Self Managing Work Teams(SMWT) - Critically review the published literature on Job Design and SMWT's and use this review to evaluate Sidney's introduction of the teams in his organization.
Job Re-design at HI - Tech
Question: Sidney Lau had made a big change to the way work is done in his company -by establishing Self Managing Work Teams(SMWT). Critically review the published literature on Job Design and SMWT's and use this review to evaluate Sidney's introduction of the teams in his organization.
Facts Of The Case:
* 10 year old corporation with diversified product lines
* Has grown from a small family owned business into the above diversified corporation.
* Well defined product lines with distinct manufacturing and assembly lines
* Evidence of logical assembly line work flows based on product lines
* Evidence of patriarchal management style
Relevant Theories that will apply to this Case:
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow proposed that humans have five universal needs that they seek to satisfy, and these needs are proposed in a hierarchy of importance, with the most basic needs- physiological and safety needs at the bottom followed by belongingness needs, Esteem needs and Self-actualisation needs (Langdon & Marshall, 1998, P. 90)
He arranged these into a series of different levels or the order of importance of these basic needs. Man's basic needs are physiological, for example, hunger, thirst, sleep, etc. When these are satisfied they are replaced by safety needs reflecting his desire for protection against danger or deprivation. These in turn, when satisfied, are replaced by the need for love or belonging to, which are function of his desire to belong to a group, to give and receive friendship and to associate happily with people.
When these needs have been satisfied, there is the esteem needs, i.e. the desire for self-esteem and self-respect, which are affected by a person's standing reputation, and his need for recognition and appreciation.
Finally, individuals have a need for self actualization or a desire for self-fulfillment, which is an urge by individuals for self-development, creativity and job satisfaction.
In Sidney Lau's case, he has applied job motivation aimed at satisfying the "Esteem Needs" of his employees. While as per the case the main focus of this particular group of employees is a satisfaction their physiological needs. This is because their focus is on food, shelter, money etc, and their need for survival. These basic needs must be satisfied before an individual seeks to satisfy needs higher up in the hierarchy. And hence Sidney's experiment failed.
Once a need is satisfied, it is no longer the source of motivation. (George and Gareth, 2000, Pg 58). As per theory one should first satisfy low level needs before you move up the hierarchy. Sidney should have designed his job enrichment practices around this fundamental principles.
Effectiveness of Communication
As per theories on communication and its effectiveness the reasons for poor communication are: (http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/CommStyl.html)
* Receiver has poor knowledge of subject or is inadequately prepared.
* Receiver is not interested in the subject.
* Sender and receiver have different vocabularies.
* Cultural differences exist between communicators.
* Professional differences exist between communicators.
* Communicators have different assumptions.
* Status differences (leader-member) exist between communicators.
If we look at HI-Tech and the fact that Sidney was an MBA ...
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Effectiveness of Communication
As per theories on communication and its effectiveness the reasons for poor communication are: (http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/CommStyl.html)
* Receiver has poor knowledge of subject or is inadequately prepared.
* Receiver is not interested in the subject.
* Sender and receiver have different vocabularies.
* Cultural differences exist between communicators.
* Professional differences exist between communicators.
* Communicators have different assumptions.
* Status differences (leader-member) exist between communicators.
If we look at HI-Tech and the fact that Sidney was an MBA while the others were line assembly workers, unless Sidney took exceptional steps to get his message across his attempts at communication were bound to fail. There is a difference between status, professional education and the fact that the receiver (here the factory workers) had poor knowledge of the subject of job enrichment.
Another fundamental principle that has been ignored in Sidney Lau's case is the efficacy of communication instead of an attempt at providing information.
As per this case Sidney Lau has made an attempt at trying to provide the reasons or instigators behind his job enrichment experiment to his employees without great success. We suspect this because ignoring of fundamental principle of efficacy of communication. In this it is far more important to concentrate on what the listener wants to hear and tailoring our communication exercise around that instead of concentrating on what you want to tell.
Herzberg's Motivator- hygiene Theory
One of the earliest theories of Job satisfaction. Herzberg theory proposes that every worker has two set of needs. His theory categories two job features that increase worker motivation and job satisfaction which are: (Wood, J., et al. 2001, P. 141)
. Motivator Needs - which are associated with the actual, work itself and how challenging it is.
2. Hygiene Needs - are associated with the physical working conditions (eg. Temperature and pleasant surroundings, pay, job security)
Herzberg, suggests that, in order to include more motivators in jobs, the following five job characteristics are important in job design:
. Skill variety - the degree to which a job requires a range of abilities.
2. Task identity - the degree to which a job requires the completion of an identifiable (and meaningful) unit of work.
3. Task significance - the degree to which the worker perceives the significance (value) of the work
4. Autonomy - the degree to which a job provides empowerment such as work scheduling and procedures
5. Feedback - the degree to which a job provides direct, clear and timely information regarding the efficacy of the employee's work
Findings
Whilst job enrichment is based on a theory resulting from research carried out by Herzberg and his colleagues, the research is not itself without its critics. Later research has not always produced such neat results. Also the focus of the approach is the individual job and only limited consideration is given to the wider context in which the job is carried out, particularly social groupings.
However, the approach has limitations, including its inapplicability in certain situations, the lack of opportunities in others and the emphasis upon management decision at the design stage. Nevertheless the principles advocated in the design of jobs have obvious merit. (http://www.accel-team.com/work_design/wd_02.html).
