Organizational behavior chapter 12 control and job design

• Control - the function of regulating events, actions, outcomes, or other relevant aspects according to preferred standards, plans, objectives, or other chosen referents... The necess

CONTROL AND JOB DESIGN

Chapter 12

• Control - the function of regulating events,

actions, outcomes, or other relevant aspects according to preferred standards, plans,

objectives, or other chosen referents

Figure 12.1

• This basic model is called the negative feedback loop -

TOTE model

Figure 12.2

TOTE model

Figure 12.3

The necessary elements of control in any context are:

• The goal - desired state

• Feedback - relevant information about the current state

• Discrepancy detection - comparison of the desired and actual states

• Action - initiated to reduce any detected discrepancy

Discrepancy amplifying loops - positive feedback loops also exist

CONTROL IN ORGANIZATIONS

• Prospective control - proactive alignment of

resources in ways that maximize the likelihood

of achieving intended objectives

• Reactive control - actions taken to bring

activities in line with targets and expectations

• Authority - legitimate power vested in

managers based on their position and role in

an organization

Control in organizations

Two often opposing aspects to the existence of control:

• Basis of order and predictability in operational activity

• Control is restrictive, lacks flexibility, and can be manipulative and greedy

with regard to the abolition of personal freedom Huczynski and Buchanan (1991) control has a number of connotations:

APPROACHES TO ORGANIZATIONAL CONTROL

• Ouchi (1979, 1980) three organizational control strategies -

bureaucratic control, market control, and clan control

• Use determine by:

– performance ambiguity which refers to the ease and clarity

with which the value of activities or outcomes can be assessed

– Goal incongruence, the second factor, is the degree of

alignment between individual and organizational goals

• Bureaucratic control - based on bureaucratic organizational forms

• Market control - used at the unit level and based on profit/cost

centres

• Clan control - based on social influence on behaviour

Ouchi’s organizational control

strategies

Table 12.1

Control – other perspectives

• Panoptic control - based on prison design which allows all inmates

to be observed without them being aware when it actually takes

place

• Concertive control - based on the social control exercised by groups

on their members

• Output control - direct measurement of the outputs produced

• Behavioural control - direct observation during work performance

• Input control (or clan control) – used where work outcomes are not measurable and where work performance cannot be observed

• Paradox of control - control can lead to unintended consequences particularly in ethical decision

• Hierarchy and authority

• Social control and socialization

• Technology

• Reward, punishment and reinforcement

Informal supervisory control

behaviours

Table 12.2

MEANS OF ORGANIZATIONAL

CONTROL

• Clegg and Dunkerley (1980) – Vicious cycle of control – the

downward spiral of tighter control leading to negative employee

behaviours leading to tighter control

Figure 12.4

Technology and control

Table 12.3

Behaviour modification

Figure 12.5

Job design

• Job design - the way in which tasks are

grouped, assigned and structured in

organizations at the level of individual jobs

Work Study

Figure 12.6

A multi-disciplinary approach to considering how people can best conduct specific work tasks, including:

• The human-machine interface

• Maximal efficiency with minimal effort and stress

• Athropometric profiles of human beings

• Physiology and biomechanics

Job analysis

Two main approaches to job analysis:

• Functional job analysis:

•Employee activities relevant to data, people and other jobs.

•The methods and techniques used by the worker.

•The machines, tools and equipment used by the worker.

•What outputs are produced by the worker.

• Position analysis questionnaire:

• Sources of information necessary to the job.

• Decision making associated with the job activity.

• Physical aspects associated with the job.

• Interpersonal and communication necessary to the job.

• Working conditions and their impact on the job.

• Impact of work schedules, responsibility etc.

Job analysis and job effectiveness

Figure 12.7

Job analysis

• Job analysis is used to support activities such as:

• Resourcing and HR planning

• Training

• Career development and succession planning

• Payment and remuneration level

• Provision of job descriptions and job evaluation schemes

• Performance evaluation

Approaches to designing jobs

Simplification and job

engineering

Job rotation

Job enlargement

Job enrichment

Job characteristics approach to job

enrichment

Figure 12.8

Job Design

Social-information processing model Salancik and Pfeffer

(1978):

• Recognizes the role of socially constructed reality of work

• Highlights the role of social information in determining the effects

of the design of a job on the holder

• The way in which workers experience the nature of their job and subjectively interpret information about it

• Such interpretations are influenced by others as well as by the past behaviour of the person themselves