Job Design Scoring Matrix - Report Example

Job Design Scoring Matrix Case # Skill Variety Task Identity Task Significance Autonomy Feedback from the job MPS score Rank Order 1 3 6 3 90 42. 5 3 4 6 1 196 1 3. 1 1 5 4 4 112 3 4. 2 1 3 5 4 120 2 Appropriateness of the rank order: The rank order is very apt and appropriate. The first case has been ranked as the lowest on the MPS score chart and the second case has been the ranked as the highest on the MPS score chart. Case one is the AJ and the Housing Authority case. This case is low on skill variety and task identity. The task allocated is monotonous with little or no variation. There are no working units under AJ hence he low rating on task identity. Case 2 is f Mike’s computer services. This case is high on motivational score. This is because of the immense skill variety that Mike gets to exercise on his job. There is a lot of autonomy provided to him and his work is divided into units. This job is high on motivation and Mike is more likely to be satisfied when on job. Enriching Jobs: Case 1: AJ works for the Housing Authority of a large city. His job is to screen applicants and send them on to either a Section Office that controls placement in a region of the city or to another agency which provides additional services that the client may need. AJ interviews people and takes their financial and other data. He then decides what to do with the potential client—to place them in housing and/or to provide them with some other service such as drug and alcohol rehab, etc. AJ sees a large number of clients each day. He rarely finds out what happened to any of his clients. Were they were placed in appropriate housing; did they received the services he recommended? He does get a report on a monthly basis that basically tells him how many people he saw, how many went here or there, how many finished which programs, etc. He never knows, though, what happened to any specific individuals AJ’s case ranked lowest on the MPS score. This job is very high on autonomy but very low on skill variety and task identity. It is not challenging enough and there is a certain amount of stagnancy when it comes to this job. Skill variety brings about high intrinsic motivation. Managers can implement it by combining job tasks. The Housing authority needs to give AJ a bigger conglomerate of tasks to be performed. This will improve both skill variety and task identity for AJ and he will be able to derive more meaningful experience from his work. Case 2: Mike is a computer services specialist in one school within a university. He handles many of the “general” needs of the faculty and staff within that school. People call him for any problem they might have with their computer. If it is a specialty problem such as with a server, the problem or the client will be referred to the specialist who handles that problem. He also helps with installing equipment in classrooms and offices. Additionally, he serves as the technical advisor to the School’s Technology Committee. Normally, Mike gets 20 to 30 calls a day. Some require just a short conversation to figure out the problem and solve it, and a few are more complex or unique and call for careful problem solving, sometimes involving the other technical services specialists and occasionally the information systems manager. Occasionally, Mike must work overtime to get everything done. Mike has several tasks that he considers “beneath him” such as servicing printers, installing software packages, and solving simple “how to” software problems that “faculty ought to be smart enough to figure out for themselves.” Mike’s case was the best case of the four cases. It is high on motivation score and has high scores on almost all job dimensions except for feedback. Mike’s university should open feedback channels for Mike to excel in his job. He should be provided with regular performance appraisal and feedback to be able to excel in his job and grow beyond what he has already grown thus far. As a result not only will he refrain from abstaining from work but will also ensure that he keeps improving in his performance. Case 3: Missie works for the Commercial Capital division of one of the largest appliance companies in the world. She calls on clients—who are typically retail stores that sell the company’s appliances and borrow from the company to pay for their large shipments—to collect payments. The computer automatically calls up the names and phone numbers of clients who need to be called each morning. Missie spends her whole day in front of the computer calling clients, handling client complaints and questions, and recording comments the clients make about their payments into the data base. When something out of the ordinary occurs, such as when a client says some material was damaged and they are not going to pay for it, Missie must go to her supervisor. Actually, Missie has been doing this for so long, she knows how to handle almost every situation that comes up; but the supervisor requires that Missie bring the problems to her. The problem is that each situation takes much longer to process, and Missie has to hang up, talk to the supervisor, and then call the client back. Doing this causes her to often get behind; and the supervisor puts a lot of pressure on her to finish the work that the computer assigned in the morning. Missi’s job is the second lowest on diagnosing motivating potential score. She works for a company that sells its equipment to retail store clients. Her job is low on skill variety and task significance. Job autonomy is significantly less as there is constant reporting to the boss. It is not challenging enough and there is a certain amount of stagnancy when it comes to this job. Skill variety brings about high intrinsic motivation. Managers can implement it by combining job tasks. The medium of communication needs to be changed to a more formalized reporting system. Case 4: PollyAnna works as a receptionist at Dewey, Cheatem, & Howe, a big law firm. One of the founding partners, Mr. Cheatem, didn’t like the new telephone answering system that was installed last year, and he insisted that the firm have a real person for clients to talk to when they called in. So PollyAnna was hired to answer the telephone and to forward calls to the appropriate person. She also acts as receptionist in the lobby. When people walk in and ask for a specific lawyer, she calls the office, and the lawyer’s assistant who comes to the reception area and meet or speak with the person. The good thing about Anna’s job is the level of autonomy offered to her. The bad thing is the negiligible amount of skill variety in her job. This makes Anna’s work monotonous. There is single channelized way that she is compelled to follow every time. Her managing department needs to add more color and variety to her job. Analysis of findings: Case 1 ranked lowest on MPS score and case 2 ranked highest on MPS score. The results showed that most jobs were low on MPS score because they were low on skill variety and task significance, thus highliting the importance of both these dimensions of job to job enrichment. Works Cited Diana Cordova, Mark Lepper. Intrinsic Motivation and the Process of Learning:Beneficial Effects of Contextualization, Personalization, and Choice. 1995. Harter, Susan. A New Self-Report Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Orientation in the Classroom: Motivational and Informational Components. 1981. Whyte, Cassandra B. Effective Counseling Methods for High-Risk College Freshmen. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling. 1979. Lauridsen, K. (editor) and Whyte, C.B. An Integrated counseling and Learning Assistance Center.New Directions Sourcebook. Jossey-Bass, Inc. 1980. Read More