The significance of job design

Q N.1>Explain the significance of job design. Can job design improve work performance and motivation of employee? Describe Hotel Paradise approach towards human resource management in terms of job design.

Ans:

Organization is said to be the strength of any business.The business functions and produces better when the components in the businesses are more organised and efficient.Job design concept has been found to come about with the rapid technological advancements when mass production and assembly line operations emerged.

Job design is aimed at reducing job dissatisfaction and employee alienation because of repetitive and mechanistic tasks.Organizations attempt to increase productivity levels , satisfaction and motivation to employees through job design.

Various tools used in job design practice may be job enlargement,jo b enrichment, job rotation and job simplification.

The process of job design has been defined as -Specification of the contents,ways and
relationships of jobs in order to satisfy technological and organizational requirements as well as personal requirements of the job holder.(Buchanan,1979)

According to Burns:A direct invasion on the percepts of the classical approach is job design whereas Taylorist  tradition searches to fit people to hardly defined and controlled jobs,job design theorists argue that jobs must fit to the human needs.

To cope with dynamic nature of business,technological changes and competition in the market place,job design has been indespensable in any organization,two major reasons of it are:

To enhance personal satisfaction people derive from their work and

To make the best use of people as a valuable asset of organization and to help overcome obstacles to their efffective performance.

Performance and motivation of employees in any organization remain a critical issue.Job design is aimed at reducing job dissatisfaction and employee alienation because of repetitive and mechanistic tasks.Various tools used in job design practice may be job enlargement,job enrichment,job rotation and job simplification.Hence,increasing employee’s motivation can be achieved through increased job satisfaction.Two-Hygiene Theory by Herzberg(1971,as cited in Rush) explains two sets of factors,satisfying and dissatisfying that affect on employee’s opportunity in work place.Herzberg(1966) made a critical distinction between these factors where a person does not move in a continuous series from being satisfied to becoming dissatisfied or vice versa.To overcome the dehumanised aspect of scientific management ,Herzberg came with the different alternative approaches towards motivation of employees as job enlargement,job rotation,job enrichment and work simplification.

Reviewing the case study of Hotel Paradise,it has been seen that management is unable to keep employees aware of their tasks,it seems not immuned to the external business environment ,technological advancement that has led more frustration and demotivation to their staffs.

Hence,job design aims to improve the performance and motivation of employee in an organization.Analysis of job design begins with proper viewing at job with broad perspective and moves towards identifying specific activities required to do the job with the aim of identifying and correcting any deficiencies which affect employee’s performance and motivation.

QN.2>Explain how management should approach recruitment process to attract and retain their employee for organizational success of Hotel Paradise.Critically evaluate the importance of hard and soft skill the hotel management should take into consideration.

Ans:

The process of attracting individuals on a timely basis, in sufficient numbers and with appropriate  qualifications and encouraging them to apply for jobs with an organization is known as recruitment.

Management always think to retain their employee with proper hard and soft skill inside the organization.So,care should be given at the recruitment process to do so.The process involves series of steps,major steps it follows are: 

Job analysis :means process used to collect information about tasks,duties,responsibilities, required skills of a particular job which in turn has close link to job description:a list of general tasks and responsibilities of a position and job specification:a statement of employee  characteristics and qualifications required to perform the job.

Next ,check the human resources whether employees have right attitude,other personal characteristics,team work ability,cultural fitness.For this,internal or/and external sources can be sought.

Another step is selection, evaluation and hiring, for which different factors to be taken in considerationn are: evidence of job qualification, interview,assesment etc.

Finally,se lection decision can be done by the company and job can be offered.

So far the case of Hotel Paradise is taken,management is not found to  consider recruitment process in proper way .It seems there is lack of team work among employee,lack of awareness of their skills,lack of work life balance.Management is trying to adopt new competitive strategy but not being able to make the employee cope the situation.It seems there is lack of cultural fit to the employees.

Hence,it can be concluded from the above study that,if management wants to attract and retain its employee for organizational success of Hotel Paradise,it should conduct recruitment process in effective and efficient way.Alongwith it ,it must be able to know well about hard and soft skill of employee to cope them better in organization culture, changing business environment,technological advancement etc.

