plan How to work

 

 

 

0.163

 

Feed back on

performance

 

 

 

 

0.285

Decision making schedule is positively correlated with decision on doing work.

The job involves doing a number of different things is also positively correlated with the job which allows the workers to complete the work they start.

Opportunity for independence and freedom is positively correlated with the job performing a variety of tasks

Plan how to work Positively correlated with the job involves doing a number of different things

Feedback on performance is also positively correlated with the job Satisfaction.

Table 4.4

Coefficients of Correlation for Government Sector

Questions

Decision on doing my work

Complete work I start

Variety of Task

Involve Different Things

Job Satisfaction

Decision making

Schedule

-0.171

 

 

 

 -0.078

Involve Different

Things

 

-0.192

 

 

 

Opportunity for independence

 

 

0.038

 

 

Plan How to work

 

 

 

-0.22

 

Feed back on

performance

 

 

 

 

0.124

Decision making schedule is negatively correlated with decision on doing work.

The job involves doing a number of different things is also negatively correlated with the job which allows completing the work which workers start.

Opportunity for independence and freedom is positively correlated with the job performing a variety of tasks.

Plan how to work is Negatively correlated with the job involves doing a number of different things

Feedback on performance is positively correlated with the job Satisfaction.

After seeing the results of coefficient of correlations of Government and the private sector, it shows that the private sector follow systematic decision making which helps them doing their work effectively and efficiently as compared to Government sector. As Government Sectors shows negative correlation so their decision making is not following proper pattern. The employees in Government sector are over worked: they handle two three jobs at the same time so this will decrease the productivity of employees as well organizations.

The freedom of work between the two sectors is positively correlated, so the employees have much independence of doing their work easily. The job satisfaction in the private sector is much higher than the Government sector, as it shows negative response from the government sector that they are satisfied with their jobs. The employees in the private sector are satisfied with their job design elements, as their jobs follows systematic pattern, they get feedback on their performance and they have lesser tasks due to which they can complete their work on time.

Job design should be managed in such a way that the employees can do their work efficiently. The difference between Government and Private sector is that the job design of Government sector is not well structured that’s why the employees are not much satisfied with their work and it effects the Government sectors.

REGRESSION

Regression analysis is a statistical technique that is used to survey and represent the relationship between two or more variables. A linear regression model is used to explain the relationship between two or more variables, Using the Formula Y= a + bX.

Y= Dependent Variable

a= Y intercept/ constant

b= Slope

X= Independent Variable

Dependent Variable: Job Satisfaction

Independent Variable: Autonomy, Skill Variety, Task Identity, Task Significance, Feedback

Regression for Private sector

Table No 4.5

Regression (Private Sector)

Model Summary

Model Summary

Model

R

R Square

Adjusted R Square

Std. Error of the Estimate

1

.353a

.125

.068

.898

Dependent Variable: Job Satisfaction

Independent Variable: Autonomy, Skill Variety, Task Identity, Task Significance, Feedback

Table 4.6

ANOVA (Private Sector)

ANOVA

Model

Sum of Squares

df

Mean Square

F

Sig.

1

Regression

10.671

6

1.779