Job Design And Its Impact On Employee Productivity In The Private Sector:

Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

Effective productivity is the great identity of the growth of the organisation. Every management has to create an environment where the employees can work effectively to achieve the objectives. Proper creation of work culture is the motive of the concern towards satisfying the workers in all levels. Only through job design there is a possibility of framing the job allocations, job simplification, Jon rotation which leads to increase the skills & performance of the employees.Designing the job is in the hands of the HR manager where the entire Human Resource concept can be applied & implemented. Engaging the man power can be done by perfect job design process which may be framed by the management through HR team. Establishing the suitable ways of using the resources & talents is the major advantages for the organisation. Job design may reflect in employee performance.

Job design is an outgrowth of job analysis that improves jobs through technological and human considerations in order to enhance organization efficiency and employee job satisfaction. It is concerned with changing, modifying, and enriching jobs in order to capture those talents of employees while improving organization performance [Bohlander & Snell, 2007]. Job design has been one of the most effective tools used for optimizing an employee’s performance. Effective job design is measure of the degree to which the employee is involved in his/her tasks and assignments. Bates (2004) posits that an effective job design brings involvement of an employee in work related activities which clearly forecasts employee output, departmental productivity and organizational success. Therefore, organizations which are engaged in continuous improvement, or process reengineering, may revamp their jobs in order to eliminate unnecessary job tasks or find better ways of performing work. Job design should facilitate the achievement of organizational objectives. At the same time, the design should recognize the capabilities and needs of those who are to perform the job.

In Nigeria context, the evolvement of jobs in the past was not planned. The practice was for the supervisor or foreman to assign workers to tasks and to randomly group tasks into jobs. For instance, like carpentry, iron bending, electrical work, the content of each trade evolved through tradition and by initiation. However, psychological literature on employee motivation holds claims that the design of work, its content and structure affect both productivity and employee morale [Onimole, 2015]. Therefore, there have been many theories and approaches to the design of jobs. An early reaction to the scientific management philosophy of fitting men to machines was the endeavour of human relations advocates to meet worker’s social needs in the workplace, while doing little about the nature of the work itself. However, with the increasing recognition of the complexity of human motivation, not few modern theorists have argued that specialized and simplified work leads to monotony, boredom and general dissatisfaction, which as a result, manifest themselves in various forms of undesirable work behaviour in terms of lateness, absenteeism, and often job changes. The application of these theories to the design of job has produced a multitude of measures concerned with altering the content of job and its organization, thus reversing the job specialization trend by adding more varied tasks and broader responsibilities [Hepworth, 1982]. However, in an attempt to reduce boredom and therefore increase job satisfaction, some techniques of job design have been procreated. These techniques include job rotation, job enlargement and job enrichment.

In Nigeria, however, job design remains a topic that receives much less attention from employers and policy makers as a driver of employee’s performance compared with other aspects of management such as leadership or management style. Also, results of studies from developed countries to developing countries have been time and again showing that job design practices have significant impact on employee performance [Herzberg, 1966; Hackman & Oldham, 1976; Parker, 1998; Grant, 2008; Zareen & Razzaq, 2013; Syarifah, 2013; Achieng et al., 2014; Ali & Zia-urRehman, 2014; Parker, 2014; Siruri & Muathe, 2014; Onimole, 2015; Parker et al., 2017]. But unfortunately little empirical research has been conducted to examine the impacts of job design practices on employee performance in Nigeria. This study has been undertaken to augment the contemporary knowledge base of human resource management practices of developing countries.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Employees in every organization want to draw fulfilments from their jobs and every human resource managers/management wants the employees to be fulfilled being the most important resources of the organization but managers for ages have been struggling on how to make them get the fulfilment [Magaji, 2014].Globalization has created many challenges for multinational and local organizations such as cost of production that is on the increase day-by-day due to universal factors such as world recession, resource limitation, information technology and trends that have affected the way work is done and also changed the face of competition among organizations. The problem of job design stemmed from the fact that in today’s competitive environment, organizations globally want to maximize the potential of their human resources to stay ahead of the aggressive competition in the middle of the quest [Nanle, 2015]. The problems of boredom and job dissatisfaction which consequently result in employee’s low productivity, absenteeism and lateness, work stress, delay in administrative performance, psychological breakdown and eventually withdrawal of services are common decimal in most organizations. One possible reason for this development is that employees in these organizations view their jobs as dead ends and therefore have no pride in their jobs [Parker et al., 2017]. To prevent losing such valuable workforce to competitors as a result of boredom and job dissatisfaction, Achieng et al. (2014) stated that job design and redesign could be an excellent means. Job design and employee’s attitude towards job design has become an issue of great concern in the recent years among many organization but it has been rarely studied in academic literature in developing countries and there is a lack of awareness about its effects and its antecedent. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the job design and its impact on employee productivity in the private sector using Rivers State, Nigeria as a case study.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to examine job design and its impact on employee productivity in the private sector using Rivers State, Nigeria as a case study. The study has the following specific objectives.

