Assignment No.

01(Non-Graded) Due date: 8th December, 2013 Total marks: 20

Scenario HRSS Engineering Limited - a multinational company working in Pakistan is principally engaged in providing engineering and operational support services to its Pakistani customers and various European countries as well. It works on projects related to energy, manufacturing, construction and plant maintenance. Company which once used to enjoy strong market reputation owing to its excellent quality services has recently started experiencing low performance. The management has hired a researcher to investigate the underlying reason(s). The researcher after initial investigation is of the view that employees productivity has decreased and the main reason of this decrease is job design which is inadequate to meet the current environment challenges. The market conditions are becoming so dynamic and managers need multi-skilled employees in their organization who can overcome the change and perform accordingly. Such task variety was missing in prevailing job design of employees. Employees were not habitual of making decisions as they only follow the top management decisions. But in dynamic environment employees are supposed to have ability of decision making which was lacking in current job design. Researcher also found that in current job design, employees were not provided with formal feedback for their performance. Hence, the researcher suggests that it is time to re-design the job and for job re-designing the characteristics of the job need to be focused on. For this purpose, the framework named as Job Characteristics Model (JCM) developed by Hackman and Oldham is selected. The model is presented in figure 1. The researcher suggested this model to solve the problem of declined performance.

The description of model is as follows: The JCM classifies five core job characteristics which prompt three critical psychological states. All of these three critical psychological states, in turn, lead to several positive personal and work outcomes. Five Core Job Characteristics: 1. Task Significance 2. Task Variety 3. Task Identity 4. Autonomy 5. Feedback Three Psychological States 1. Experienced Meaningfulness of Work 2. Experienced Responsibility for Work Outcomes 3. Knowledge of Work Results Work Outcomes 1. Internal Work Motivation 2. Job Satisfaction 3. Job Performance

Activity Required:

Think from the point of view of a researcher, and answer the following questions: 1. The researchers suggestion is correct/wrong in terms of selection of JCM 2. Identify Independent, and Dependent variables. 3. Do you think that there exist any Moderating or Mediating Variables in JCM. If YES; please propose those variables as mediating or moderating variables. 06 4. Based on above model develop a hypothesis with and without mediating/moderating variable. 04 04 06

Step Wise Solution Guidelines

Step 1: Read the scenario generally in order to understand it. Step 2: Read the questions. Step 3: Relate the concepts asked in the questions with the recommended books. Step 4: Once you have grabbed the concepts clearly then try to find the answers from the given scenario