Free Essay

Work Redesign in Insurance Company

In: Business and Management

Submitted By wangayahone233
Words 4750
Pages 19
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

“The structure of an organization consists of relatively fixed and stable relationships among jobs and groups of jobs. The primary purpose of organization structure is to influence the behaviour of individuals and groups to achieve effective performance.” Gibson, Ivancevich, Donnelly and Konopaske (2009:418).
Organisational structure and job design are key determinants of employee job performance and satisfaction. The degree to which the employee fits into the designed job and structure will determine the quality of performance and job satisfaction of that employee.
The small life insurance company has a functional organisation structure that is associated with high human cost, boring, insignificant and monotonous jobs. This type of structure has resulted in job dissatisfaction, high turnover and absenteeism.
The researchers start the analysis of the case by studying the critical relationship between job performance, job design and organisational design, and contrast the views of Gibson et al. (2009), Colquitt et al. (2008), van Dyk (2005) and Autry (1996) amongst other authors.
The analysis reveals that congruency between job design and organisational design ensures desirable job performance by matching the right employees with the right jobs. Quality of work life and job enrichment play a major role in employees’ job satisfaction and this makes them perform at their optimum best.
The researchers go on to identify problems that the insurance company and employees face and observe the following: high turnover, absenteeism, repetitive job functions, high human costs and structural limitations that make it difficult for the company to redesign jobs.
The problems identified present an opportunity to provide the following solution: redesigning of jobs that have depth and range which will increase employees’ motivation, fulfillment and keep them challenged.

The researchers further recommend that the company accept the consultant’s advice and procure the electronic data processing system that will help the company obtain operational efficiency in combination with the redesigning of jobs.
The second recommendation is changing the current functional structure in to a client basis structure. This strategic change further enables the company to redesign jobs that will benefit the employees’ quality of work life.
The researchers believe that the company’s adoption and implementation of these recommendations will reduce employee turnover, absenteeism and improve quality of production and overall performance.

2. INTRODUCTION

Quality of work life is defined as “management philosophy that enhances employee dignity, introduces cultural change, and provides opportunities for growth and development.” Gibson et al. (2009:368).
For any employee to experience quality of work like, s/hehe or she needs to be satisfied in the job and the organisation that s/hehe or she works in.
Employees of a small life insurance company are faced with a challenge of having to perform tasks that are boring, insignificant and monotonous. As a result the company experiences high turnover and absenteeism.
Now, the company’s objective is to do a complete overhaul of current jobs. This involves procuring an electronic data processing system (EDP) and redesigning jobs to ensure that employees are motivated, satisfied and perform at their peak.
The researchers plan to conduct a case analysis by looking at the relationship between individual performance, job design and organisational design. A contrast between different theoretical perspectives will be tabled to establish the researchers’ views on the case.
Furthermore the researchers will identify different problems faced by the company and the employees, address the core characteristic of jobs affected if the company procures the EDP and look at alternative job redesign strategies that the company can implement.
Lastly the researchers will provide their own recommendations and alternative solutions that they see as being fit to be implemented by the small life insurance company.

3. QUESTION 1

Job performance, job design and organisational design form the basis of employee’s job satisfaction and quality of work life. The degree at which an employee will perform to his/herhis or her best and be satisfied in his/herhis or her job will be determined by how best s/hehe or she fits in the designed job and organisation.
The researchers have tabled views of different authors in order to analyse the theoretical relationship between individual job performance, job design and organisational design.
3.1. Theoretical Views on Job Performance, Job Design and Organisational Design
3.1.1. Theoretical Views on Individual Job Performance
Views of Gibson et al. Views of Colquitt et al.
“Job performance (Gibson et al, 2009:371) is the outcomes of jobs that relate to the purposes of the organization such as quality, efficiency, and other criteria of effectiveness.” “Job performance (Colquitt et.al, 2008: Chapter 2) is formally defined as the value of the set of employee behaviors that contribute, either positively or negatively, to organisational goal accomplishment.”

