Session C

Making work more
rewarding

The main purpose of any system of monitoring has to be improving performance, and the people who can do most to improve performance are the members of your team. In this session we will look at techniques for organizing work that motivate people to work more effectively.

You may have to persuade your line manager to consider some of the changes to work practices before you can introduce them. First, though, we look at a well-established system which adopts quite a different approach.

Organizations have always been interested in efficiency and increased productivity. However, they have not always taken the approach of achieving it by trying to increase staff motivation.

One system that has been widely used is based on what is called the micro-division of labour. This system was – and in some cases, still is – employed in factories running automated assembly lines.

The principle behind the micro-division of labour is that jobs are broken down into the smallest possible elements. A high level of automation is used, so the workers perform very simple tasks. This means that almost anyone can very quickly learn to do any particular job with the minimum of training.

From the point of view of factory efficiency, can you think of some other advantages of this system? Suggest two advantages if you can.

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Some other advantages are that:

   production does not depend on skilled people and so the absence of any individual does not interfere with the work; in fact, absenteeism is much less of a problem than it is with other systems, because new people can be quickly trained to ‘fill in’;

   the work is not demanding and so long shifts can be worked – at least, that is the theory;

   the work can be very closely controlled; for instance, if it is found that a certain operation is being done incorrectly it can be quickly traced to a single operator.

So much for the advantages. There is certainly no doubt that factories using this system have been very effective at producing large quantities of goods cheaply.

But there is another side to the story.

There are a number of disadvantages of this system. If we look at it from the production worker's point of view:

   jobs are monotonous and boring;

   unlike machines, people are not very good at doing repetitive work: they lose concentration because they have nothing to keep their interest;

   there's no scope to do the work better or more quickly: machines control the rate of work;

   people who work on assembly lines have little opportunity for social contact.

What might be the negative effects of these disadvantages on efficiency? Write down two possible effects.

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Some of the effects are that:

   when jobs are boring, people tend to make mistakes;

   people who lose concentration are more liable to have accidents;

   where the work is demeaning and there is no scope for personal development, workers may actually become antagonistic towards their employer; this can lead to wildcat strikes and even sabotage (literally putting spanners in the works!);

   there is likely to be a high rate of employee turnover.

All these things will either reduce output or increase costs – or both.

For these reasons and others, many organizations have turned against this system. Instead they have looked for ways of motivating people to take an interest in and responsibility for their work.

At this point we need to review the main theories of motivation:

   Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Maslow showed that people are only preoccupied with basic survival and safety when these things are under threat. Otherwise, they tend to ‘climb’ to greater goals and needs, including a sense of belonging, self-respect and selffulfilment.

   Theory X and Theory Y

McGregor proposed that, rather than disliking work and responsibility, people will, under the right conditions, enjoy work and seek responsibility. They prefer to control and direct themselves, rather than being regulated from above.

   Herzberg's two-factor theory

Herzberg's work indicates that the factors causing job satisfaction are not the same as those causing dissatisfaction. The motivators – such as recognition, responsibility and job interest – can be found in an employee's relationship to what he or she does. The maintenance factors – such as working conditions, salary and status – are more to do with the work environment.

   Expectancy theory

This refers to the expectations of an employee and the cycle of cause and effect between motivation, effort, performance and reward. If the reward does not provide the motivation, the motivation does not lead to effort, the effort does not result in the required performance, then the reward will not be earned.

   Hackman and Oldham

This theory is best summed up in this table:

When this theory is applied to the practice of de-skilling, it suggests people will perform badly and react against the system and the organization.

The main problem with the micro-division of labour is that the jobs are designed as if people were robots, and not very clever robots at that. Many organizations have now moved completely away from this idea, and have redesigned their workplaces to be more efficient by enriching jobs, rather than simplifying them.

There is now a trend towards job enrichment (although this particular term may not be used by all organizations). Job enrichment means designing work and workplaces so that people have:

   more responsibility;

   more scope for self-development;

   more control over the work they do;

   more feedback on results.

Which of the theories above tend to support the trend towards job enrichment?

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I would say that those of McGregor, Maslow, Herzberg, and Hackman and Oldham all do.

   McGregor's Theory Y put up the idea that people like work and responsibility.

