Analysis of Job Design for Innovation at CERA (HRM 301)

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Human Resource Management
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Executive Summary
CERA is a business organization which majorly provides services of client-facing business lines,
i.e. smart structures, civil engineering, and planning. CERA is planning to increase its business
by designing of new job profiles in the field of drafting officials which can be helpful in creating
an innovative behavior. The report below consists of advice given to Rachel Amaro on how can
she design jobs in her field.
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Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Innovation in the company:.............................................................................................................5
Different approaches to Job Design.................................................................................................6
What drives innovative job design?.................................................................................................9
Examples........................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References:....................................................................................................................................13
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Introduction
CERA is a company in Sydney, Australia provides services to the customers so as to keep them
happy and satisfied in order to increase the sales and retention of its employees. CERA has
approximately 45 employees and it is associated with independent contractors which are 15 in
number. CERA is planning to expand its business by designing jobs in drafting offices in order
to build innovative products and create an innovative environment which provides a competitive
advantage to the CERA. It is advisable to the Rachel Amaro to design new jobs in the areas in
which she is currently working. The HR of CERA suggests Rachel to develop new areas of
business so that the company can create an innovative behavior within the organization.
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Innovation in the company:
In this report it will be discussed that the company is planning to expand its business in order to
create an innovative environment in the company. The company is planning to build new jobs for
this; it is planning to give advice to the Rachel Amaro, who is an executive member of CERA in
drafting office, on how it is beneficial for the company to design jobs in the specified field and
how can she make it possible.
Rachel had a conversation with the Human Resource Manager, Israel, in which she says it is not
necessary to design more jobs. According to Israel, Rachel does not seem to be interested in the
expansion of the business growth of CERA. But, Susumu Takada, finance, legal and
administrative officer, supports the HR Manager with his planning to design new jobs
(Donaldson, 2015).
The company focuses to produce goods in innovative way to earn a competitive advantage in the
marketplace. CERA is customer base oriented company and focuses to provides its customers
creative and innovative products to keep them satisfied and so that to retain its existing
customers. Customers are considered to be the masters of the business and if they are happy they
can convince other people as well to buy the products of the particular company (Rabbani, et. al.,
2016).
Innovation implies the changing method, or creating unique products with the use of an
innovative mind. Innovation in the company can be done not only by inventing new products but
also by making necessary changes in the models of the business, by adopting environmental
changes so that customers can get better and updated services and products.
For the purpose of creating an innovative behavior in the CERA, the exploitation of unique ideas
is very important for the business so that the CERA can be able to improve its products, methods
of producing products and services, its processes, improves profitability of the company,
increases effectiveness and efficiency (Akrani, 2011). Innovation in the business of CERA
includes:
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 Improvement or replacement of the business processes so as to increase and improve
productivity and efficiency, and it enables the business to improve the quality of products
it produces.
 Producing new and better products to meet the changing requirements of the consumers.
 Adding value to the products and services provided by CERA in order to differentiate its
services from the competitors which are available in the marketplace.
The ideas of creating differentiated products can come from within or outside of the company.
The insider people who can give innovative ideas include managers, employees, and other
people. The people outside of the business include customers, research publications, suppliers,
media reports, and other sources (Daniels, et. al. 2017).
Different approaches to Job Design
Job designing is the process of organizing and outlining of the tasks, roles, responsibilities,
and duties, into unit of work so as to achieve the organizational objectives. Job designing also
used to outline the process and methods which are used for the success of the specified job. Job
designing refers to the integration of the responsibilities of the job and specified qualifications
which are necessary to perform the particular job.
Israel predicts that job designing aims to analyze the problems in the organization to determine
the job description. Israel explains to Rachel the purpose of designing the jobs in order to
increase the sales. It includes:
1) Input by the employees: A good designing of job results in positive feedbacks.
Employees are given an option in order to differentiate their tasks and responsibilities on
the basis of their social and personal needs, habits, situations in the working areas, etc.
2) Scheduling of work: Job designing includes the number of hours to be spent by an
individual to perform the specified task. It also includes the rest intervals which can
motivate the employees to complete the given task within time (Branke, et.al. 2016).
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Approaches of Job Designing:
Image: Approaches to Job Designing
Source: By Author, 2019
1) Job Engineering/ Simplification Approach: According to this approach, the employees
performing the job are being provided with the full plan in advance by the management
and given the list of instructions as to how to perform the specified job, and accomplish
the targeted goals of the CERA. The issue with this approach includes less social
interaction, no end product, repetition, no input, etc. It allows the way of how the
methods and procedures linked together.
2) Job Rotation Approach: According to the theory of Hackman & Oldham, the
employees of the company works hard if are being rewarded for the job they will perform
and if the task provides them a level of satisfaction. This approach explains the rotation
of employees from one assigned job to another. It helps in distribution of the group tasks
to the employees.
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Approaches
Job
enlargement
Job rotation
Job Enrichment
Job
engineering

3) Job Enlargement Approach: It is used to design the jobs which are rewarding and
builds interest of the employees. It includes numerous factors for motivation like
recognition, responsibility, achievement, advancement, work, and hygiene and growth
factors. According to the theory of Herzberg, the employees are not satisfied with the
specified job if the job description does not include the necessary factors of maintenance
at a required degree. It might add the interest of the employees to work but does not
provide excessive responsibilities.
4) Job Enrichment Approach: It provides employees a higher level of responsibility,
independence, and accountability when learning about the new job. It allows the
employees’ greater participation and provides them new opportunities (Tanuja, 2018).