The Researchers’ Views
Given the above views, the researchers define individual job performance as individual’s behaviour or actions that lead to a job accomplished successfully or unsuccessfully. It is the manner in which an individual performs his/herhis or her job in order to accomplish the goals and objectives of the organisation. The contributing factors are: abilities, skills, knowledge, attitude, motivation and stress levels.

Some theories focus more on good performance, meaning that they concentrate on the positive behaviours that directly contribute to job performance. The problem with this approach is that it almost ignores the negative (bad performance), which needs to be watched always.
3.1.2. Theoretical Views on Job Design
Views of Gibson et al. Views of Swanepoel et al.
“Job design (Gibson et al., 2009:367) is the process by which managers decide individual job tasks and authority.”
“Job design (Gibson et al., 2009:12) refers to the process by which managers specify the contents, methods, and relationships of jobs to satisfy both organizational and individual requirements.” “Job design (Swanepoel et al., 2003:194) is how one defines a given job - what work or tasks are to be performed, how they are to be performed, and what authority goes along with the job.”

The Researchers’ Views
Job design refers to the way in which management designs jobs that fit into the departmental, divisional and organisational goals. This is accomplished by ensuring that there is a clear outline of what needs to be done, including when and how it should be done. Management needs to ensure that they fit individuals to jobs and not fit jobs to individuals. This is to the benefit of both the employer and employee.
3.1.3. Theoretical Views on Organisational Design
Views of Gibson et al. Views of Van Dyk Views of Autry
“Organizational design (Gibson et al., 2009:395) is management’s decisions and actions that result in a specific organization structure.” “Organisational design (van Dyk, 2005:382) is the macroscopic term that includes an organisation’s structure and its processes for decision-making, communication and performance management.” “Organizational Design (Autry 1996: Online) is a formal, guided process for integrating the people, information and technology of an organization. It is used to match the form of the organization as closely as possible to the purpose(s) the organization seeks to achieve. Through the design process, organizations act to improve the probability that the collective efforts of members will be successful.”

The Researchers’ Views on Organisational Design
The researchers’ view is that organisational design is the overall designing of an organisational structure. It refers to the structure of tasks, authority, and of interpersonal relationships within an organisation. It is also linked with the organisation’s vision, goals and objectives; and the management’s decisions and actions that result in organisational structures.
3.2. Analysis of Job Performance, Job Design and Organisational Design
3.2.1 Analysis of Job performance
There are three categories of job performance which contribute directly towards the success or failure of an organisation. They are:

I. Task Performance (Positive)
Task performance refers to routine (familiar, predictable everyday occurrences) and adaptive (unusual, unpredictable emergency occurrences) jobs performed in the organisation. It has to do with transforming the organisation’s resources into goods and/or services.
Job specification and job advertisement documents must reflect task performance and behavioural information which relate to the main functions of the job, duties and responsibilities.
A job analysis generates a list of the job activities and rates them according to relevance, importance and frequency. The highest rated activities are kept and used to define task performance.

II. Citizenship Behaviour (Positive)

CCitizenship behaviour refers to the employees’ behaviour that contributes to the organisation’s quality improvement through the work/tasks performed.
This is regardless of whether or not this behaviour is rewarded in the end.
The work/task can also refer to school work in the case of students and in a social environment. It is those individuals that are always ready and willing to go an extra mile without necessarily expecting anything in return. They always maintain a good attitude, even in difficult times; as a result they have earned the title “good citizens”.
Citizenship Behaviour is classified into the following two categories:

 Interpersonal citizenship behaviour

This behaviour requires a lot of teamwork, and it benefits coworkers. It involves assisting, supporting and developing coworkers beyond their job expectations. These are the type of colleagues that would help a new employee by showing around and orientating them around equipments, machinery and technology used in the organisation. They would also step in to assist an overloaded colleague with personal or social problems.

