Job Characteristics Model, Techniques for Redesigning the Job - Coursework Example

RESEARCH ESSAY: JOB ANALYSIS Student’s Name: Code + Course name Professor’s name University City, State Date Introduction One of the jobs that I had during my early years of employment was a call center agent. At the onset, we underwent general training on the specific ways of responding to customer questions and inquiries. However, the need for service improvement as well the continued growth of the sector resulted in the imposition of standard responses to questions from customers among all providers of customer service. My company, which I will not mention on the basis of anonymity was no exception. We were instructed to give standardized responses to customer inquiries and questions. I started finding the job unattractive and boring following the imposition of the directive. The paper covers an individualized analysis of the job based on five job characteristics: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. The paper also identifies techniques for redesigning the job. The Job Description Over the years, sociologists and social psychologists have studied job satisfaction. The additional support that the employee receives in the organization has turned out the reference basis for positive psychology as revealed by current studies. Positive psychology emphasizes on the role played by the behavioral component of an employee toward job satisfaction. Even though there exists several technics and approaches of analyzing work satisfaction, using job characteristics with reference to their influence on the level of happiness and satisfaction of the employee has turned out to be one of the most efficient approaches of analyzing job satisfaction and employee motivation. Work motivation emanates from the intrinsic satisfaction of the employee determined by task performance. In essence, the Job Characteristics Model (JCM) enables the development of the “human factor” aspect in the organization (Loher et al. 1995). Therefore, a connection exists between employee motivation or satisfaction and their perception of the meaningfulness of their roles, the responsibility of the employees toward the outcome of their roles, and their understanding pertaining the outcome. Job Analysis In analyzing my job as a call agent, task significance was one of the characteristics that I considered. It refers to the perception of the employee regarding the meaningfulness of his or her tasks in the workplace (Hadi & Adil 2010). One of the areas that I considered were my feelings after realizing that I had performed well on the job. In almost all the cases, I was impressed with every instance where I was capable of responding to all questions asked by a customer especially when the customer provided positive feedback to validate good performance. However, I found it disturbing when the customer did not provide feedback on the conversation as to whether it was helpful or not. Dealing with such customers left me with the internal concern that I was unable to address all that the client required and therefore needed more training on the expected questions and concerns raised by the customers of the organization. In specific instances where I was able to receive feedback from the customer, I felt a general positive attitude towards my opinion regarding the job. In essence, positive feedback from the customer guaranteed positive attitude regarding my opinion towards the job. However, a substantial proportion of employees did not find it necessary to give their feedbacks regarding their experience with the service agent. As a result, I was unable to create positive opinion towards my role in the workplace in most cases. I also felt a substantial sense of personal satisfaction in all the incidences that I received positive feedback from the customer at the end of the conversation. On average, I can state that I felt a good sense of individual satisfaction in 50% of the conversations that I engaged with the customers of the organization. Feeling the sense of personal satisfaction in 50% of my interactions with the customer was a relatively average figure that could not compel me to generalize that I had a good sense of personal satisfaction while delivering my roles in the workplace. This is because I associated the sense of personal satisfaction to the fact that I had done the job well. As a result, all incidences where I was unable to receive positive feedback from the customer were an indicator that I had not carried out my responsibilities well. As a result, I felt that I had a long way to go in relation to achieving the sense of personal satisfaction in the workplace. The other area that I considered significant under task significance in the analysis of the job was whether the performance of other employees also affected their perceptions regarding the job. According to my analysis, I found out that all other employees that intended to work as call agents could find it imperative to judge their attitudes and satisfaction based on their performance. This raises significant concern bearing in mind the fact that some employees do not see the rationale behind giving feedbacks at the end of the conversation. To such customers, getting answers to their questions is their main intention. Therefore, other employees would also feel demoralized whenever customers fail to provide positive feedback following the completion of a conversation. The other area of analysis is my general feeling regarding the importance or significance of my job. The fact that we associated job significance to the positive feedbacks that we received from customers implies that I considered my job to be significant approximately 50% of the times that I interacted with customers in the workplace. It