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What drives innovative job design?
Human resource planning is a method of transforming the organizational goals into the HR
goals with the concern of allocation and staffing. HR goals are used to form and develop an
integrated set of programs and policies of HR (Sharma, et. al., 2016). For the purpose of job
designing, human resource planning plays an important role. Human resource planning is linked
to job designing as human resource planning is used to identify the issues of the company and
accordingly the job is designed. Israel provides advices to Rachel to design the job in her field
area to improve the productivity of the business and provide more innovative products to the
customers (Business Jargons, 2018).
In order to provide advice to Rachel regarding job designing, one should analyze its features.
The features of Job designing are:
 It provides employees a feeling of participation and a sense of accomplishment and
contribution.
 It includes work/rest schedules.
 It helps in minimizing the expenditures in energy and force requirements.
 It is used to maintain a balance between dynamic and static work.
 It provides employees’ their feedback about how they have performed the particular job.
 Job designing provides training to the employees about how to perform the specified tasks.
How can Rachel design a job?
For designing a job, job analysis is must i.e. understanding and analysis of the situations of the
company for which job is to be done to make it better (HEATHFIELD, 2018). Job analysis is a
process of studying the job in detail and analyzes the characteristics and nature of the people who
are being employed for the specific job. It is used to identify and discover the necessary
information for the completion of the particular job (Carlson, 2009).
Rachel will consider various factors for job design in her area. For designing the job,
identification of the processes and methods are necessary for doing the specified job,
interactions, equipment required, work schedules, requirements of training (Markovska, 2018).
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The advice given to Rachel on how to design jobs in her area so as to support innovative
behavior includes:
1) Availability of expertise knowledge and skills: The specified job may require expert
skills and knowledge and technical qualification to perform the tasks. The job design is
made to bring innovative behavior within the organization. The company hires talented
people according to the requirements of the job and those who are capable to accomplish
the targeted goals as specified with the particular job.
2) Strategy: The purpose of the job shall be discussed with the staff that may directly or
indirectly are affected by the job, in order to know their views about how it affects the
existing staff.
3) Resources: Proper allocation of resources before conducting the task assigned. Rachel
shall consider the resources available and the resources required for performing the job
designing. In this, Rachel can delegate authority and control to its subordinates so that
they can carry out the specified job more effectively.
4) Necessity: Hiring of new employees is an expensive and time consuming process as new
employees are given proper training before conducting the task. Sharing the specified job
with the existing employees saves time and money and helps in providing the existing
employees the opportunity of developing their growth.
5) Organizational Issue: The organizational structure shall support the employees in
performing the job and enables them to do it effectively. Organizational structure
includes delegation of authority, management and resources available in order to
accomplish the goals for which the job is being designed.
6) Re-assess: The job design should be re-evaluated on the regular basis by making
necessary adjustments (Pathak, 2011).
Recruitment and retention of employees is the foundation of well designing of the job. A well
designed job is used to frame the expectations of the work and helps in creating an innovative
work environment (Albrecht, et. al. 2015).
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Examples
It is advisable to Rachel to take corrective steps to design jobs in her field by either hiring new
employees with the specified qualification and talent, skills and knowledge or by sharing the
work to complete the job with the existing employees in order to provide them an opportunity of
improving their growth. Employees shall possess required knowledge and should be capable to
put their efforts to attain the goals in the specified time. Employees should provide motivation so
that they do not get frustrated and leave the job in mid. They should be given recognition and
rewards to the employees so that they gets motivated and complete the job in the given time
period by putting their extra efforts and efficiency into the job.
The employees with the proper guidance can perform the work more effectively and efficiently.
Rachel should be given advice on how to design the job by following the above mentioned steps
so that CERA can have a competitive advantage as it produces innovative products. CERA is
focused in providing its clients innovative products and thus to build a competitive image in the
marketplace, the top executives of CERA plans to design job to support and increase innovative
behavior. The HR Manager of CERA believes that Rachel is not interested in creating a new job
design in the organization. It just increases the work pressure among the employees. CERA’s HR
Manager has decided with the support of Susumu, a top executive of the company to develop the
job design. Israel has mentioned to Rachel that the employees who are ready to take the pain and
efforts are required by the company and provides her sufficient advice as to how the job
designing can be successfully implemented within the organization to support the continuous
process of providing innovative products and services to its clients. Different people have
different minds with numerous ideas. Gathering of different ideas can result in achieving the
better results.
Before starting the process of Job designing certain factors should be kept in mind which
include, changing market conditions, competitors available in the market, strategies used by the
competitors to advertise their products, changing tastes and preferences of the customers,
business environment, skills required for the specified job, experience people should possess for
the particular job, etc.
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Conclusion
The report consists of the job design, its meaning, features, importance, and how it is used to
improve the sales and growth of the company. It includes the production of innovation products.
How job designing can increase the productivity of the existing employees and how it can be
helpful in developing the innovative products. CERA is a company which focuses in providing
unique and innovative products to its clients. From this report it is concluded that for successful
implementation of job designing, analysis of the particular job is very important process. One
should consider all the factors within and outside the organizations which have a great impact on
the specified job. The executives shall analyze the circumstances of the organization before
deciding the job particulars. The company shall analyze the conditions of the market and
determine the strategies adopted and implemented by its competitors to promote its business.
From the report it is also concluded that CERA is customer base focused and implements
strategies to build its customer base by providing them a variety of quality and innovative
products. In the above report, Rachel is given the advice as to how she can design job in her field
as to support the organizational goals.
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