 Organisational citizenship behaviour

This behaviour benefits the organisation directly. The “good citizen” makes it a point to keep up with internal and external announcements about the organisation. They are up to date with business news and always portray a positive image of their organisation, even when they are away from the office. They always say good things about the organisations they work for, and companies benefit from this behaviour.

II. Counterproductive Behaviour (Negative)
Employees with this behaviour are referred to as the “bad apples”. Counterproductive behaviours are those that intentionally hinder organisations from achieving their set goals and objectives.
An example of this behaviour is when an employee is angry with his/herhis or her employer, and deliberately sabotages his/herhis or her employee so that they fail. This behaviour can range from a minor inconvenience to a very damaging consequence like a big lawsuit.
III. Categories of counterproductive behaviour are:

Property deviance – refers to behaviours that harm the assets and possessions of the organisation, and involves sabotage and theft.
Production deviance – refers to behaviours that harm the organisation through production by slowing down performance. Examples are when employees waste the company’s resources, abuse alcohol and/or drugs. This form of behaviour affects efficiency and effectiveness as intoxicated employees perform below their optimum best. This wastes the organisation’s time and money.
Political deviance – this behaviour is aimed more at individuals in the organisation, rather than the organisation itself. It involves gossiping, which hurts others' emotions, spirals out of control and causes distrust among colleagues; and there is incivility, which involves rudeness and a lack of good manners. This behaviour is aimed at the organisation itself, through creating a bad climate.
Personal aggression – this behaviour is either verbal or physical, and is directed at co-workers. The behaviour can be acted out through harassment, which involves physical contact or verbal comments from one employee to another. Personal aggression can also be shown through abuse. This is the most dangerous of the counterproductive behaviours, as it can even be deadly if there are enough amounts of aggression and anger involved.
See annexure A: Categories of Job Performance.
3.2.2 Analysis of Job design
The first place to start when designing a job is to conduct an analysis of these three key elements:
1. The Tasks 2. The Potential Employee 3. The Environment
• What tasks need to be performed?
• How should these tasks be performed?
• Where and how do they fit in with the job? • What skills, experience and capabilities does the employee have?
• What will the responsibilities of the employee be? • What is the physical location like?
• What is the weather like?
• Accessibility? What are the noise levels?


Quality Work Life (QWL)

Management makes use of the QWL philosophy/programmes in order to:
• Enhance the dignity of all workers
• Change an organisation’s culture
• Improve the physical and emotional well-being of employees.
The above is done in order to curb accident rates, sick leave usage, employee turnover and the number of grievances filed.
Work/Family Balance and Job Design

In order to benefit themselves and the employees, organisations see the importance of balancing work and family demands. As a result, they are:
• Assisting their employees to balance their work and family demands
• Accommodating diverse employee needs by offering flexible work arrangements
Benefits for companies that offer flexible work programmes are: higher recruitment and retention rates, improved morale, lower absenteeism and tardiness, as well as higher levels of employee productivity.

Relationships/ Work teams

Research found that good work teams formed through job design can lead to higher levels or team productivity, employee satisfaction and effectiveness.

The researchers also noted that not all work teams achieve high levels of productivity and success.
Trends in Job design

Job sharing – involves sharing or dividing job responsibilities, hours as well as benefits. Two or more individuals with similar work-styles can enter into this kind of agreement.
Flextime – is a flexible time work arrangement, whereby employees have an option to work their 40 hours of the week as they wish. E.g. they can work 10 hours per day for four days and have the fifth day off. They also have a choice to arrive earlier and leave later or even to work through their lunch time in order to leave the office earlier.
Telecommuting - Employees can chose to work from home, and only be in the office when it is absolutely necessary. Careful attention needs to be paid by organisations in this regard, especially where some employees are entitled to work from home and others are not. This might backfire and management can be accused of being bias. The following are some of the steps that Pfizer Inc, an international pharmaceutical company, took and, that other organisations can take, in order to control the situation and prevent it from getting out of hand:
1. Chose a small division to pilot the telecommunication initiative.
2. Limited the number of days to work at home to two per week.
3. Opened the program to all employees of the division.
4. Required interested employees to satisfy a formal proposal and performance standards.
5. Required demonstration that the work could be accomplished offsite and that the employee could sustain and/or enhance performance.

