JOB DESIGN AND IMPROVED QUALITY OF WORK LIFE
OF NIGERIAN SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS
By
Ilesanmi Oladele Ayodeji
Department of Business Administration University of Ilorin, Ilorin
Abstract
Job design is complex and often difficult. Teachers often make tradeoffs between
characteristics that are both good in themselves; between simplicity and
motivation for example. To make sensible choices, one must understand all the
four approaches, as well as the strength and weakness of each. This paper
focuses on how best job design can lead to improved quality of work life of the
Nigerian teachers. One of the conclusions drawn in the paper is that an effective
job design can contribute to better performance and employee satisfaction, but
there is no universally good design of work. Individual differences, organizational
climate, style, interpersonal
relationships and the state of
technology affect the
relative effectiveness of the four approaches to job design.
Introduction
The basic reason for rapid educational expansion is the belief that education is the most
effective instrument to bring about the desired changes in Nigerian society and economy. By
investing heavily in education, Nigeria hopes not only to substantially increase her output of
manpower at all levels of her economy, wipe out illiteracy eventually and improve the quality of
life of her citizens, but also to use education as an instrument of nation-building, integration and
unity. Thus all types of education are regarded from both short and long-term points of view, to be
invaluable investment in human resource development and in the development of the entire
society and its economy.
However, the job of the teacher in Nigeria who are supposed to bring about these desired
changes seems to have been designed on the principles advocated by Frederick Taylor (1947).
Today Nigerian teacher is unenthusiastic in performing his duties, because of the low quality of
work life, which emanates from a job design based on the Taylorian principle.
In mediaeval era, people were able to meet their needs and contended with the
subsistence living through their participation in various activities such as farming, fishing, hunting
and trading. But as the society developed and the population increased, there was the urgent
need for man to shift from craft technology to batch technology in order to produce more identical
quality goods and services for ever increasing population if the society is to be sustained
(Hanson, 1979). This consideration gave rise to the issue of Job design.
The Management Scientist (Frederick Taylor); the earliest advocate of job design (Pugh
1977) merely concentrated on how to improve the efficiency of the worker and management for
increased organizational productivity. He also looked at man as economic man who will always
maximize economic resources and would have considered money as the prime motivator of
workers, hence the development of the various incentive payment plan. But motivation studies
and human behaviour studies have revealed that money is not the only motivator of man.
The structure of authority in organizations is directly related to the ways in which jobs are
designed while jobs are designed to afford employees wide latitude in decision-making, others
permit the exercise of very little authority. There is a growing body of research on the subject of
job design. The objective of this paper is to examine the concept of the job design and its
relevance as an effective tool for the improvement of the quality of work life with particular
reference to Nigerian Secondary School teachers.
The Concept and Content of Job Design and Quality of Work Life.
Job design has been defined by Davis (1966) as the specification of the contents,
methods, and relationships of jobs in order to satisfy technological and . organizational
requirements as well as the social and personal requirements of the jobholder. Job design is
concerned with a number of facets of a job. What it consists of, the amount of variety in it, the
pattern of tasks that make it up, the length of the work cycle, and so forth.
Job design represents the delineation of tasks responsibility as dictated
by organizational strategy, technology and structure Flippo (1984). According
to Stoner et al (1989), job design consists of three activities: specifying
individual work tasks; specifying the method of performing the work tasks and
combining work tasks into jobs for assignment to individuals (job content). Job"
design to Freeman (1989) is the division of organization's work among its
employees.
Armstrong (1991) defines job design as deciding on the relationships. that exist between
the duties and responsibilities and the relationships that exist between the jobholder and his or
her superiors, subordinates and colleagues. Job design specifies the content and methods of
work by individuals and groups in the operational system. Because job design is reflected in
labour expense, it affects the ultimate cost of the product or service.
Job design has three aims: first, to satisfy the requirements of the organization for
productivity, operation efficiency and quality of product or service. Second, to satisfy the needs of
the individual for interest challenge and accomplishment. Clearly, these aims are interrelated and
the overall objective of job design is to integrate the needs of the individual with those in the
organization.
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