   Maslow suggested that people have greater needs than simply survival and security.

   Herzberg showed that job interest, achievement, recognition, responsibility and advancement were the main motivators.

   Hackman and Oldham suggested that feedback, responsibility and meaningfulness are all requirements for motivation.

But before we continue any further on this theme, let us clarify what job enrichment is and what it is not.

Job enrichment should not be confused with two other approaches to job redesign: job rotation and job enlargement.

Job rotation involves switching people between a number of different jobs of relatively similar complexity. An example of this would be to allow production workers to swap from one part of the assembly line to another.

Although job rotation has the advantage of increasing flexibility, it does not increase motivation. A young bank employee summed it up when she said:

‘After I'd been at the bank a few months I became bored with my job. They introduced job rotation and now I move from one boring job to another!’

Job enlargement involves adding more tasks of similar complexity to the job. Once again, motivation is not improved. Applied to our bank clerk, she might well have said:

‘After I'd been at the bank a few months I became bored with my job. They introduced job enlargement and now I have several more boring tasks added to the job!’

Bearing in mind the theory we've covered, what reason can you give for job rotation and job enlargement failing to motivate?

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EXTENSION 3
Charles B. Handy discusses job design and job enlargement in his book Understanding Organizations.

I hope you agree that job rotation and job enlargement both fail to motivate because they do not offer the opportunity for growth. Doing more things or different things of the same complexity does not allow people to build on experience and knowledge.

Job enrichment, on the other hand, does just that. We can first look at it in terms of the Hackman and Oldham theory. It generally involves:

   adding skill variety, by increasing the number of complex tasks to a job over a period of time. Such tasks are designed to give people the chance to develop underused skills and abilities;

   providing increased task significance: designing the work to be important, so that others depend on its outcome. (Organizations encourage staff to see others as customers of their work, these days, which fits in well with the idea of increased task significance);

   presenting new tasks as opportunities rather than demands. This offers a degree of choice as to what tasks to do and when to do them. More complex tasks can be taken on as and when people feel able to cope;

   giving people and teams greater autonomy: allowing more discretion in the way that the job is paced, checked, sequenced and so on. You may hear the word empowerment, which, as mentioned earlier, means managers stepping back and giving work teams the power to run themselves;

   setting up systems that ensure fast, direct feedback.

When designing for job enrichment, Maslow's work must also be borne in mind: people won't be ready to satisfy these ‘higher’ needs if more basic wants have not been satisfied.

And our reading of Herzberg should remind us that maintenance or hygiene factors may get in the way of motivation.

What about expectancy theory? That tells us that staff should be able to see that:

   there is a link between effort and performance, and between performance and reward;

   the distribution of rewards is fair;

   rewards are worth having, in their own eyes.

Let us look at two very different examples of job enrichment in practice.

6.1   The case of W.H. Smith & Sons (Tools) Ltd

W.H. Smith & Sons (Tools) Ltd is medium-sized, family owned business (completely unrelated to the well-known high street retailer). It started out in 1933 as a machine tool maker in the original W.H. Smith's shed, but during the 1990s the company expanded dramatically, with turnover increased from £9 m to £24 m. It achieved this by using its main strength – it has the largest in-house tool room in the UK – to offer a complete service from tool-making through plastic injection moulding to final assembly. It supplies components and sub-assemblies to leading brands like Black and Decker, Motorola and Triton.

But this growth didn't happen without a struggle. In 1991 Nissan, a new customer, awarded them a score of just one out of ten in an audit. Colin Sarson, the Managing Director was shocked. This assessment of their performance was replicated by Black and Decker and by Rover, and led the company to look carefully at what it did and how it did it. As Colin says, he had to relearn his own style of managing, to recognize that he needed to communicate better and listen to what people in the factory had to say.

Colin also had to demonstrate that the concerns of employees were treated seriously. When people complained about puddles in the car park, or dirty toilets, something had to be done about them, to win over people to the idea that their views mattered. This change in the culture of the organization, realigning all employees – managers and factory floor alike – to be committed to improvement, demands a demonstration of commitment from the top.