Q N.3>To what extent Hotel Paradise has applied work life balance approach at work place to reduce employees work stress?Critically evaluate its importance at this work place and suggest corrective approach and relate to its impact on performance and well being.        

Ans:

Work life balance is defined as the equilibrium between the amount of effort and time person devotes at work and other aspect of life.

It is very important to retain employees within the organization.Many organizations as BT,Vodafone,British gas etc have practised it in their organizations in effective manner. BT first introduced homeworking in early 80s which developed an approach of anytime,anywhere working that allows employees to control hours and location of the working days.

As the work life balance approach at work place of Hotel Paradise to reduce  employees work stress is concerned,it is not found to be in practice.Employees have pressure towards the completion of high standard cleanliness within deadline that lead to the frustation, absenteeism and turnover.

Work life balance is important at work place to increase high productivity and competitiveness,increase flexibility and customer services,motivation,commitment and engagement,reduce absenteeism etc. which in  turn helps to retain the employees inside the organization.

Hotel Paradise can practise different approaches as part time work,care leave,career break,work from home,job sharing,job rotation etc to create work life balance of  its employees.If these approaches are taken in practice,it will reduce- negative impact on employee’s health,negative impact on relationship and negative impact on job performance  that would happen due to lack of work life balance .

Hence,work life balance plays a great role in any organization to retain the employees that leads to increase high productivity,raised morale,motivation,commitment ,reduced absenteeism alongwith good impact on health,good relationship and good job performance.These practices should be achieved by Hotel Paradise to reduce employee stress by adopting the approaches mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Q N.4>What are the main strength and weakness of Hotel Paradise HR approach related to cultural set up,training development?Provide a reasonable approach of the management towards employees to fit in organizational set up.

Ans:

Culture is a term that can be defined as integrated pattern of human knowledge,values,   behaviour,goals ,belief,attitude and practices that characterizes an organization or group.

Organization culture is ‘how things are done around  here’ i.e organization.(Mullins,2005in OBp 891)

Organization culture is “the collection of traditions,values,policies,beliefs and attitudes that constitute a pervasive context for everything we do and think in an organization”  (Mclean and Marshall,1993 in OB p891)    

Reviewing the case study of Hotel paradise,  it can be seen as its strength that the management has approached skill development programme where all supervisors and chamber maids are encouraged in NVQ training programme, has planned to provide meal on duty,has taken people as important asset of company.

As weakness it can be found that there is lack of job design,job analysis , which obviously lacks job description and job specification,it seems to be lack of work life balance, pressure on employee at work ,lack of teamworking,job sharing etc.

Some reasonable approaches of the management towards employees to fit in organizational cultural set up may be prioritising organizational culture at the time of recruitment of employee,well job design,maintaining work life balance which ultimately leads to develop following characteristics in the employee as: performance,quality,competence,customer services,compititiveness,teamwork,,innovation etc.

Hence organizational culture is very important to employees to fit in any organization which if not taken in consideration may lack mutual cooperation among employee,team working among staff that in turn leads the organization away from achieving its objectives,same is the case for Hotel Paradise too.  

Q N.5>Identify the grievance issue at Hotel Paradise.Describe the best practices of grievance procedures at Hotel Paradise.

Ans:

Grievance is a complaint that has been formally presented to a management representative or to a union official.

Grievances may occur at any levels and the organizational practices apply to everyone for management and employee.Grievance may include:terms and conditions of employment,health and safety,work relations,bullying and harassment,new working practices,working environment ,organizational change etc.

Reviewing the case of Hotel Paradise,dissatisfaction is found in the employee specially due to more presssure of work given by supervisor at work place.The reason behind is found to be improper working of hoover but it has been claimed to employee by supervisor due to mishandling of hoover by employee.The problem of employee is found to be neglected or unlistened by the management.Mr Gill,a management member is found to interviewing employees to understand problem in depth and dissatisfaction of employees to the supervisor.Porters are arguing as they are given unexpected task and asked to carry it on unexpected time.

Grievances are rare since few employees will question their superior’s judgement.The key  features or practices of grievance procedures are fairness,facilities for representation,procedural steps and promptness.