The Nature of Work

 Refers to
 Work activity
 Work capacity

Tasks are
-Cognitive
-Physical activity
 KSA’s

 Workers capabilities for performing tasks are usually

described as
 K – Knowledge – understanding and having
information
 S - Skills - knowing how to do things
 A – Abilities – basic personal power to learn and
develop oneself
 An employment position is a set of related tasks or
activities that are performed at the workplace.
 The Importance of Work

 Work is important to us
 Time and effort we spend for becoming qualified
 Searching for work
 Working day after day ,
 working even when we don’t have to,
 thinking about work
 Occupational Prestige

 How society values various occupations

 Related to education and wealth of individuals having
these occupations
 Occupations of Univ. prof and physicians are topping
 Journalist or reporter have middle level
 Farm labourer or clerks have lower level of prestige.

 Doing meaningful work is essential in maintaining a

positive self-identity and self esteem.
 Types of Work

 Work is described and categorized in various ways

and the labels used to identify jobs and occupations
reflect these distinctions
 Labels – Machine Operation, Technical work – reflect
work operations
 Management – Marketing Mgr, Dr. of HR – explains
relationship to the organization
 Managerial Work roles

 Organizations vary in terms of the product or service they

provide.
 What kind of work manager do – Occupational
descriptions – Leadership & Supervisory work
 Managers spent more of their time supervising than on any
other basic function
 Its important to the functioning and success of an
organization as they are the connecting tissue between
the various units in the organizational structure
 The Organization of work

 Jobs are embedded in an Organization

 Features of Social environment can influence work
done in an organization
 Culture and Society determine the nature of the work
 Cultural differences in an organization
 Jobs are designed and performed based on features
of Orgn’s structure and its social environment
 Job Design

 What work has to be done – identifying or defining

the tasks that need to be performed to produce a
certain consumer product or service

 Simplified jobs – requires less in terms of knowledge,

skills and abilities
 They can be done by on-the-job training
 Job Enrichment

 Due to experience and of concerns about the quality of

employee decision making, organizational researchers
have developed compromise strategies for redesigning
jobs or enriched in some manner.

 Job enrichment involves expanding the job to include

more complex tasks and increasing the scope of
responsibilities(It’s a motivational technique)

 An enriched job includes responsibilities for planning and

making job related decisions
 Teamwork

 An effort to increase employees control over their

jobs and to allow their participation in organizational
decision making , many employers have added
elements of teamwork to existing job designs
 The Work of Teams

 Defined depending on grps purpose and staffing needs

 -identified by their membership - Top Mgmt
 -Cross functional teams – draw members from different
units performing cross-functional teams
 -Temporary or on going = Ad-hoc, special projects, task
forces / Standing committees & Prodn crews
 - purpose of top mgmt – to brainstorm innovative ideas for
changes an orgn can make innovative ideas for changess and
adaptation to a business environment
 Teams in Industry

 Teamwork is something that all working people

should expect to do something at sometime.
 Mostly used in prodn process – to solve quality
problems, formulate organizational strategy, and
develop or research new product lines and markets