Research has shown that the above trends have produced some positive results on employee performance, job satisfaction and absenteeism. Companies need to be careful in ensuring that this is properly structured and that productivity is not lost in the long run.
Job design also attempts to identify the most important needs of employees and the organisation, and to remove obstacles in the workplace that frustrate those needs. These needs need to be satisfied, in order for one to be generally happy in a work environment. The most basic of these needs are physiological, then the safety and security. The higher-order needs consist of love, esteem and self actualisation. Refer to annexure C - Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs & Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory.
3.2.3 Analysis of Organisational design
Organisational design is the process by which management makes the following key decisions: dividing work, delegating authority, departmentalizing jobs into groups and determining spans of control.
Design decision
Division of Labour
Process of dividing work into relatively specialized jobs to achieve advantages of specialization 1. Divide work into different personal specialties
2. Divide work into different activities the organisation does.
3. Divide work along the vertical plane of an organisation.
Departmentalisation
Grouping jobs into departments that have common bases such as functions, territory, product and customer. Functional departmentalizsation
(jobs are combined according to the functions of the organisation)
Advantages Disadvantages
Efficient units Organisational goal may be sacrificed in favor of departmental goals
Shared expertise

Geographical departmentaliszation
(establish groups according to geographic area)
• The company is able to place managers in territories and then assess their progress in that geographic region.
• Experience gained by managers outside headquarters provides valuable insight about how products or services are accepted in the field Product departmentaliszation
(grouping jobs on the basis of product)
Advantages Disadvantages
Increase in number of products the organisation markets Redundancy in divisional structure
Top management can coordinate actions Exorbitant cost

Customer departmentaliszation
(group jobs on the basis of customers and clients)
Advantages
• Satisfy customer-identified needs Matrix organisation
(combine product and functional departmental bases)
Advantages Disadvantages
Utilization of highly specialized staff and equipment Conflict between allegiances to one’s functional and project manager.
Sharing specialized resources with other units
Cross fertilization of ideas

Span of control
(number of individuals who report to a specific manager) 3 types of interpersonal relationship
Direct single relationship – occurs between the manager and each subordinate individually
Direct group relationship – occurs between the manager and each possible permutation of subordinates.
Cross-relationships – occurs when subordinates interact with one another.
3 important factors for optimum span of control
• Required contact
• Degree of specialisation
• Ability to communicate
Delegation of authority
(Process of distributing authority downward in an organisation) Decentraliszed authority – enables managers to make significant decisions, to gain skills and to advance the company
Centraliszed authority -
Source: “Organizations Behavior, Structure, Processes” Gibson et al., Chapter 14

3.3. Theoretical perspective of Job Performance, Job Design and Organisational Design
3.3.
“Abraham H Maslow believes that employees who do not meet their needs at work will not function as effectively as they could and that managers should understand the needs that are important to their employees (Bagraim et al., 2007:73).” Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is summarised into five basic groups: physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs.
Hertzberg associates motivators with job satisfaction which is concerned with the content of the job being carried out. He further associates hygiene factors with job dissatisfaction which is concerned with the context of work.
There is some similarity between Herzberg's and Maslow's theories. They both suggest that needs have to be satisfied for the employee to be motivated. However, Herzberg argues that only the higher level needs of Maslow’s Hierarchy (e.g. self-actualisation and esteem needs) act as motivators while the lower level needs (e.g. safety and physiological needs) act as hygiene factors.
See annexure C: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs & Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory.

