Page 70 - DMGT406_HUMAN_RESOURCE_MANAGEMENT

Unit 4: Job Design

Notes
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Case Study Goodearth Financial Services

oodearth Financial Services Limited, has grown considerably during the last
5 years. Mr Jashpal Bhatti started the company with two employees and business
Gfor 6,00,000 in gross sales. The company now employs 200 people and is expected
to have business for 6,00,00,000 this year. During the early years, it was always clear
what was expected from each employee. Everyone knew how to do everything and was
often called upon to do exactly that. This is no longer true and it is apparent to Mr Jashpal
Bhatti that each employee must be given a clear set of general guidelines as to what duties
the employee must perform.
A number of new players are now in financial services who are the arch competitors for
Mr Bhatti's company. The service-mix for Goodearth also has significantly changed to
keep pace with the changing customers' expectation. The company, therefore, had to
change its operation strategy.
In addition, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire employees without having a clear
understanding of exactly what the individual will be doing. Applicants seem reluctant to
join the firm without some information about their probable job profile and it is difficult
to know exactly what skills, the prospective applicants should have without knowing in
some detail what they will be doing.

Mr Jashpal Bhatti decided to write job descriptions and job specifications for his employees.
It is his belief that such documents will clear any misunderstandings among employees
regarding responsibilities, help to organise better the work that must be done, inform
prospective employees about their probable job duties, orient new employees and help to
make better selection decisions.
You have been retained by Mr Bhatti to determine whose responsibility it will be to
gather the data and write the descriptions and specifications, how the data will be gathered
(observation, questionnaire or interview) and how detailed descriptions and specifications
should be.
Mr Bhatti is currently considering these job analysis issues but has a number of questions
about how each will affect the final results.

Questions
1. What recommendations would you make to him regarding the most appropriate
individuals and methods to be used for data collection?

2. What approach to the design of jobs should be considered by you and why?
3. Keeping in mind the recent trends in financial services companies, design the job of
different hierarchical levels for at least four operational areas with supporting
background information, like; job analysis, job description, etc.

4.9 Summary

 Job design has been a concern for managers for many years. The current trend is to
redesign jobs to improve worker satisfaction and productivity. Some of the approaches to
redesign the jobs are: job enlargement theory, job enrichment theory and job characteristic
theory.

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