Determine whether there is a significant relationship between job simplification and employees’ productivity

Determine whether there is a significant relationship between job rotation and employees’ productivity

Determine whether there is a significant relationship between job enlargement and employees’ productivity

Determine whether there is a significant relationship between job enrichment and employees’ productivity

1.4 Research Question

The research is guided by the following questions.

Is there a significant relationship between job simplification and employees’ productivity?

Is there a significant relationship between job rotation and employees’ productivity?

Is there a significant relationship between job enlargement and employees’ productivity?

Is there a significant relationship between job enrichment and employees’ productivity?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

Ho1: There is no significant relationship between job simplification and employees’ productivity

Ho2: There is no significant relationship between job rotation and employees’ productivity

Ho3: There is no significant relationship between job enlargement and employees’ productivity

Ho4: There is no significant relationship between job enrichment and employees’ productivity.

1.6 Significance of the Study

This study was conducted to determine how employee performance could be improved through job design. Hence, this research work would stimulate the interest and awareness of the management of the need to apply components of job design as additional motivational tool to stimulate the performance of their employees. The study would also provide alternative motivational strategy to management of both private and public enterprises, mangers, and other who use human resources as an important input in their operational activities. Finally, the study will provide a building block and therefore serve as a strong reference point for future researchers, academia, and students of management and social sciences who may deem it fit to carry out further studies on the subject matter.

1.7 Scope of the Study

The scope of this study boarders on job design and its impact on employee productivity in the private sector using Rivers State, Nigeria as a case study. However, the study will be delimited Crras Ciwa industries Nig ltd, in Rivers State.

1.8 Limitation of the Study

This research project, like all human endeavors, had some challenges that threatened to derail the study’s completion. One of the reasons is that the time allotted for this work was so limited that the researcher did not have enough time to complete the task thoroughly. During data collection, the researcher also had to put forth extra effort to understand the respondents’ interview schedules, several of whom fell into the incomprehensible age group. Also, there were financial and transportation constraints to deal with. Insufficient funds tend to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing the relevant materials, literature, or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire, interview).

1.9 Definition of Terms

Employee Productivity:

Employee productivity (sometimes referred to as workforce productivity) is an assessment of the efficiency of a worker or group of workers. Productivity may be evaluated in terms of the output of an employee in a specific period of time.

1.10 Organization of the Study

The study is categorized into five chapters. The first chapter presents the background of the study, statement of the problem, objective of the study, research questions and hypothesis, the significance of the study, scope/limitations of the study, and definition of terms. The chapter two covers the review of literature with emphasis on conceptual framework, theoretical framework, and empirical review. Likewise, the chapter three which is the research methodology, specifically covers the research design, population of the study, sample size determination, sample size, abnd selection technique and procedure, research instrument and administration, method of data collection, method of data analysis, validity and reliability of the study, and ethical consideration. The second to last chapter being the chapter four presents the data presentation and analysis, while the last chapter(chapter five) contains the summary, conclusion and recommendation.