4. QUESTION 2
4.1. Problems Identified
4.1.1. High turnover and absenteeism
High turnover and absenteeism are directly linked to job dissatisfaction. The life insurance company is experiencing high turnover and absenteeism. These two factors are signs that employees are not satisfied in their jobs.
High turnover and absenteeism have a direct negative impact on the following:

Areas Affected Effects
1. Production When people are frequently absent the work produced becomes low as compared to when the full staff complement is present at work.
2. Quality The quality of work becomes compromised as there will be less people at work who will be overly burdened.
3. Quantity The amount of work needed to be produced will be compromised as a result of less people being available to carry it out.
4. Efficiency The speed and competence of work to be carried out will also be compromised when there are less people to do the job.
5. Training New people needed to be hired as a result of high turnover will require training and this will impact on the budget and the quality of work to be carried out.
6. Company’s bottom line When there are few people performing duties and there is more business to be generated than people required, the company’s revenue and profits will be affected.

4.1.2. High human costs
The company’s highly specialised tasks require them to employ specialists who cost the company a lot of money in salaries and this has a great impact on the company’s human resource budget given the size of the company.
4.1.3. Job dissatisfaction
• Employees of the life insurance company complain that their jobs are boring, insignificant and monotonous.
• The dissatisfaction affects the employees’ morale, performance and efficiency in carrying out tasks on their jobs.
• When people are unhappy with their jobs they will eventually leave the company and move to organisations or positions where they will be satisfied.
4.1.4. Cost Implications in procuring EDP
Procuring the electronic data processing system will be costly and not yield any savings. The company will have to utilise money from their earnings to procure the equipment.
4.1.5. Current Structure’s limitation on redesign opportunities
The current structure of the company makes it difficult and presents limitation in redesigning jobs in order to provide greater motivation for employees.
4.2. Core Job Characteristics Affected
The core job characteristics are skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback.
Job characteristics Changes
Skill variety
The extent to which the job requires the person to use multiple high-level skills Specialisation as a result of organisational change from a functional structure to a client basis which focuses more on the customer and his/herhis or her satisfaction.
Task identity
The degree to which the person is in charge of completing an identifiable piece of work from start to finish. Increase in task identity as a result of job redesign that enables job range.
Task significance
The degree to which the person’s job substantially affects other people’s work, health, or well-being. Their jobs will be more significant as they will have more meaning.

Autonomy
The degree to which the person has the freedom to decide how to perform one’s tasks. They will have more freedom to make decisions.

4.3. Alternative Redesign Strategies
The alternative job redesign strategy that the company can implement is job enlargement. Gibson et al. (2009:381) defines job enlargement as the practice of increasing the number of tasks for which an individual is responsible and this increases job range.
By implementing job enlargement employees will reap the following benefits:
• Increased satisfaction as they will have variety of tasks to perform instead of the same boring tasks that they are currently performing.
• Increased product quality as they will have increased confidence in knowing that the product produced is of great quality and provides customer satisfaction.
• Decreased turnover and absenteeism as they will have more tasks to perform that will give them as sense of worth and significance, and provide opportunity to interact more.
• Encouragement to learn and grow as they will have new challenging tasks that will require their insight and ability to complete them.

Considerations to implementing Job Enlargement
The company will have to consider the following before implementing job enlargement as an alternative redesign strategy:
• Training employees to perform additional tasks and management to oversee more than one operation.
• Employees’ ability to comprehend the complexity of additional tasks given to them.
• Employees’ concentration span as they will be required to focus and have long attention span to perform the additional tasks.
5. ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS
5.1. High turnover and absenteeism
The solution in this case will be to increase employees' job satisfaction by ensuring that they are motivated to come to work and to perform well. Employees leave organisations because they are not satisfied with their jobs or working conditions. In the case study, they complained that their jobs were boring, insignificant and monotonous; this causes them to leave the organisation to find better jobs elsewhere.

