Organisation Design & Employee Behaviour

An organization structure does have significant effect on its employees. It is very difficult to generalize to link organizational structure to employee performance and satisfaction. For example: some employees are most efficient and satisfied when work task are standardized – in mechanistic structures. Work specialization leads to higher employee productivity but it is at the cost of reduced job satisfaction. But such statement do not surface individual differences and type of job tasks the employees do. Conversely, there are persons who like the routine and repetitiveness of highly specialized jobs. Some employees desire work that makes less intellectual demands and provides job security. Actually it is complicated to support with full evidence any connection between span of control and employee performance, through large span might contribute to higher employee performance due to the implication of more distant supervision and more opportunities to perform. The difference of such evidence lies in the individual differences. Hence, no one conclusion can be summarily made. Hence, there is a linking between job satisfaction and centralization. Participative decision making is constructively related to job satisfaction but individual differences do surface.

The decentralization-satisfaction relationship is at its strongest with low self-esteem employees, because of less confidence in their skills. In summary, to make the most of employee performance and satisfaction, one has to focus on individual differences such as personality, experience and the work tasks. In fact, the organizational structure gets affected due to the influence of the national culture also. It is important to note that people do not select employers at random.  They are attracted to organizations that best suit their personal characteristics. For example: job candidate preferring predictability would seek out and take employment in mechanist structure while those who want autonomy would want in an organic structure. Today, we are in the world of uncertainty, competition, globalization and high technology which includes computer advancement and communication technology. Hence, there is a possibility that the world may shift towards electronically configured organic organization. Technology permits organizations to stay close to the customer to settle jobs where cost are lower and take decisions rapidly. It is because of this that individuals may like to stay in organizations where decision can be at the lower level of management. This type of quick decision-making at lower levels may result in increasing profitability. In India, however the technology revolution may not change the organization structure at a fast rate, most probably because decision-making may be swift, information exchange may also be precise and quick but the individual concepts and actions may not undergo competitive change. Even focus on speed thus has its own limits. The organization, be it bureaucratic or virtual, also has its own limitations. In India, the shift is taking place in the organizational structure, but is at a slow rate.

Work design

Some of the choices left with managers to redesign or modify the makeup of employee jobs are

• Job rotation – This means regular shifting of a worker from one task to another to avoid dissatisfaction of the employees suffering from the routine work. This is also known as cross training. Job rotation is implemented for increasing the flexibility and also sometimes to steer clear of lay-offs. The strength of the job rotation lies in minimisation of employee boredom and amplifies the motivation through various activities. This proves advantageous the organization particularly if the employee has wide range of skills. Since job rotation is followed by employee training, it may increase the organizations cost, but that may eventually compensate by higher productivity.
• Job enlargement- This means horizontal expansion of jobs that means to enlarge the number and the variety of tasks that an individual can execute. This leads to variety in jobs. This however may not be appropriate to employees due to lack of diversity in the specialized jobs.
• Job enrichment – This refers to vertical expansion of jobs. This means enlargement in the degree to which the worker controls the planning, execution and evaluation of his work. In job enrichment the employee does total activity with freedom and independence and having extra responsibility. This will definitely increase the employee’s own performance. The advantages of the organization are in the form of reduced absenteeism and turnover cost with higher employee satisfaction.
• Team based design – Many organizations do have working in groups and teams. We are fully conscious about individual based work design than that at the group level. For that reason, a group or team involvement can be thought to play a part to both the employees and the organizations in certain ways or certain points mentioned here with:  1) the group members to use very high level skills 2) the group tasks is significant with probable output vision 3) the output result is outcome oriented to other employees 4) it should create a trusting feedback about its work performance 5) Stipulations of sizable economy for individuals to work.