MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

1. MANAGING
ORGANIZATIONAL
STRUCTURE
GERMAN HILARIÓN
MIGUEL GONZÁLEZ

2. GROUPING TASKS INTO JOBS: JOB DESIGN

3. THE FIRST STEP IN ORGANIZATIONAL
DESIGN IS JOB DESIGN
Job design is the process by which managers decide how to divide into
specific jobs the tasks that have to be performed.
Establishing an appropriate division of labor among employees is vital to
increasing efficiency and effectiveness.
Managers must analyze the range of tasks to be performed and then create
jobs that best allow the organization to give customers the goods and
services they want.
Job simplification is the process of reducing the number of tasks that each
worker performs.
Too much job simplification may reduce efficiency rather than increase it if
workers become demotivated and unhappy.

4. JOB ENLARGEMENT AND JOB
ENRICHMENT
Job enlargement is increasing the number of different tasks in
a given job by changing the division of labor:
A. The idea is that increasing the range of tasks performed by a
worker will reduce boredom and fatigue, and may increase
motivation.
B. This increases both the quantity and quality of the goods and
services provided.

5. Job enrichment is increasing the degree of responsibility a
worker has over his or her job by:
A. Empowering workers to experiment to find new or better ways
of doing the job.
B. Encouraging workers to develop new skills.
C. Allowing workers to decide how to do the work and giving
them the responsibility for deciding how to respond to
unexpected situations.
D.Allowing workers to monitor and measure their own
performance.

6. The idea is that increasing workers’ responsibility increases
their involvement in their jobs.
Managers who make design choices such as these are likely to
increase the degree to which workers behave flexibly rather
than mechanically:
A. Narrow, specialized jobs lead people to behave in predictable
ways.
B. Workers who perform a variety of tasks and are encouraged to
discover new ways to perform their jobs are likely to act
flexibly and creatively.
C. Managers who enlarge and enrich jobs create a flexible
organizational structure.
D.Those who simplify jobs create a more formal structure.

7. THE JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL
J. R. Hackman and G. R. Oldham’s job characteristics model
explains how managers can make jobs more interesting and
motivating.

8. According to Hackman and Oldham, every job has five characteristics
that determine how motivating the job is.
A. Skill variety: The extent to which a job requires an employee to use
a wide range of different skills, abilities, or knowledge.
B. Task identity: The extent to which a job requires a worker to
perform all the tasks required to complete the job from the
beginning to the end of the production process.
C. Task significance: The degree to which a worker feels his or her job
is meaningful because of its effect on people inside the
organization.
D. Autonomy: The degree to which a job gives an employee the
freedom and discretion needed to schedule different tasks and
decide how to carry them out.
E. Feedback: The extent to which actually doing a job provides a
worker with clear and direct information about how well he or she

9. The five job characteristics affect an employee’s motivation
because they affect critical psychological states:
A. The more employees feel that their work is meaningful, and
B. That they are responsible for work outcomes and
C. Responsible for knowing how those outcomes affect others,
D.The more motivating work becomes.
These are characteristics of jobs in flexible structures where
authority is decentralized and where employees commonly
work with others.

10. TIPS FOR NEW MANAGERS: DESIGNING
STRUCTURE AND JOBS
1. Carefully analyze an organization’s environment, strategy,
technology, and human resources to decide which type of
organizational structure to use.
2. To create a more formal structure, carefully define the limits of
each employee’s jobs, create clear job descriptions, and evaluate
each worker on his or her own job performance.
3. To create a more flexible structure, enlarge and enrich jobs and
allow workers to expand their jobs over time. Also, encourage
workers to work together and evaluate both individual and grump
performance.
4. Use the job characteristics model to guide job design and recognize
that most jobs can be enriched to make them ore motivating and