Job satisfaction can be increased by implementing the Motivators model. The applicable solution is to change from No satisfaction to Satisfaction. Their current situation is that the employees’ jobs do not offer achievement, recognition, stimulating work, responsibility and advancement. These need to be changed into jobs offering achievement, recognition, stimulating work, responsibility and advancement. The model which illustrates this is attached below. Source: van Dyk (2011), Module 5: Creating High Performance Project and Process Teams Study guide pg 74

5.2 High human costs
The high human costs are possibly the biggest reason for this organisation to have no cost saving. This is due to the fact that they are constantly hiring temporary staff to do the work, while the permanent staff is absent from work. Improving employee satisfaction will ensure that they enjoy their work; they will therefore come to work more and reduce the amount of money spent on hiring temporary staff. This money will also ensure that they have some cost savings for any further restructuring and the associated costs.
5.3. Job dissatisfaction
Job dissatisfaction needs to be addressed by referring to the reason why employees are dissatisfied. In this case, it is due to their boring jobs. They also do not see the reason why they are required to do their current jobs in the first place. The solution to this problem is to make use of the hygiene factors as stipulated in the Herzberg Motivator-Hygiene Model.
The hygiene factors focus at changing dissatisfaction into no dissatisfaction.
The organisation currently has poor policies and administration, which is reflected in the high rate of absenteeism. There is also lack of interpersonal relationships with management, and a lack of technical supervision.
To ensure that they turn this situation around, the solutions would be to engage management more with employees, getting their policies and administration in proper order (by implementing the new client based structure) and assisting with technical supervision.
5.4. Current Structure’s limitation on redesign opportunities
The current structure (functional departmentalisation) limits their ability to redesign the organisation, as it is focused on specialisation and efficiency. This structure is more suited to a manufacturing firm as it does not allow their management to oversee more than one operation, and does not offer much flexibility and growth for the employees.

The best solution is to implement the client basis/customer departmentalisation structure to allow flexibility of employees. This structure is customer focused and encourages total quality management. Management will also be able to easily increase job range of employees to allow them exposure, more flexibility and room for learning and growth. 6. Recommendations

Based on the consultant’s recommendations, the researchers recommend the following:
6.1 Change the structure to a client basis/customer departmentalisation

The researchers are in agreement with the Consultant’s recommendation that organisation changes its structure to a client basis. This structure is also known as Customer Departmentalisation, and it is 100% customer based.
The problem with the insurance company’s current structure is that it is focused mainly on specialisation and efficiency. The job range and depth becomes very narrow. This kind of structure might also sacrifice the corporate goals.
For an insurance company, it will benefit this organisation to focus more on satisfying the client. This makes the client feel more important, and ensures that they are satisfied – in this way, they are retained. In customer departmentalisation, there are usually only one or two officers to assist one customer. This kind of service is personalised to the customer, which makes them feel more appreciated.

6.2 What should management be willing to pay for employees’ satisfaction?

There is no monetary measurement to employee satisfaction. The best approach to addressing the management’s willingness to ensure employee satisfaction is looking at the organisation’s health or success. van Dyk (2011:14) citing Beer (1980:18) defines organisational health as "the capacity of an organisation to engage in ongoing self-examination aimed at identifying incongruities between the social system components and developing plans for needed change in strategy, structure processes, people, culture and the dominant coalition. Such a healthy organisation is likely to maintain organisational efficiency and effectiveness in the long run.”
The organisation’s health is determined by an ongoing introspection of its performance, efficiency and that of the teams and individuals within the organisation. The introspection will reveal areas that need to be changed and the strategy that needs to be followed by management in ensuring that the organisation is efficient and continues to do so in the future.
Employee satisfaction is directly linked to the organisation’s success. For the organisation to be healthy, its employees must be satisfied in the jobs that they perform. See annexure C: Components of Organisational Health.

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