200-400 words total

You go to a party at your older brother's apartment and spend a nice evening talking to several of his friends. All are in their late twenties and do not seem very happy with the jobs they have. Using the Job Characteristics Model, explain how these jobs might be enriched by improving at least one of the five core job dimensions: o Skill variety o Task identity Task significance Autonomy . Feedback. 1. Mary works as a receptionist at a large law firm. Her primary job is answering the telephone and switching the call to the correct lawyer. As most lawyers have their own secretaries and voicemail, she doesn't take messages. After installing the voicemail system, the law firm didn't have a receptionist for several months. The managing partner received complaints from some elderly clients who didn't like the complex instructions and wanted a human receptionist. So the managing partner hired Mary and gave her written instructions for what to do if a caller doesn't ask to speak to a particular lawyer (e.g., if the client says," had an accident," the call should be forwarded to Ms. Johnson or Mr. Harman; if the client says, "I am in jail" the call is forwarded to Mr. Wilson, Ms. Inchira, or Mr. Wu). Mary also greets clients when they come to the office and asks which lawyer they want to see. Then she calls the office, and the lawyer or his/her secretary comes to the reception area and meets the client. Again, Mary has written instructions about whom to call if the client doesn't give a specific name. 2. John works as an intake counselor for citywide drug and alcohol treatment program. He interviews people who need treatment (often referred to the program by the courts) and determines a treatment plan for them. This could range from assigning the person to a local clinic for an hour a week of group or individual counseling to admission for 28 days to a residential program ("drying out"). Because of the number of people who need drug or alcohol treatment and the city's human services budget limitations, John sees a large number of clients each day. He rarely finds out what happened for any individuals (unless they are referred again for treatment), although he gets summary statistics every three months on all of the persons who are being treated. 3. Jos works for a large insurance company in the dental reimbursements office. Each morning his supervisor gives him a long list of claims to be processed. He spends his whole day in front of a computer entering data and responding to questions preprogrammed into the system. When claims cannot be processed in that way (called an exception), he takes the exception to his manager who directs Jos what to do. Several years of experience have taught Jos what the manager's action will be in each case, but the manager insists that all exceptions be brought to her. A problem for Jos is that each exception takes much longer to process than a regular claim; he often gets behind and the supervisor puts a lot of pressure on him to finish the day's work