Based on the facts one can assume that Sidney applied the motivator factors without laying equal emphasis on the hygiene factors. Even then he did not apply the critically element of feedback to the employees. That's why he was taken aback when the supervisor came with complainants of workers not being happy with their new job enrichment. In order to avoid these complaints, Sidney should have build an element of feedback into the entire job enrichment exercise.
Also as per the case did not receive recognition and opportunities for growth and learning.
Sidney, was so enamoured by his education and his desire to bring about a change that he ignored the hygiene factors. Sometimes no change is the best change of all. We do not find a cogent argument in this case for introduction of any change.
Characteristics Of The Product, its Manufacturing Process And
Suitability Of SMWT
Unlike cars or certain engineering products, which can be manufactured or worked on independently and then, assembled together as a final process and hence lend themselves to creation of SMWT. There are certain other products which may require a common bases or chassis or motherboard to work on. Since all team members cannot have the motherboard at the same time introducing self management work teams in this situation may land us in a situation for some team members experiencing feverish individual activity some are having lulls of complete on activity. This doesn't do well for employee motivation.
As per IBM workers often expect higher payment to compensate for learning these other jobs and for agreeing to changes in working practices. The new jobs are often only a marginal improvement in terms of the degree of repetition, the skill demands and the level of responsibility; as a result workers have not always responded positively to such change. (http://www.accel-team.com/work_design/wd_02.html)
Job enlargement schemes may not be feasible, e.g. in motor vehicle assembly, without a major change in the production facilities.
(http://www.accel-team.com/work_design/wd_02.html)
Universal Best Practice
If rather we evaluate the production and job enrichment practices at HCL, India's largest IT manufacturer and also look at the readings based on Intel and AMD, in environment similar to Sidney Lau. Based on these studies job enrichment does not usually take the shape of SMWT's.
Typically they have used different forms of job enrichment essentially job rotation is resorted to when skill levels required for the various jobs are similar. Another important aspect of job enrichment will be the continued emphasis on job feedback and client interaction.
There is also wide body of organisations, which follow job enlargement as an ideal way of job enrichment in similar circumstances. Variety is introduced here by having employees do similar function for a different product. This results in enriched job without significant down-sides of re- training or lack of productivity.
Evaluation
Based on the above, reasons for failure of Sidney Lau's proposed changes at HI- Tech are:
As per the relevant theories governing job enrichment there were significant gaps in the implementation of the job enrichment practice. Please refer to the earlier paragraphs on this for a treatise of the same.
As per "Best practices" prevalent in comparable industries - there are no significant practices of SMWT in similar industries or industries with product manufacturing characteristics similar to HI -Tech. Even if it is implemented, it is done with an increased degree of feedback and client interface (client here being the workers).
Employees are paid a fixed amount per unit produced regardless of the number of units produced. Hence any loss of productivity because of job enrichment practices not suiting the manufacturing characteristics and resulting in lower wages is bound to aggravate workers. There is no known study which states that aggrieved workers and successful job enrichment program's can cohabit.
Recommendation
Basically Sidney Lau should have knowledge the workers as to why he was changing the structure of the way they currently work in. This way knowledged worker could use a more effective approach and that is to define what work is required, identify the key and then did tribute the task to small, interlocking teams with defined leaders, complete with goals, schedules and accountabilities.
Another important factor that affects job design is the employee evolvement is reengineering. A number of companies are embarking on process redesign for employee empowerment and job satisfaction. This development comes as companies are realizing the need to shift from a problem-solving thought process to a forward-thinking perspective. (http://www.emporia.edu/mmfe/jour/jour24hr/pierce.html)
Therefore only when:
* Employee expectations about their work have changed.
* There is incongruity between the needs of the worker and the needs of the organization.
* An individual's drive toward maturity is thwarted by organisational rules, procedures, hierarchy, & specialized division of labor.
There was no need for Sidney Lau to change the structure of work that was laid out by the upper management as time also influences job design. He should have looked at others factors, (which are stated above) when modifying the structure of Hi-Tech.
In the case Sidney Lau was connived that Job redesign was not called for. He should have looked at the option of Job enlargement given its manufacturing process instead of creating SMWTs'. As job enlargement is the horizontal additions of jobs to the same person. It does not involve lot of re- training and it is usually cost neutral. Given that in Hi-Tech manufacturing process similar job were being done for various products. It makes no sense to redesign the production that allows each employee to do the same job for various products. In essence job enlargement.
Bibliography
. George, J.M. and Gareth, R.J, "Organisational Behaviour: Essentials of Managing", Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 2000, Chapter 3.
2. Langdon, A and Marshall, P. "Organisational Behaviour", 1998, Addison Wesley Longman Aus Pty Ltd, Chapter 5.
3. Robbins, S.P., Millett, B., Cacioppe, R. and Marsh-Waters, T. "Organisational Behaviour: Leading and Managing In Australia and New Zealand", 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, Australia, 1998, Chapter
4. Wood, Wallance, Zeffane, Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborn, "Organisational Behaviour: A Global Perspective", 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Australia, 2001, Chapter 4.
5.
(http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/CommStyl.html)
(http://www.accel-team.com/work_design/wd_02.html)
http://www.accel-team.com/work_design/wd_02.html
(http://www.emporia.edu/mmfe/jour/jour24hr/pierce.html)
