ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN AND ORGANIC VS. MECHANISTIC VS. VIRTUALSTRUCTURES1 Job rotation is the practice of periodically hifting workers through a set of jobs in a plannedsequencea One purpose of job rotation is to combat boredom, but its success is short-lived if tasks aretoo simpleb Another purpose of job rotation is cross training so that there is maximum flexibility in jobassignmentsc A related purpose is employee development so that employees increase their capabilities andunderstanding of various aspects of the organizationd A potential problem is that rotating individuals may be treated as temporary helps and theirloyalty perceived as questionable2 Job enlargement is the allocation of a wider variety of similar tasks to a job in order to make itmore challenginga Job enlargement broadens job scope the number of different tasks an employee performs in aparticular jobb The problem is that if additional simple tasks are added worker boredom may persist Toolower efficiency mental overload, increased errors and other problems may develop3 Job enrichment pioneered by Frederick Hertzberg is the process of upgrading the job-task mix inorder to increase significantly the potential for growth achievement responsibility and recognitiona Job enrichment increases Job depth the degree to which individuals can plan and control thework involved in their jobsb The important job characteristics model is a model developed to guide job enrichmentefforts that include consideration of core job characteristics critical psychological statesand outcomesc The job characteristics model has five core job characteristics1 Skill variety is the extent to which the job requires a number of activities that requiredifferent skills2 Task identity is the degree to which the job allows the completion of a major identifiablepiece of work rather than just a fragment3 Task significance is the extent to which the worker sees the job output as having animportant impact on others4 Autonomy is the amount of discretion allowed in determining schedules and workmethods for achieving the required output5 Feedback is the degree to which the job provides clear, timely information aboutperformance resultsORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN DECISIONSTop managers put a lot of thought into how best to designthe organization’s structure That “best” design depends on four contingency variables the organization’sstrategy size technology and degree of environmental uncertainty