SUPERVISORY JOB DESIGN,
Abstract
Two job-design treatments changing the duties, responsibilities, and authority of first line supervisors and, by delegation, of workers were introduced in an industrial plant. In the first state, each supervisor was responsible for only a segment of all product completion tasks. In the second state, the supervisor was made responsible for all production functions but not product acceptance; authority for the latter was added in the third state. These job changes were designed to test the following primary hypothesis: Higher economic productivity (lower total cost) and greater need satisfaction for the members of a work group, including the supervisor, will result from specifying the job content of the supervisor in the direction of increasing his authority and responsibility by including supervision over all the functions required to complete the product or service assigned to his work group. A general response mechanism model proposed that causal variables sensitive to the organization will effect end-result variables with time slippage through mediating sequential changes in perceptions, attitudes, and motivations by the job holder towards job and organization, resulting in changes in behavior towards others and the task. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1964
- Accession Number
- AD0603164
Entities
People
- Ernst S. Valfer
- Kenneth Pool
- Louis E. Davis
Organizations
- University of California, Berkeley