The company changed to a ‘cell’ structure, with each cell having full responsibility for supplying a particular customer. The advantage of this approach is that the focus of the whole cell is on the customer, rather than looking inwards at other production functions. An example of this is W.H. Smith's Triton cell. Parts for Triton are supplied direct from the W.H. Smith line to the Triton line. This is based on the kanban approach developed by Toyota and is a form of just-in-time operations. The link between the customer's production line and the supplier's line is direct and is managed on an hourly basis by the personnel directly involved in the process. By shortening communication lines, stockholding is minimized and the customer has the flexibility needed to respond directly to consumer demand.

To support this, W.H. Smith invested heavily in training and development. Responsibility for staffing is devolved direct to the cell management (the company doesn't have a personnel department) and all employees go through an initial induction programme that feeds into a personel development plan, agreed individually with line managers. This is accompanied by a right to one hour per week's (paid) time to learn. For the company, investment in its people is seen as being at least as important as its investment in machinery and buildings.

The employees now have a high level of responsibility for their own work and the quality of the products they produce. They are constantly seeking new ways to improve quality and reduce costs, and the company has achieved significant improvements in output and reduced staff turnover.

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6.2   Enriched jobs in voluntary work

Rani Akinyemi and Betty Dunphy are volunteers working in a centre caring for children with learning disabilities. During the course of a typical week, they get:

Skill variety. They're expected to carry out a variety of tasks around the centre, which exercise their skills in a number of ways, including:

   manual work;

   planning skills (e.g. for outings);

   communicating skills;

   calculating skills (Betty often helps out with the accounts);

   caring skills;

   cooking skills.

Task identity. For the most part, they are expected to complete whole tasks.

Task significance. They are aware that the children and others depend on them, sometimes critically.

Autonomy. There aren't enough people for there to be much close supervision, so Rani and Betty are relied upon to organize their work as they see fit.

Feedback from the job. The most rewarding feedback is to see the children respond to them, and show real affection.

Needless to say, Rani and Betty are highly motivated!

Before you go on to the next session, which is about the team leader's role, try the Self-assessment questions opposite.

Fill in the blanks in the sentences on the left with the correct phrases taken from the list in capitals below.

AUTONOMY, COMPLEXITY, FEEDBACK FROM THE JOB, JOB ROTATION, JOB ENLARGEMENT, MICRO-DIVISION OF LABOUR, SKILL VARIETY, SMALLEST, TASKS, TASK IDENTITY, TASK SIGNIFICANCE

1   The principle behind the _________ is that jobs are broken down into the _________ possible elements.

2   Job enrichment means designing jobs so that people have more _________, _________, _________, _________, and _________.

3   _________ involves switching people between a number of different jobs of relatively similar _________.

4   _________ involves adding more _________ of similar complexity to the job.

For questions 5 to 8, decide whether each statement is TRUE, FALSE or SOMETIMES TRUE.

5   When jobs are broken down into very simple tasks that anyone can learn, the problem of staff turnover becomes unimportant: you ‘just recruit more people off the street’. TRUE/FALSE/SOMETIMES TRUE

6   Job enrichment is very hard to implement, because it entails lots of training to do more complex tasks. TRUE/FALSE/SOMETIMES TRUE

7   Job enrichment programmes should be presented as opportunities, not demands. TRUE/FALSE/SOMETIMES TRUE

8   Small organizations can't implement job enrichment programmes, as they have not the resources of large companies. TRUE/FALSE/SOMETIMES TRUE

9   Which of the following ideas support the concept of job enrichment?

a  Herzberg's theory that job interest is a motivator.

b  Maslow's theory that people who are starving have no interest in self-development.

c  McGregor's Theory X: that people dislike work and responsibility.

d  McGregor's Theory Y: that people prefer to control themselves than be controlled from above.

e  Hackman and Oldham's theories about the prerequisites for internal motivation.

The answers to these questions can be found on page 118.

   The micro-division of labour is the breaking down of jobs into their simplest possible elements. It is ultimately inefficient.

   Job rotation is the switching of people between jobs of similar complexity.

   Job enlargement involves adding more tasks of similar complexity to a job.

   Job enrichment means designing jobs so that people have:

 skill variety;

 task identity;

 task significance;

 autonomy;

 feedback from the job.