is evident that all the aspects that I have attached a score of 50% were instrumental in some way towards convincing me to continue working with the organization. However, there are several aspects that I attached negative scores in my assessment of the call agent job. Such aspects contributed towards pushing me out of the organization. One of the aspects was the understanding that majority of the employees considered quitting a viable option in the event that they could find a better opportunity. To be sincere, I felt discouraged from the understanding. I immediately knew that working as a call agent attracted negative characteristics such as low employee satisfaction and motivation as well as the carrying out of standardized and repetitive roles. Consequently, an employee would find it difficult to work for the organization for extended durations. I also studied the level of autonomy associated with my job. Job autonomy refers to the degree to which the job position provides independence, discretion, and freedom to the worker in work scheduling and the setting of procedures of carrying out individual roles (Saragih 2015). It is clear that job autonomy is one of the essential job characteristics that determine work satisfaction and employee motivation. Working as a call agent requires the following of procedures set by the organization and the strict adherence to the set timelines. Moreover, the employee does not have the role of scheduling individual activities since setting activities is the role of the supervisor of the specific section. Consequently, I would state that the role of a call center agent performs exhibits a dismal performance on the work autonomy characteristic. Skill variety is negatively correlated with work satisfaction and employee motivation (Carrière & Bremner 2011). Working as a call agent does not require specific skills or skill variety since the employer only requires the employee to have good communication skills and the ability to work in a busy environment. As a result, one does not consider his or her skills as a call agent to be unique in the company. The implication is reduced work motivation and satisfaction that contributes to the quitting desire in search of job positions that require skill variety. Task identity refers to the degree to which the organization presents the worker with the opportunity to carry out a task from its beginning to the end with a clear outcome. In relation to the role of a call agent, it is clear that the employee does not consider task identity among the benefits associated with the role. This is because the organization sets performance milestones and procedures of responding to the questions and concerns raised by customers from the beginning to the end. Job Redesign Techniques Job rotation is one of the techniques of redesigning the roles carried out by call agents. Job rotation would create skill variety and enable employees to perform different roles within the organization thereby eliminating work monotony and improving employee motivation and work satisfaction. It is evident that working as a call agent requires substantial input on the part of the employee since the employee has to be alert and respond to customer concerns and questions throughout the day. On a rotational basis, it would be appropriate to assign lighter duties to the employee to enhance employee motivation and work satisfaction (Landsbergis 2009). Job enlargement is the other job redesign technique that would be essential in redesigning the roles carried out by a call agent in an organization. The objective of job enlargement is to attain skill variety by adding roles to the existing roles of the employee. Job enrichment is the other job applicable redesign technique. It refers to the endeavor to make the jobs meaningful, challenging, and interesting to the employees (Slocum 1981). For instance, the organization should allocate roles meant for higher-ranking professionals and junior managers to the call agent in order to subject the employee to a more challenging workplace environment and enhance skill variety. Conclusion The analysis of the paper has covered five job characteristics and four job redesign techniques applicable to a call agent. The job characteristics covered in the paper include skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. The work satisfaction and employee motivation of a call agent requires positive feedback from the customers, skill variety, task identity, autonomy, and the consideration of the significance of the task by the employee. The techniques of redesigning the job of a call agent to achieve work satisfaction and employee motivation include job rotation, allocation of lighter duties, job enrichment, and job enlargement. Reference List Carrière, J. and Bremner, N., 2011. The Effects of Skill Variety, Task Significance, Task Identity and Autonomy on Occupational Burnout in a Hospital Setting and the Mediating Effect of Work Meaningfulness. Hadi, R. and Adil, A., 2010. Job characteristics as predictors of work motivation and job satisfaction of bank employees. Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 36(2), pp.294-299. Landsbergis, P.A., 2009. Interventions to reduce job stress and improve work organization and worker health. Unhealthy work: causes, consequences, cures. New York: Baywood. Loher, B.T., Noe, R.A., Moeller, N.L. and Fitzgerald, M.P., 1985. A meta-analysis of the relation of job characteristics to job satisfaction. Saragih, S., 2015. The effects of job autonomy on work outcomes: Self efficacy as an intervening variable. International Research Journal of Business Studies, 4(3). Slocum Jr, J.W., 1981. Job redesign: Improving the quality of work life. Journal of Experiential Learning and Simulation, 3(1), pp.17-36. Read More