Technology and work design in Organizational Relation, Technology and work design in Organizational behavior, Technology and work design in Organizational Relation, Technology and work design in Organizational behavior,

1. TECHNOLOGY AND WORK DESIGN
SATYA PRAKASH JOSHI

2. CONCEPT
• Technology is the process of transferring inputs into outputs.
• It consist of knowledge, skills, equipment, process, methods, and
systems.
• It substitutes machines for human labor.
• It can be routine or non-routine, simple or sophisticated and high-tech
or low-tech depending on work design.
Hierarchy

3. HIERARCHY OF TECHNOLOGY
Hi-tech
Medium-tech
Low-tech
No technology
Hi-tech electronics and
computers
Special purpose casting
Toy makers
Human Labour
TWD

4. WORK DESIGN
• Work design is defining and structuring jobs. It specifics content of job
and methods of doing the job.
• Job specialization: It is specializing employees in specific
• Job simplification: It is breaking down the job in smaller parts or
simplification.
• Job rotation: It is systematic movement of employees from one job to
another.
• Job enlargement: It is giving employees more similar tasks to perform.
• Job enrichment: It is giving employees more control for task
performance.
• Autonomous teams: They are self-directed teams of employees to
achieve specific goals.

5. THEORIES OF WORK DESIGN
• Job character theory
• Social information processing theory

6. JOB CHARACTERISTICS THEORY
• Developed by Hackman and Oldam.
• It states critical psychological states determine the impact of job
characteristics on employees response to the task.
• Experienced Meaningfulness of the work: The degree to which employee
experience the job as meaningful, valuable and worthwhile.
• Experienced Responsibility for work outcomes: The degree to which
employee personally feels accountable and responsible for the result.
• Knowledge of results: The degree to which employees understand how
effectively they are performing the job.

7. CRITICAL PSYCHOLOGICAL STATES
• Skill variety: User of different skills
• Task identity: Doing the whole piece of work
• Task significance: Work should be meaningful and worthwhile doing. It
should affect the lives or work of other people.
• Autonomy: Freedom and independence to schedule the work.
• Feedback: Information about effectiveness of performance.

8. OPERATION OF JOB CHARACTERISTICS
• Job characteristics, operating through high level critical psychological
states, positively affect work outcomes through.
• High motivation
• High quality performance
• High job satisfaction
• Low absenteeism and turnover

9. SOCIAL INFORMATION PROCESSING
THEORY
• This theory states that social information in the workplace influences
how employees perceive and react to job characteristics.
• Employees adopt attitudes and behaviors in response to the social cues
provided by others with whole they have contact.
• They can be co-workers, supervisors, friends, family members.
• Social information and job characteristics reinforce each other.
• Positive social information and well-designed job produce positive
reactions.
• Negative information and poorly designed job produce negative
reactions.

10. TECHNOLOGY AND WORK DESIGN
• Technology affects work design.
• It is changing the workplace and the work lives of employees.
• Recent advances in technology that affect work design are:
• Team and continuous improvement process
• Reengineering work processes
• Flexible manufacturing system
• Worker obsolescence
Technolog
y

11. TEAM AND CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT PROCESS
• Technology is used for continuous improvement of all organizational
process.
• Variations in quality are eliminated. The philosophy of TQL is adopted.
• Total Quality Management (TQM) is a comprehensive and structured
approach to organizational management that seeks to improve
the quality of products and services through ongoing refinements in
response to continuous feedback.
• It advocates continuous improvement of product quality through
everyone’s commitment and involvement to satisfy customer needs.
• This results in lower costs and higher quality.

12. CONT…
• Continuous improvement process uses PDCA cycle for incremental
improvements.
ACT PLAN
CHECK DO

13. TQM – CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
PROCESS REQUIREMENT
• New Technology : based on digitalization.
• Commitment: Top management commitment.
• Employee involvement: For quality improvement it is must.
• Team effort: Empowered teams are used for improvement.
• Production methods: Flexible production processes and methods are
used.
• Customer-orientation: Customer satisfaction is emphasized.
• Control: Statistical quality control tools are used.

14. TOOLS FOR CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT PROCESS
• Zero-defect: Right first time concept is used. Quality is designed into
production process.
• Quality circle: They are formal work groups meeting periodically to find
ways to improve quality and solve performance problems.
• Just-in-time: Inventories are received just in time to be used by
production.
• Quality control: Statistical tools are used for quality control
• Quality assurance: Consistency in conforming of standards is assured.
• Training: Employees are continuously trained in quality matter.

15. REENGINEERING WORK PROCESSES
• Reengineering refers to a radical redesign of work processes to achieve
major gains in cost, service and time.
• It is a procedure in which work activities are radically changed and
redefined.
• It asks the question- How things would be done if start is made from the
scratch.
• It is maintained by top management.

16. KEY ELEMENTS
• Identify distinctive competencies: They are well-performed activities
compared to competitors. Competitive advantages are,
• Higher quality products, Superior technical support, Knowledgeable
employees, Efficient distributing system.
• Assess core processes: Processes transforms resources inputs into
products that customers value. It determines the degree of value added
by each process to distinctive competencies.
• Horizontal reorganization: Reorganization is done around horizontal
process. Cross function and self managed teams are used to focus
processes. Levels of management are reduced.

17. FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEM
• Flexible manufacturing system is based on flexible technology.
• Integrates (CAD), engineering and manufacturing.
• Produces low volume products at low costs.
• Flexible manufacturing system relies on computer programs, they
facilitate customized products.
• Mass production products only standardized products.

18. REQUIREMENTS FOR FLEXIBLE
MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS
• CAD: computer are changed to produce customized products. Machine
remain the same.
• Employees: new breed of employees are needed. They have more
training and higher skills.
• Organic structure: Employees are organized into work teams. They have
decision making authority.

19. WORKER OBSOLESCENCE
• New technologies require new skills in employees.
• Computers, reengineering, TQM and flexible manufacturing systems are changing
the skills need of employees.
• i.e Repetitive tasks are being automated.
• Jobs are being upgraded.
• Jobs are being reengineered for higher productivity.
• Jobs require computer literacy, interpersonal skills and team work.
• Computer software is changing the job of professionals.
• Channing technology makes the skills of employs obsolete. Their skills become
inadequate for new jobs.